Saltwater Dreams

Our Wedding Reef Tank

2014-09-09T02:58:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't quite caught up through the year with my blogging but, I finally got the wedding photo's in and it's actually long overdue for this particular write up...

The wedding cake and the tank underneath was one of the most stressful projects of our wedding. Before we even began our planning...before we even got engaged, Chris had already planned to have a saltwater tank under the cake at our reception after seeing it on someones post on one reefing site. Of course ours would have to be different in some way, and by god, I knew for sure the cake was going to look far different.

I picked out the cake early on and one of our friends, fellow reefers and club members, Amber offered to make the cake for us. She is a pastry chef and was excited to take on the task and use the cake as part of her portfolio as well.

The cake I picked out

Going to wedding expo's and even talking to my caterer, most were angry when I told them about the idea and that I already had a baker...the caterer especially. The catering came with a cake already which meant I was paying for a cake I wasn't getting and she reminded me of this often...

Chris, who would be named Groomzilla once we started the cake planning, decided at some point that the cake couldn't be a normal size for the guest count of 100-125 people, it needed to be approximately 20 stories high to match the tank. Yes, I'm exaggerating a tad...but, seriously, not by much.

Groomzilla's Cake

We would send Amber text messages with the size of the cake on a weekly basis for a while. For some time, it was looking like we might go with the caterer because Groomzilla was getting frantic. Finally, Amber said everything would be fine.

I had decided I didn't want cake toppers, I instead wanted my 'toppers' inside the tank. While strolling through the internet I found the cutest starfish with just a top hat and veil. Since our wedding had somehow turned into a starfish themed wedding I thought these were perfect and decided I would make them myself. I found some ceramic ones at a store and used an earring of my grandmothers as the bouquet that the bride starfish held. Although no one else would know the sentimental value of this tiny element, I would and that's really all that mattered. It wasn't until the night we were setting everything up that Chris informed me that we wouldn't be using sand in the tank and he epoxyed some live rock to the bottoms of each starfish.

Then there was the tank itself. This is where the term, too many hands in the cookie jar comes into play however.

We had Chris' father, Emery build the main part of the tank and put it together to his and Chris' specifications.

When it arrived at our house, Chris finished off the edges with a blowtorch.

A good friend and another fellow reefer and club member, Jas Roman provided the rest of the led lighting we needed. The lid of the tank had been given to him to wire together and pop in all the led lighting.

The top of the tank was made of wood which was told to me last minute (days before the wedding when every good bride is already on her last nerve) so, I had to come up with a way to cover the damned thing and make it look pretty...

Chris attaching the lid of the tank to the top

Chris painted it and I went with my maid of honor (god bless this woman!) to JoAnn Fabrics and bought some white fabric and tacks and made the thing look like the bottom of a cake platter in one night. It actually came out really nice and allowed the lighting to keep from getting too hot which was perfect.

Now in the meantime, we had set everything up with a local fish store in Connecticut to provide us with the coral for the day of the wedding only. (If you follow along with this blog you're gonna laugh) The Coral Reef of Stratford Connecticut had worked with us for quite a few months in what coral would go in the tank, who would be bringing the coral, so on and so forth. I had personally delivered their invitation to the wedding and Donna had been ecstatic about the whole thing. We talked for nearly an hour about the different LPS that would go into the tank, I was more into flowing things because most people don't like colorful sticks like Chris when they aren't into reefkeeping. They want bright colorful things and things that move.

Then, a club issue. They run a contest on Reef Central and someone turns them in, it gets taken down, someone else gets pissed, another lfs gets pissed, drama, drama, yadda, yadda...however, these two are consistently on the phone yapping about something so we think that they are over this amongst everything else that they seem to think is our fault.

Then this comes in the mail less than three weeks before the wedding....

Ummmm....what?

So, I ask Chris to call one of the workers we know to ask him if he is aware of the situation and if they are still going to provide the coral for the tank. The response is pretty grim. Not only are they not going to provide the coral but they have known that they weren't for a few weeks! John felt that we were taking advantage of him even though we had offered to pay for anything that may perish during the day and/or rental of the coral.

Okay, bridal breakdown! Are you fucking kidding me?!

Chris tells me to calm down, we know plenty of store owners. He tells me to call Ryan and Bob over at Bob's Exotic Fish and Coral in Milford, Connecticut first. We've known Ryan for a long time since he worked over at Puppy Center and Bob is a great guy too. I take a moment to gather myself and call over to the store.

Ryan answers and without sounding like the crazy woman I most certainly am at the moment I explain the situation and ask my huge favor of the store. Ryan explains that Bob is out of the store at the moment but, he thinks that he won't have a problem with it. He'll send him a message and when he hears back he'll let me know. I'm breathing a little better at this point but, until I know for sure, I'm terrified.

Chris and a few of the reefers that now the the situation are coming up with a list of what everyone can pull from their tanks to make this work....are you serious? This is what this has come to? TCR, you fucking suck.

A little while later my phone rings. It's Bob on the other end and this man is totally overwhelmed that we asked him for this favor...and I'm finally breathing again! Bob was even ready to build us a tank at the last minute if we needed it!

