tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-109264682008-04-22T11:22:52.116-05:00Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-69850705764266443702008-04-22T11:21:00.003-05:002008-04-22T11:22:48.149-05:00

My harlequin shrimp had withdrawn itself (along with as much of the starfish as it could carry) to the bank of the tank beneath some coral rubble. This went on for about two days... then yesterday, while I was watching, I actually saw him break through his skin. The exoskeleton was a perfect, translucent replica. If only I had filmed it in time... Anyway, the shrimp's back to slowly eating away

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-67860023320969350912008-04-13T08:59:00.001-05:002008-04-13T09:00:56.597-05:00

A letter I sent to Hagen co. in regards to their Aquaclear filter line... Dear Hagen and everyone in the repair department: A week ago my Aquaclear 110, after a routine cleaning, took on a motor problem I couldn't fix. I shipped the unit back to your company and in less than a week (amazingly prompt) the filter was returned, fixed, with a shiny new motor. You're a great, professional company

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-71488191281291842552008-03-19T14:09:00.004-05:002008-03-20T13:49:58.174-05:00

The above mpeg is a little taste of my new instructional video on setting up a nano. It's only a 3 gallon but everything I'm doing also applies to tanks up to 29 gallons. I'm going to be packaging the video with my nano guide, so if you haven't bought the guide while it's cheap at $12, now's the time! Onto today's topic... I've been keeping fish since 2004. Freshwater, a brief foray into

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-51821424055332143112008-03-18T15:16:00.002-05:002008-03-18T15:56:16.578-05:00

I've been up to a lot of things, once again. First and foremost, if you haven't snagged a copy of my detailed and engrossingly controversial book on starting your first nano tank, now's the time! I'm going to be affiliated with Clickbank soon and will be raising the price to 24 dollars. (I'm also making a DVD so you'll get video along with the book!) Grab a copy now while it's on the cheap --

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-48369741531647099132008-02-05T14:29:00.000-05:002008-02-06T12:41:27.863-05:00

I recently saw a fantastic stock of flowerhorns at an Asheville fish store. Small at two and a half inches, their coloring was already much more remarkable and defined than their natural blue acara, firemouth, and severum counterparts. I'd only seen flowerhorns full grown and in magazines so it was nice seeing them in person. So what is this cool sounding fish called a flowerhorn? It's a hybrid

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-20998146809223208222007-10-30T11:09:00.000-05:002007-10-30T11:28:54.753-05:00

About a month ago I bought a large chunk of driftwood. Even screwed into a marble base, it was too bulky to sink. I soaked it for a month, boiled it for a few hours, but it still wouldn't sink. The piece is solid all the way through, and I probably could have soaked the thing for a year and it would still float. I didn't want to take it off its base and screw it to a heavier piece of slate as I

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-82589025862307401522007-10-26T15:03:00.000-05:002007-10-26T15:04:52.007-05:00

joshday.com

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-11443091920684177292007-10-24T17:45:00.000-05:002007-10-24T17:46:29.454-05:00

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-14804055884332153622007-10-24T09:56:00.000-05:002007-10-24T10:05:40.452-05:00

You Too Can Keep a Beautiful Saltwater Reef Tank for Less than $300. Dear fish keeper,How many times have you dreamed about having a saltwater aquarium?Let me tell you my story.I've been keeping freshwater tropical fish for years. Every time I'd visit a fish store, I'd wander into the saltwater section and examine every tank, look at every bright fish and piece of coral. I wish I had the

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-31330314404446899412007-06-11T10:51:00.000-05:002007-06-11T11:12:43.410-05:00

The finale of the Sopranos series aired last night. Just some thoughts on the last scene. First of all, it's very clear that the show jumped the shark years ago. Arguably at some point midway through season 3 when HBO demanded more seasons than what Chase had plotted out, but certainly in the lackluster, sloppy, meandering season 4. Like Junior's dementia, it was an ugly, gradual decline,

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-5633086804970666962007-06-11T10:36:00.000-05:002007-06-11T10:41:34.796-05:00

I posted the following on a popular Internet fish forum: Well, it's over, guys. About a week ago I discovered the mandarin behind the tank. He had jumped out and was very much gone. Most likely he had jumped out the night before as I had investigated the tank in the morning and had not found him (a common occurrence in the past and it didn't worry me until I didn't see him in the afternoon

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-15369566489236881202007-03-20T12:56:00.000-05:002007-04-06T10:03:05.789-05:00

Well, I've started stocking. The setting is... 3 terracotta pots 3 pieces of driftwood, w/ more possibly coming (each representing cross-continental driftwood chunks) Silk-leaved plant on a long plastic chain purchased at a craft store Playsand substrate The stage management: The biggest aquaclear The Wal-mart Emperor stripped for mechnical filtration only The XP4 2 250 watt heaters And

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-56466819493875022552007-03-09T14:17:00.000-05:002007-03-09T14:18:55.340-05:00

Well, I've gone way off topic before, so why not do it again? This little guy was born Sunday February 25 at 7:30 pm... here he is videoed at a week old. Baby JamesAdd to My Profile | More Videos You can imagine how crushing it was to lose the ray several days after his birth. - Josh

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-23378080399741292632007-03-09T13:49:00.000-05:002007-03-09T14:12:58.325-05:00

Here is an excellent article on fishless cycling that sums up almost everthing... note it contradicts something in the prior articles I linked about urine, but such is the hobby. I tend to believe the earlier article about urine as the author got into the hows and whys; this one just tells you not to do it without any explanation at all. When someone tells me don't, I want to know why.

