Category Archives: Pets

Mia Meow

Jarod and Sanja have requested more Mia photos! We’re more than happy to provide!


OMG look at your face. You’re such a pretty girl!


When Mia’s out (quite often) she’s completely out. She’s so floppy you can pretty much do anything you like with her and she won’t wake up!


Little Mia paw.


She’s such a good lap cat and still doesn’t like being on her own.


Out again, feet up this time!

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Prodibio


Prodibio Bio Clean kit.

As mentioned in yesterday’s fishy post, technology in the aquarium hobby is constantly progressing and one of the products everyone has been raving on about for the past few years is Prodibio.

Prodibio is a French company which combines science with aquaculture and biotechnology. Their kits contain these funky glass ampoules containing various live bacteria packed in nitrogen (air tight = no shelf life). You literally have to break the glass tips to get the stuff into your tank.

I’ve gone for the kit that’ll bring my nitrates down. Fingers crossed, hope it works.

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Reefer Madness

Since buying some new fish a few weeks ago (and realising the quality of my tank water was way off whack) I’ve been busy working on getting the tank back into shape and in doing so I’ve very much gotten back into the hobby. My obsessive compulsive nature has taken off and I’m finding myself haunting reef related web sites and forums on the iPhone, the iPad, the PowerBook and my PC. I’ve even got a book on Marine Invertebrates sitting beside my bed now for bed time reading!

The marine aquarium hobby evolves pretty quickly and a lot of things have changed since 2007. There’s a lot of technology advancements. LED light units are taking off, they’re just as strong (for coral growth) as metal halide lighting but they use much less power, generate much less heat and last 5 times as long (where you had to change bulbs every 60-12 months you now only have to change bulbs every 5 years!). Biotechnology has stepped up and a lot of people are dosing their tanks with all sorts of advanced products (using very advanced dosing gear too) and perhaps most importantly quite a few myths and must do’s and must not do’s have been debunked.

I’m going to dedicate this post to some of the amazing tanks I’ve stumbled upon in the past 2 weeks of browsing:


C.P.Farm Japan. If you know me you’ll know I love everything Japanese. Cars, bikes, food, culture… you name it. What I didn’t know though was that they’ve been way ahead in the reef game for years too. This tank pictured above is 10 years old (!!!!!!). Back then keeping marine fish was a challenge let alone corals. As usual the Japanese have done things in their own style and a lot of their tanks are braceless/rimless (meaning there are no glass lids/braces on top) and they like to use various spot lights to highlight different corals in different colours. More amazing Japanese tanks (all very old) can be viewed here and here (leep a look out for the lighting set-ups and the gear under these tanks, amazing stuff).


invincible569’s tank. This guy was perhaps one of the first guys on the Reef Central forums to do a rimless tank right. His minimalist aquascaping and clean style has inspired many reefers (myself included).


Kyle Verry’s tank has a rock structure going way out of the tank allowing crabs to breach the water and climb up the rock. Mangroves reduce the nitrates, it’s all very much literally out of the box style and thinking.


ChingChai is a guy in Thailand who’s gone all out with this HUGE tank. His tank diary can be found here.


Marcello’s “nano” tank is an amazing 25 litres small. I’ve been thinking about setting up a tiny nano tank, but supported under it’s stand by a huge tank (more volume = more stable) for a few years now but seeing something as amazing as Marcello’s tank just makes me want to give up before I even try. More of his tank here.


Nice bommie! As pretty as some of the above tanks are, nothing beats the real thing.

Even if you’re not a fish keeper I hope you’ve enjoyed the post. FYI I’m currently looking at an LED lighting system and a new VorTech wavemaker system which has an electronic controller to emulate different currents found in reefs. I’m also going to start dosing my tank with prodibio too. More updates to come.

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FTS August 2010


Latest full tank shot. Click here for a larger image.

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Mia visits the Vet


Mia hated the car trip more than the vet!

Mia was due for her 2nd vaccination and despite suggestions from family to take her to a vet in Randwick we decided to take her to the Greencross Vet down the road instead. The vet (Dr Chris Godfrey) and staff were super friendly and Mia was so well behaved (a weigh in, stethoscope, thermometer up the bum, nail clipping and a shot too!).

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Re-aquascape


Live rock.


Freaky brittle star I found under one of the rocks (scared the shit out of me).

I’ve broken down the tank even more and have decided to a new aquascape. The above pic shows all the rock I’ve taken out of the tank. The massive rock wall I had going all these years created a lot of dead spots (no flow) and a lot of detritus settled in these dead spots, that’s been the cause of my high nitrate levels. More updates as they come.

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OK OK… last one for the weekend (lol)

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Mia

Ridiculous huh?

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Aquarium Update


Morphs.


Middle section.

The water is “looking” VERY clean but as of today the Nitrate test still reads 50ppm (high!). I’ve posted up a call for help here: http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=219668

There are a few great suggestions in there. I’ve just got to try to give some of them a go slowly and not all at once!

I really wanted to know what was under the rock work. The middle bommie is the smallest so I took the entire bommie apart (moved rocks to the side) and to my surprise there wasn’t THAT much crap under there. I siphoned the substrate clean and put the rocks back a little more centred than before to allow water flow behind the bommie.

PS: I did find some fleshy bits on some rock from corals which have long died off (their bases). I’ve removed these pieces of rock. I also did find 2 peppermint shrimp under the biggest rock at the base and one MASSIVE dark brown brittle starfish the size of my hand!

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Mia – Day 5


Freaky stretch!

Christina’s been sick for months now (since before she left for China). Initially the doctor diagnosed it as tonsillitis and after 2 courses of antibiotics we’re now waiting for a blood test to see if it’s perhaps glandular fever.

Mia’s been keeping her plenty busy though and spends most of her time walking all over Christina’s keyboard or resting in her lap. Day 5 and she’s been great! Such a good girl!

In other news: I’ve been invited to give an inspirational design talk this Friday at Kogarah Tafe. It’s been a while since I’ve done a talk so I’m pretty excited and will spend some time tomorrow putting together my presentation. I’ve been slugging away at Modern Pet Shop too which is looking pretty damn good I have to say (click here to see what it used to look like and click here to see what it currently looks like). I’ve got another fashion store to do for Tendy’s wife so hacking the matrix is really helping me get up to speed with shopping carts. I’ve also been hired to help get a new community off the ground (a secret for now), automotive and community related but it’s coming along nicely. I’ve been keeping up daily maintenance on the fish tank and last of all Peter from Bodyform (he’s arguably the best body kit manufacturer and fitter out there) has asked me to re-design his web site. Busy? Yup. Stressed out? Yup but it’s good stress and I’m loving everything I’m working on at the moment.

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