He didn't want any compensation for the coral. As a matter of fact, he wanted to GIVE us what he put in the tank. However, we declined he incredibly generous offer. He was very excited and picked everything out himself and made the rock with the mushrooms and polyps that were showcased in the tank. The clowns were black and white clowns, dressed to match the groom!

We placed the whole thing on a metal serving cart guaranteed not to move or buckle under the weight of the water (or the enormous cake).

Kris (who incidentally works at TCR) picked everything up from Exotic and showed up early to start setting up the tank. Ryan was able to show up for a little while to help and get a few pictures. Unfortunately, Bob was unable to attend even for a photo op which disappointed both Chris and I but, he had a shop to run for the day! Kris also took everything down at the end of the night and returned everything back to Exotic the following day.

Kris preparing the tank

My caterer was responsible for bringing the tablecloth for under the tank. This also posed an issue as my caterer went from angel to bitch the day of the wedding. For some unknown reason, even though we specifically went over table sizing as well as the sizes of tablecloths to bring to the wedding, this woman brought tablecloths that did not even come remotely close to fitting any my tables. This pissed me off to no end but when it came to the cake it got worse. I told this bitch to bring a specific size and here she is with two damned rectangle tablecloths trying to cover this cart and it's not working. One time a wheel is showing, one time a corner, one time the whole edge...I'm getting pissed but just standing there and pointing out the spots. Finally she yells, "This! This! (as she waves her hand over the entire area of the wedding cake display) This, is not your centerpiece! If this doesn't get covered, then oh well!" I took a few deep breaths, and walked away...actually bitch, my fucking saltwater reef wedding cake IS my centerpiece!!!! Worst caterer ever!

Ryan checking things out

This was certainly a team effort. If I were to ever do something like this again there are a few things I would do differently:

1. Not have so many people working on the building of the tank...one piece was here, one was there it was fucking insane!

2. Have it done weeks before the due date! It got done too close to the wedding date which for me was waaaayyyy too close for mistakes to happen!

3. Don't work with crazy local fish store owners. The minute you notice these people acting nutty, find a different more established store to work with.

4. Contracts for everything with everything spelled out, even tablecloths.

5. Remind the photographers to take photo's after all the polyps have come out because they have no clue!

Ryan and Kris

Emery Messier, Ryan LaFleur, Kris Kazlauskas and Amber Purstell

In the end, friends are your best resource for everything and you never know when the best ones will be there when everything seems to be looking the worst. Thanks to all of you for being there for us! Someday I hope to be there for you as you were for us!

Until next time...there is always room for more...cake!

(In case you were wondering...only the bottom tier of our cake was real, the rest was fake!)

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All opinions in this blog are of a personal nature and are of a personal experience only. They are not the opinions of CTARS.

FFM a.k.a. Christmas for Reefers

2014-08-23T02:25:00.001-04:00

It's that time of year again, the E.O. Smith High School's annual Frag Farmer's Market. Oh, how everyone loves this event. Who can blame them? It's every reefkeeper's dream come true...room upon room of tanks filled with a smorgasbord of an unbelievable array of every kind of coral you can imagine. Vendors and hobbyist come from all over New England now to be a part of this event.

This year Fitch charged a whopping dollar to anyone who attended this event. Whew! For any reefkeeper, this is a 100% more than any other year but perhaps the cheapest event (and the fucking best) you will encounter in this hobby. Why the dollar this year? To track how many people attended. And how many people attended you ask? 820+ people gathered together to talk reef and buy coral and products at the E.O. Smith High School for one of the most awaited events on every reef keepers mind every year!

CTARS had their own tank this year and the members as well as a few stores donated all the coral and products sold for the day. CTARS pulled in a total of $1094 in sales, new/renewal memberships, pre-sale of CMAC tickets and March meeting pre-sales most of this being in coral sales! I manned this tank while Chris and Emily manned our tank for the day. Brian and Alana tagged along for the day as well. A few CTARS members came along to help for the day, one who helped me the entire day despite just coming off his shift from work and being dead tired.

Pictures speak a thousand words so, without further ado...

The E.O. Smith Coral Project Website for the 2014 FFM can be found HERE

Until next time, keep fragging :)

Sealife LED's Review

2014-05-26T10:49:00.001-04:00

Written by Chris Messier

Sealife LED's Review

I was asked by the owner of The Coral Reef to take his LED light, Sealife LED's (previously, The Patriot LED’s), that he designed himself, home to my tank to put above my tank and then review them. He wanted to do this because he felt I was well known on the forums.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am highly against LEDs. Anyone that I have seen put these things above their tank, I have pretty much watched their coral die off and then I watch them switch back to T5’s or halide’s shortly afterwards.

However, I agreed to give it a whirl and put the light above my frag tank in my basement.

I was immediately frustrated when I brought it home and it came without a wire. When I talked to him about this he told me to use a computer wire. For starters, when I first ventured into this project I was told I was going to be given this light fixture. Then I was told it was only on borrowed time. So, the fact that I had to go out and buy a cord? No! I actually threw a fit and told my fiancé to bring the thing back to him. I wasn't rearranging my entire basement for a borrowed light and then buying a cord. However, she had to travel down to the store to discuss some club business with them about a week or two later so she asked him for a cord and he took it from another fixture for her.

