skippy

I live up in Kerikeri, Bay of Islands. Diving up here is pretty cool. We spent a long weekend in Tutukaka and did a day trip to the Knights I'm pretty sure there is plenty of crays at the Knights but you may get in a bit of trouble if you help yourself

Nah the vis was not too flash at the Arch. It was unreal in other parts of the islands though - unfortunately we only did one dive.

No, that is also a marine reserve and is a superb place to snorkel around in. Goat Island is down by Leigh/Warkworth. Poor Knights Islands is about 25 nautical miles of the coast of Tutukaka which is just north of Whangarei, also a marine reserve. The Knights is reputed to be one of the top 10 dive sites in the world (according to Jacques Cousteau (Mr Aqualung himself)) and some of the diving there is simply amazing. We only dived one site on the weekend called Blue Maomao Arch - hence the pics of heaps of Blue maomao. It is quite spectacular as it can be wall to wall fish. The arch sticks out of the water and is about 5m wide, going to about 12 or so metres below the surface. Last time I dived it a few years ago you literally swam into the school of maomao. They opened up in front and closed in behind you so if you turned around it was just fish everywhere- just thousands of them. Quite spectular stuff and also for snorkelling if you can get out there

Yeah but the tank is pretty heavily loaded - at least 1000 blue maomao and lots of big rays - but you should see my water movement . Didn't get any pics of the snapper either - too many of the buggers and plenty well over 10lb. Cheeky as too, weren't scared at all. Came up to the boat and one of the buggers bit me when I was feeding them some bread. Fortunately one of the smaller ones so I still have my fingers. Also some of the kina are massive. Saw one that was about the size of a soccer ball - be a meal on its own if you are into eating kina (not this lad though ) Doesn't Ma Nature have a kick-ass aquarium. Obviously cost is not a consideration for her. Northland is awesome for this sort of stuff. Gee I'm glad I live up here :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Not sure if this is the right forum for this but hey - it is saltwater. Thought some of you may like to see some pics of the local fishies Leatherjacket Blue maomao school and again and again stingray same stingray sanddaggers wrasse and again - this guy followed us for most of the dive and even headbutted the camera damsel of sorts again unidentified fish - check out the dodgy looking back on him massive stingray lying on the bottom. This photo was taken from the boat in about 6m of water. He must have been a good 6ft across his wings - he was huge

Nah Feelers, ain't mine but I wouldn't mind finding some of the nudis on there though. Saw another of the same nudi at the Poor Knights on Saturday. Will sort out a couple of cool pics that me and my wife took and start a post soon

PM'ed you back

I have a couple of thermometers in my tank, nothing too flash. One is a stick on job that is next to useless and the other is one of those $10 digital display jobs which seems to be OK. I also have a mercury thermometer in a glass bulb hydrometer that I use to cross check the others on occasions (have a refractometer now - money well spent) The chiller is a bit on the noisy side but you do get used to it. It sits in the lounge next to the tank and makes just a bit more noise than the main pump and return. (Oh for a dedicated pumproom where everything can be hidden away)

Huuuummmm :-? I bought a chiller for a grand Up here the tank temp would easily get to above 30C in the afternoon. At the moment I have the tank sitting at 25.5 with the chiller set at 18C (Found out that the thermostat had drifted about 7deg and 25 C was actually over 30 :evil: Of course it drifted while I was on holiday over Xmas/NY. Fortunately, I didn't lose anything. I have found in my tank that the livestock, particularly corals, start to stress at anything above 27.5 for an extended period. I am sure that there will be others that will say it is fine at that temp, but not in my experience.

When are you next up Puttputt? Where abouts is the house you are bidding on? Keep in touch

Have found a few of these on the last few dives I have done in the Bay of Islands - very cool This pic was copied from ianskipworth.com

It is quite cool but don't get your hopes up. Mine lay quite regularly (about every 3 - 4 weeks).

Not at the price it cost to fix the little bugger the last two times. He makes the cost of a pedigree maine coon look like small change and they cost $900. Gets whacked again and survives I might finish him off myself Nah, just kidding I'd fix the silly bugger again (might buy him a leash though)

This is my cat Furball And again He's about 11 years old - still in pretty good nick considering he has been hit by cars twice

Said it before and will say it again - EXCELLENT thread Ben. And yes, most of the tanks on here are aweome and quite inspirational. Are you trying to lead it into folks favorite corals? How about any marine tank inhabitant? There must be some awesome pics out there.