onesecondofinsanity.

It's always interesting finding new things in the tank

2010-10-25T03:23:00.000-07:00

So I've had a few losses in the tank since my last post. Sadly, mostly unnatural causes. My blue tang finally died after having a case of white spots. My hammer coral died since the naughty yellow tail damsels kept kicking sand onto it. My favourite fish punchy died from being stuck in the weir. I was so sad to come home and find him dead. my long noes butterfly died the day after.

On a happier note, I have got some new fish.

This is a sand sifting goby. (The pic was taken when he just got put in so he freaked out my goni coral) I have 2 of these now after picking up another one from Malcom this afternoon. They clean all the sand on the bottom eating all the left over food.

Alan and I have been looking for one of these for so long! He's a scooter dragonette. He is one of the main reasons we started a marine tank. We saw one at the aquarium shop when we were buying freshwater fish and thought he was the cutest thing but sadly he was saltwater. Hence, the new tank :D

Among the many random things I've found in the tank (including a sea urchin), I found this. I still have no idea what it is

Night shot with the moonlight LEDs.

Ordered a lot more goodies that should be arriving this week!

Photos!

2010-10-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Finally pulled out the DSLR to get some decent shots of the tank rather than just half-assed pics.

Hermit crabs:

Corals

My Trigger and starfish:

Punchy!

Got a new anemone today. One of the clownfish has already claimed it as his:

My cowfish punchy.

2010-10-09T02:39:00.000-07:00

So have been going through HUGE updates with the aquarium. So excited. It's all coming together :D
Have quite a few corals and fish now.

Just 4 of my 7 coral:

It's so interesting watching them eat:

One of my fish (hes a niger trigger) stealing my nem's food:

I have 6 yellow tail damsels (they were one of my first fish in the tank). They can be aggressive but mine seem to like hiding

This is one of my cardinals. I have a bangaii and a pyjama. This is the bangaii:

This is my fave hermit crab (I've lost count on how many are in there). He's really active and just walks around the tank. So I named him Ferdinand after the explorer Ferdinand Magellan:

And this is the star of my tank. He is a long horned cow fish. So small and cute but Alan has named him punchy since he seriously always seems to want to fight. While other fish are scared by me cleaning the tank, he follows the glass cleaner and me around. He then bit me when I tried to put my hand into the tank! He also follows the camera around like crazy when given the chance. Check out how small he is:

Latest full tank shot:

Aquarium Update

2010-09-28T05:04:00.000-07:00

Been doing some major updates in the last few days/weeks.

Installed a new Marine sources skimmer. Rated for 1500L :). Also got a auto top up system :)

He looks so angry. I can't remember what kind of fish these are so if anyone could help me out that would be great.
My tank now currently has 6 of these. They always hide when I get too close to the tank unless it's food time. The other livestock in the tank are my 2 black clowns, 1 blue starfish and a bunch of hermit crabs and snails. I think I may have spotted a Brittle star that came on the live rock but have only seen him once.

Did some more Aquascaping. LHS

Middle

RHS

Full tank shot. <3

Almost ready for fish!

2010-09-22T05:38:00.000-07:00

Finally went and picked up the last of the live rock. Got about 50kgs (at a bargin price!) from John off MASA. Top guy and his tank looks awesome. I could tell he had put a lot of work into his tank. It's a shame he had to get rid of it.

Got a few crabs and shrimps with it too! Here's one of the little guys (the only one I could really get a picture of)

Tested my waters and everything seems good. Almost ready for fish after a water change on the weekend.

Full tank shot after my aquascaping!

Lights, Camera, Action!

2010-09-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Went to Beach Aquariums today in Bondi to pick up some rocks and more instant ocean mix (wasted half the bucket in the leaking incident!).

Had dinner at Kelly's with Justin and Christina. Justin and I both ordered medium pork ribs (which were awesome) and lets just say one of us finished all of it and it wasn't him. :p

Also picked up his old light since he's converted to LEDs as well as a box of rocks which I will be putting together tomorrow. (Thanks again!)

Just some of the rocks in the tank:

My favourite piece:

Ripples from the Power heads:

Full tank shot:

In another one of our 5 tanks (the goldfish one) I bought this guy over a month ago. Despite what it looks like, he's not dying. Since I got him for some odd reason he tends to over-eat and floats on his side all night long. In the morning he is fine and back to normal. How strange.

Aquarium Crazy!

2010-09-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

I have been going completely aquarium crazy recently. Spending all my spare time on MASA and researching for the tank. Also did a few updates myself.

I spent Thurs filling up the rest of the tank and testing all the pumps.

This waterfall effect looked really nice going into the weir but it was effing loud and the cat did not approve.

Ended up putting this pipe back in (after I spent so much time taking it out during cleaning!)

