The relationship between the seasons and the attention my reef tank gets seems to be quite linear! I think the vernal equinox marks halfway on the downward slope, with it bottoming out around mid-August. I know I’m not the only one who takes a little break, as noted by Fragd.it & predicted by GBD in May. If my predictions and curve have been correctly calculated, by the autumnal equinox, most reef keepers come back in full gear …

Last ‘off-season’ I was fortunate to visit the Okavango Delta, with a bit of extra time to visit Zimbabwe. This year we’ll stay a bit more domestic, spending more time in the studio & saving cash for a new home, which, obviously, includes a tank upgrade – definitely looking forward to it. And with a new home on the horizon, I’d rather not add or do anything drastic to the tank.

Until then, I’m running on auto-pilot – the new ATB Multi-use skimmer is doing a great job & the old Litermeter 3 is plugging away. Aside from a bit of 2 part refill, making RO/DI, small water changes and keeping the fish fed, there’s not much going on. My parameters have been staying spot on (via ReefIris).

I’ll be back soon with a quick review and pics of the ATB hang-on skimmer, please enjoy these bits as of late that I’ve found interesting:

• Really cool CD cover that Coral Morphologic designed.

• A great post on Surgeonfishes by Danireef. My favorite photo of the post is the group of wild Naso brevirostris.

• There was quite the bit of chatter over a 6K pair of McCulloch’s clownfish acquired by Liveaquaria a couple months ago. Many seemed to think the fish are ugly & expensive. I think they’re a great looking clown and given the history of the fish it’s no surprise they cost what they do. Perhaps the cost will begin to decline now that one of the pairs has spawned in LiveAquaria’s facility!

• I have been loving ReefIris for keeping track of my tank’s parameters the past few months.

• This tank is awesome. As is this one. Leave it to Eric to search out the world’s best aquariums.

• This project on Design & Reef looks very cool.

• No idea what the page says, but these photos are amazing. (Thanks to Eric at GBD, it appears this is a photo contest by Japanese fish store AQUA REI. That must be an amazing shop).

* Title photo of the temple of Kukulkan taken by Lorenia.

ATB, atb multi-use, litermeter3, McCulloch's, reefiris General Reef, Reefs & Oceans in the News