| Groovy |
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| Terror Alert |
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| Current Weather in WPB, FL. |
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| Crazy Japanese Game Show |
Posted by GroovyDude :: August 22, 2007, 07:13:32 PM
The real fun begins at ~2:20 
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/hq_tPCUx9ds" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/hq_tPCUx9ds</a>]]>
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| Yacht or Coral Reef? |
Posted by GroovyDude :: July 27, 2007, 08:13:39 PM
65' Custom Built Motor yacht, staterooms, gps navigation, twin supercharged diesels, etc. = $ 2.5 million
Champagne and Strawberries, dockside, for the excited "soon to be owners" = $250.00
Crane and Rigging complete with faulty turnbuckle = $2,500 per hour
Watching your dreamboat nose dive into the harbor, accompanied by two corporate representatives just prior to "inking" the final paperwork........
Priceless.........................................
Check out the dude on the stern, holding on for the ride of the day (second picture)
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| Buy Florida Orange Juice |
Posted by GroovyDude :: July 17, 2007, 08:42:39 PM
This one is really strange. It doesn't have any nudity or cursing, but it may not be work friendly.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/7RFz_rwyrgc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/7RFz_rwyrgc</a>]]>
Check out the forums
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| Transformers |
Posted by GroovyDude :: July 16, 2007, 09:28:19 PM
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/gGQsthDNGW0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/gGQsthDNGW0</a>]]>
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| Anti-Helium |
Posted by GroovyDude :: July 09, 2007, 06:52:10 PM
Pretty cool stuff..
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/5LZ7vystdkA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/5LZ7vystdkA</a>]]>
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| If it touches Ass... |
Posted by GroovyDude :: July 04, 2007, 09:26:42 AM
Two weekends ago Shortcake and I went to a comic book/anime convention down in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The picture below is from a vendor table that was selling paddles out, of all things. But it wasn't the paddles that caught our eye, it's the cheeky (no pun intended) sign they had on the table.
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| Green Laser |
Posted by GroovyDude :: July 03, 2007, 07:47:18 PM
A magician performs a trick around a green laser. It's a really cool illusion.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/NsMMCzE6CLM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/NsMMCzE6CLM</a>]]>
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| Skeletons in the Closet |
Posted by GroovyDude :: June 29, 2007, 08:36:42 PM
I love SNL's TV funhouse. A buddy of mine emailed this link of a recent episode where the presidential candidates go on Oprah and reveal their inner most secrets.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ushi8-dRlvg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Ushi8-dRlvg</a>]]>
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| Swear Jar |
Posted by GroovyDude :: June 19, 2007, 09:11:43 PM
We have a "swear box" near our copy machine at work. Last I checked there was $.26 in it.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/EJJL5dxgVaM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/EJJL5dxgVaM</a>]]>
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| Nancy Cartwright |
Posted by GroovyDude :: June 16, 2007, 03:16:47 PM
Nacny Cartwright has done voices for many different cartoons but is best known for doing the voice of Bart Simpson on The Simpsons. It seems to be extremely difficult to obtain the autograph of the other Simpson voices, but Nancy is cool enough to offer instructions on her website for requesting a photo. We've been fans of the show since it's humble beginnings so it was really fun and exciting to receive a response from Bart Simpson him err, herself.
Sent request as per http://www.nancycartwright.com/html/about/fanclub.html on 9/25/06
Received ISP 12/18/06
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| Bus Stabbing |
Posted by GroovyDude :: June 15, 2007, 07:39:59 PM
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| James Earl Jones |
Posted by GroovyDude :: June 09, 2007, 12:01:37 PM
One of the most difficult aspects of autograph collecting is finding the perfect picture to send. James Earl Jones has been around for years and I assumed there would be all sorts of photos available from his various movies. However, that was not the case. Time and time again all we were able to find were photos of Darth Vader from Star Wars. We finally gave up and sent a photo of Darth Vader and asked if he had a head shot he could send us as well. Not only did Mr. Jones sign our Vader photo, he also sent us two personalized headshots.
