72 Oceanic Reef Ready Bow Front Evolution...
- Thread starter mikeguerrero
- Start date
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Opps,zbryce_85 said:
A newbie doesn't appreciate my hard work in documenting my reef for close to 2 years...
Now if we go back on any of my pages I never mention fans; but two years later, Mr. Newbie, I have in fact made some loyal fans and critics...
Hope to see your future posts on this friendly forum; oh by the way I welcome you to nanotank...
MG
mikeguerrero
Active Member
In an attempt to fill out my reef on my 90 tall, I purchased an additional 4 lbs of premium rock. I picked out the smallest of pieces in order to fill the top of this massive wall...
I have only filled the right side of my reef since I could not find enough pieces to fill the left side of the tank....
You can see from the photograph that the left side of the tank is still exposed with the powerheads, whereas the right side is concealed best I could....
I also purchased black background and masked it to the back on my 90 tall tank; because I have a 3 inch sandbed it worked out nicely since the standard cut comes only in 24 inches of height. I simply had them cut me 48 inches accross and I was set....
I also sliced up four pictures of my tank in order for you to see how tall this tank really is....
MG
Here is a FTS
Here is farthest on the right side
Here is next to the far right side
Here is next to the left side
Here is the farthest to the left side
I have only filled the right side of my reef since I could not find enough pieces to fill the left side of the tank....
You can see from the photograph that the left side of the tank is still exposed with the powerheads, whereas the right side is concealed best I could....
I also purchased black background and masked it to the back on my 90 tall tank; because I have a 3 inch sandbed it worked out nicely since the standard cut comes only in 24 inches of height. I simply had them cut me 48 inches accross and I was set....
I also sliced up four pictures of my tank in order for you to see how tall this tank really is....
MG
Here is a FTS
Here is farthest on the right side
Here is next to the far right side
Here is next to the left side
Here is the farthest to the left side
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Being patient I found some premium live rock from Great Bay Aquarium in San Lorenzo. The owner sold me some pieces he had in the back that were not for sale, talk about membership.
Anyway, here are a couple of pics, stacking piece on piece until I got them to hold; I used BTI glue and gravity for them rocks to fuse. If anyone has ever tried buiding on the mega flow of a bowfront they will tell you it's almost impossible.
You don't have space on the bow and consequently the rocks will slide off with the slightest movement; turbo snails are not allowed in my tank.
MG
Anyway, here are a couple of pics, stacking piece on piece until I got them to hold; I used BTI glue and gravity for them rocks to fuse. If anyone has ever tried buiding on the mega flow of a bowfront they will tell you it's almost impossible.
You don't have space on the bow and consequently the rocks will slide off with the slightest movement; turbo snails are not allowed in my tank.
MG
johnanddawn
New Member
wow that is quite the wall, have you thought about drilling and pinning? is the bottom rock on sand or glass? looks nice but i would def be worried about it shifting, that thing is nearly vertical, you don't get earthquakes by you do you?
aquemeni5110
New Member
Love the new aquascape. i didn't know they made 90 gal bows. Great job Mike, pictures looks great. But you have to do something about the those blinds! :lol3: :lol:
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Take a look at my last FTS, how many powerheads can you find? I know easter just passed but did you find 6 eggs or should I say 6 powerheads?
MG
MG
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Here is an update...
My new fox coral
Orange polyps with green polyps
Red doughnut coral
Florida ric with green yuma
Partial FTS
Complete FTS
My new fox coral
Orange polyps with green polyps
Red doughnut coral
Florida ric with green yuma
Partial FTS
Complete FTS
nickleslik
New Member
hey man very nice tank have not been on the site in a while and my mouth droped when i saw i missed out on the 72 tank i would have paid double to get my hands on it hey how many fish u got in the 92?????
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Thanks,nickleslik said:
Don't feel bad because the 72 was sold on day one of me placing it on the market.
My 90 gallon is much taller and will accomodate more fish but I kept the same amount of fish since I don't want too much of a nitrate flux.
Only problem is I reintroduced two blue tangs that picked up the mysterius lateral line disease; I just can't understand what went wrong this time around.
MG
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Attention all reefers,
In an inspiration to my love and devotion for reeftanks I decided to become certified in SCUBA.
I choose SSI which stands for Scuba Schools International and I went with Captain Aqua's in Hayward/Dublin CA.
I choose them for their friendly help and there passion to this underwater world.
