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Above is a current picture of my Flame Hawkfish (Neocirrhitus armatus) . Picture taken on March 5, 2011.

Welcome to my little piece of reef. This website is dedicated to my experiences in the reef keeping hobby.

Please enjoy the site and be sure to check back often for updates.

Be sure to check out the recent video (2/27/11) of my tank, below on the right.

Update:  

February 27, 2010

Has it really been a year and half since I updated this website! Near the beginning of January, I started a full time job again! Because of that, I am finally able to afford some corals and replace some of the old equipment on my 90 gallon tank. About two weeks ago, I picked up a six bulb Aquatic Life T-5 HO fixture from Rob's Aquatics (Facebook page) in Tinely Park, Il. So far, my old corals are responding well and much better than when they were under the three plus year old Iwasaki's lamps that I was using. Since I am not interested in an SPS dominated tank any more, I think I will be more than happy with the T-5 lamps. Also, it is nice to not have the heat and power consumption of the 2 x 250 watt metal halide bulbs that I ran for many years. I hope to have a review of this new lighting system in the near future.

I picked up a couple of corals today. A really nice rock full of Green Star Polyps and an orange and green bunch of Zoanthids from Odd lot Pet Shop in Bridgeview, Il.

Here is a full tank shot of my 90 glalon reef tank. Picture taken on February March 5th, 2011.

November 29, 2009

It seems that I have not been too good at keeping this website up to date.  Back in middle of 2007,  I was laid off from my job and I resigned as an administrator from reef central.  I lost interest in my tanks and reef keeping in general.  Since then I haven't done much but fed the fish and cleaned the glass every few months after I could no longer see in the tank. 

Luckily, the fish are doing well and four of seven of them, three clownfish and a pindos hawkfish, have been with me for over 11 years now.  I still have one of my original corals from 1998 too.  I was trying to look at the tank the other night and realized that I couldn't see inside through the algae on the glass.  I pulled out my trusty razor blade scraper and went to work.  I cleaned part of the front glass and then finished cleaning the rest of the glass the next day.  I also changed water for the first time in close to two years if not longer.  I really cannot remember the last time I changed water and if I changed more than 10 gallons since 1997, I would be really surprised.  I also got into the bad habit of cleaning my skimmer every two or three months.

Spending the time working on the tank over the last few days has somehow renewed my vigor for the hobby.  I can see into the tank again, I cleaned the skimmer and it is pulling out a ton of crud and I changed 10 gallons of water over the last two days.  I have a nasty aiptasia outbreak but it doesn't seem to be bothering the corals from what I can tell.  I will try to put up some pictures of the next few days or so but it doesn't look much different than the picture above from early 2008.

November 15th, 2009

I am honored that TheReefTank.com added my website as recommended reading for their online community even though I haven't kept up with this website as much as I should have.  You can find me under the username hawkfish on TheReefTank.com.