I was relatively easy to install once I had the cord however, I didn't like the fact that the controller box couldn't be mounted onto anything. Also, the little remote is something I see a lot of people losing very easily.

So, there it was, hung over a 40 gallon frag tank in my basement. These have a retail price of 16" for $425, 24" for $560, 36" for $695 and 48" for $835. The 16” given to me didn't cover the entire tank. Worth it at the moment? In my personal opinion, no. But, let’s see over the course of time what kind of growth I get. The color was certainly nice.

Within a few short days I was receiving text messages asking me about the growth. You have got to be kidding me, really? It was just installed. I told him that. A few days later, same question. This continued every couple of days.

Approximately five weeks later I was asked to take the light down so that it could be given to someone else because there were no more 16” lights in the store. I told him that I would personally give the light to the person and he told me no, to bring it back to the store, he was actually giving them a 36” one not the 16” one I had. However, a review was still wanted.

Honestly, I couldn't be happier to be rid of the thing. I feel for the person getting the light and honestly, because he’s an old friend and CTARS member, he will be getting forewarned of the impending hounding.

Can I give an honest review of this light? Sure. In the five weeks it was above my tank it did not give my corals the astounding growth that the owner and designer claim that it gives to his coral in his store. I had zero growth actually; probably due to the short nature of the acclimation of the light to my tank. I did however have a ¼” growth in my other tank with my DIY Rapid LED fixture that was adjacent to this tank. Nothing is different in these tanks, they run on the same system (same water, same parameters, same everything) the only thing that was different was the lighting. Again, my one good review of this light was the ease of installation when hanging it above my tank. I believe out of all the lights I have bought throughout the years, this was the easiest to install. I do not think that for the money, these fixtures are worth breaking the bank.

Also, anyone willing to test this light, it would be best if you turned off your phone completely to the entire world or just change your telephone number until you're ready to return the light with your review.

If anyone would like to see pictures of growth (or lack thereof) I do have them and would be happy to post. I didn’t however think they were needed.

This post was of course removed by ReefCentral by the mod DC. She posted "This club needs to get it together. Bad behavior on both sides." This pissed me off and I reported her to RC. Probably won't do any good but, she had no right to do such a thing.

This was The Coral Reef's Response...

This is Donna and Jonathan the owners of TCR. We are not sure what is going on but to all that know us know that the review above is a personal matter that has taken a bad turn. We are deeply saddened that the personal matter has been taken out on us in this verbal write up but unfortunately there is nothing we can do. Chris, as a leader of the CTARS club and Prez it would have been nice if you called us to tell us about your frustrations before taking it to print. We are not the people you describe above and certainly have always been there for you and CTARS. We will continue to support CTARS despite what was written and apologize that personal matters have been brought to this forum. As for our product we stand behind it 100%. We and others have proven results that can be witnessed in our store and in other tanks. We are apologizing to the CTARS members and to you Chris for your bad experience and had NO idea these were your thoughts. Anyone who has questions can contact us. Chris it would be nice to hear from you too.

A review is a review folks. No one told Chris he HAD to have a great experience when he certainly didn't and then write a great experience when he did not have one. It was actually terrible.

I know it's been a while since I posted anything...wedding planning and CTARS keeps me on my toes. I'll update everyone soon, promise ;)

Phyto In A Tube

2013-12-10T00:49:00.001-05:00

Chris is always for new tank projects despite my protests. He had been talking about cultivating phytoplankton for years and since last Christmas, had been begging for a phytoplankton reactor.

photo courtesy of reefbuilders.com

I told him to make one out of bottles like most reefers do.

photo courtesy of reefcentral.com

Instead, we are at our friend Kyles house one day and he sees an old homemade kalk stirrer that was sitting at the curb to be pick up by the garbage man and decides to bring it home for the tank instead. Sure! Why the fuck not?!

Plankton acts as a food source to countless species of corals and invertebrates and even larger animals as well. Every reefer has bought DT's at one time or another and knows how beneficial it is to their livestock (and how expensive it is). However, I know another project will only lead to more projects.

Doesn't matter, he sets it up.

And a strange light emits from the basement as you descend down the stairs.

Day two and it starts to turn a shade of green.

And before long it's even greener.

A few more days and he's bottling them up and storing them in the fridge.

And wouldn't you know it, I was right! Another project soon followed. Tisbe pods are being bred and fed to the tank daily as well. We also give them to the members of the club and trade them with a local fish store too. It wasn't long that I was making labels for the bottles.

We even have labels for the phyto now too.

I find it kind of cute sometimes when he asks me to come downstairs to see how green the phyto is this particular day. It's green, very green. He talks about leaving it for another day to have it get a little greener sometimes. It was of course trial and error in the beginning. Now we have gallons of the stuff and are looking forward to the next club meeting to include a bunch of it in the club raffle. Our corals are very happy as well as all the pods we are breeding now.

Until next time, stay green!!