In an attempt to educate myself and my fellow readers I will document my entire process as I become an openwater diver and soon fly to Florida, Cozumel and many other temperate zones to bring you back wonderful pictures for all to share.
I went with Atomic Aquatics which is based out in Huntington Beach, my old stopping ground as I grew up body boarding in Orange County back in the 80's.
With my wetsuit, being that I'm training in California coastal waters that reach a chilling 50 degrees farenheit, I went with Pinnacles wetsuits which are Livermore based up here in the SF bay area. They know cold waters better then most.
Let the games begin....
MG
In an inspiration to my love and devotion for reeftanks I decided to become certified in SCUBA.
I choose SSI which stands for Scuba Schools International and I went with Captain Aqua's in Hayward/Dublin CA.
I choose them for their friendly help and there passion to this underwater world.
In an attempt to educate myself and my fellow readers I will document my entire process as I become an openwater diver and soon fly to Florida, Cozumel and many other temperate zones to bring you back wonderful pictures for all to share.
I went with Atomic Aquatics which is based out in Huntington Beach, my old stopping ground as I grew up body boarding in Orange County back in the 80's.
With my wetsuit, being that I'm training in California coastal waters that reach a chilling 50 degrees farenheit, I went with Pinnacles wetsuits which are Livermore based up here in the SF bay area. They know cold waters better then most.
Let the games begin....
MG
aquemeni5110
New Member
Mike, tank looks great as always. The scuba gear looks like fun.
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Thanks Brian,
Reefing as a hobby is countless hours of fun as we build and learn from our mistakes. I've learned so much and haven't even come close to understanding all the dynamics of reeftanks in the home.
SCUBA is a much more serious hobby, something that brings you one on one with nature itself. It's going to give me a better understanding of the reefing community.
I will subject my body to pressures never before thought of on land, I'm going to walk on the fine line of what an ecosystem is and why it's so delicate.
I've come to a point in my life where I want more answers than I can get from just theory, so the next best thing is to enter the watery world and find them as hands on.
I hope to bring lots of exciting fotos and document my process as I boldly go where no Guerrero has gone before, hehehe...
Wish me luck Brian.....
Reefing as a hobby is countless hours of fun as we build and learn from our mistakes. I've learned so much and haven't even come close to understanding all the dynamics of reeftanks in the home.
SCUBA is a much more serious hobby, something that brings you one on one with nature itself. It's going to give me a better understanding of the reefing community.
I will subject my body to pressures never before thought of on land, I'm going to walk on the fine line of what an ecosystem is and why it's so delicate.
I've come to a point in my life where I want more answers than I can get from just theory, so the next best thing is to enter the watery world and find them as hands on.
I hope to bring lots of exciting fotos and document my process as I boldly go where no Guerrero has gone before, hehehe...
Wish me luck Brian.....
Hello Mike,
Good luck on your new endeavor. I guarantee you'll love it. When I was still diving back home (Philippines) I never really noticed the reef. Most of my interest where focused on ship wrecks...mostly WWII shipwrecks, as the Philippines was once a major battle ground during the Japanese occupation. Some of my friends have even seen a spanish galleon wreck (we were under Spanish rule for more than 400 years) hence our spanish names and religion.
Off Topic: you know whats funny? My Portugese neighbor claims to be a descendand of Ferdinand Magellan (who the heck is Magellan LOL link: http://www.treasureexpeditions.com/The- ... lleons.htm). Bahhh...enough of my blabbering :lol:
Anyways 1st thing you'll notice down there is the complete silence. the only things you'll hear are the bubbles coming out of your tank. Initially the fish will tend to swim away you since your noisy. I was once wondering how the fishes in our reef aquarium cope up with the noise produced by our equipment. Just imagine constant barage of noise 24 hours a day.
It is only here in the US (through my research) that I learned that 50% of the worlds supply of marine life comes from the Philippines. And because of the "cyanide" issues, traders, dealers, and wholesalers tried to hide the source (while at the same time communicating with the Philippine Government for the protection of marine life especially the bad practice of some fishermen - dynamite and cyanide fishing) hence the source names like INDO-PACIFIC, INDO-CHINA, and Cebu.
Mike...probably next year or a year after that I'll be going back for a vacation. I'll almost certainly will be diving again. If you're truly "IN" to diving now...let me give you this link: http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/reeftour.html or this http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/index.html and this http://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/artic ... 0209.shtml
BTW, look at Chucks water parameters for real thing itself, I'll post it here for other readers to see.
