Chriskid's Stag

     It's funny when I go through my photo's on my computer sometimes. I have a folder that I place all of our fishtank photo's in as I take them off of our camera. Usually Chris has an array of top tank shots, side views, a new fish he's recently bought, zoanthids that are looking amazingly well, you name it. 

     This morning I was going through the photo's in order to come up with a tank update for July since nothing really went on that month. This must have been the month we added the LED's to the tank. Why do I think this? Because most of July's pictures are of Chris trying to capture the glow from the LED's onto the corals. It's an amazing sight here in the house, on the camera however...eh...not so much. 

In case anyone is wondering, we only use the LED's to add a 'pop' of color to our tank. We are die hard halide supporters. 

     When I talk about this folder and going through it let me tell you, this takes time. There are thousands of photo's in it from all the years we've had our new camera. If I want older ones, I have to search through six or seven disks to find the picture or pictures I'm looking for. These ones are usually so awful in clarity though, that I only put them up for a before and after type of logic. 

     That's pretty much what I plan on doing right now too :)

     About eight years ago (give or take) Chris was wandering through Fin & Feather looking for coral. He would always end up talking to one particular worker there or we would get into conversations with the owner, John. This particular day he was off with John in coral land as I wandered around and looked at the other animals. After some time he tells me he's all set as he's walking out of the fish area with three bags in his hand. He's all excited, he just got a really great deal on some coral. Cool! So, what did he get? We go to the register and I look into the bags. I will never remember the other corals he bought that day or if we still have them but, this one...oh for crying out loud! Really?! It was a thick brown stick with a ball on the bottom. I remember complaining about him buying brown coral again and then expressing my absolute distaste for this ugly, brown dick looking one. He was excited however because they were only $20 a piece. I then expressed that they were this price because they were ugly and one of them looked like a dick. 

     The coral went into the tank and it was forever deemed 'The Big Brown Dick' by me. 

     This was the time when we were still getting used to keeping SPS in the tank so, for some time, this coral remained simply long, brown, and dick-like in resemblance. Chris moved it to the basement tank for a while. I'm not sure if it was because of my comments or something else but, it was gone for a while.

     A few months went by and the coral started to show a little bit of life and started to grow from the base. It also started turning dark green. See it in the picture? You can't miss it! Towards the front and to the right of our frogspawn in the sand.

     About six more months went by. I'm peering into the tank one day and see this amazing coral. It's light pale green and goes to blue and the very tips of it are an amazing yellow. I ask Chris what in the hell this coral is and he smiles at me, "It's The Big Brown Dick" he says. He proceeds to give me the 'I told you so' talk about corals and lighting. 

     After some time it grew enough to be fragged which was a good thing. We lost the main colony some time ago when our tank crashed the first time for unknown reasons. 

     When people would come over and look at our tank they would always ask about it. We would tell them the story of my dislike for it when it was bought and how it grew into a thing of beauty but, we never had a name. Chris knew it was a stag and that was all he was ever able to find. 

     About two years ago, someone was over and bought a frag of it. When he asked the name and we told him the story he said we should just start calling it Chriskid's Stag. From then on, that's what we have done or for short CK's Stag We've joked and said that we should have named it The BBD Stag. 

     Before the tank upgrade Chriskid's Stag looked like this...

     In July it has grown into a monster coral in our tank...

     So, (another) lesson learned in the reefkeeping hobby. The brown sticks can truly turn into things of beauty if provided proper lighting and water conditions. 

     Chris buys a lot of wild coral now for two reasons. One is to prove to himself that he can keep them alive because we have noticed most hobbyist have a lot of difficulty with them. Two, to see what will happen to that one that has no color but, looks like it has a lot of potential. It's fun to see what we get sometimes. 

     Until next time, happy coral shopping! 

Jersey's Frag Swap & Conference

     The New Jersey Reefers Club was supposed to have it's conference right after Hurricane Sandy. However, flooding of the Expo Center cancelled this date and instead brought it to June 15th. 

     Chris and his dad decided early on that they were going to split a booth at this frag swap in order to try to meet some new people and to sell the coral we have been trimming to reefers outside of our area. 