Sent photo 9/11/06
Received 2 ISP and one SP. 11/13/06
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| Ashley Judd |
Posted by GroovyDude :: June 05, 2007, 07:55:43 PM
I've always been a fan of Ashley Judd. Not only is she a gorgeous cutie, but she's also incredibly intellegent. It took us a while to find a cute photo to send and below is the fruit of our labor. She inscribed and signed our photo.
Sent letter and photo 9/4/06
Received 11/9/06
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| Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker |
Posted by GroovyDude :: May 11, 2007, 08:51:25 PM
We sent autograph requests to these two at the same time to the same address and received responses back from each one day apart. Initially we were pretty psyched about having both of their autographs; however, the longer I examined the photos the more I believe these are secretarial signatures.  In fact, the Matthew Broderick signature looks suspiciously similiar to the Kiefer Sutherland secretarial we received a few months back.
 |  | | | sent: 9/25/06 - received: 11/10/06 | sent: 9/25/06 - received 11/9/06 |
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| Florida Supercon |
Posted by GroovyDude :: May 10, 2007, 07:44:00 PM
Our last convention of 2006 was the Florida Supercon held at a beach hotel in Hollywood, FL in early November. It was an interesting venue to say the least. As I mentioned, the hotel was on the beach, but was under heavy renovation. The ground level of the hotel was supposed to contain many different shops, but most of them were closed, including their food court. I really hate dead malls. If the stores won't waste their time there, why am I?
But we weren't there for the hotel, attending the conference was the goal. The conference itself was a hodge podge of anime and comic book vendors jammed in several semi-dark rooms and hallways on the second level. We found our way to the signing area and here what we have to show for it:
 | Margot Kidder was the first person we came across to sign. She is best known for her role as Lois Lane in the Superman movies from the late 70's and early 80's. She was looking a bit tired at the show, but was very polite to us. After she signed, my wife explained to me that she suffers from some kind of mental disorder and actually had a breakdown in during the 90's. |
| Next up, we went to meet Cindy Morgan, best known for her leading lady roles in Tron and Caddyshack. Interestingly enough, on our way to the convention, we were trying to figure out what golf course was the filming location for Caddyshack. After we got our photo signed, it dawned on me that we had a perfect opportunity to get the answer to this question, and we let it slide. Ms. Morgan was very nice to talk to, and twenty years after Caddyshack is still a hottie. |  |
 | Our last signature, but probably the coolest, was Billy West. Billy West is the voice behind many cartoon characters, most notably from Futurama and Ren & Stimpy. Being a big Ren & Stimpy fan from back in the day, we had him sign a Ren & Stimpy photo, which he inscribed with "Happy Happy Joy Joy. Now how cool is that! He seemed to be in a good mood and asked me whether the show was still being aired on television. To which I instinctly replied, without knowing for sure, "Yes, it's on Nickelodeon late at night. |
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| Lost Autograph Update |
Posted by GroovyDude :: May 10, 2007, 06:41:56 PM
I'm not a fan of Lost. It's not because I don't like the show, rather I didn't watch it from the beginning and have no wish to start watching it at this point. Perhaps once all the seasons have been released to DVD I'll start watching it from the beginning.
...but I digress.
My wife has been a loyal Lost viewer since the first episode. That being said, when we decided to start collecting autographs, she wasted no time sending requests to the shows cast. Here are the ones we've received thus far:
 |  | | Daniel Dae Kim | Yoon-Jin Kim | | sent 9/4/06 - received 10/30/06 | Sent 9/4/06 - Recieved 12/5/06 | |  |  | | Jorge Garcia | Matthew Fox | | sent 9/4/06 - received 12/9/06 | sent 8/5/06 - received 12/2/06 (Preprint ) |
Photos and letters were sent to all four of them. As you can see, three personalized and signed our photos. Matthew Fox sent back a preprint and our original unsigned photo.
