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Unread 04/07/2012, 10:55 AM   #351
ChicagoReefOne
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Like many others have said in this thread, MANY THANKS!! These pictures are amazing and truly instill a sense of amazement and deep respect for the ocean and the life therein. Seeing everything thriving makes you realize how important it is to keep it that way.


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Unread 04/07/2012, 12:08 PM   #352
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Amazing thread thanks for sharing your experiences. Being certified scuba for 25 year I've been fortunate to see some great sites but to have access like you have everyday is just awesome. I love how you understand the opportunity you have and have embraced it 100% and then share it with us. Thanks again.


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Unread 04/07/2012, 02:28 PM   #353
r-balljunkie
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Originally Posted by klondike4001 View Post
Subscribed and trying to convince the wife this would be an ideal long vacation.
Jonathon,

Nice to have you aboard…..fellow Marshain/Houstonian/Texan.
Loved your past tanks. We like to consider it a ‘workation’, not vacation. You still have to get up and go to work 5 days a week (albiet in shorts and sandals), but the weekends are awesome, kinda like mini-vacations, especially the 3 day ones.

I have to say its quite an experience living on an island. I wouldn’t call it typical, whereas we have full amenities like clean running water, reliable electricity, trash service.

Its like being in small town America, except you are in the south pacific. Hit me up with a PM if you need help navigating the process…


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Love this thread! Just went through the whole thing! Would love to view this paradise in person some day and net fish just for fun to see what is around! Keep it up!
We call it…’almost paradise’ around here. Yes, catching fish is fun to me, but if a real collector ever read this thread, they would laugh at me..amateur hour at best.

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Subscribed! You are living my dream mate!! Keep the updates coming man!
you bet.

You’re most welcome.
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WOW just awsome !!!!
awesome, really?



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Originally Posted by ChicagoReefOne View Post
Like many others have said in this thread, MANY THANKS!! These pictures are amazing and truly instill a sense of amazement and deep respect for the ocean and the life therein. Seeing everything thriving makes you realize how important it is to keep it that way.
Yes, every time I go out and do something, it changes my perspective. Where fish really live, coral relationships, marine vegetation. What’s living on the sandbed, clams in the wild.

Totally eye opening when you stop speculating on what you know, start to observe first hand.

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Originally Posted by tandldel View Post
Amazing thread thanks for sharing your experiences. Being certified scuba for 25 year I've been fortunate to see some great sites but to have access like you have everyday is just awesome. I love how you understand the opportunity you have and have embraced it 100% and then share it with us. Thanks again.

Yes, spoiled rotten with 7 days a week access.

Soon, a day will come when I dont go diving every weekend, im sure ill be jonesing for a fix, because im totally hooked now.

Going out on a boat dive this afternoon. Beforehand, im going to walk the reef at low tide( 1045'ish this morning) , and go into the Japanese tidepools, which are large sections of the reef carved out by the Japanese to increase the size of the island.

I don’t know how they did it, but it looks like quarried squares of bedrock removed from the ocean side of the island. Some are about 100 feet long by 50 feet wide by 15 feet deep. I tried before to get some pics, but shortly after getting in, realized a shark was trapped in there when the tide went out …quick exit.

ill try not to be such a wimp this time, im sure he wasnt that big.

Going to get some more live rock, redo my tank.

Im off to Pohnpei at the end of this month, mini vacation before the big one

Gonna bring my regulator and mask, see if I can sneak in a dive while I am there.

Updates tomorrow

C


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Unread 04/07/2012, 03:05 PM   #354
gbru316
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Originally Posted by r-balljunkie View Post
We call it…’almost paradise’ around here. Yes, catching fish is fun to me, but if a real collector ever read this thread, they would laugh at me
I could put you in touch with one if you'd like, a good friend of mine owns ecoaquariums PNG, only mariculture/exporter harvesting from Papua new guinea


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Unread 04/07/2012, 03:51 PM   #355
007Bond
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Hi Chuck, like the pic of your snorkeling buddy! Like you said its a life lesson that will never be forgotten. Looking forward to your next video.---Rick


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Unread 04/07/2012, 07:44 PM   #356
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Greetings from east coast USA, LoL!
Today it was sunny and about 65, with lots of pollen. No ocean in site, but we still have pruned hands from playing in the salt water most of the day

I had to call the wife over to help me find the other two Rhomboids in your picture, but we eventually got all four. We've never have done scuba yet, but we are getting to where we go snorkeling more when we get to the Caribbean on our trips. We are certainly living vicariously through your posts as most here have said. So enjoyable to share your south pacific life with you - all the best and please be safe on those really deep dives...I don't know crap about scuba but know enough that those depths are dangerous. Thanks for sharing!