My Evicted Friend

2013-12-09T23:27:00.000-05:00

Chris was all excited late July after order two file fish in order to help with the manjo anemone infestation in our tank. If anyone doesn't know what one of these bastards looks like here is a photo:

photo courtesy of unclenedsfishfactory.com

These anemones are truly a reefers worst enemy and after some extensive research, Chris decided to risk the fish and purchase them for the tank. Only some were known to 'nip' at sps polyps and even then, it wasn't detrimental.

The fish finally arrived. As usual, I was home to receive the package and acclimate them to the tank. I open the box and pull out the bags.

Oh shit...

The first fish is upside down in the bag. This is not a good sign and incredibly sad. I pull out the second bag. The little guy looks just like his brother.

I slice open the first bag and poke the fish. No movement. Damn. Now for the second bag. I'm not too optimistic but what the hell, right? I slice the bag open and actually put my hand in the bag. However, this time, the fish moves ever so slightly! Holy shit!!!

I pick the fish out of the freezing cold water and run over to the tank, pull off the lid and throw my hand into the water. Now it occurs to me that I just shocked this mostly dead fish even more. Good thinking Missie! I hold him there for a few seconds and it suddenly feels as though he bites me or something and I let go. Now he's floating sideways in the tank with the current and I fear he's going to go into our giant carpet anemone so, I scoop him back up into my hand again.

I hold him for a while. Every once and a while I let him go to see if he can swim at all and then I quickly scoop him back up. I keep getting the feeling of getting bit or maybe he's putting little spikes into my hand, I'm not sure but, he's not ready yet to be on his own.

Eventually, I let him go but, I watch to make sure he stays away from that damned anemone. That anemone has eaten some expensive fish in a matter of seconds before. When the kids get home I keep asking them to look for the little guy too. I now have an attachment to the fish that I thought came in dead that I almost left in the bag.

Chris comes home and I tell him the story. I'm all excited because I saved the life of this little file fish. Within a few days he's doing fine too.

However, within that time he also begins nipping at the sps in the tank. By mid August Chris has decided to evict my little friend. He puts up some pictures on Reef Central along with a post about the little guy and a fellow reefer offers to buy him. Chris offers to give him my friend as soon as he scoops him up.

Pictures of him slurping up some sps polys for a before dinner snack...

He was caught soon after and given to our fellow reefer at the next club meeting. Every once and a while he'll post a picture on reef central for me so that I know he's okay and he always tells me how he's doing when we see him. He's a survivor...too bad he couldn't just stick to manjo's!

Until next time, always check twice, like Santa does!

Chriskid's Stag

2013-11-27T12:05:00.000-05:00

It's funny when I go through my photo's on my computer sometimes. I have a folder that I place all of our fishtank photo's in as I take them off of our camera. Usually Chris has an array of top tank shots, side views, a new fish he's recently bought, zoanthids that are looking amazingly well, you name it.

This morning I was going through the photo's in order to come up with a tank update for July since nothing really went on that month. This must have been the month we added the LED's to the tank. Why do I think this? Because most of July's pictures are of Chris trying to capture the glow from the LED's onto the corals. It's an amazing sight here in the house, on the camera however...eh...not so much.

In case anyone is wondering, we only use the LED's to add a 'pop' of color to our tank. We are die hard halide supporters.

When I talk about this folder and going through it let me tell you, this takes time. There are thousands of photo's in it from all the years we've had our new camera. If I want older ones, I have to search through six or seven disks to find the picture or pictures I'm looking for. These ones are usually so awful in clarity though, that I only put them up for a before and after type of logic.

That's pretty much what I plan on doing right now too :)

About eight years ago (give or take) Chris was wandering through Fin & Feather looking for coral. He would always end up talking to one particular worker there or we would get into conversations with the owner, John. This particular day he was off with John in coral land as I wandered around and looked at the other animals. After some time he tells me he's all set as he's walking out of the fish area with three bags in his hand. He's all excited, he just got a really great deal on some coral. Cool! So, what did he get? We go to the register and I look into the bags. I will never remember the other corals he bought that day or if we still have them but, this one...oh for crying out loud! Really?! It was a thick brown stick with a ball on the bottom. I remember complaining about him buying brown coral again and then expressing my absolute distaste for this ugly, brown dick looking one. He was excited however because they were only $20 a piece. I then expressed that they were this price because they were ugly and one of them looked like a dick.

The coral went into the tank and it was forever deemed 'The Big Brown Dick' by me.

This was the time when we were still getting used to keeping SPS in the tank so, for some time, this coral remained simply long, brown, and dick-like in resemblance. Chris moved it to the basement tank for a while. I'm not sure if it was because of my comments or something else but, it was gone for a while.

A few months went by and the coral started to show a little bit of life and started to grow from the base. It also started turning dark green. See it in the picture? You can't miss it! Towards the front and to the right of our frogspawn in the sand.

About six more months went by. I'm peering into the tank one day and see this amazing coral. It's light pale green and goes to blue and the very tips of it are an amazing yellow. I ask Chris what in the hell this coral is and he smiles at me, "It's The Big Brown Dick" he says. He proceeds to give me the 'I told you so' talk about corals and lighting.

