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03/22/2012, 09:29 PM | #326 |
The Clown Tang Keeper!
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Amazing.. well I know where I wanna live now!
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Eric Current Tank Info: Too many |
03/23/2012, 01:29 AM | #327 | ||||||
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Thanks for all of the kind words. please do forgive my lack of updates. I've actually had to come home and shower TWO days in a row now, smelling like diesel fuel, turning wrenches on the job site trying to wrestle a fuel meter in place. it's nice for me to get my candy ARSE out in the field and actually show the guys I can do a day's work, help curb the 'you're the engineer, figure it out' comments I've dealt with my whole career.
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Yes. the clearance levels are just below 'secret' clearance requirements, IMO. In fact they ask you if you want the option of getting a secret clearance…I said no, because I thought it might have been more work (sorry, I am a lazy person when you get to the root of my id). In hindsight, I should have for future employment opportunities. Yes yes yes…..its all about the mission around here. I'm more so on the public works side of the fence, but we do 'jump' when it comes to supporting the mission. Gotta jedi mind trick the wifey. you'll get used to the heat. shorts and flip flops at work…plus we worship the AC gods here. 70 degrees in my casa all the time. I usually don’t like it this cold, but you have to combat the humidity just the same…this temp seems to keep the air crisp. Good luck with your degree….they last forever….even if you don’t pay off your student loans Quote:
good luck with the Mrs'es finishing her RN!! Quote:
My wife is from Vancouver/Summerland/Okanagan area. I'll be in Canada in July for vacation….best time to go IMO. Glad you enjoyed the pics. why thanks. it's tough to gage sentiments….hopefully not too repetitive in nature. Quote:
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Thanks bro. your most welcome. thanks. I still have a tank? yeah, I'm sure some of the RC purist don’t like me posting in this forum…meh. hopefully I stay somewhat on topic. Quote:
I think I'm a bit terse, sarcastic and brief in my writings…sorry but hey….it's the engineer in me. I'm still newish at being an islander and having access to pristine reefs in my back yard, coming up on two years now. it's still a novelty to me every time I hit the water; whether scuba diving, snorkeling, walking the low tide or a beach day with my family. my wife accuses me of going on too long of snorkels during family time, diving too much on the weekends etc. What can I say? I love to be in the water and enjoy nature. I know this won't last forever and ill eventually have to go back to the reality of making the booring rounds of the LFS circuit all while complaining about the high prices and gasp….have to actually buy fish and corals. I'm sure ill reminisce about these times like I reminisce about all my ex-girlfriends in college. until that dreadful day comes, I'm enjoying every second of every day out here, especially the time on the water. not all rosy here. weekends to rock tho!! I should have a major update soon. my ultra reef guru marine biologist collecting buddy who is waaaaaay too cool to post on RC is itching to try out his new video housing….I might sneak some bandwidth at work and upload some videos. once again, thanks for all of the kind words. C |
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03/23/2012, 06:16 AM | #328 |
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Location: Sylvania,Ohio
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Chuck,
Please keep it coming, love the pictures, and your wit always makes me giggle no matter how my day is going.---Rick |
03/23/2012, 08:40 PM | #329 |
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Always enjoyed your thread. Great life there where ever you are. Sorry to see the lobster pics with a female full of eggs though. Would of been nice to put that one back. Can't keep egg bearing females here in the states. You shouldn't anyway if you want to perpetuate the species.
Great pics |
03/23/2012, 09:00 PM | #330 |
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Location: Lancaster,PA
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Long haul ice trucking eh? That comes with the opportunity of fame and fortune via reality tv, right? Might have to look into that!
I never adjusted to the 120 degree heat in Iraq (dry heat my ***, 120 degrees is unbearable, however it's served), heat and I just don't get along. I do enjoy the "accomplish the mission" attitude, usually a little more leeway regarding rules and regulations. I'm not one to try to break every rule I come across, but if there is one that gets in the way of what I'm trying to accomplish, and it isn't a career ender if broken, I tend to manipulate my way around it. I prefer to live life in a permanent grey area :-P I guess that's an odd attitude for a future engineer to have..... I blame my technician roots. And global warming. |
03/23/2012, 10:34 PM | #331 |
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Nate cham - "Taste it, if it tastes like poop.....it is." Current Tank Info: 400 gallon in progress. 8x3x2.5 |
03/24/2012, 04:57 AM | #332 | |||
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The above conservationist approaches, ideals, and logic don’t apply here. Do I agree with it? No, but the bounties of the sea and the resources it provides to locals are bound by different rules than what you and I think are the norm. The first time I seen a naso tang on the bbq pit….it made me queezy. I picked a piece off and chunked it in my mouth and chewed. not exactly to my liking, but I ate it. When in Rome……….. Quote:
That is a juvenile titan trigger. You will respect the trigger. What you see in the trade, and what you see in the wild are two different sizes. these suckers get big (12"-18"). when its mating season….watch out. Outside of sharks, this is your next big worry. Get too close to a triggers territory, it will attempt to take a chunk out of you. Hyper aggressive. Matter of fact, I'm not worried about the shark as much…triggers, I keep my distance, as does everyone else out here. |
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03/24/2012, 05:44 AM | #333 |
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Sylvania,Ohio
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Honestly Chuck, your outlook, wit, and humor are very entertaining. Maybe you missed your calling. You should look at a writing job on SNL when you decide to leave paradise.---Rick
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03/30/2012, 07:37 PM | #334 |
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Any Updates amigo?