Basic ocean parameters (as found on this reef) and personal observations :
Test Results taken on 30 Aug. 2007 at 2pm, High Tide
Temp. = 84F Salinity = 32 Calcium = 420 KH = 9 pH= 8.4 Phosphates = 0 Nitrates = 0
Check the temp. Thats in August. August is the rainy season in the Philippines (usually cold). Summer is from March to June where we usually get the bulk of the heat wave.
And Kartimar, located in Manila...ahhh. Master Err once bought a nice piece of electric blue and PINK (yes pink) 4" crocea clam for 100 pesos ($2). I wonder how much that would cost here.
Let me know.
Good luck on your new endeavor. I guarantee you'll love it. When I was still diving back home (Philippines) I never really noticed the reef. Most of my interest where focused on ship wrecks...mostly WWII shipwrecks, as the Philippines was once a major battle ground during the Japanese occupation. Some of my friends have even seen a spanish galleon wreck (we were under Spanish rule for more than 400 years) hence our spanish names and religion.
Off Topic: you know whats funny? My Portugese neighbor claims to be a descendand of Ferdinand Magellan (who the heck is Magellan LOL link: http://www.treasureexpeditions.com/The- ... lleons.htm). Bahhh...enough of my blabbering :lol:
Anyways 1st thing you'll notice down there is the complete silence. the only things you'll hear are the bubbles coming out of your tank. Initially the fish will tend to swim away you since your noisy. I was once wondering how the fishes in our reef aquarium cope up with the noise produced by our equipment. Just imagine constant barage of noise 24 hours a day.
It is only here in the US (through my research) that I learned that 50% of the worlds supply of marine life comes from the Philippines. And because of the "cyanide" issues, traders, dealers, and wholesalers tried to hide the source (while at the same time communicating with the Philippine Government for the protection of marine life especially the bad practice of some fishermen - dynamite and cyanide fishing) hence the source names like INDO-PACIFIC, INDO-CHINA, and Cebu.
Mike...probably next year or a year after that I'll be going back for a vacation. I'll almost certainly will be diving again. If you're truly "IN" to diving now...let me give you this link: http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/reeftour.html or this http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/index.html and this http://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/artic ... 0209.shtml
BTW, look at Chucks water parameters for real thing itself, I'll post it here for other readers to see.
Basic ocean parameters (as found on this reef) and personal observations :
Test Results taken on 30 Aug. 2007 at 2pm, High Tide
Temp. = 84F Salinity = 32 Calcium = 420 KH = 9 pH= 8.4 Phosphates = 0 Nitrates = 0
Check the temp. Thats in August. August is the rainy season in the Philippines (usually cold). Summer is from March to June where we usually get the bulk of the heat wave.
And Kartimar, located in Manila...ahhh. Master Err once bought a nice piece of electric blue and PINK (yes pink) 4" crocea clam for 100 pesos ($2). I wonder how much that would cost here.
Let me know.
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Well,
I finally did it and it was an awesome experience... Things I saw...
Arriving on location in rain slick training our instructor waisted no time getting us orientated with the entire location, dive shops, bathrooms, compass navigation on land and beach entrances.
We suited up and practiced our snorkeling first with our jackets on, dove down and picked up sand in our hand and brought that back up for the instructor; a pike dive.
Then we placed our entire gear on and I brought the wrong regulator set that would not fit my Malibu BC back inflate and had to rent a jacket inflate instead; I noticed that the majority of rentals at Monterey are practically all jacket inflate.
Quite the opposite from our LDS which promotes nothing but back inflate; I was kinda of very pisssed that I had to rent out the Jacket inflate since I had my sites on really mastering the back inflate which I had practiced in the pool.
Well, the visibility was very bad as we swam to our bouy to begin our mask clearing; maybe 1 foot at the surface, but down to the bottom of the rope the visibility was about 8 feet at most so I was encouraged when the first set of divers came back up and told us.
As I went down my buddy had a hard time equalizing the ears because she was a little sick before the dive and the instructor had to keep taking her up 2 feet which made me wait a while just below her. That makes you use up more air waiting for the others to clear.
Once down in that super cold water I read my depth at about 20 or so feet and once those ears were cleared I was feeling great down there. the only thing that bothered me was the cold water on my fingers, I have to get use to that cold surge.