After some time it grew enough to be fragged which was a good thing. We lost the main colony some time ago when our tank crashed the first time for unknown reasons.

When people would come over and look at our tank they would always ask about it. We would tell them the story of my dislike for it when it was bought and how it grew into a thing of beauty but, we never had a name. Chris knew it was a stag and that was all he was ever able to find.

About two years ago, someone was over and bought a frag of it. When he asked the name and we told him the story he said we should just start calling it Chriskid's Stag. From then on, that's what we have done or for short CK's Stag We've joked and said that we should have named it The BBD Stag.

Before the tank upgrade Chriskid's Stag looked like this...

In July it has grown into a monster coral in our tank...

So, (another) lesson learned in the reefkeeping hobby. The brown sticks can truly turn into things of beauty if provided proper lighting and water conditions.

Chris buys a lot of wild coral now for two reasons. One is to prove to himself that he can keep them alive because we have noticed most hobbyist have a lot of difficulty with them. Two, to see what will happen to that one that has no color but, looks like it has a lot of potential. It's fun to see what we get sometimes.

Until next time, happy coral shopping!

Jersey's Frag Swap & Conference

2013-11-26T17:04:00.000-05:00

The New Jersey Reefers Club was supposed to have it's conference right after Hurricane Sandy. However, flooding of the Expo Center cancelled this date and instead brought it to June 15th.

Chris and his dad decided early on that they were going to split a booth at this frag swap in order to try to meet some new people and to sell the coral we have been trimming to reefers outside of our area.

I'll admit it, I was against this idea right off the bat. I didn't like the idea of going to another state and pouring out a ton of money for the booth, hotel room and anything needed for bringing and distributing the coral. It wasn't until about two weeks before the swap that I agreed to go.

I went down to Camero Signs and had a banner made for Chris to put up. I figured it looked more 'professional.'

Just like the FFM, we brought our own water and this time asked NJRC to only hold a small amount for us just in case. We used our buckets with our homemade frag holders again, brought the tank that Emery made for him and of course everything else you could possibly need. Bags were on order to pick up at the swap and the bank account was all snuggled and ready to receive payments with credit cards too. We brought Emily with us because she was soooo helpful at the FFM and I borrowed my mothers car because it was way newer than mine.

We met Emery and Lisa somewhere on 95 that morning. We were pretty much operating on very little sleep and it was still up in the air as to whether or not we were getting a hotel room after the swap. Chris was worried about the corals and setting up the tank in the room which was understandable but, before we ever even got there I was exhausted.

Lisa bought us all matching color shirts to wear and even put little rhinestones on the ones for us girls.

The swap went very well. We didn't pull in as much as we had hoped (all the funds went towards our upcoming wedding) but, we still had a great time and met some fantastic people.

Everytime I turned around Chris was off at another booth checking out corals and zoas! Just like a kid in the candy store.

Next time, we go back to using the light we had at the FFM or something else to help make them pop. The light we used drowned out the color of our corals terribly which I think kept people from buying some of them.

A ton of photo's of the swap can be found by Clicking Here

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Lisa Messier

We did end up spending the night in Jersey. We were all wiped after the swap ended. The next morning, Chris only lost one of the corals that he bought and we attributed the loss to him keeping it in the bag instead of just putting it in the tank with the rest of the frags.

Until next time, keep fraggin!

Acrylic and a Blowtorch

2013-11-03T12:26:00.000-05:00

After a long time of discussing a different location with another member, Chris and this gentleman finally worked out a date for CTARS to hold a meeting at the Wildwood Christian School in Norwich, Connecticut. This school actually houses it's own saltwater aquarium in the room we were in so, it gave everyone something to look at and discuss before and after the meeting too.

Meeting topic: Working with Acrylic. This time though, Chris' dad Emery would be doing the presentation.

Emery had been making some tanks for himself and they came out great (did you see the tank from the FFM? One of his!). The club had originally planned for someone else to come out and do the presentation however, it fell through. Emery stepped up and offered to demonstrate how to build a small frag tank and then raffle it off at the end. Chris wanted the proceeds of the raffle were to go to the Lutz tank though and not the club this time. Done deal...

The turnout was nice, the room was filled and there was standing room only shortly after the demonstration began. These photo's are actually later on in the meeting (during the raffle ticket sale) but, I figured they made the point either way.

Emery had made all the cuts prior to the meeting and started first by explaining the costs of a sheet of acrylic, where to buy it in his area, and how to make the cuts. Then, fire....

After that, he began the assembly with Chris' help and answered any questions people had.

Then he started to seal/bond the acrylic together.

While chatting with the President, Kyle.

In the meantime, raffle tickets were sold for both the tank and for all the other items brought to the meeting. Chris put together some great frag packs and brought a large sps colony and someone else also brought a large soft coral for the raffle. Kyle brought a bunch of frags from his tank too as well as a few others. The raffle table was awesome!!

Here's our VP & secretary trying to play name that coral...

The raffle begins.

And the happy winner of the tank is Country Bob!

