REEF AQUARIUM PICTURES OF THE WEEK

THREE STUDIES OF TEXTURE IN THE REEF AQUARIUM

As you can tell from this picture my oldest tank is well on its way to becoming an sps coral forest. I have collected over 100 different kinds. When selecting a candidate for this tank I look at health as a first priority. Several of the animals when first placed in the tank looked brown however now it is hard to find anything in this tank that looks brown. I credit the color and polyp extension to the VHO lights & our magic reef dust. I have over 11 watts per gallon, but when I say that please don't go out and buy these lights and place them on a new tank. My newest tank is now six weeks old and is already growing coralline algae on the Aragocrete rock:).

NOTICE THE CORALLINE ALGAE IN 6 WEEKS

START WITH LOW LIGHT AND ADD MORE LATER I start out my tanks with blue moons and Tritons and work hard focusing on healthy coralline algae growth. Once the coralline is visible and is about the size of a quarter I then feel it is safe to place one of the more hardy sps corals in your tank. This tank is now six weeks old. As the tank and animals residing in the tank grow the needs for keeping all animals happy increases as well. I look at decorating my tanks similar to painting a picture. I want color, texture, reflection, and feeling.

When first glued in my tank many of these animals where no bigger than 1/4 inch. When giving them the best of possible conditions they grow very fast. The small polyp stony corals provide a great deal of texture many of them grow with branching arms, some grow flat and send out branches. They are indeed fun to raise and collect. The biggest mistake that you can make is by not starting, to many people think they can not keep these animals. Many do not know where to start, the simple answer is you start by starting. We have loads of information in our monthly posted newsletters and you will find that raising captive raised versus wild caught will make all the difference in the World. You can play in your tank every day just like I do. I don't think I have an outfit that I own any more that doesn't have salt water rings up to my arm pits:).

I am proud to announce that I have about 900 babies from my three brood stock tanks ready for a new home. Over 95 have left GARF in the past couple of weeks and many of these animals have never been released from GARF before. It is important to note that we do trade animals as well so if you think you have a good candidate for our genetic back please give us a call.

This picture is of the old man tank. Those of you who have been following our posted newsletter articles know the reason why we call this the old man tank. At this time corals are growing quite well and are almost covering the face of the old man. This tank believe it or not is now a taste over two years old. I am taking cuttings from the oldest tank and spreading them in this tank. You can see that I still have plenty of room for corals. I decided to give corals in this tank more room to grow. This tank is truly one that I enjoy the landscaping of so I am hoping to keep the corals in places that you can still see the rock placement and the shapes that Eddie made the rocks. This is really a beautiful tank.

I have long ago moved my computers out of the office because I spend most of my time at the office playing in my tanks and come home to do all the paper work. I am certain soon the desk will be gone and LeRoy will be surprising me with another propagating system. The old man tank has been up and running with six VHO's, three 03's and three 50/50's for about three months. This tank also has 11 watts per gallon. I am having a little problem maintaining the temperature to stay steady at 78 degrees. It is important to remember to change your lights on the six month time period or the color spectrum will start changing on you. I change two lights at a time over a month period so I am not changing all of them at the same time.

I am now moving over many of the soft corals into my youngest tank to make room for new starts of sps corals. I have an incredible black sponge that thrives in this tank that I am now sending out with some of my shipments. It does great in captivity and I will make sure that we get a picture up so that you can see this animal. As you can see I am practicing with LeRoy's camera and one of my goals is to get a good picture of every animal in each of my tanks. I want to start making cards with as much information on the individual animal so each animal will transplant easy in their new environment. I took over 100 pictures this past week and it is getting harder to pick through which ones to share with you, it must mean that I am getting pretty good with the camera. I better not let LeRoy know this for soon it will become my job:)

I would love to hear back from any of you in regards to pictures of animals you want to see. Perhaps some of you experts can help me with scientific names for the animals pictured above. I will except any help:) I feel it is important to make a simple demand on all of you keeping these animals for they can not speak up. The year 2000 is approaching please look into making sure that your systems will be able to survive if the power grids go down. The only thing everyone seems to agree upon for the crisis of Y2K is that they really don't know what to expect. So be prepared.

I am so proud to introduce my newest addition. Please take a peak at KING KONA my new clam that Jerry Heslinga sent me. He is magnificent!!!! He came out and smiled at me the very first day and hasn't stopped since. He is truly not as shy as the little princess (also one of the clams from Jerry's farm), and is the king of the old man tank. I love to lift up my hood and look down on him however, it is difficult to get a great picture of this clam that way. I wish you all could see him in person, this picture does not do him justice. No tank should be without one of these absolutely breath taking clams.

When you order from Jerry see if you can get an empty clam shell to secure placement of your live clam. It is very important that you protect this animal from the tiny white snails that come in on live rock or can be brought in on soft corals. They multiply in tanks easily, can be seen better at night and will damage your clam if you do not find away to protect the clam. Placing the clam in the empty shell keeps them safe and allows them to attach to something secure. Many people who have visited my tanks could not believe these animals where alive, so to prove that they are real I lift up my hood and KING KONA tucks his shy little body in the shell. Then I place the lights back on he owes and awes people as he slowly spreads his beauty back over his shell.

I think one of the things I enjoy the most in this incredible hobby called reef keeping is the challenge it takes to keep all the animals happy. Decorating the reef and finding the perfect spot for the animals is a daily task for me. I truly hope that the gift we give to the hobby for our efforts in the field of reef keeping is to bring the fun back to the hobby. We hope to inspire you, to encourage you that you can do this to. It is also important to us to introduce you to dedicated individuals as well as companies who are also working very hard to make your reef experience the best you could hope for. Jerry Heslinga owner of Indo-Pacific Sea Farms, provides quality animals and excellent customer service. So from all of us at GARF, we wish you a very peaceful Easter season.

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