I love cruises. I love the excitement from three months before I even arrive at the terminal. I love packing for the adventure...I love not knowing what each day will bring. I love that I am pampered, treated as though I was the most important person aboard that ship. I would like to correlate this to my life....

The Preparation:

I spend hours determining what I will need...even what others will need. I put everything into a pile and then start sorting. Two scents...

I had an epiphany today. It started out badly, as I spent the twelve hours prior to 8am under observation at RGH for PVC's (premature ventricular contractions). With an artificial aortic valve, it's 50/50 on whether the episode turns into a heart attack or not. Luckily, no, honestly, I did a lot of praying, with some meds and fluids, they were able to bring my blood pressure down with a follow up on Thursday with my cardiologist. But that wasn't the ephiphany cultivator. I drove myself to the...

Q: Should I quarantine all fish?

A: Yes. Four weeks is a good window for observation of disease and parasites. All newly acquired fish will benefit from 4 weeks of time by themselves in the quarantine tank to recover from shipping/handling stress and to acclimate to your feeding regime.

Q: What about corals, inverts, algae, and live rock?

A: Whjle I feel that the risk is very low unless they are coming from an infected tank, you can set up a separate...

Pacing, stationary swimming, and other stress indicators
Any time you spot repetitive behavior in a specimen, including stationary position, turning one way and another and fin-flicking, 'pacing' a route over and over and over etc, this is a problem. Either the fish is pressured by the environment, such as too many fish or some problem fish in the tank; or it's needing more space; or if there is room, the rock arrangement is causing a static or repetitive situation. Chaotic flow does improve...

1. if you're going to have corals you need to aim at having either an all-in-one tank---or a sump, skimmer, and good lighting. Your rock and sand take the place of a filter.
a. stony coral and clams: need brighter light, good circulation. For sps (colored sticks) you need high flow and a super skimmer.
b. 'soft' coral is more forgiving, can exist without a skimmer if you don't push it, but it's a good idea to have one.

2. if you're fish-only you can get by with a filter:...