Successful meeting! Everyone was happy afterwards, even if they didn't win the tank, and the Lutz received a nice donation.

Until next time, stay fraggin!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2279985

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2286424

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Field Trip With Stingrays & Sharks

2013-11-01T21:50:00.000-04:00

I'm officially about seven/eight months away from being caught up with this blog. To those of you that keep coming up to me and telling me how much you enjoy reading what I write, thank you. To those of you who insisted that I continue to write....

Seriously, I do enjoy every moment of our hobby (except for any part of it that involves more money) but, I really got myself into something with this blog. Trying to plan our wedding, work, take care of four kids, teach one to drive (around her work schedule), plus this...what the hell was I thinking? A reality show would have been easier...

So, it's March now. The public relations officer of CTARS has booked this awesome trip with the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk for a behind the scenes tour of the facility. Yes, yes! We are definitely going to this!! If anyone has ever been to the Mystic Aquarium, it's a bit of a letdown when you are into reefkeeping and I brought Chris to the Boston Aquarium a few years ago because the first (and only) time I went to it I thought it was soooo cool. Walking up that round aquarium in the middle was like, WOW! However, once you become a reefkeeper, these places become more of a letdown and seem more like a morgue for the corals you care so much about. A behind the scenes tour of an aquarium we haven't been to sounded fantastic and it was nice to see the club doing something proactive again.

Pretty much the very first thing we were brought to were the touch tanks. These were Chris' favorite part of the entire tour. They had two sharks and a shit ton of stingrays you could pretty much play with in this large tank. Aside from wanting to throw the little kids out of the way, this was really cool.

This Photo Courtesy of Amber Purstell

We were then brought over to see the octopus they have there and the jellyfish room. I don't have a good photo of the octopus but, the below picture is of tiny, tiny jellyfish in that container :)

A beautiful tank leads us to the back of it where they explain how they switched over to LED's recently. Ugh! Hate LED's! This would explain the decline in any SPS in that tank. However, the RBTA's are magnificent.

We head over to the backroom of what I believe was some sort of large fresh water tank. I could be wrong and the pictures of the fish I have can't be distinguished between a fish or a blob.

Then we went over to the sea turtle tank. I liked this one. Everyone got to go up and watch them in small groups from the top of the tank.

I think everyone got a kick out of the valves on this monster skimmer.

Then over to the tank that houses the fish that have been found in Long Island Sound.

Behind it, this tank...

Then off into the back room of the aquarium. In one or two spots you can look into these little holes and see a small portion of what we were able to experience. If you ever go there, look for them and take a peek!

Finally to the shark tank...to the top to watch them feed!

We hit a few other spots and I have more pictures but, they weren't amazing or just more blobs. These were the highlights of the tour (to me anyway) which is why I posted what I did.

Eighteen tons of salt are used at this aquarium each year. I can't even recall how many thousands of gallons of water they had running through the entire system but, it was amazing! It's certainly worth a visit if you ever get the chance.

Once the tour was over Chris and I walked the entire facility (missing the meerkats dammit!) and then spent another hour petting the sharks and stingrays :)

Until next time...

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The FFM (kinda like the BFG but, really not)

2013-11-01T21:49:00.000-04:00

Ahhh....it's that time of year again. Yes, the FFM is coming. The Frag Farmer's Market held at the E.O. Smith High School in Storrs every year. This year makes for the 6th annual FFM. The first time Chris and I went we were like kids in the candy store. Zoanthids and sps everywhere! When we left, we vowed to someday set up our own tank someday and sell our frags too.

This year was the year.

What is a Frag Farmer's Market you ask?

'Inspired by the idea of the the reef club frag swap, the New England Frag Farmer's represents a regional event with "farmers" from all over New England gather to sell their home grown "crop." The E.O. Smith Coral Project opens the doors to the school for any local hobbyist, retail or online store to come in and set-up a tank to sell coral frags. Admission is free, so anyone can come in and chat with the farmers, share information and get a few nice homegrown frags to stock their tanks.' (http://www.eosmithcoralproject.org/FFM2013.html)

Chris grew out his corals for months waiting for this day.

We made cute little shelves to go in each bucket we brought and made plenty of our own water to bring with us. We noticed a lot of people have issues when using the water donated (slimed up corals, no polyp extension and cloudy tanks). We made lists, more lists and then double and triple checked each one. We even had lists of corals on our lists! We were ready.

The morning of we woke up bright and early and started the transition of putting all the frags into the buckets. We had our oldest daughter come with us in order to help with the crowds and off we went, tank, lights, coral, water, cords...the kitchen sink :)

(photo courtesy of Rich Hogan)

This is our set-up. Nifty right? Even with the old metal halide instead of LED's like everyone else was using, our corals popped with color and the polyp extension was crazy!!

(photo courtesy of Rich Hogan)

And we were busy!!!

(photo courtesy of Rich Hogan)

As were many others...

(photo courtesy of Rich Hogan)

At the end of the day we chatted a bit with Greg Hiller who had a booth next to ours. Chris gave him a piece of red dragon. I wouldn't have only because he kept saying "Red dragon, red dragon, red dragon!" in a childlike sing-songy voice every time someone came over and started talking about ours. He wanted a piece to try in his tank but, refused to pay the amount we were asking which was far cheaper than anyone elses at the swap that day. Chris does stuff like that all the time.

