ecophotog
Guest
Hello, everyone... I guess I need to formally introduce myself so that my future oddball comments and strange questions are seen in some sort of overall context, right? 
I have two tanks at present but someday it will be much more. My fiance, Tina, is really into the tanks as well and goes with me on almost all my forays to the LFSs.
I grew up in San Diego and I've been in love with the ocean for as long as I can remember. I have childhood memories of crawling through tidepools in absolute wonder, and it has never gone away. I got a job in an exotic pets store that specialized in marine and freshwater aquaria while still in college, and spent a lot of time playing in the reef tanks. We were pretty high tech back then (20 years ago) but I've been shocked as I re-enter the hobby by how much the technology has advanced. I haven't had any aquaria for the last 15 years or so, and just recently got back into it. I got sidetracked for a decade + by my scuba diving and underwater photography endeavors. I did my scientific diving training while at UC Berkeley when an undergrad, and then went on to become a dive instructor. I worked for a few years in the Bahamas, Costa Rica, and Bay Islands (Honduras) as well as here in California. During that time I got to go reef diving in spots as diverse as Western Scotland, the Orkney Isles, Ecuador, Argentina, Tahiti (actually Moorea), and Fiji. I no longer work in the ecotourism and dive industry (I'm in healthcare now) but I still love to dive. Last year we went to Thailand and had a marvelous time, including several days diving from a liveaboard in the Similan Islands, where the coral reefs were just incredible. I actually got to dive with sea snakes! You can see some quick shots from that trip here: KodakGallery Similan Islands
Some of the best diving I've ever done, though, is right in our backyard in Monterey and the Channel Islands. And there are some really beautiful cold water reefs here, which I still need to explore more thoroughly. My dream is to someday build a really large (like 500+ gallon) cold water reef tank and stock it with animals from California reefs. In addition to scuba diving, I do a fair amount of freediving on the north coast (Sonoma & Mendocino), going after abalone.
I'm exciting about joining this forum because I can learn more about my reef tanks, and also because I noticed there's a Photography section. That's another of my passions. I have a website, ecology.org, that I use to post some of my images on, as well as occasional thoughts. I recently started a SmugMug page to house more photos, too. So I'm eager to learn from the people here who seem to really know what they're doing, judging from the posts I've read so far.
So back to the reef tanks! I set up a 12 gallon nano reef about 6 or 7 months ago, and have been tweaking it ever since. It's currently on version 2.0 because last month we went away for a couple weeks and the person watching the tanks for me basically allowed the return pump to blow water over half the kitchen, with the result that the tank went mostly dry and I lost a lot of the corals. So as it gets back on its feet, I'll have to post a thread unique to the Nano.
My other tank is a 100 gallon "pseudoreef." It's got lots of liverock but no corals; though I keep it stocked with macro algae and other inverts that the fish will enjoy grazing on. It houses a clown trigger, flame angel, cowfish, yellow tang, leaf fish, striated angler, valentini puffer, and young volitans. There are a few random tiny fish in there, solely for the entertainment of the angler. Here's a pic... not too great because done with available light, but you get the idea of what it looks like. This shows about half of the tank.
It's an extremely active and lively tank, and in the late afternoon it gets direct sun which really makes it come alive. The fish love the sunlight and the leafy greens do, too. As the weather is warming I'm getting nervous about the heat, though... so we'll see if that can be allowed to continue.
Well, this is far too long already, so I'll stop. I'm sure you're mostly shaking your heads thinking, damn, where's the moderator's censor button when you need it.... Looking forward to meeting people for real if I can get free to come to the meetings!
I have two tanks at present but someday it will be much more. My fiance, Tina, is really into the tanks as well and goes with me on almost all my forays to the LFSs.
I grew up in San Diego and I've been in love with the ocean for as long as I can remember. I have childhood memories of crawling through tidepools in absolute wonder, and it has never gone away. I got a job in an exotic pets store that specialized in marine and freshwater aquaria while still in college, and spent a lot of time playing in the reef tanks. We were pretty high tech back then (20 years ago) but I've been shocked as I re-enter the hobby by how much the technology has advanced. I haven't had any aquaria for the last 15 years or so, and just recently got back into it. I got sidetracked for a decade + by my scuba diving and underwater photography endeavors. I did my scientific diving training while at UC Berkeley when an undergrad, and then went on to become a dive instructor. I worked for a few years in the Bahamas, Costa Rica, and Bay Islands (Honduras) as well as here in California. During that time I got to go reef diving in spots as diverse as Western Scotland, the Orkney Isles, Ecuador, Argentina, Tahiti (actually Moorea), and Fiji. I no longer work in the ecotourism and dive industry (I'm in healthcare now) but I still love to dive. Last year we went to Thailand and had a marvelous time, including several days diving from a liveaboard in the Similan Islands, where the coral reefs were just incredible. I actually got to dive with sea snakes! You can see some quick shots from that trip here: KodakGallery Similan Islands
Some of the best diving I've ever done, though, is right in our backyard in Monterey and the Channel Islands. And there are some really beautiful cold water reefs here, which I still need to explore more thoroughly. My dream is to someday build a really large (like 500+ gallon) cold water reef tank and stock it with animals from California reefs. In addition to scuba diving, I do a fair amount of freediving on the north coast (Sonoma & Mendocino), going after abalone.
I'm exciting about joining this forum because I can learn more about my reef tanks, and also because I noticed there's a Photography section. That's another of my passions. I have a website, ecology.org, that I use to post some of my images on, as well as occasional thoughts. I recently started a SmugMug page to house more photos, too. So I'm eager to learn from the people here who seem to really know what they're doing, judging from the posts I've read so far.
So back to the reef tanks! I set up a 12 gallon nano reef about 6 or 7 months ago, and have been tweaking it ever since. It's currently on version 2.0 because last month we went away for a couple weeks and the person watching the tanks for me basically allowed the return pump to blow water over half the kitchen, with the result that the tank went mostly dry and I lost a lot of the corals. So as it gets back on its feet, I'll have to post a thread unique to the Nano.
My other tank is a 100 gallon "pseudoreef." It's got lots of liverock but no corals; though I keep it stocked with macro algae and other inverts that the fish will enjoy grazing on. It houses a clown trigger, flame angel, cowfish, yellow tang, leaf fish, striated angler, valentini puffer, and young volitans. There are a few random tiny fish in there, solely for the entertainment of the angler. Here's a pic... not too great because done with available light, but you get the idea of what it looks like. This shows about half of the tank.
It's an extremely active and lively tank, and in the late afternoon it gets direct sun which really makes it come alive. The fish love the sunlight and the leafy greens do, too. As the weather is warming I'm getting nervous about the heat, though... so we'll see if that can be allowed to continue.
Well, this is far too long already, so I'll stop. I'm sure you're mostly shaking your heads thinking, damn, where's the moderator's censor button when you need it....
Looking forward to meeting people for real if I can get free to come to the meetings!
