tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61175802009-10-05T02:06:10.734-05:00Reef LogMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comBlogger408125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-24151691946972601722009-10-05T02:02:00.002-05:002009-10-05T02:06:10.751-05:00

From September 25 - 27, 2009, over 1,100 hobbyists from across the nation and abroad flew in to enjoy this year's Marine Aquarium Conference of North America. And in record time, all the pictures have been edited and uploaded to my site.If you weren't able to attend this year, this is what you missed: MACNA XXIThis is what I came home with.

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-52616680050822372212009-09-21T23:50:00.005-05:002009-09-22T00:53:14.534-05:00

On Sunday, a friend of mine offered to help me from his home in Missouri to get my Aqua Controller 3 working with the U-verse Gateway (router), and get the Aquanotes App on my iPhone communicating with it once again. Knowing it would take some time, we tackled it Sunday afternoon after I had my first cup of coffee.(It was a long night. My main PC pretty much crashed to the blue screen of death,

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-36261142278553589732009-09-01T22:01:00.003-05:002009-09-01T22:06:57.338-05:00

It's the first of the month, and what comes with that? A brand new episode of Reefcast! Episode 32 is up on Itunes, ready to download now. Enjoy.Download pageIf you are an iPhone user like I am, load up iTunes on your computer, go to the Store's Home page, then in the search bar, type in "reefcast" to find our shows. Subscribe to the podcast. It should start downloading the latest show. If

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-87746325539491031792009-08-19T20:22:00.006-05:002009-08-20T19:42:35.683-05:00

Melev's Reef is proud to announce a new product available from our Reef Shop:This system has been in development for some time, and I had the first one shipped directly to me for testing. This is big upgrade from the regular 100gpd system I've been selling for years. The 150gpd membrane produces an average of 6.25 gallons per hour. The matching booster pump will provide this rate or better,

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-88749366304390930242009-08-03T20:47:00.004-05:002009-08-03T23:41:48.800-05:00

A year ago (August 11, 2008), I did some math to see how much my tank costs me in electricity. Not the most fun thing to know, but still... here's the updated version, 12 months later. Some equipment has been changed out, and the rate of electricity is 10.3¢ now instead of 12.6¢:Basic operational cost of my tank in electricty consumption is $64.73 per month.If the heaters only cycle on once a

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-48804956696204540502009-08-02T15:59:00.002-05:002009-08-02T16:09:15.368-05:00

1825 days later, my 280g turns five. :DThe 280g page has been updated with the latest equipment and livestock in use. Some of the coral's have been linked to older images, which I plan to update to newer ones since they've grown in size.280g pageFeeding has been updated, cleaning tools listed, as well as other equipment linked. Here's a FTS (full tank shot)

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-66670103659418229312009-08-01T22:49:00.004-05:002009-08-02T16:10:26.676-05:00

Woohoo! Episode 31 is up on Itunes, ready to download now. Enjoy.Download pageIt may take a while to come out, but when it does, your modem suffers every time.

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-49066924510099490192009-07-29T16:57:00.002-05:002009-07-29T16:58:40.109-05:00

Whenever I mix up a new batch of saltwater, especially if it is a new bucket I've opened, I test for three things: Temperature, Salinity, and pH. If the pH is down, I'll buffer it up. Usually if the pH is down, the alkalinity is as well. By buffering it up, it brings up the alk at the same time.A few years ago, I had several buckets of the bad batch of Kent Sea Salt (which was measuring 1 dKH out

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-64018997462369028462009-07-19T12:14:00.005-05:002009-07-20T19:42:50.131-05:00

My tank turns two years old today! It is in the tiny entry way/foyer of my home. It holds about 20g of water, with an angled front panel to look down upon many of the corals. Here's a picture of it from June 2008 when I installed the light fixture finally.Current inhabitantsClean up crew:3 Emerald Crabs1 Tigertail Cucumber2 Tongan Nassarius snails5 Astreas1 Fighting ConchFish2 Black Onyx

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-53968698002851034132009-05-10T04:17:00.004-05:002009-05-10T04:23:38.082-05:00

After 10 months of dosing vodka in my tank, I felt it was time to do a synopsis. Vodka Dosing - Why?Here's a recent picture from my reef, with some of the new Lyretail Anthias

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-31167393192131048312009-04-29T20:17:00.002-05:002009-04-29T20:27:28.423-05:00

I've gotten some emails lately about the LFS (local fish store) page on my site, because people that visit the area like to see what's available to see while they are in town. I made some updates since some stores were gone, others moved location, and a couple of new ones cropped up.Then a guy on DFWMAS requested that the map be interactive at the top. He wanted to be able to zoom into his area

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-28275663889227675462009-04-15T02:14:00.003-05:002009-04-15T02:17:31.240-05:00

Two new goodies have been added to my online shop, so if you want to see what they are, this is the page to visit:Melev's Reef ShopAnd here's a bit of eye candy...