     I'll admit it, I was against this idea right off the bat. I didn't like the idea of going to another state and pouring out a ton of money for the booth, hotel room and anything needed for bringing and distributing the coral. It wasn't until about two weeks before the swap that I agreed to go. 

     I went down to Camero Signs and had a banner made for Chris to put up. I figured it looked more 'professional.'

     Just like the FFM, we brought our own water and this time asked NJRC to only hold a small amount for us just in case. We used our buckets with our homemade frag holders again, brought the tank that Emery made for him and of course everything else you could possibly need. Bags were on order to pick up at the swap and the bank account was all snuggled and ready to receive payments with credit cards too. We brought Emily with us because she was soooo helpful at the FFM and I borrowed my mothers car because it was way newer than mine. 

     We met Emery and Lisa somewhere on 95 that morning. We were pretty much operating on very little sleep and it was still up in the air as to whether or not we were getting a hotel room after the swap. Chris was worried about the corals and setting up the tank in the room which was understandable but, before we ever even got there I was exhausted. 

     Lisa bought us all matching color shirts to wear and even put little rhinestones on the ones for us girls.

     The swap went very well. We didn't pull in as much as we had hoped (all the funds went towards our upcoming wedding) but, we still had a great time and met some fantastic people. 

     Everytime I turned around Chris was off at another booth checking out corals and zoas! Just like a kid in the candy store. 

     Next time, we go back to using the light we had at the FFM or something else to help make them pop. The light we used drowned out the color of our corals terribly which I think kept people from buying some of them. 

     A ton of photo's of the swap can be found by Clicking Here

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Lisa Messier

Photo by Lisa Messier

     We did end up spending the night in Jersey. We were all wiped after the swap ended. The next morning, Chris only lost one of the corals that he bought and we attributed the loss to him keeping it in the bag instead of just putting it in the tank with the rest of the frags.      

     Until next time, keep fraggin! 

A Meeting and A Christmas Party

     So the Ocean State Reef Aquarium Society is underway. Rich and Brenda call a meeting of the BoD at our home to discuss the nature of of affairs with the club and what direction it should go in. Rich, Brenda and Charleen all attend. It's been decided after a conversation Rich had with Jeff, the prior president of CTARS, that a conference will be put on next year by OSRAS. Okay. Good idea? Maybe, if they can come up with some money because the club only has a few paying members. They have made me Facebook Coordinator. I can handle this no problem. Go on Facebook a couple of times a day to see if there is anyone trying to contact me, upload pictures taken at meetings, update status whenever requested. Brenda seems adamant that she doesn't want to really open all the books to the the club members and dammit! One of these people broke my toilet seat while they were in my home and didn't have the decency to tell either me or Chris!! 

     I'll look past the toilet seat for the time being and just try to have some fun with new club members and see how this Facebook thing goes. There is a Christmas party coming up for the club and a Secret Santa. I plan on making my famous pumpkin pie for the event and Chris plans on giving away one of his frags as a secret santa gift. But, our phones ring constantly and our Reef Central inboxes are getting full with requests and questions on how to do things....these are very needy people! They really want Chris and his father to go set up tanks again to sell their frags as well as donate some of them for their raffles and they are very insistent on this. Chris says he'll see what he can do. He prefers to offer, not be asked...Smile, Missie, smile! You love this hobby!!!

Yes, they gave in and brought their corals, their setting up here.

Emery showing his coral

(Picture Courtesy of George Atkins)

Frags

(Picture Courtesy of George Atkins)

     The day of the meeting comes. 

Filling out name tags

(Picture Courtesy of George Atkins)

Secret Santa table

(Picture Courtesy of George Atkins)

     There is a woman named Deb there. I know her. She's very nice. She looks pissed. I ask her what the problem is. She's upset because she made all the food for the party and Rich is ignoring her. Oh, for crying out loud! Are you kidding me?! Drama, really? Does it seriously have to find me here too? 

