Blog Comments

Wow, thats a lot of work. If I lived closer I'd swing by and lend a hand. Thanks for the update.

Wow, that is alot of stuff. Dates must be very, uhhhhhh, "impressed", when you bring them over to you house. lmao Marc's pick up line at bar: "Hey wanna come check out my living room?"

My god you have alot of work ahead. If you quit playing with Rich, Joe, Laura and the rest of the gang you might get more done at home.
Im gearing up to do two custom builds for friends and I dont think that the work combined in both of them will add up to what you have in store.

thanks for the update, looks a little like chaos, but it will get better soon im sure.. but please dont take years to do the woodwork on the front of this tank

cant wait to see the behemoth tank start to take shape

From what I understand it will probably be around the end of November beginning of December at the earliest before the tank will be ready. But that is about all I heard at CRASE.

is there any possible positive updates on the leather........

alright, it feels like months since the last update! do you have any progress on the new sump plans (possibly a hand sketch of what your planning) or deadline on when the tank is coming, or any room modifications? (maybe another multi tank setup picture?)

i cant wait to see this think kick off again.
Happy reefing

Having seen the presentations put on by the Seasmart people at MACNA, I think you are missing the bigger point. In a nation previously untapped with regard to their marine resources, the reef aquarium trade will provide the funds to support education and management programs that will have a huge positive effect on their resources. There has never been any amount of marine harvesting there (except as a food source) so part of their advantage is that the fishers don't have bad habits that have to be un-taught. Part of what they are doing is extremely complete surveys of the reefs, with cataloging of corals down to species level. They are taking "mother colonies" only after determining effect on the coral populations, which consist of 1/2 or less of a natural colony. Those mothers are then used to produce F1 frags which are then further marincultured down to F2 before any release from the project. Many of those F2 frags are considered stock for reef re-population. The fishes are also all net caught and stored in sea tanks right up until they are transported to the export facility, which is phenomenal.

All of this will be funded by the marine aquarium trade. The project is simply amazing. We should support Seasmart as a means to not only gain access to amazing items, but also to fund the conservation that is going on.

I politely disagree. A good example is something I experienced first hand growing up in Alberta Canada and it pertained to bison (buffalo) rather than coral reefs, but none the less its the exact same point. Around this time a strange virus spread across the bison population in Canada and knocked their numbers down to basically extinct. Had it not been for zoos and private reservations that had collected the animals and therefore had the means to start breeding programs that particular animal would be something in our history books rather than an amazing creature that you can now see out the window of your car all over Canada. I guess my point is that by taking away from the reefs and being responsible aquarists maybe someday we can play a part in saving a particular species of coral or fish that would otherwise die out because of a natural occurrence. Its like an investment. We are spreading the reefs all over the world in many different locations. If something happens to one aquarium it doesn't affect another and if something happens in the ocean we can do our part to replenish. Unfortunately, as in every hobby there are going to be people that act irresponsibly either because they don't know any better or simply because they just don't care. But in order to have a hobby as large and vast as ours there needs to be money and money comes from people.

Personally I respect and admire these business' that are making a difference and making an effort towards conservation and education as opposed to just bleeding the oceans dry. It took a while for us to get here, but its finally starting to happen.

Kind of an oxymoron that the marine aquarium trade is a conservation tool. I understand the point, but discussing conservation while also discussing rare imported wrasses and clownfish seems a bit strange. Sure the industry can fund conservation projects, but that is in effect, an attempt to justify what is one of the largest demands on wild reefs today. We can fantasize about saving the reefs through education, and even species rescue, but ultimately there's nothing "sustainable" about removing animals from reefs. The animals propagate by the zillions as their sole method of survival, and removal of any numbers is counter to that objective.

Probably an unpopular viewpoint here or on any reef forum, but homegrown is the only real sustainable approach IMO. I know, wet blanket, but i am very positive about the direction the hobby is headed, and the SEASMART project is a major step in the "right" direction. We can't just tell them to stop fishing, so training in better fishing methods is a good approach. I hope the mortality rate sees a big drop as well.

It's my favorite picture of him.

Awesome! Given the shirt, I'm sure this is going to be good!

Great to have you. Looking forward to some great articles.

wooo hooo welcome

Thanks for info, it seems reefing and photography go hand in hand. I knew reefing was $$$ but really had no idea photography was sooooo $$$$ will one more item on my wish list. ( the stock of Amazon will go up if I ever buy all the items on that list).

Welcome to Reef Addicts! There are a great bunch of addicts here who share the same ideals, spend any extra money on the tank! ;-p

Thank you for joining us Adam! It's nice to have experienced input in the community.

Sounds like fun. . . hopefully get a chance to go. Anyway if you come from out of town that area is under construction so be careful and don't get lost or ran over please.

Ok got my ticket bought, will take my camera along and take a few shots for anyone interested. Also if anyone wants to know something in particular about what is going on post it here or message me and I can get you a number for texting or if you have a blackberry you can pin me directly.


Pic's taken with my phone will automatically be uploaded here: http://www.itookthisonmyphone.com/ni...0013/Crase2010 starting Saturday morning. And all other pics taken with my regular camera will be uploaded when I get home.

I'm shooting with a Nikon D90, and used a 50mm lens. It was set to infinity, 1000 ISO, using a tripod and IR remote trigger to avoid any camera shake. Images of stars took 8 seconds; any longer and they looked elongated due to the rotation of the earth. Images of the buildings was 85 seconds.

I know the info is some where I can't find it so melev what model Nikon did you use and what lense? thanks sweet shots