(photo courtesy of Lisa Messier)

We donated a dollar of every coral we sold to the Lutz Tank too. We tried to get more people on board with the idea however, only one reefkeeper saw me when I went over to Ron to give him the money and he came over and matched our donation. Maybe next year...

Seventy percent of what we took home that day went to me for the wedding. I did use some of the cash to pay some bills but, the rest was squirreled away until certain vendors were found!

We plan on attending again this upcoming year (2014) and can't wait! Those funds will all go towards the wedding too so if you see us remember to stop by! :)

Until next time....don't blow your bank account, practice safe reef buying until the FFM! ;)

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Aquascaping...it's my thing ;)

2013-10-31T14:01:00.000-04:00

So, I'm engaged now! I've also recently lost about ninety pounds (remember those Atkins bars and shakes?) so, I'm feeling pretty damned good too. Life is good! Now, it's time to put on another demonstration!

I hate getting these things ready and feeling as though I'm going to bore the audience. As I'm putting together the powerpoint, which only needed tweeked from my last one, I kept running over certain areas trying to make them more interesting...nope! Sometimes it's just boring shit. I guess it's all in the demonstration which everyone always raves about afterwards however, putting these things together makes me want to drink Maalox for a week.

Emarco Rocks apparently heard about our presentation and decided to donate rock if we named him as the sponsor of the meeting. I had told Rich I was up in the air about this as we were teaching people how to use a more economical approach with the emaco concrete (which is the same thing...you should know this if you've read my other posts) but, if he wanted to accept the donations, it was his club, his choice. He did.

I tweeked the presentation a little more to not so much deter people away from our meeting sponsor but, it still gave money comparisons at the end for the two concretes.

Day of....Rich introduced us to the small crowd of people that gathered in the Providence area they have selected to have their monthly meetings. Despite all the advertising, there was only one or two newcomers to this presentation. OSRAS is having a hard time getting people to come aboard...

Then I start the presentation (I look suuuuper smart here right?)

While Chris builds small structures to raffle off at the end of the presentation.

Rich shows off his piece to the crowd in order to not only show off my masterpiece and what he will be putting in his tank at home but, to show everyone how well the concrete holds once cured.

Chris also shows everyone one of his favorite tricks. Placing epoxy into the tank to put in a large colony and then propping it up with sticks (we use skewers) overnight while it cures. We wanted to show this to people at the CTARS presentation as well but, Ego never gave us the chance.

This Photo Courtesy of Rich Hogan

A look at the structures after they were built...and yet another clueless look on my face. Can't anyone snap a photo of my looking intellectual?

This Photo Courtesy of Rich Hogan

I always ask people to send me photo's of their structures later on down the road so I can see how they are doing and possibly use them in later demo's. I can't remember who won these structures so, I can't ask or look for their tank photo's anywhere. However, on a search I did happen to find Rich's. He built the rest of his in his tank with the remaining concrete and the one we made for him is over on the right hand side. Rich has never been able to keep a tank very well. Chris was helping him for a while (more on that later) and with these photo's it goes to show that he still needs some major areas of improvement on his tank knowledge and care.

Photo found on OSRAS.com

Someone even posted a message that he had some corals ready for fragging. Huh?!!

*Sigh* Anyway, until next time, smart reefing & happy aquascaping!!

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A Salty Propostition

2013-10-31T12:37:00.001-04:00

I've lived with Chris now for just about ten years. We will hit that official mark in December. We've been together for a little over twelve. That's a long time...it's a really long time to still have the names Woomer and Messier on our mailbox too.

We had actually been talking about the idea of getting married possibly in 2013 but, 2012 came and went and there was no proposal or really any money to have the kind of wedding that Chris wanted. (This is also debatable...Fiji or big party...or big party after getting married in Fiji. I won't get married without my kids being there though so, Fiji is out!)

Now, for every year, for every holiday, Chris tells me that I'm getting a new frag or a piece of equipment for the tank. I always laughs, tell him he's an asshole and usually a few minutes or, sometimes even hours, later Chris will present me with my real gift which was never anything to do with the fish tank. Good thing for him too because I'd ring his neck!

This year for my birthday I opened my card and it reads, "I hope you love your new frag," so I assumed he was merely being his usual smartass self again. I even call him an asshole...with a smile of course.

I'm sitting on the couch for a few minutes and he asks if I want to see my frag. Oh, so we are still going with the frag story? Okay, whatever. I roll my eyes as he takes me by my hands and leads me over to the tank.

But this time there was a frag...

He had it on a frag plug...my new frag!!! I couldn't believe it, and I felt so bad for not taking the card seriously and for calling him an asshole!!! He took the ring out of the tank and after all these years (and lots of saltwater!!) we are finally engaged!

You can see Chris' way of announcing our engagement by going to his favorite forum: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2265515

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Just Call Me the Aquascaper!