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Johan Biggest baseball fanatic you know : ) 16 YRS OLD Current Tank Info: 45 gal hex softy |
03/30/2012, 10:28 PM | #335 | |
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Asketh and you shall receiveth. Went diving with my wife and one of her friends last weekend. I had to give her the ‘I'm the boat captain’ speech before we left out the door. She didn’t appreciate at it one bit, but have to say, she did a fine job of setting/retrieving the anchor, not giving me boating / directions / speed advice. She’s gotten her advanced diving classes finished….there goes my usual excuse why I never take her diving. I guess I’ll take her out again…but have to say, much funner going out diving with the guys, talking guy stuff and generally being manly men. These are pics from that trip (my wife took these, I was busy catching fish). I'm getting tons better at catching fish. I caught a bunch of juvenile Ctenochaetus striatus (striped tangs in the photo). They’re pretty to me at this stage, but get rather plain looking when they are older. Ill keep them in the tank until they get bigger, then back to the ocean. I caught some extra’s, since I know of some folks that would cause the tang police faint on site, waay overcrowded 55 gallon tanks…I would offer them amnesty, one for one exchanges. My new obsession is catching a mystery wrasse. These suckers are very smart and hard to catch. No wonder retail is 100 bux on these guys. Ill get one before I leave here. As a consolation prize, I picked up a lovely yellow wrasse, as well as a smallish yellow tang. I netted a trigger fish, but was afraid to put him in my catch bucket for fear of of what might happen to the others. I swam around with him in my net (weird croaking sound) trying to scare other fish into my free empty net….it didn’t work out, so I had to reach in and uncock his trigger to get him out of my net. Kind of stupid, conceptually in afterthought, but sounded reasonable to me at the time. Get to go diving with the maestro tomorrow, and the next day. Should be interesting, whereas he is going to test out some new video equipment, but ill drag my nets along…as well as my photog gear. I picked up some thread on filters (red and purple looking) for my underwater camera. Will see how these pics turn out Enjoy the pics…I'm especially enamored with the blue softie. She’s lucky I didn’t see that one. Absolutely gorgeous. |
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03/31/2012, 05:49 AM | #336 |
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I love this thread!
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03/31/2012, 06:15 AM | #337 |
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Chuck, Was going to come and see your beautiful dive spots, but alas, my ticket was not the winner.
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03/31/2012, 11:53 PM | #338 |
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Chad Vossen Current Tank Info: just a bunch of fish :) |
04/01/2012, 06:26 AM | #339 |
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Location: MI
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Best thread ive read! Thanks for the great pictures!
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04/01/2012, 07:52 AM | #340 |
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Hello Chuck!
As my wife and I were at Papasitos last night munching the Fajitas and downing the 'Ritas, your thread was brought up. What a wonderful, stress free life, surrounded by nature and amazement (with understanding the aforementioned drawbacks...working in shorts and sandals) The one question that she brought up, that I thought I'd ask about; In an earlier post, you mentioned your child's birthday. Non reef related question coming--how's the education system, or are we talking home school for the kiddos? Outstanding thread that I've been lurking since your old MARSH days
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Regards, Duston 180DT, 50sump, AI LEDs, Apex, 3-mp40's, BMP 200, Geo618CR, Monster w/GFO&Carbon |
04/03/2012, 09:56 PM | #341 |
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Location: Keller, TX
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You just keep out doing yourself! This is my second favorite thread of all time in RC! Thanks for taking the time to continue to share your experiences with all of us. You should take a trip back home to visit your family this September. MACNA is in Dallas. You can take some new gear back with you.
Keep the updates coming! |
04/03/2012, 10:13 PM | #342 |
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Reply posts tomorrow....video's too
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04/04/2012, 08:28 PM | #343 | |||
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Glad you’re enjoying my chronicles and adventures.