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| Vulkon |
Posted by GroovyDude :: January 21, 2007, 06:15:53 PM
Okay, so back in late October, my wife and I visited Vulkon: A Star Trek Convention. My wife had been to a smaller convention years ago and this was my first. Until I attended this convention, I had always considered myself a Trekkie, but I no longer do so. I was shocked at how true the "trekkie" stereotype is! There were so many comic book guys (think The Simpsons) walking around it just wasn't funny. I would say 98% of those in attendance were stereotypical nerds.
Believe it or not, the convention was completely sold out. Luckily, we were able to get tickets for the expo areas, which included the autograph room. After all, that's all we were really interested in anyway.
So we buy our tickets and head for the autograph area. The autograph room is located off a hall which is literally packed with people. Worse yet, someone managed to stink up the area by spewing some gas!!!! It was all pretty bad and chaotic, but Luckily I ran into some random guy who was giving out tickets. I say random, because he was pretty much hidden from view and didn't have any tags or credentials showing his affiliation with the convention. Apparently, the autograph room was too small and could only process about 15 peeps at a time, so they were going by ticket numbers. Our ticket number was 280 -- they were serving 75-90...
We decided to venture into the vendor area. That kept us occupied for about an hour, and when we returned they were closing the autograph area all together.
My wife walked up the gentleman closing the door (think Simpsons Comic Book Guy) and the following conversation went down.
Wife: Excuse me, what was the last ticket number being served?
CBG: yeah, we'll be closed for lunch for the next hour and a half, we're all really hungry.
Wife: I understand, and hope you have a pleasant lunch, but could you tell me what the last number was?
CBG: *wiping hands on his shirt (which is too small for him)* We're closing, blah blah blah, hungry, blah blah blah, hour and a half.
Wife: umm, okay thank you. |  |
We spend the next two hours grabbing lunch and buying ourselves some nice leather jackets at a Burlington Coat Factory nearby. When we return, the autograph area is open again and there is a small line. We're told the tickets are no longer required and we only need to wait in line. We wait for 20 minutes or so until finally making it to the front of the line at which time we're told they would have let us in had we shown the tickets. What a nicely organized operation they are running.
Once we're inside, we first meet Denise Crosby. She played Tasha Yar on Star Trek:The Next Generation, but her character was killed off in the first season (She had decided to leave the show). After apparently not doing so well with other projects, she returned to doing guest appearances on Star Trek (mostly time episodes and parallel characters). She's all about the ST franchise these days and was happily signing autographs. She was also one of the most personable people signing at the show.
Next was Suzie Plakson. She played many roles, including the mother of Worf's son Alexander on Star Trek:The Next Generation. She was also pleasant and personable while signing our photo.
We then walked over to Walter Koenig, better known as Pavel Chekov from the original Star Trek. Interestingly, there was no one at his table. Here he is, and actor from the show that started the whole thing and few people seemed to be interested. Ouch!
Anyway, he was pretty pleasant with us, although I got the feeling that he was tired. I say this because he was mostly quiet and not too conversational.
After Mr. Koenig, we walked over to Tim Russ. Mr. Russ is best known for his role as Tuvok on Star Trek Voyager. When we walked up, he was counting his money  He was pretty curt with us and when we chose a photo for him to sign, only signed it and pushed it back; didn't even asked if we would like it personalized.
Our final auto was Armin Shimerman, best known as Quark from ST: Deep Space Nine. When we walked up, I made the comment "Stan the Caddy himself", to which he responded "ahh, a Seinfeld fan". He was very nice and friendly and posed for a picture with us.
So would we go to Vulkon again? I don't know, probably. Guess it would depend on who the "special guests" were.
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| Robert DeNiro |
Posted by GroovyDude :: January 03, 2007, 05:14:57 PM
I haven't been keeping up very well with all the autographs we've been receiving, so I'm going to start playing catch-up.