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Unread 04/09/2012, 06:19 AM   #357
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Great topic. One of the best in RC.. Please keep up the good work!

Greetings from Istanbul..


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Unread 04/10/2012, 02:24 PM   #358
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Very cool topic! Good to see the natural environment. It would be cool if you could do a comparison picture of a piece of SPS in natural light, and then in your aquarium to show the color difference.


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Unread 04/11/2012, 06:19 PM   #359
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Absolutely one of the very best threads on RC. I admire your desire to leave the city life behind and relocate to the Marshall Islands. And your dive pictures/excursions are priceless. Thanks so much for sharing your little corner of paradise with the rest of us.


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Unread 04/16/2012, 08:33 PM   #360
r-balljunkie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gbru316 View Post
I could put you in touch with one if you'd like, a good friend of mine owns ecoaquariums PNG, only mariculture/exporter harvesting from Papua new guinea
No need. I don’t have any good fish catching stories to share with him. Been getting stumped lately. It seems I’ve already collected the dumber species…I'm still looking for rhomboids, mysteries and multicolor angels. Oh sigh…the search go’s on.
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Originally Posted by 007Bond View Post
Hi Chuck, like the pic of your snorkeling buddy! Like you said its a life lesson that will never be forgotten. Looking forward to your next video.---Rick
Yes, he is getting ‘kwajified’, running around bare foot, chasing lizards and playing with crabs. The other day for dinner, we offered him pizza, he insisted on grilled Ohno tuna (freshly caught that day) instead. What 5 year old wants fish over pizza

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Originally Posted by prop-frags View Post
Greetings from east coast USA, LoL!
Today it was sunny and about 65, with lots of pollen. No ocean in site, but we still have pruned hands from playing in the salt water most of the day

I had to call the wife over to help me find the other two Rhomboids in your picture, but we eventually got all four. We've never have done scuba yet, but we are getting to where we go snorkeling more when we get to the Caribbean on our trips. We are certainly living vicariously through your posts as most here have said. So enjoyable to share your south pacific life with you - all the best and please be safe on those really deep dives...I don't know crap about scuba but know enough that those depths are dangerous. Thanks for sharing!
Ish….I haven’t seen 65 degrees in awhile, nor long pants, nor sweaters.
Peter Pan islander syndrome. You should consider diving. It offers another dimension to being in the water. Yes, it can be dangerous, but we all preach safety safety safety. We are very lucky, we have not had an incident here for some time. Foolishness is not a trait you need when diving. We have a hyperbaric chamber here on island, but its only been used for a couple of people here on TDY (temp duty), and fish collectors out of Majuro, flown in (locals) who weren’t so safe. You only have 10 minutes or so at these depths, then you start hitting deco. Not good.
I’ll say it again….when you go to the LFS and you see that price tag on a fish. Don’t just think about the logistics of where the fish come from; think about how difficult it is to collect certain species.




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Great topic. One of the best in RC.. Please keep up the good work!

Greetings from Istanbul..
And a Yokwe and Aloha to you….
Nice to see an international audience.
One of my best friends growing up was Turkish….mmm I could eat a few dozen dolma’s. I'm making myself hungry.
Welcome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by prjct92eh2 View Post
Very cool topic! Good to see the natural environment. It would be cool if you could do a comparison picture of a piece of SPS in natural light, and then in your aquarium to show the color difference.
Hmm, hard to do. I can tell you, corals AND fish color shift once in your aquarium….significantly. ive pared my tank down quite a bit, making room for something different. I think damsels are universally regretted if ever introduced to an aquarium.

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Absolutely one of the very best threads on RC. I admire your desire to leave the city life behind and relocate to the Marshall Islands. And your dive pictures/excursions are priceless. Thanks so much for sharing your little corner of paradise with the rest of us.
Well I'm glad you think it’s one of the best…..just ad libbing and faking the funk as I go along. At some point, I hope my diatribes are a little interesting to some.

As mentioned earlier, I gave the tank a makeover. I still need to do some more tinkering. For equipments, I got another TLF reactor in, gonna run carbon and GFO separately….need to put my LED fuge light on the controller (flip flop normal light schedule).

Livestock wise, emptied the tank to get some fish out whereas I was getting a bit crowded. They’ve been issued a reprieve, back to the ocean you go. Not sure if keeping a fish captive is cruel or not. Mostly speaking, no one is trying to eat you and you get 2 good meals a day.
I also purged the tank of some corals and returned them to my favorite walk in coral head.

I went and got some new live rock, and managed to rearrange the aqua-scaping (this is soooo not a real word, but you know what I mean).