(Picture Courtesy of George Atkins)

(Picture Courtesy of George Atkins)

     I spend a majority of the party in the hallway listening to the life story of how she has been there for Rich when him and Brenda split up and how dare he treat her like this, she paid for their oil when they had none last year and blah, blah, blah....I run to Chris when I see him and tell him I think there is some sort of crazy fucked up love triangle going on that I just got myself in the middle of and to help me get the fuck out of it! 

     He laughs, makes fun of me for always finding drama and asks for my help with something. Eventually we make our way over to the party area. (By the way, the food was wonderful and eventually I did talk Rich into thanking her and she came into the party...by the door if I do remember correctly.) 

    Then we went on to the Secret Santa part of the party which was actually a lot of fun. 

(Picture Courtesy of George Atkins)

      All in all the party was actually a good time. We had some great reef discussions with other members of the club. Afterwards, Rich and Brenda needed a ride home and wanted Chris' advice on how to bring their tank back to life anyway. We figured why not. That was an adventure all in itself. The tank they had set up was...dead. There was no living organism in it what-so-ever. The coral that was in it was skeleton that they were 'hoping' would somehow return from the dead. The live rock was white, no coralline, no algae, nothing. It was basically as if they has simply poured bleach in their tank...months ago. They had been adding so many different types of additives that they never needed to add for a tank that wasn't even close to being alive, it was purely insane. Chris gave them a few quick tips to get the tank started and we had to get out of there. (If you want a further explanation to that statement, ask me personally). 

     On a really good note, the BoD for CTARS is completely new and after the Christmas party that they had this month as well, Ego and his minions are gone! 

Doggies in Fishtanks...

     How about an update on the tank? Sure, there is always club stuff  (politics/nonsense) galore going on but, I haven't given a good update in a while!! Before I do, one more club bit of humor. A post went up for photo of the month and they were looking for photo's with red and green in them (Christmas theme). This was Chris's entry...

     Buggy was not amused...

     It's December 2012 and basically, the tank has been growing in quite well. From what happened less than a year ago, we are quite happy with the results we are getting with our coral growth.

     The water bill has certainly gone up and even though Chris refuses to admit it, so has the electric bill. However, that's only because he keeps adding more shit downstairs. Everytime I turn around it's a new tank of some sort, a new light over that new tank, a new light over the old tank because the old lighting wasn't good enough, forty thousand new pumps and the list goes on...there's no use fighting it though. He'll remove one thing and just add another, it's a losing battle! 

     Remember this coral? If you don't or you need a refresher for your memory,  Check This Out. 

     That's right, it's the SPS in the fragging video we did. This coral was sitting on just a small piece of itself in the tank (did you notice the wobble in the video?) and attached to the live rock with some epoxy. One day while sitting down Chris watched while the weight finally took over and this birdsnest toppled over. So, Chris moved it.

The bottom of the bird

From a tiny little frag to this...amazing! Isn't this hobby the greatest!!

     The zoanthids are doing well and we have added a few creatures to our little underwater family too. 

     So, here it is folks, after nine months....

  

Our 90 Gallon...

     Our 90 gallon, to me, looks a lot like a starter tank still. Chris feels the same. We had a tank crash about two years ago and it wasn't until a few months ago that it really started looking 'good' again in my eyes. There are a lot of little frags all over it now. Just recently (as in about a week and a half ago) Chris sold all of his large monti caps which now I'm thinking was a bad idea because we could have used them in this large monster of a tank! It broke our hearts to pull out our colonies that we watched grow from tiny sticks into football sized beauties during the crash. I had a large collection of zoanthids that I had spent not only a large amount of money on but a large amount of time to find rare ones at good prices on. I lost nearly all of them. I guess you could say that zoa's were my passion and when we lost them, my passion for the hobby went with them...

     Anyway, when Chris went out the other day to retrieve the rest of the stuff from Kyle's, I took some photo's of our tank. Don't mind the lamp in the background (even though I do!) Take in mind that these are only some of our corals and not all of them too...I just got tired of cropping and copyrighting them :)

     *Just a quick note too...I started this particular blog two days before I posted it. You'll find out why later on in the blogging. This has been on my computer screen waiting for the pictures to be added and then to be posted for far too long though...