Deepest living fish ever filmed. Story @BBC News… . It’s exciting to me to imagine what we might find in 10, 20 or 50 years… remember that movie “The Abyss”…?! “The “deepest ever” living fish have been discovered, scientists believe. A UK-Japan team found the 17-strong shoal at depths of 7.7km (4.8 miles) in the [...]
September 22, 2008
Tank is a bit of a mess but mind is clear… Am I back in the “real world” now, or have I just returned from a visit to it? … no question… Whether the remote cold tundra, open savanna, or some meters under on an atoll, pulling away every now and then, zero contact, is [...]
August 28, 2008
Coral Morphologic posted an unreal video today, taken from an oil rig almost 8,000′ under. Check this thing out. Out of this world. The truth is out there … or under there…
July 30, 2008
I’ve got a small dilemma. Per usual, as in, every summer, I get a little lax about tank maintenance. So this last week has been spent doing a bit of cleaning, water changes, scrubbing, scraping, rearranging, and what not. The dilemma is this: Xenia umbellata. I know it’s the scourge of many reef tanks out [...]
July 16, 2008
In some sad news I heard on the commute today, The Brookfield Zoo just outside Chicago came in to 16 dead stingrays in their temporary “Stingray Bay” exhibit. The temperature controls reportedly malfunctioned, and they came in to 90*F water and 16 dead stingrays. I can’t help but think… controller? As a hobbiest, I have [...]
June 26, 2008
In the constant search for the perfect standalone MH bulb, I’m giving a new bulb a try – the Iwasaki 50,000K metal halide lamp. The initial color is a bit purple, maybe from the 50K’s nice little spike there in the 420nm range. First impression is pretty positive, though we know how that goes with [...]
May 23, 2008
Due to a case of spring fever, a common affliction for many Chicagoans as we finally get regular temperatures above 50 or 60*F, there is quite a lack of updates on StonyReef. Aside from daily kH checks, I haven’t tested my water since early April, nor have I done so much as a water change [...]
May 1, 2008
I’m a total sucker for little items that make my life easier or make something less annoying. I’ve had fish tanks around most of my life, fresh or salt, and not once have I seen a suction cup last more than 6 months before it’s falling off the glass. Stumbled across these Zoo Med Mag [...]
April 22, 2008
Today is Earth Day. Perfect time to do the “3 days of lights out” on the tank. It’s a also a good time to think about the impact we, as individuals, have on the world around us. At home, we try to be as prudent as possible in regards to the environment, but when it [...]
April 15, 2008
Against what may be considered better judgment on my part, I’ve been picking up a few azooxanthellate corals as of late. Having recently plumbed in an additional display area to the main tank, it needed to be filled with something. Some of the current resources available (articles / info from Stottlemire, Kallmeyer, Torsten, Matthews, Dame, [...]
April 4, 2008
I got results from sending in my water samples to AWT… and… the review is mixed. Mixed enough that I’m going to buy a couple more mail in packages, but enough that I am with others in questioning the procedures used and results received from aquariumwatertesting.com. Last Sunday I sat down and ran a whole [...]
October 7, 2008