Bye bye pesky trio of damsels. Bye bye oversize, easily caught tangs…..bye bye a couple of wrasses. It seems more peaceful in my tank now.

I thought I would highlight collecting of live rock for this update. For practical purposes, I don’t think it would be prudent to collect at 60’ or so. It would be very impractical to carry around pieces while on your dive. You cant just pop up to the surface, put it in the boat and go back down. This rock has been collected in the pools shown at low tide, and is probably under 20’ of water at normal tide. When the tide is low and the pools are accessible, the rock is somewhere around 6’ depths. Makes it easy to go and sort thru and pick out shapes.
You only get a decent tide once every couple of months, and it really helps if they fall on a weekend.
Here’s some pics .There’s one particular pool that has a great deal of live rock. I tried to put my flipper in one of the pictures to give scale. What’s funny is that you would think the coralline would be on the top of the rock….no it’s actually on the bottom of the rock. I got a few nice shapes, and even managed to snag a juvenile scopas tang while on snorkel.

Ive snuck in a few dives in between, but nothing to rave about, especially since I have blanked going after what I really really wanted to catch..oh well, always next time.

I'm going to take a break next weekend, awesome UFC coming on. They usually start around noon time here, time zone differences.

Enjoy the pics.

C








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Unread 04/16/2012, 09:42 PM   #361
kawicivic
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You rooting for Evans or Jones ?


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Unread 04/16/2012, 10:06 PM   #362
r-balljunkie
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a bit sidetracked between loading photos...........set 2


my tools......trusty bucket, catch net, snorkel gear and floppy hot.



fresh live rock



another person off in the distance enjoying the low tide.



scopas tang









live rock



more live rock



more more live rock









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Unread 04/16/2012, 10:07 PM   #363
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set 3













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Unread 04/16/2012, 10:12 PM   #364
r-balljunkie
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You rooting for Evans or Jones ?
im a bit torn. i was never a Rashad fan...always thought be was 'lazy'. perhaps perception only on my parts, as he's been a winner his whole career. Jon Jones is just beastly, outa the blue.

I love to hate him. absolute closet fan. i like the classic showdown, student verses teacher..........kinda like Rocky V, when Rocky takes in Tommy Gunn

not even sure of the undercard, but this is gonna be a good one. (Talk about off topic)


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Unread 04/16/2012, 11:32 PM   #365
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the first pick in set 3 is very cool there's a fish hiding inside that blue tip acro it didn't see at first but in all your pic if you look closer a second time you would find something new u didn't see the first time.


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Unread 04/16/2012, 11:58 PM   #366
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awesome pics as usual r ball, thank you


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Unread 04/17/2012, 01:51 AM   #367
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Awesome
I envy you.
more pics


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Unread 04/17/2012, 02:17 AM   #368
ormet
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Awesome thread, thanks for sharing.

War Rashad!


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Unread 04/18/2012, 12:58 AM   #369
ballenreef
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Simply breathe taking! I can only hope to one day live where I am able to scuba/snorkle about any day I desire. Truely inspirational! Thank you for sharing with all of us!


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Unread 04/18/2012, 08:47 AM   #370
kawicivic
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im a bit torn. i was never a Rashad fan...always thought be was 'lazy'. perhaps perception only on my parts, as he's been a winner his whole career. Jon Jones is just beastly, outa the blue.

I love to hate him. absolute closet fan. i like the classic showdown, student verses teacher..........kinda like Rocky V, when Rocky takes in Tommy Gunn

not even sure of the undercard, but this is gonna be a good one. (Talk about off topic)
I'm in the same boat. I am actually a rampage fan strictly due to his entertainment value. I know those two don't get along at all. I am torn because of all of the bad blood surrounding the fight. I am not sure who did what to who. It should defintely lead to fighting with heart which always makes a good show.

Bringing it back on topic now (well kinda) - you talked about a lobo mountain in another thread one time. Do you have any pics of these lobos? That's why it's still kind of off topic- Lps pic request!


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Unread 04/18/2012, 02:30 PM   #371
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That last pic with the acros out of water is just awesome.


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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:33 AM   #372
r-balljunkie
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test video. can anyone see this? click on pic...........




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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:54 AM   #373
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Nope link took me to your account. I could not find the video


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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:59 AM   #374
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Cool Stuff!
Now I know I hate your life, oops I mean my life !
You are one lucky dude!
Keep up the great pic posts.
Thanks


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Unread 04/25/2012, 05:46 AM   #375
007Bond
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Nice video! New camera? Looks high def. Thanks for sharing your dives.---Rick


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