Giant Feather Duster

I remember my first experience of a feather duster. I was 14 and I was doing my usual rock pool rounds for fish for my tank. It was a spring low tide, so I started in the furthest and hardly every explored rock pools. And there it was, this weird looking fan that I had never seen. As I shifted my weight to get a more comfortable viewing , it disappeared into its tube. From that point I was fascinated and I guess most people would have a similar experience.

I was not sure if the feather duster was going to fit into my tank plans, but the Mrs was very persuasive. And I can honestly say that it is such a great addition to the tank. It has character. And that I am finding is one thing that this tank has in abundance and any new additions will need to make an impact. It's very interesting seeing him slink back into his tube momentarily only to reappear in a minute or 2 again.

2013 Filter Surfing Championships

The 2013 Filter Surfing Contest happened this weekend.  So much anxiety and speculation surrounded this weekend events, leading to much debate over who was going to take this renowned title. 

Some said Marco, some said Polo, others said it would take an act of divine intervention to make it out alive.

Let me give you a breakdown into this gruelling 3 week course:

•  3 weeks prior to event finale, re-landscape marine tank creating sand turbulence to achieve 'Novice tankmaster' status... see previous blog post
• Proceed to feed tank mates daily
• Observe feeding to establish whereabouts of contenders
• It is at this point that the bets are taken as some tankmates remain illusive
• It is around the 2 week mark that bets are finalised.

It is with the weekly tank clean (and a whole drama of its own)  that the results are verified, and we take this seriously folks, verified and audited , by a Chartered Accountant.  This is a serious contest and there's no fooling around here!

Under intense scrutiny from the clean brigade, The Wife, there in the combs of the 3rd chamber was Marco, or was it Polo?  Was he dead?!

The medical team was called in aka The Wife again!  She proceeded to remove the little Goby from the combs (after they had been out in open air for around 20min during the tank clean!) I thought for sure the little guy didn't make it but he swam off...like nothing had ever happened... straight up, back to the filter chambers!! He was determined to get back in there and did several times before we tried to net it off and deter him.

At this point only 1 Goby was seen all morning. You see The Wife has this amazing ability to see the smallest of details, like a tiny spot of orange appearing under a rock... yeah. crazy I know.  This meant Goby 1 was still in his hideout and left us in the undeniable position to conclude that the 2013 Filter Surfer Champion was GOBY 2, now known as Bruce Willis aka Die Hard!

After what I can only assume to be 3 weeks in the combs, he is slowly settling back into the main tank with the occasionally wonder upstream, no doubt he'll jump again. But I now know where to go looking!

Day 8: Welcome!

We got some fish! Went to a new fish shop called Abacus Aquatics in Sidcup and picked up a pair of Common Clowns. We also picked up a Scarlet Reef Hermit crab to help keep the tank clean.

I am glad to say that I followed the correct acclimation process. I left them in their bags for 30 minutes and then added a little tank water every 10 minutes. Thereafter, I scoped them out of their bags with a net and let them swim around getting used to it. I have heard that this is best as it prevents polluting your tank with the shop water. Also, the fish can sometimes be stressed and pollute their water in transit.

I hope all this pays off and they settle in nicely. Can't wait to add some more friends for these to interact with, but we will add them slowly so as to not cause to much strain on the tank. One thing is for sure...it definitely beats looks at rock for a week!

The Dream...

It has always been a dream of mine to start up a tropical marine reef tank but there has always been 100 reasons why it wasn't the right time.   so we decide to stop making excuses and just do it.   This past weekend, I finally got my tank... an Aquael Reef Max 105l.

Getting it setup was a touch tricky but it didn't take too long. So far so good.  Learnt a few lesson's already, like how much sand NOT to use! Also placing rock before the sand is in would have be so much easier.  Oh well, guess its all part of learning... and probably the reason one has to wait a week before adding any fish!

I have to wait for the tank to mature before adding any fish.  This at least gives me plenty of time to read up about the kind of tank I want to create.  So much to think about with corals and anemone's.

I'll be updating my blog with the tanks progress and hopefully won't have to blog about too many mistakes!