U of M lab, zoology and more!

I was invited on a private tour of the University of Michigan's Zoology through department earlier today. I knew it was going to be a great trip and it did not disappoint! First I listened to a very interesting lecture on the deep ocean ecosystem and nudibranchs and snails. It was not through the reef aquarium community, but through NOSB (National Ocean Science Bowl) instead. My travels through reefs and the aquarium industry allow me to make frequent and complex connections with other ocean related topics. The nudibranchs and snails we studied were open ocean dwelling, not reef dwelling, but they still had some of the same characteristics as the colorful and complex reef dwelling ones. After this interesting lecture we went to see the lab where it all happens. The lab is complete with Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR a DNA amplification technique) kits and more! Then we went to their fish collection (perserved in ethanol). They have literaly millions of jars with every species imaginable, saltwater and fresh. They have some 3 million specimins! We got to examine (hands on) some of the deep water fish and look at hundereds of others! It was so cool and we had a great time!

Now let the pictures begin

What this building had!

The Lab Testing Equipment

The Fish!

Zoom Out!

And Out!!

Lets get them out!

Always nice to end with a smile :)

I hope you enjoyed the post. I am still getting used to my new camera, so cut me some slack on the photos :). I will post later this week about my tank upgrade and new camera so stay tuned

Happy Halloween & More!

First of I want to wish all the viewers of the Henry reef blog a

I hope you all enjoyed this holiday as much as I did.

I don't really have much to report, other than a picture of my tank that I thought you might like:

I will be finishing draining and cleaning it later this month. I have been pondering the idea of taking the rim of an somehow reinforcing. I still need to look into this and will talk to some trusted RC sources. I will have (hopefully) a new post out on my new camera later this week, so stay tuned. Also in general reef news, the podcast show reefcast has not released its new episode and is several weeks late. I am going to go out on a limb and guess they did something really crazy and its delaying them. Anyway, their new show will hopefully come out soon.

Happy Reefing!

Tank Tear - Down and More!

I finally took down my 55 gallon reef, which has been up and running for over 3 years (for more info read my 3 year update post). It was a real challenge because there was just some much stuff on the rocks that I could not get all of it off. For example my Montipora Cap: it appears somewhat small in the pictures but when I took it out it was the size of a small plate and attached to four different rock. I banked my coral and fish with a friend, and I am confident that they are in good hands. I am storing the live rock in my basement, for future use on my next tanks. Overall I think most of my stuff fared well, but some of the corals looked a little sketchy.

I will continue to give updates as I plan out my next tanks, which will be coming soon! For real time updates follow my twitter. I also recently got a new camera, so more info on that coming soon too. I have been busy, so I am sorry for the lack of updates.

During the big tank down I cleaned up my reef area. I also set up a small rimless QT/Frag tank that I will use on my next tank and for holding any more corals I pick up at frag swaps. It is a pretty simple setup:

• Five gallon Rimless "Hex" tank
• Tunze Nano stream pump (I am hoping to upgrade to an MP10 by vortech
• Small Heater
• Small PC picture with 50/50 bulb (not pictured, I am picking it up later)

I will filter through water changes and since it will have a very small bioload it will not be an issue.

I also wanted to take some pictures of what will become the new "reef lab" where all my tanks will go. There is currently an airhockey table there. I have so many ideas for this area, but nothing is really decided yet. I will have more on this later.

That is all for now, and I will hopefully have more out later this week. I am out of town for the weekend, so I don't know if I have time. I will end with a picture of my new stash of equipment from my 55 that I am storing. I hope you enjoyed the post!

Some Cool Tank News

Wow, so much time has passed since my last update! I have been very busy, so I have not had time. First off I have some general reef related hobby news:

1) MACNA (Marine Aquarium Conference of North America) was the 25-27 and from what I have heard was an absolute blast. There were some really cool workshops and speakers and I regret not making it. If you are really into this hobby than you should look into MACNA, its awesome and worth the cost.

2) Reef Central has a new look. Not that long ago RC changed their magazine and tank of the moth layout (remember the months with no TOTM??). They recently applied this

3) New Tank of The Month (TOTM) on reefcentral and a new issue of Reef Keeping Magazine I really have been a fan of both and also recommend checking them out.

4) Reef Central also added a new Ichat program and a new version of V-bulletin. I have not had time to check it out yet but it looks pretty cool.

I really have plugged reefcentral in this post, this is genuine and I think they really do a great service for this hobby.

I probably won't do any tank updates from this point on as I am preparing for my upgrade to the larger tank and am going to have someone else keeping my corals and fish and their tank. As my plans continue to progress I will have more info on this. As for now that is all I can say. Also I may get my own domain, but they are expensive so I will really need to consider. Feeling generous? Want to contribute to this site? I have recently added a donation button for those who would like to give. I do not ask for any money nor do I pressure or specifically endorse products I like.

Thanks for reading and more posts to come!

Have a good weekend

I have little tank news to report because I yet again am out of town. I will have lots more tank news next weekend when I release some new info and pictures.

The HenryReef Blog wishes everyone a happy labor day weekend.

Leaving Again

I know it seems I only just got back, but I am headed out for another week at my cottage. The tank did very well while I was gone the first week, so I am expecting a repeat experience next week. I have not had time to release the much touted "very big news" and this probably will not come out until I get back. I am leaving today and will be back Monday or Tuesday next week (so I guess it is about 3-4 days over a week). I may or may not update the blog, but I will not be able to update my Henryreef Twitter Feed very frequently, but I will update my personal twitter feed with news about whats is going on and more.

As you can see by this picture the tank is looking really nice. Last night I got alot of reef work done. I played "alien space blaster" ;) which involved zapping Aptasia (a pest anemone) with kalk. I did a small 9 gallon water change and prepared for the vacation. All in all it was a successful night. I didn't test water, as time was of the essence. I sure though, that conditions are good, if not great. I will end with an angle shot I that I really like (minus the reflection).

Heading To Minnesota

I am leaving for Minnesota for the week Tuesday. I am going to a family reunion and will be out of internet/cell contact. I have gotten someone to check on the tank when I am gone, so it should be fine. I will try to get a post out some time next week when I am on vacation, but who knows. If you want to check out what I am doing, follow my personal twitter feed: haspegren. I probably will update that far more frequently than this blog. I am writing this amid frantic packing, so i really don't have time to get an FTS. I will tweet my water test results when I get them later today. I also have some really big news that I am going to release in the near future so check the site often or subsrcibe via twitter or RSS feed.