I read temps as low as 54 degrees with one diver in our group saying he saw it drop to 47 degrees at one point; as long as I kept the hands close to my torso or moving them around I would generate some heat but could notice the cold water moving around in them when I would flex the hand.
I used a 4mm karbon flex Merino Pinnacles glove. The rest of me was at 7mm at the head, torso at 13mm, groin at 10mm, boots at 6mm and the extremeties at 7mm legs and arms. My suit is all Merino linen on all items, I use a three piece suit not counting the boots or gloves.
I didn't feel any cold what so ever as I entered the blizzard water, nothing at all goes down that seal at the back not with that new neck seal that the M-E 7 from Pinnacles promotes.
Just the hand and on my last dive on Sunday my arms just the arms could feel a hint of cool but not cold, and absolutely nothing in the groin and zero at the chest.
My bouyancy was done with just 28 lbs on the jacket inflate which I really didn't like since trying back inflate BC the Malibu.
Man was our faces really cold when we did a full mask recovery and had that cold water hit our cheeks and nose. It's literally amazing how warm that area stays with your mask, just amazing.
We saw lots of sea lions all over the rocks on the wall with an occasional seal cruising about 10 feet away from us, they move so fast and are extremely agile, no wonder they are hard to catch via predators like the shark.
As much as I wanted to block out the shark he kept entering my mind when ever I surfaced and floated on my back to exist the beach. I would always try to stay close to my partner just for security in mind. Visibility is just zero from looking down to the floor as your swim on the surface, that really sucked.
It was all fun exploring at the bottom with our instructor finding a lot of decorative crabs. Lots of stars and a couple super size stars the size of my chest. Some really big fish too, the size of basket balls, I mean the mask makes them appear 33 percent larger so maybe they were smaller.
On my last dive with my buddy, we decided to swim on the surface all the way out close to the end of the rocks and then dive down and explore and come back. We had a hard time dropping without the guidance of the rope on the bouy since the water at surface was so murky, but once we got to the bottom and equilized the ears it was all good, visibility was at best 10 feet in all areas minus the kicking of the sand from our lack of experience.
We followed baby flounders all over the rocks and before I new it we had dropped down to 37 feet and still dropping till we made it to 45 and we stopped. We had a BT of about 28 full fun minutes till our PSI dropped down to 1,000. We decided to return to the surface and swim back to shore.
That swim was the hardest since at times we hit some current but we finally made it back and removed our fins and lugged up that heavy gear up the stairs through the water drainage that poured right into break water, it had rained all day on Saturday from the parking lot, leaving us with a much better day of full sun on Sunday with no drainage.
Overall experience was a 10 on the scale, knowing that future dives should have a much better visibility than what we got, that will spoil us in the future.
Now it's time to consider what computer, regulator and BC I will purchase. I now know that I don't want a connected computer since I prefer seeing my data on my left arm, that wasn't something I considered before, but being a diver now, I know my desires and whats more practical for me.
They are so right about try it in the ocean first before you purchase, I just made sure I got a really nice wetsuit and mask and fins and the rest would be trial and error on rental equipment first.
We also camped out in our CRV cars Saturday night, that was a lot of fun, I brought all my camping equipment and the car stayed nice and toasty with waking up to divers in the morning for their Sunday dives.
Well, I can't say anything more other than thanking my dive buddy for getting me into scuba and of course our awesome instructor Erin, thanks...
MG
PS...
Beach dives suck when you get sand all over your suit and on your regulators. I can hardly wait to do the boat dives in Monterey, nice entry and exist no sand. I guess you just don't really appreciate some things in life until you've tried them all.
Oh yeah, my buddy purchased a underwater camera and took some pics of me underwater with the giant starfish, I hope they come out and I will post.
I finally did it and it was an awesome experience... Things I saw...
Arriving on location in rain slick training our instructor waisted no time getting us orientated with the entire location, dive shops, bathrooms, compass navigation on land and beach entrances.
We suited up and practiced our snorkeling first with our jackets on, dove down and picked up sand in our hand and brought that back up for the instructor; a pike dive.
Then we placed our entire gear on and I brought the wrong regulator set that would not fit my Malibu BC back inflate and had to rent a jacket inflate instead; I noticed that the majority of rentals at Monterey are practically all jacket inflate.
Quite the opposite from our LDS which promotes nothing but back inflate; I was kinda of very pisssed that I had to rent out the Jacket inflate since I had my sites on really mastering the back inflate which I had practiced in the pool.