Also relocated the power board which was previously nailed to the wall:

These came in the mail on Friday from Guppys (been spending a lot of time on there too!):

They are a little strong so I will have to find a way around it:

As I mentioned in my previous post, I also needed to find a way to nicely put the return pipe so I set off to Bunnings (for like the 5th time this week!) ended up getting some piping and just hooking it on. That way the cat also wont accidentally knock it out if he's playing under the tank (which he is doing quite often):

My parents have also started getting interested in my tank and bought me a large bucket to put my sump into (just in case there is a power outage and the sump overflows. Full tank shot (see the bucket on the bottom left):

Of course whenever I sit down to do anything under the tank, my puppy tries to crawl into my lap thinking it's play time:

Disaster averted

2010-09-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

So I filled up the tank last Wednesday. Got to the top and the bitch started leaking. Just a small trickle but it meant I had to siphon out ALL the water. Luckily I had Jebus and Alan helping me.

Luckily the glass itself was fine, just a little crack in the silicon. Spent Friday spreading 2 types silicon over the whole edge of the tank to ensure it won't leak anymore.

Filled half the tank up today and it seems fine now. Also changed the water on my other tanks tonight.
In total I have 5 tanks at home - 1 Goldfish tank, 1 Freashwater, 2 fighting fish tanks and the 6ft marine. The goldfish and 1 of the fighting fish tanks are my dads so I don't have to maintain them luckily (even if the goldfish tank was my idea when I was 8).

My fighting fish's tank is 12Ls. I know some people say that fighters like small tanks etc but mine loves this giant one. Had him for over a year and he's had 3 tanks.

This is my freshwater tank. Read below to see how I ended up with this one:

This is my fighter Carpaccio. I got him when I started work at Mobility Engineering to keep me company. It wasn't until I got him that I ended up with this tank madness. For some reason I developed this crazy love for my fish. Maybe because hes the first pet I've really had that depends on me to feed it and change its water etc. My dog/cat have my parents or Alan to feed them and take care of them if I'm not there.

My next fish was this black widow tetra named Pistachio. I wasn't planning on another tank but Alan and I saw him at the pet shop eating the cutest way. The food is clearly way too big for his mouth but he refuses to let go of it. He would take a bite, it would float off and he would chase it again. Initially put him with Carpaccio in the big tank (since he's a non aggressive fish they should be fine with fighters) but the 2 days he was in there Carpaccio wouldn't stop attacking him. Eventually got the Freshwater tank for him and slowly started collecting Freshwater fish.

If Alan was a fish, He would be Pistachio:

I then got Pistachio a friend I named Cashew. Pistachio has same length stripes while Cashew has one longer than the other:

I then got 2 catfish named Praline and Nuget. I've managed to loose one of them (I have taken the tank apart and still can't find him!) so I will have to go get one more. This is the one left:

Finally, last week I got 2 of these:

I'm back with a new hobby

2010-08-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

Wow I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted here. I've decided to bring this back since I now have a bit more free time.
So I have developed a new hobby - Fish tanks. It started when I was young and got a gold fish tank. Then last year I got a fighting fish for work and kept upgrading his tank. Eventually I got a Freshwater tank and now I'm starting a marine.

SATURDAY

Spent the day cleaning the tank which I got second hand with the stand. 6 X 2 X 1.5 ft tank(!)

The cat didn't approve of all the water flowing in and out of the house and opted to stay on his post

SUNDAY

On Sunday, Alan and I dropped by Beach Aquariums in Bondi to grab some gear

The shop looks pretty old and tired but I managed to get a bunch of stuff at a bargain price!

Just half of the goodies I picked up from Beach Aquariums. Also went to Kim's to get a few things

Stopped by Justin and Christina's place to talk tanks but ended up just playing with their new kitten Mia.

MONDAY

Since I had Monday off, I wrestled my mate Jebus over to help me set up. Ended up setting up most of the sump

Now to find a way to hide this return hose

TUESDAY

I had class in the afternoon so didn't touch the tank. But since it was such a nice day we decided to give Miata a treat. He is generally not allowed out so when we want to let him get some sun we have to spend 10 minutes setting up an enclosure. Luckily he seemed to appreciate it:

My gorgeous puppy!

Model cars.

2009-06-24T23:49:00.000-07:00

I bought 3 of these when I was in Hong Kong in 05 and bought the S15 last year with Alan.
All of which have been sitting in my closet collecting dust. This Holidays I plan on finishing at least 1 of them. Will probably start with the S15. Ignore the flipped image. I took this pic with the laptop cam and can't be bothered to open photoshop. Heck, the BF's leaving in less than 24 hours and I still have time to blog. =[

The Nubget Blog...

2009-06-10T06:05:00.000-07:00

Updates on The Nubget will be done here:

http://nub63t.blogspot.com/

Day 5.

2009-06-09T03:28:00.000-07:00

Had to go to SuperCheap Auto today to buy a few things so I treated myself to a new toolbox and tools;

Bought a new oil filter as well as new bulbs since the bulb for the left indicator was burnt out.
Flushed out all the old horrible black oil and changed the filter.

Jacked up the car to change the wheel bearing but the caliper mount bolts were being stubborn so I decided to leave it to another day since it was getting dark and cold.

The beginning of the Nubget.

