Pacific Aqua Farms

I made a quick stop off at Pacific Aqua Farms in Los Angeles earlier this week to pick up some livestock on my way home from Baja California. PAF's is the worlds leader in aquacultured corals that are grown in their Fiji and Tonga locations and then shipped to Los Angeles for worldwide distribution. Walt Smith, owner of PAF will be a speaker at next years Western Marine Conference in Sacramento April 21-23, 2006.

Sea Hare: Beauty Is In The Eye of the Beholder

I have recently added sea hares to my inventory and am using them on a few clients' aquariums with hair algae problems. Hair algae grows from having high phosphates in the aquarium. Phosphates are often created from overfeeding. The sea hare is a ferocious algae eater. A sea hare will devour an aquarium's nuisance algaes until it no longer has a food source. At this time a dedicated aquarist will transfer the animal to another home.

According to The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Living Species List, each sea hare is both male and female, but they still need to mate. Dozens pile up for sea hare orgies. They mate in lines and circles: each is male to the one in front and female to the one behind, so each is both a mother and a father. Sea hares may lay up to eighty million eggs apiece. But most of these mother-fathers' eggs are eaten by predators.

The Home Show Design Center Opening NIght

EDIT 6/2007: Bob Principe was convicted of fraud and received a jail sentence. Click here to learn more about his unethical business practices. I was fortunate to not have lossed any money in my dealings with this man, but I did spend a lot of time setting up an aquarium in his showroom and lost a bit of faith in dealing with new acquaintances. I removed the aquarium before his creditors took possession of the building.



Here's a shot of myself and Bob Principe of BPTV and The Home Show Design Center... the Design Center is officially open! Although they already booked over 5 million in remodels and new home construction before their doors were open, they are now open to serve the general public as well. The Center turned out just beautiful so stop by and check it out!

See more photos of the opening night here.

Sierra Saltwater System's 90 Gallon Reef - Video

With hosting help from Minh Nguyen, Assistant Dean of Technology at UC Davis, video has arrived to my blogsite. Click here to see a short pan of my 90 gallon reef tank. This aquarium has been up and running for over six years and I use it as a holding tank for my business, mainly for corals and inverts. All corals go through a half hour Lugols Solution Iodine & Salifert Flatworm Exit dip for the eradication of the Red Planaria flatworm. Lighting is two 250 watt Ushio 10K metal halide bulbs and actinic VHO fluorescent bulbs. Filtration is live rock/sand, LifeReef sump and protein skimmer with a chaetomorpha algae refugium. (This video was filmed with a Nikon 5400 digital camera.)

New Rack Card

Shelley Fallon, Fallon Multi Media, Kings Beach, designed this great rack card. It was was printed by DynaGraphic Printing in Reno. The card is on display at The Home Show Design Center, 780 Smithridge Dr. Suite 300 in Reno, Incline Village/Crystal Bay Chamber of Commerce in Incline Village, Hiro Sushi in Kings Beach and at Java Sushi in Truckee . (Click on image to enlarge)

The Home Show's 180 Gallon Reef Tank

I recently got started on The Home Show's 180 gallon future reef tank. Over the three day weekend I will load it up with 275 pounds of Marshall Island, Kaileni and Tonga Branch rock. Some technical information: All of my acrylic work, sump, refugium, skimmer and calcium reactor was made by Jeff Turcheck at LifeReef. Lighting is the LumenArc 3 reflectors from Pacific Garden Supply and PFO & BlueLine ballasts (that will go above the aquarium) with 14K bulbs, purchased through Innovative Lighting Solutions . I believe these companies are not only the best in quality, but also surpass all excpectations in customer serivice. This project will be a showcase of my company. Look for many future posts to come!

There's No Place Like Home

It was bound to happen.... This tank raised Yellow Striped Maroon Clownfish in Chuck and Cindy's artificial reef tank has taken to the Condylactis Anemone. Cindy provided me this photo. If anyone has a nice shot of their aquarium, please send it to me and I'll add it to my blog. EDIT 5/23: Cindy has informed me that the YS Maroon has started to "feed" the anemone!

Western Marine Conference

Marine Aquarist Roundtable of Sacramento is proud to be hosting the Western Marine Conference 2006 at the Red Lion Inn in Sacramento, April 21-23, 2006. I am on the committee to bring in over a dozen of the most knowledgeable speakers in the hobby industry. Also, we are hoping to have over 25 vendors to showcase their products. I recommend all of my clients to attend.