2013-10-08T23:55:00.001-04:00

It's February now and I'm losing my mind with Rich and Brenda's phone calls and messages. However, I keep my cool (most of the time) and press on. The screaming and swearing usually happens before or after the phone calls with Rich. The calls/emails usually went a little like this...

Day ten of question one: "Seriously man, how many times do I have to explain to you that I'm not going to post about the conference every day? Why? Because it will piss off the few people that we do have that have liked the page! Please trust me okay? Okay."

Day fifteen of question 1,568,034: "Whhhhyyyy did you post an invitation to the conference on your Facebook when there is already one on the OSRAS Facebook page? This is going to confuse people. Please take it down.

Day sixteen: "Please?"

Day seventeen: "Please?"

Day eighteen: "Please!"

Day twenty: "PLEASE!"

Day thirty-nine: "Oh my god! Fucking take it down!"

Day forty-one: "What do you mean you don't know how?!"

Day forty-four: "No, I never had access to your Richard Facebook page! What are you talking about?!"

Day forty-five: "This is the info on how to add the 'like Facebook' to the OSRAS page you requested" (insert html and website info here)

Day forty-six: (this is me ignoring Rich's message about not understanding how to add the 'like Facebook' to the OSRAS website)

Anyway, I'm sure you catch my drift here. I have learned to have patience over the years, far more than I did when I was younger but, its still far thinner than most peoples. Especially when people are just plain untrainable or think that they are right when they are just plain dumb. I have a life outside of OSRAS and that means I do not have time to argue over petty shit. Please try to remember, I'm doing you a favor here buddy...this is not my job.

Part of my not-job was to prepare for yet another presentation for the club. This one wasn't too big of a deal though because we already had most of the presentation done because we had done it for CTARS already; our aquascaping presentation.

Flyer for the Presentation

Rich and Brenda gave us the money to get the concrete while holding yet another BoD meeting at our home and at the January meeting gave us some rock to build them a structure for their tank to show the meeting. Wait, what?! Hold on one second! They wanted us to build them a structure for their tank with the concrete bought with OSRAS money? What the fuck! I thought this shady shit was the entire reasoning they started their club. Whatever. Then they asked me to make kits with the concrete to raffle out at the meeting too. Okay. No problem!

So, one fine sunny day Chris and I started the project....

I start by making the structure I want first...

My dog Sparky decided he wanted to help too. His idea of helping is just dancing around like a little ballerina I think because he's half chihuahua and that's all I usually see these dogs doing...that or talking about taco's.

Told you I was losing my mind!

Then came the process of actually putting the scape together.

Chris also worked on large and small disks to raffle off at the meeting.

Now, imagine that this next photo is me saying something along the lines like "this is one kick ass scape." I'm really in all reality saying something like, "we need to move this really soon so that we can get the pot roast on the table for dinner tonight." I prefer the first version better, it's just more fitting with the hand gesture I'm making.

When we were all done I went out to Walmart and bought these cool containers that I'm sure some of you will actually recognize, bread bags and used some old water bottles for the Acryl 60 mix and made five and ten pound kits for the meeting. I was extremely happy with the results of these. When I sent the picture to Rich he called me up and asked if there would be enough concrete and mix left for him after the presentation to finish his aquascaping in his tank? Seriously? Okay, I get it. And yeah, there will be plenty.

I didn't let Rich see his structure until the day of the meeting and I'm happy to report that he was extremely pleased with the finished product. Those pictures will follow later.

This aquascaping thing is actually one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. Give me some live rock and leave me alone with a tank and I'll be happy. Give me some live rock and this concrete and I'm even happier!

Until the next blog....happy reefing!

A Meeting and A Christmas Party

2013-10-08T14:19:00.001-04:00

So the Ocean State Reef Aquarium Society is underway. Rich and Brenda call a meeting of the BoD at our home to discuss the nature of of affairs with the club and what direction it should go in. Rich, Brenda and Charleen all attend. It's been decided after a conversation Rich had with Jeff, the prior president of CTARS, that a conference will be put on next year by OSRAS. Okay. Good idea? Maybe, if they can come up with some money because the club only has a few paying members. They have made me Facebook Coordinator. I can handle this no problem. Go on Facebook a couple of times a day to see if there is anyone trying to contact me, upload pictures taken at meetings, update status whenever requested. Brenda seems adamant that she doesn't want to really open all the books to the the club members and dammit! One of these people broke my toilet seat while they were in my home and didn't have the decency to tell either me or Chris!!

I'll look past the toilet seat for the time being and just try to have some fun with new club members and see how this Facebook thing goes. There is a Christmas party coming up for the club and a Secret Santa. I plan on making my famous pumpkin pie for the event and Chris plans on giving away one of his frags as a secret santa gift. But, our phones ring constantly and our Reef Central inboxes are getting full with requests and questions on how to do things....these are very needy people! They really want Chris and his father to go set up tanks again to sell their frags as well as donate some of them for their raffles and they are very insistent on this. Chris says he'll see what he can do. He prefers to offer, not be asked...Smile, Missie, smile! You love this hobby!!!

Yes, they gave in and brought their corals, their setting up here.

Emery showing his coral