First one on the list is Robert DeNiro. He's an awesome actor, playing various roles ranging from hard-ass gangster to paranoid "father of the bride". I would consider him an 'A' list actor and even though you know he's probably pulling a pretty full schedule, he still takes the time to sign photos for his fans. Definately one of my favorite signatures thus far.
Sent Letter & Photo 8/7/06
Received signed photo 10/23/06
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| Casey Kasem |
Posted by GroovyDude :: November 03, 2006, 01:36:03 PM
Casey Kasem was an interesting one. We initially sent a letter back in August with a color printout of Shaggy from Scooby Doo (Mr. Kasem provided the voice). Then in late October we receive an envelope from Premier Networks containing a signed photo of Mr. Kasem. I found it odd they didn't use the return stamped envelope we sent, but even more odd was the fact that we didn't get our Shaggy picture and the photo we did received was simply signed. From my Internet research, Mr. Kasem will generally personalize his autographs. I figured perhaps he wasn't signing non-official photos anymore, or simply had too many requests to handle.
A few days later we recieve another envelope from Premier Networks. This time it contains a personalize photo of Mr. Kasem, and our Shaggy photo - personalized and signed.
Sent Letter & Shaggy photo 8/21/06
Received SP and ISP of Shaggy and Mr. Kasem 10/20/06 and 10/23/06, respectively.
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| Shirley Temple Black |
Posted by GroovyDude :: November 03, 2006, 01:21:38 PM
There is no doubt that Shirley Temple is an icon of American cinema, however did you know she also served as an American ambassador? My father grew up watching her films and as such is probably the biggest Shirley Temple fan I know, so I decided to write Ms. Temple-Black and request an autograph for my father (and ourselves). She replied rather quickly by personally inscribing the photos we sent her. It took my father a little while for it to sink in that Ms. Temple signed the photo to him, but when it did he displayed much excitement to have received the photo. Thanks Ms. Temple-Black!
Sent letter & 2 photos 10/10/06
Received both ISP 10/20/06
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| Project Callisto -- Day 23 -- First Fish Added!! |
Posted by GroovyDude :: February 20, 2006, 06:42:56 PM
The whole family took a trip to the fish store this afternoon to pick up our first fish for Callisto. Since Callisto has not fully cycled yet, we needed to get some hardy, inexpensive fish to assist in the cycling process.
Damsels are normally the fish of choice for these requirements. They're hardy, inexpensive, and some of them are actually pretty colorful. Unfortunately, they also tend to be extremely territorial, so most people take them out once they're tank cycles. Although green chromis are in the Damsel family, they are not as aggressive as others in the species. They did well in our first community tank, so I decided they would be a good starter fish for Callisto as well.
The fish store actually had a decent amount of green chromis. These guys are schooling fish, so we purchased six of them so they can keep each other company.
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| Project Callisto -- Day 18 |
Posted by GroovyDude :: February 15, 2006, 08:18:46 PM
After taking some quick chemical readings yesterday I decided it was time to add a little more salt to Callisto. Gravity was hovering around 1.021 and I'll really like to be between 1.022 and 1.023. Ammonia levels had also increased a bit, but that was expected after adding the live sand. Nitrites and PH remained at 0 and 8.2 respectivily.
So after work today I swung by my local fish store, which is conveniently located down the street from me, and purchase some sea salt.....AND 25 blue hermit crabs. The addition of the crabs was to get the live sand moving, so we can cycle the tank quicker. I didn't expect to get them, or so many, but they had some descent looking ones and I just couldn't help myself. I asked the clerk for 20, but she misunderstood and pulled 25. That's okay, no biggie.
While at the store I also briefly strolled around and browsed their fish tanks, trying to get some ideas as to what type of fish I may want to later add to Callisto. They get new shipments every Tuesday evening, so they had a good amount of fish in stock. At this point, I think I may mimic the first tank setup I had and go with a communal fish tank rather than going with some other exotic/hard to maintain theme. I'm probably going to start it off with a small school of green chromis (hopefully this weekend).