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-36468253147630243102007-03-07T10:44:00.000-05:002007-03-08T22:05:37.328-05:00

With the tank empty, its water parameters unstable, its nitrogen cycle haywire, fishless cycling is the only way to proceed. In fact, it's what I should have done in the beginning, but that ray wouldn't have stayed in the store forever; AND I was 90% sure the tank would cycle with all the biorings and media I shoved into its two filters. As moving media has worked in the past for me (from a

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-38380247905203024972007-03-05T12:06:00.000-05:002007-03-05T12:16:42.189-05:00

I lost the ray. At about 8 PM the evening after the last post I noticed the ray stuck in the corner, as if his reverse was no longer working. I shifted him away and saw the worst: the death curl. The ends of the disc curl upward, indicating nerve damage. Once the death curl hits death is imminent. He lived for 24 more hours before I euthanized him in a styrofoam container with clove oil. The

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-14938057921289485702007-03-03T09:57:00.000-05:002007-03-03T10:08:23.740-05:00

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in... The ray tank has clouded up again and ammonia levels are measuring, 8 days after I used Sera Toxivec to control the nitrite appearance. Water started to cloud two days ago and ammonia only appeared yesterday. There are two causes that I can ascertain: 1. Overfeeding and slacking on bi-weekly and often tri-weekly 20-25% water changes. 2.

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-55365107680988103402007-02-23T11:17:00.000-05:002007-02-23T11:23:19.175-05:00

I have some new readings which have led me to draw a different conclusion. Unlike most Americanized scientific "research" of today where the researchers are paid by Pfizer and Merck for their conclusion before they even assemble the study, I try to be a bit more old school when it comes to experiments. By old school I mean unbiased, thorough, and unmotivated by greed or preset opinion, utilizing

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-25007976861222536402007-02-23T10:46:00.000-05:002007-02-23T10:51:31.125-05:00

Putting it nicely. A nitrite reading of approximately .15-.25 appeared yesterday. I'm doing a 1/5 water change right now. It appears this sera stuff is about as useful as Cycle. I poured out about half a gallon of the tank water, dropped in some toxivec, then tested for nitrites. Same results as the untreated water in the tank. This may mean one of two things. One, it simply changes the nitrite

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-81963089122322411992007-02-19T14:08:00.000-05:002007-02-19T14:12:49.881-05:00

Four days post-toxivec no ammonia and no nitrite. Nitrates steadily rising, which is a very good thing. I'm going to do an experiment soon involving a small tank, with filter, and a fishless cycle to see how well this product really works. On another note, I recently learned my redneck little town doesn't have a bait shop, which was difficult to believe. However, like so many redneck little

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-82598145641739505842007-02-15T12:28:00.000-05:002007-02-15T13:02:31.819-05:00

Nitrates are steadily building, up to 20 now, so there is and has been established bacteria in the tank. Unfortunately, ammonia is still traceable, though far below the .5 ppm at which it was reading earlier. The ray is very active and always on the search for food. Quite easy to feed by hand and this seems his preferred way of eating as he always comes to the top of the tank and sticks his mouth

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-49836549628235085282007-02-06T11:26:00.000-05:002007-02-06T11:49:59.849-05:00

I've had the ray for ten days now. Good news is he is vibrant and healthy and readily (as well as enthusiastically) eating earthworms, frozen bloodworms, and cut-up jumbo shrimp I bought from the grocery store. By far the shrimp is his favorite food. Bad news is I believe I'm going through a mini-cycle. Four days ago a trace amount of ammonia (a varying degree of .5 ppm) showed up after a water

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-52033094841528052712007-01-28T12:28:00.000-05:002007-01-30T14:43:22.574-05:00

I picked up the ray yesterday. It's a Dasyatis sabina, which is actually a marine ray with some... complications. Their range stretches from Chesapeake Bay in the summer to central America, along the coastlines and in brackish estuaries. This species can navigate in marine water, brackish water, and full freshwater. There is also a variant of the species which spends its entire life in freshwater

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-27115465545968064982007-01-26T16:01:00.000-05:002007-01-30T09:48:37.644-05:00

I've been wanting to keep a freshwater ray for more than two years now. In fact, when I got serious about fish keeping with my first community ten gallon, I looked at FW ray keeping to be the pinnacle of my hobbyist's journey. I started reading about rays and talking to other hobbyists (lfs employees, people online) while I went through the basic problems of all beginners... ammonia and nitrite

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10926468.post-26268797369953838442007-01-25T11:55:00.000-05:002007-01-25T11:57:44.176-05:00

Some random pics for now, including some shots of the fish room itself.

Josh Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12558573851875174188noreply@blogger.com