Scheduled to attend are: Bob Fenner, Eric Borneman, Anthony Calfo, David Cripe, Leng Sy, Mike Paletta, Walt Smith and more.

Hiro Sushi

Hiro Sushi, Kings Beach. Hiro Sushi recently opened after a complete remodel. The division of the liqour bar and the sushi bar is complete with a 110 gallon reef tank. The aquarium was custom built to size by Catalina Aquariums of Sacramento.

Phyto Feast & Chiton

While dosing my display aquarium this morning with Randy Reed's Phyto Feast and Clam & Coral Diet, I came across this beautiful Chiton. Chitons come in on live rock and multiply readily in an aquarium. They graze on filamentous algae, cyanobacteria and diatoms. They are very slow moving creatures and tend to move less than a foot a year.

Fragfarmer.com & Ricordea Mushroom

This beautiful bright green and purple Ricordea Mushroom rock came from my recent visit to Los Angeles' Eric Caamano and his business www.fragfarmer.com . Eric is running a fantastic on-line/retail coral business with some of the nicest looking product in all of Southern California. He is also an active supporter to many reef clubs, including the Marine Aquarist Roundtable of Sacramento, (MARS). Eric and I will be working in the future to have some of his great suppliers tranship product directly to Sierra Saltwater Systems.

Ricordea Close Up

A close up of the fragfarmer.com Ricordea mushroom.

Green Spotted Mandarinfish

The Green Spotted Mandarinfish, Psychedelic Mandarinfish. This challenging fish to feed is a great choice for a reef aquarium, but should not be added until the aquarium has matured for at least one year. Due to the size of their mouths and the fact that they are bottom dwellers, competition for prepared food is challanging. They must have access to live prey food, cocopods and amphipods, wich live in the live rock and sand. The Mandarinfish and the Six Line Wrasse both prey on the problematic red planaria flatworms that can be introduced with corals.

Fallon Multi Media & The Home Show

Shelley Fallon, Fallon Multi Media, created this ad for me today to go into the new Home Style Magazine. Home Style Magazine is a quarterly publication that gives professional bulding industry businesses a chance to reach the everyday consumer. In partnership with Bob Principe and the Home Show,(www.bptv.tv) , KRNV Channel 4 (Reno), the Homes Style Magazine will reach over 150,000 readers quarterly. I will be setting up a 180 gallon reef tank at the Home Show showroom in Reno next month featuring what I consider to be the best equipment in the aquarium industry.

Turbin & Clams

This beautiful and hardy Turbin Coral is surrounded by three Crocea Clams and one Maxima Clam. Natural sea level calcium and alkalinity levels, with the addition of phytoplankton and zooplankton are necessary for these animals to survive.

Chuck & Cindy's 227 Gallon Living Color Showpiece

Chuck and Cindy's 227 gallon artificial reef aquarium. This beautiful staircase showpiece was constructed by Living Color of Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Living Color definitely has done their research and perfected the manufacturing of imitation corals. This aquarium comes with Pocillipora's, Digitata's, Fungia's, Sebae Anemone's, Sun Polyp's and more. And...they never need a calcium supplement.

Green Nephthea

Green Nephthea. This colony came from Rich, President of MARS, and has been fragged many times. The nephthea needs moderate to strong flow and small particulate foods (TLF Marine Snow, DT's Phytoplankton) should be blown across their extended polyps. They do have the tendancy to "brown" up under intense lighting, therefore this coral will soon have a new home in the North Lake Tahoe Boys and Girls Club's aquarium.

Purple Bullseye Mushroom

Purple Bullseye Mushroom Coral. This brightly colored mushroom comes from the Tonga Islands. I consider this shroom to be one of the most handsome mushrooms seen in the aquarium trade. Although a bit uncommon, fragging and sharing with fellow reefers is highly recommended.

Thing one and thing two. Actually, two Red Coco Worms. Dr. Ron Shimek recommends two daily target feedings of phytoplankton, preferably two different types.

Tridacna Derasa. This clam will grow to sizes up to two feet. Responsible aquarists should be prepared to deliver and donate outgrown species to suitable aquariums. David Cripe, curator at the Monterey Bay Aquarium has and will accept healthy donations without hesitation.