Finally today, here are some pics from day 15 after Callisto cleared up from the addition of the live sand. She's beginning to look like a fish tank!
 
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| Project Callisto -- Day 15 |
Posted by GroovyDude :: February 12, 2006, 10:24:08 AM
Yesterday when I took the ammonia and Nitrite readings I was pleasantly surprised to see that both levels were at zero. This meant the rock had finished curing. I proceeded to siphon out as much of the dead organic material that had collected at the bottom and prepared the tank for the addition of the live sand.
The Live Sand is pricey (~$25.00 for 20lbs), in fact many people mix live with non-live sand to decrease costs. Since I want my tank to cycle as quickly as possible, I opted to go with 100% live. I carefully ripped open each of the four 20lb bags I had purchased a couple of weeks ago and empty them out one at a time in a small plastic container. Then the fun part began: Using my hand as a scoop, I slowly started adding the Live Sand to Callisto, being carefull not to let the sand cover the live rock.
When I was done, the Callisto's water was extremely murkey and kind of looked like sewage, but I'm glad to report that overnight that cleared up.
 
My next step is to pick up some cheap damsels in the next few days for addition to Callisto. You may be asking yourself: I thought you had to wait for the tank to cycle before adding fish? Well, in order for a tank to cycle, you need to have a source of ammonia. The best way to do this is to add some hardy, inexpensive fish, such as damsels. I'm going to try and get some green chromis if I can find them. It's what I used last time and they acutally got along pretty good with my other fish.
I'll probably also need to get more blue hermit crabs. I have a few in Callisto, but I need to add more in order for the live sand to get turned.
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| Project Castillo - Day 11 |
Posted by GroovyDude :: February 08, 2006, 07:22:23 PM
Couple of things to report:
- The live rock continues to shed and the matter is building up. You would never guess that I siphoned most of matter out just a few days ago. I'm going to try to wait until this weekend to siphon the new matter out, but if it continues to build up, I may have to siphon it out sooner.
- Copepods have started appearing. These look like little white bugs and are an awesome sign. Basically, these little guys mean that Callisto is somewhat inhabitable (at least to these little guys) and is cycling properly. The fish will later feed on some of these little guys, so it's important to have a good population of them before adding fish.
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| Project Callisto - Day 8 |
Posted by GroovyDude :: February 05, 2006, 09:39:24 AM
It's been a week since the start of project Callisto. Not much has changed as far as the tank setup goes; the live rock is still "curing". It's incredible the amount of decaying matter that falls off the rock. Had I decided to place live sand in with the rocks during this curing process, the matter would have mixed in with the sand and would not have been as visible.
To get a status on the water quality, I conducted a PH and Ammonia level test yesterday. PH remains steady at 8.2, the sweet spot. Unfortunately, the ammonia levels are still hovering around 1.0ppm.
I decided to clear out some of the live dead rock that has settled on the bottom of the tank, hoping to assist the "cycling" process. Using my new nifty siphon, I pulled out as much as I could. The water came out light brown (ick!  ). There's still some crud left at the bottom, but it shouldn't cause too many problems (I don't think anyway). With all the siphoning I did, I had to replenish close to 5 gallons of water.
I also decided to move the hermit crabs back into the tank. They've been living in a little 2 1/2 gallon tank in our kitchen and were looking lethargic (if you can believe it). In fact, my wife thought they had all died since she hadn't seen them move in a while. At any rate, I scooped them all into my hand and within 20 seconds, I could feel them starting to move around. I placed them in Callisto and am happy to report they are all alive and well, at least as far as I can tell.
We'll let Callisto go for another week before taking the next water readings. Hopefully the ammonia levels will show a decline next week.
