After my initial excitement of buying new diving gear passed, I had to deal with something unpleasant. The owner of the dive shop took it upon himself to glue a sticker promoting his shop on the back window of my vehicle. That was a mistake on his part, and I'll never spend a dollar in his shop again. Moving on, I've scheduled Open Water Diver Certification classes for November. The first weekend will be three days of education: Friday evening from 6pm to 10pm, then Saturday from 9am to 6pm, followed by the same hours on Sunday. Two weeks later, we'll drive to a lake in Glen Rose for dives on Saturday and Sunday.

This is PADI instruction, which seems to be the most widely accepted dive instruction organization. For two weeks, I'll be studying ...

Hi Dennis. Mandarins need their food, that's a fact. You can also use various products to replenish that food, and there are proactive ways like my Mandarin Diner article explains. Have you read it yet? http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

The best way to grow more pods is to feed your tank phytoplankton regularly. If you don't do this now, pods will be less prominent. Shaking out the cheatomorpha is a good move, and yes your return pump can send them into the tank undamaged. They just get washed up in the flow. I'd suggest you do ...

Today, I finally took the official plunge into the SCUBA world. I've been circling the idea for the past six years, but knew it was an expensive hobby. I already have one of those as it is. Still, I've read articles about our beautiful reefs, read stories by my diving friends, and seen pictures that made me envious. National Geographic and IMAX movies whetted my appetite to see some of these places in person, and opportunities arose repeatedly where I had to decline because I wasn't certified yet. When I was applying for health insurance years ago, they asked me about a number of possible high-risk sports I might be involved in, including SCUBA. My answer was "no to all of the above," but that they were giving me some great ideas. hehe The SCUBA diver on the Melev's Reef branding wasn't just a look, it was a personal goal. ...

Prior to MACNA, I had the opportunity to ask the guys at Real Reef to create a Rock Bowl for my tank. I've wanted something to grow mangroves near the top of the rockwork, where they would be able to grow up toward the metal halides high above the water. From the side, the rock needed to look natural, but within it needed to hold sand for the mangrove root system. I believe other hobbyists might like something similar, and such a bowl could be useful for wrasse owners that maintain barebottom tanks.


At the conference, I was told my bowl survived ...

I recently received the brand new electronic Neo-Therm submersible heater from Cobalt Aquatics. I was excited to test it out, because it doesn't look like any heater you've ever had before. It's about the thinnest I've ever seen, measuring at 8mm or the unusual 1/3" listed on the box. The best news of all: a Three Year Warranty. Any product that has a 3-year warranty is good in my book, because that usually means the company believes in it enough to make that promise. It is rated to keep the temperature at +/- .5º F, which is a very tight tolerance, and is UL listed.

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Prodibio is company based in France that has a complete line of products to dose your aquarium with. Their website (http://www.prodibio.com/) lists additives for freshwater, saltwater, fish disease treatment and pond treatment. Since we are primarily Reef Addicts here, I'd like to discuss how I'm using their saltwater dosing system for my reef.

Iodine and Strontium are recognizable, but Bioptim, BioDigest and Reef Booster not so much. Bioptim adds micro-nutrients to the tank, which BioDigest consumes...BioDigest is a bacteria designed to consume nitrate, phosphate and organics. Reef Booster is very fine food (nutrient supplement) in liquid state. Regularly adding new bacteria is especially useful when running NP biopellets, and Prodibio fills this need nicely. ...