Well, the visibility was very bad as we swam to our bouy to begin our mask clearing; maybe 1 foot at the surface, but down to the bottom of the rope the visibility was about 8 feet at most so I was encouraged when the first set of divers came back up and told us.
As I went down my buddy had a hard time equalizing the ears because she was a little sick before the dive and the instructor had to keep taking her up 2 feet which made me wait a while just below her. That makes you use up more air waiting for the others to clear.
Once down in that super cold water I read my depth at about 20 or so feet and once those ears were cleared I was feeling great down there. the only thing that bothered me was the cold water on my fingers, I have to get use to that cold surge.
I read temps as low as 54 degrees with one diver in our group saying he saw it drop to 47 degrees at one point; as long as I kept the hands close to my torso or moving them around I would generate some heat but could notice the cold water moving around in them when I would flex the hand.
I used a 4mm karbon flex Merino Pinnacles glove. The rest of me was at 7mm at the head, torso at 13mm, groin at 10mm, boots at 6mm and the extremeties at 7mm legs and arms. My suit is all Merino linen on all items, I use a three piece suit not counting the boots or gloves.
I didn't feel any cold what so ever as I entered the blizzard water, nothing at all goes down that seal at the back not with that new neck seal that the M-E 7 from Pinnacles promotes.
Just the hand and on my last dive on Sunday my arms just the arms could feel a hint of cool but not cold, and absolutely nothing in the groin and zero at the chest.
My bouyancy was done with just 28 lbs on the jacket inflate which I really didn't like since trying back inflate BC the Malibu.
Man was our faces really cold when we did a full mask recovery and had that cold water hit our cheeks and nose. It's literally amazing how warm that area stays with your mask, just amazing.
We saw lots of sea lions all over the rocks on the wall with an occasional seal cruising about 10 feet away from us, they move so fast and are extremely agile, no wonder they are hard to catch via predators like the shark.
As much as I wanted to block out the shark he kept entering my mind when ever I surfaced and floated on my back to exist the beach. I would always try to stay close to my partner just for security in mind. Visibility is just zero from looking down to the floor as your swim on the surface, that really sucked.
It was all fun exploring at the bottom with our instructor finding a lot of decorative crabs. Lots of stars and a couple super size stars the size of my chest. Some really big fish too, the size of basket balls, I mean the mask makes them appear 33 percent larger so maybe they were smaller.
On my last dive with my buddy, we decided to swim on the surface all the way out close to the end of the rocks and then dive down and explore and come back. We had a hard time dropping without the guidance of the rope on the bouy since the water at surface was so murky, but once we got to the bottom and equilized the ears it was all good, visibility was at best 10 feet in all areas minus the kicking of the sand from our lack of experience.
We followed baby flounders all over the rocks and before I new it we had dropped down to 37 feet and still dropping till we made it to 45 and we stopped. We had a BT of about 28 full fun minutes till our PSI dropped down to 1,000. We decided to return to the surface and swim back to shore.
That swim was the hardest since at times we hit some current but we finally made it back and removed our fins and lugged up that heavy gear up the stairs through the water drainage that poured right into break water, it had rained all day on Saturday from the parking lot, leaving us with a much better day of full sun on Sunday with no drainage.
Overall experience was a 10 on the scale, knowing that future dives should have a much better visibility than what we got, that will spoil us in the future.
Now it's time to consider what computer, regulator and BC I will purchase. I now know that I don't want a connected computer since I prefer seeing my data on my left arm, that wasn't something I considered before, but being a diver now, I know my desires and whats more practical for me.
They are so right about try it in the ocean first before you purchase, I just made sure I got a really nice wetsuit and mask and fins and the rest would be trial and error on rental equipment first.
We also camped out in our CRV cars Saturday night, that was a lot of fun, I brought all my camping equipment and the car stayed nice and toasty with waking up to divers in the morning for their Sunday dives.
Well, I can't say anything more other than thanking my dive buddy for getting me into scuba and of course our awesome instructor Erin, thanks...
MG
PS...
Beach dives suck when you get sand all over your suit and on your regulators. I can hardly wait to do the boat dives in Monterey, nice entry and exist no sand. I guess you just don't really appreciate some things in life until you've tried them all.
Oh yeah, my buddy purchased a underwater camera and took some pics of me underwater with the giant starfish, I hope they come out and I will post.
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Reefing just wasn't enough for me... I had to go down below and see where the critters really come from...
MG
MG