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| Project Callisto - Day 2/3 |
Posted by GroovyDude :: January 30, 2006, 07:36:21 PM
I woke up Sunday morning and had a major ephinany. I had orginally filled the tank halfway in aticipation of curing some live rock. I had placed some pumps at the bottom of the tank to keep the water in motion. However, I forgot a major factor: the biological filter. Without it running I don't believe the tank would cycle and the filter would not be established.
So I brought the hose in from outside filled the tank and mixed in some salt until I reached 1.022 gravity. I went to the fish store and bought 35lbs of Live rock, 25 lbs of live sand (for later) and a really cool siphon with built in hand pump.
Buying the rock was harder than I thought. All the rocks looked pretty much the same (to me anyway) and it's really hard to get motivated and excited when you're about to pay $5.99 per lb.
Fortunately, my fish store had a special where the rock ran $4.99 per lb if you bought over 20lbs. I ended up with 4 pieces, two large and two medium size.
I paid $8.00 for this cool little siphon with built in hand pump. No more mouth of salty water for me.  It works really well too!! One end has some suction cups on it so I can stick it to the aquarium glass. The other end has a built in hand pump. A few squeezes and the water starts flowing.
I used my new siphon to remove five gallons of water to accomodate the rocks. This proved overkill and I ended up putting about 3 gallons back in once the rocks were in place.
Plugged in all the filters and lights and we're ready to rock and roll. Now we sit and wait for the rock to cure, which has already started to drop dead pieces.
 Callisto at the end of Day 3
 The "curing" process begins
 No, it's not a sex toy, it's my new siphon hose -- isn't it cool??!!!
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| Project Callisto - Day 1 |
Posted by GroovyDude :: January 28, 2006, 05:09:26 PM
Back in 2000 we purchased a 75 gallon saltwater aquarium setup for our new home. Out of all the fish tanks I've ever maintained, this one by far was the best. For four years I was mostly hands off, only adding water and new inhabitants every now and then. I have an old website I did for a class in college that has some pictures of this tank.
http://www.mywasteofbandwidth.com/wob/fishmain.html
The tank thrived. Fish were healthy and grew very large (you could actually see the teeth on my Sebae clown).
Then came the hurricanes of 2004, Frances and Jeane. After being without power for about 3 or 4 days my tank died. All the inhabitants perished, many of them we had kept over 3 years. Incidently, the last to die were the green chromis, which I had initially placed in the tank at the beginning to help it cycle.
After power was regained, I cleaned out the tank and started the process of cycling a new saltwater aquarium. I used some of the same live rock from the first tank hoping I could re-seed it.
The tank cycled and I started to add some damsels. My thought was to get some inexpensive, yet colorful fish to amuse my son. It worked, unfortunately after a few days the damsels started dieing. I checked the water, made the appropriate changes and bought some more damsels. Again, after a few days, they too died. The ammonia levels in the tank never decreased, no matter what I did. It was around this time that we had somewhat of a family emergency, so the tank sat without any inhabitants for five months or so.
Last week, after complaining how South Florida doesn't seem to have a good public aquarium, I decided it was time to work on getting a new setup going.
And so we have Project Callisto. Why Callisto? I've always like the name and the island image it brings up when I hear it. (It's also the name of my favorite character in Xena -- I don't watch it, but my wife does )
This time I decided to chuck all my sand and rock. Hopefully, bringing in some fresh sand and rock will be a good foundation for a strong tank. Oddly enough, I found about 10 blue legged hermit crabs still kicking! I put them in a 2 1/2 gallon tank temporarly until I have Callisto up and running.
I drained the tank by attaching a garden hose to a water pump I placed at the bottom of the tank. I through the other end of the hose in my driveway and lit 'er up. It worked like a champ. The residual water was picked up with a shopvac.
I Cleaned all the filter parts and the tank glass, in and out (with alcohol). Then using the garden hose again, I filled the tank up halfway and mixed in some salt.
Specific Gravity is holding at 1.023. My plan now is to get some live rock tomorrow (~30 - 40 lbs) and let it cure in the tank until it cycles.
Callisto at the end of day one
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