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That’s the fun part about being out here. Collecting stuff you shouldn’t be collecting. Those are juvenile groupers. Ive since released them…they were getting big quickly. Not a problem, glad you liked them. Quote:
Regarding the schools. They are accredited to US standards. All of the teaching staff is from the US, same as most of the students. There are some Marshallese students as well, grades K-12, on a goodwill program. It’s (Educational system) a mixed bag according to some. I have a friend who’s daughter is in high school and rather gifted. She’s taking AP courses on line, but there’s nothing to support her within the normal school channels. I think once you get up into grade 8 and above, this can be a problem. Not saying you won’t get a good education, but the school system (12-15 high school seniors this year?) isn’t able to support advanced courses. For me, my kid is going into kindergarten….not really concerned at this point if he is taking AP classes. What’s more important to me is the social infrastructure and interaction he has. You gotta play nice around here….too darn small to burn bridges. You learn that lesson at 6 years old. The teacher to student ratio is rather low, as you can expect. Quote:
We’ll ive killed some serious bandwidth at work loading up these videos. You all had to suffer thru my learning curve shooting underwater photo’s. Now you must suffer with underwater video. I don’t think the Cousteau research team is going to be beating down my door once they see these amateurish videos. I used my XZ-1 to shoot it, but I think the lens had a hard time correcting due to the light (and lack of) changes going from dark to bright. This particular dive was at Ninni island, which has a cluster of three islands that jut inwards. (click on pic) < The underwater topography is out of this world. The corals are not as dense and colorful as in some areas. The swim thru type caves more than make up for this. You can see in one of the videos how tight it was getting thru, had to do a bit of backing up to get uncaught, hand on the sand bottom. I learned a secret too, don’t be the first thru…you might wake up a shark taking a nap This is one of the few areas where you have sand on the bottom on the ocean side. The channel walls are about 20-30’ tall and act as a protective buffer. Parts of the dives, I felt like I was swimming thru a narrow hallway. It’s a neat shallow dive, with loads of curious sharks, clams, and fish. I'm lacking a lighting system, so everything is blueish until you get right on it, and focus with the camera. (click on pic) Emerging out of the ‘cave’. (click on pic) Last edited by r-balljunkie; 04/04/2012 at 08:40 PM. |
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04/04/2012, 08:44 PM | #344 |
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Some pics.
I left this image big on purpose. This was taken well below 100’ (leaving the depth ambiguous ). Can you spot the four Rhomboid Wrasses? Lastly, My junior reefer trying to net some fishes. My junior reefer snorkeling in 30’ of water with me, no floaties on his arm…boy has gotta pair. For me, this is the best educational tools for building life skills, especially at this early of an age. Bonafide water baby. |
04/05/2012, 08:30 AM | #345 |
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Posts: 62
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First off I love your thread and I appreciate you taking the time to answer everyones question. I enjoy the reef pictures as well as the "living the life" pictures!!
Couple question about the tank. I see you had a couple vortecs earlier in the thread and looks like you dropped them for Tunzes? Also other than the linkias do have any sort of cleanup crew? What is available as far snails in your locale? Thanx in advance!! |
04/05/2012, 09:08 AM | #346 |
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Location: South Africa - JHB
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wow awesome pics once again
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04/06/2012, 06:50 PM | #347 | |
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Yes, dropped the vortechs, have tunze now. I’m currently running two 6055's on one end, and a 6095 on the other. I need to change out the two 6055's for one 6095...just been too lazy to order. All said, really happy with the tunze performance. The noise levels are nil compared to running three vortechs. I'm going to stick with tunze, next tank. I ran vortechs for the last 5-6 years, but the novelty is gone for me….back to tunze. The tank is in the living room, so sound was critical to my sanity. this coupled with the dimming LED's makes life better. The big blue linkia is a PITA. It crawls over everything, knocks stuff down all the time. I’m more than likely gonna return him when i do a tank makeover. For other CUC, I just go out at low tide and look around the pools, pick out the snails and blue legged hermits. I’m finding nicer snails down deep on the halmedia beds when I randomly swoop my net thru. i pick out what i want (snails), throw it in the bucket. When you get live rock out here, its loaded with tons of crabs and pistol shrimp. Some nice, some with red beady evil eyes. I'm going live rock shopping this weekend, it’s a nice low tide tomorrow mid morning. Z, ur most welcome. been lurking with me for some time. OK OK OK. I think I know why my first video attempts suck. They look good to me, because they are part of my memory BUT if you're looking at them for the first time, like watching an imax 3-d made movie on a 13" black and white tube. I have a Sola 600 dive light i purchased awhile back. There’s a 15 dollar adapter that lets you convert it into a video light......IM MISSING THE LIGHT, muh ha ha ha. Amazon should have it to me next week, can’t wait to try it out. I'm heading to Pohnpei for a 'mini' vacation/business trip in a couple of weeks..gonna sneak in some hiking/waterfall/diving when i go. We have to stay at a hotel, open air (no windows) tree house type rooms. should be interesting C |
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04/07/2012, 01:01 AM | #348 |
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Location: Spring, TX
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Subscribed and trying to convince the wife this would be an ideal long vacation.
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Jonathan 29 gal w/ Custom BAO Ghost Overflow, ATI 24" 4x24w Dimmable SunPower, MP10w, Jebao DC6000 return, 20h sump w/ BAO Custom Baffle set |
04/07/2012, 08:24 AM | #349 |
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Subscribed! You are living my dream mate!! Keep the updates coming man!
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04/07/2012, 08:38 AM | #350 |
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WOW just awsome !!!!
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