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-76762992689479031282009-03-11T04:14:00.002-05:002009-03-11T04:24:34.512-05:00

I'll be speaking at the Marine Aquarium Expo in Orange County, California the first weekend in April. And while I'm there, Melev's Reef will be represented as well, with a real live booth! I'll have some of my products for sale there during those two days, and will be speaking about Aquarium Photography on Sunday at 2pm.So look for this pretty banner, which Jessica at CreativeSoup.com just made

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-6863684558541162552009-02-27T15:55:00.002-06:002009-02-27T16:23:52.525-06:00

To get everyone up to speed, the road trip to Arizona was a lot of fun. I got home Monday morning at 5am. Of course, as soon as I walked through the door, I checked on my reef and did a bunch of minor tweaks to adjust things they way they needed to be. All was well.By 7pm that night, my stomach started hurting. I ran up to the store to buy some Mylanta tablets, and chewed up 5 of them over

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-11781110352706116852009-02-09T16:41:00.004-06:002009-02-09T16:50:38.209-06:00

For some time now, I've really wanted something that would allow me to check on my tank when I'm out of town. Just a quick peek to see that all is well, although I don't really dread it - I just do whatever I can to keep it happy, and hope for the best. Once I'm out the door, there is little I can accomplish, other than call others to come investigate.A few months ago, I upgraded a controlling

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-53873606540061120082009-02-04T17:13:00.005-06:002009-02-04T17:34:28.491-06:00

This latest episode is Epic, so it was named Epic Episode 30. It is a video episode, and thus a large download. Be sure to save it to your computer rather than trying to stream it. Downloads pageMy reef is doing quite well. Here's the latest image.A few projects recently completed:Vodka Dosing Drip SystemManifold Project - it only took 9 months to get this one accomplished, but two friends

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-19332769385546170092009-02-01T02:42:00.003-06:002009-08-01T20:53:21.664-05:00

I had to do surgery: Vortech Battery Backup Surgery. ;)This is what it looked like before I began.And the wire the feeds the pump during a power failure.That dangling wire was a danger. When I step up on the walkboard behind my tank, I usually grab hold of the doorway and didn't want to ever snag that wire. I definitely didn't want to work around it, not even once. Because I couldn't move the

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-28962829745707415702009-01-31T00:41:00.003-06:002009-08-01T20:40:33.887-05:00

Carbon helps maintain water clarity in my reef, and absorbs some chemicals the corals release as they fight for space on a daily basis. The following shows how I change out the carbon once it has been used up.First, I disconnect it from its pump in the sump, and set it in the sink. I love the Phosban Reactor's rubber connections, which are simple to press in or disconnect.After removing the lid

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-39344874155665048942009-01-03T14:57:00.002-06:002009-01-03T15:18:00.701-06:00

Another year has passed, and as usual I'm always fascinated by the traffic my site gets. During 2008:Unique Visitors - 404,582Pages Viewed - 3,204,735Hits - 5.3 millionBandwidth - 2.4 TerabytesFor New Year's Eve, I visited a friend of mine in Austin, and while I was there I saw a frag of an Efflo that I'd given him last year. It's doing great, and looks much nicer than the parent colony in my

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-17244086026382528462008-12-29T02:15:00.003-06:002008-12-29T02:23:11.327-06:00

Before the year's end, a new episode is out. This one is with Steve Weast, and it will be very interesting to follow. ;)Episode 29b can be found on our Downloads page, or can be found in the podcast area of iTunes.

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-84717179014391218352008-12-27T18:21:00.001-06:002008-12-27T18:22:43.042-06:00

When I was moving corals, I discovered a peanut worm. Since I've never had one that was out in the open, I grabbed it and my camera.On a towel, out of water.Next I put it in the tiny Calcium test vial from my Salifert kit since it was handy, and shot a few pictures.Normally, I've only seen the striped section in my rockwork, and when light hit it, it quickly retracted. This one didn't seem to

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-22605541515171923512008-12-25T03:35:00.006-06:002008-12-25T13:54:05.859-06:00

My lighting period each day is depicted by this small graphic. It took me hours with some help from a few tutorials found via Google, resulting with clocks that don't work. I'm working on making the RSS feed to this blog work properly. In the meantime, some eye candy...

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-59019272767971531522008-12-14T21:23:00.006-06:002008-12-25T14:49:42.707-06:00

A few days ago, my new PAR meter arrived. This is the newest one built by Apogee, which barely was released a month ago. I was going to purchase the regular one that we discussed for the Group Buy (on Reefcast.com), but one of my friends twisted my arm, and there you go. Thanks, Aaron. :DThe new meter is on sale on their site until the end of this year, then it goes up another $100 in price.

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117580.post-18111830209466784512008-12-07T21:24:00.004-06:002008-12-25T14:26:13.034-06:00

On December 2nd, I visited the Japanese Gardens in Fort Worth. Click that link to see the pictures I took.Two nights ago, I was looking in my angled tank and saw a number of fat & sassy Red Planaria - too many in fact. I stumbled across a tiny few (maybe 6) dots many months ago, and was really shocked to see them. I tried to kid myself into thinking they were figments of my imagination, and I

Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210907536992334862noreply@blogger.com