2009-06-08T01:43:00.000-07:00

Finally bought a run-around to drive since I am doing stupid amounts of mileage on the NC and the Z is having wear and tear issues. Plus I've been wanting a car I can work on myself for AGES. Bought this 1995 Swift GTi the other day mostly on impulse since the engine sounded awesome. Nice grunt from the exhaust and the engine was kept in good condition, however everything else needs some tidying up:
- no speakers/sound system,
- bonnet doesn’t sit properly,
- boot dampers don’t work,
- wrong size tyres and therefore cause scrubbing,
- missing wheel nuts,
- windows not winding up properly,
- chassis a little bent from a previous crash,
- random parts of the dash that fall off,
- battery held in by cable ties,
- random wiring hanging out,
- random screws missing here and there,
- rear wheel bearing needs replacing,
- radiator/overflow storage full of brown sludge,
- rear windscreen wipers don’t work
- the front windscreen wipers go off at random intervals

yet I have fallen completely in love with this car.

Spent the day cleaning up the easy stuff:

Random bits that I pulled out of the car [glove-box, under the seats, pockets behind seats];

Pulled the dash apart to spray the white bits and the “fully sick M3 mirrors”. Alan helped spray the parts black. Sadly, we both suck at spray-painting so it turned out very bubbly. I will find time to sand it back and re-spray it.

Flushed out the radiator and also had to clean out all the gunk in the overflow storage. For some reason, there wasn’t a way to actually take out the unit without breaking it since it seemed like it was welded/super-glued in so I spent most of the night flushing it out with this awesome contraption.

Finally got the tank white again after lots of water and stupid amounts of pumping.
Put in new coolant, topped up the oil and put all the parts I sprayed back onto the car.

Will find tie between exams to change the oil/oil filter and bearings in the next few days.

Adam's birthday =]

2009-05-21T01:17:00.000-07:00

Met up with Adam for lunch today seeing as it's his birthday and all. We went to IWA in Chatswood for jap food followed by cupcakes.
P.S. I only had my phone for photos so they are pretty shocking quality.

Cupcakes from The Cupcake Bakery.

Adam. I bought candles and everything =D

Red Velvet cupcake. A slight reddish colour, has cream cheese butter-cream or something a rather.

I was bored yesterday while Milad was preparing his speech for today and I started reading his Zoo magazine. It's really fucking random;

I guess that's what you would expect from a $2 magazine. At least it had 6 pages of random females in bikinis and "World's 25 Hottest Cleavages". hehe

Happy 19th Bella!

2009-05-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

So to celebrate Bella's 19th, we booked a room at Wagaya. $50 for a 20 person room with TV, 2 touch screens, Bose Sound system, DVD player. Al and I got there early to set up the cake.

We ordered the cake from The Cupcake Bakery. Molten Choc flavoured which was chocolate base with chocolate fudge inside and Vanilla butter-cream icing.

Al, Milad and I also bought her a Swarovski necklace. Pity that when we went to buy it, we ended up spending another $350 on top of the necklace for other random shit. I should not be allowed in that store.

^Milad. Strangely, he is one of my best mates =]

Sushi roulette. Basically 6 pieces of salmon sushi, one with a rice-ball embedded with mostly wasabi. Sadly, Alan lost and was stuck with the piece.

Also, Congrats to Jon+Kat on their amazing wedding in the Hunter a few weeks ago. Will upload pics a little later, here is the ONLY 2 pics Alan and I have together from the last few months.

He looks so cute in a suit. hehe.

So much for blogging.

2009-05-16T21:36:00.001-07:00

So clearly this blogging thing isn't going all that well. Hopefully now that the BF has a blog, it will encourage me to post more. Will edit this tonight with pictures from dinner/friend's birthday =D.

Uni.

2009-03-24T02:30:00.001-07:00

Well this blogging thing really isn't going according to plan as I had hoped. So far my life has been basically just uni and the BF. On the plus side, I finished an assignment 2 months early since it involved putting shit together and I'm good at that.

I learnt to solder and made this cool circuit board looking thing where the only thing it really does is light up two tiny LEDs.

So after Alan and I went to Wollongong on the weekend, we stopped at Gallery Serpentine since I've been wanting to go since forever and we never got around to it. Ended up ordering a new $207 corset. 6 week wait but at least that gives me an extra $200 for Al's birthday. I finally tried on this skirt that I've been wanting to buy since a few months ago when I saw it on their website. It seemed a little long for me since I'm a shorty but it turned out OK. Too bad I couldn't afford the $370 price tag after the corset.
So today, I was driving Milad to work so since I was near Enmore I went by Gallery Serpentine again to see if the Sydney store had these pair of gloves I saw. I ended up finding another skirt that looked like the one I initially wanted but with more puff and less length. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. Luckily I have the bestest Boyfriend in the world who gave me his credit card details over the phone so I could buy it.

This is what it should look like roughly with my corset.

I also bought fishnet stockings to go with it.
<3

Home.

2009-03-04T06:52:00.000-08:00

So this blogging thing is starting off a little slower than I would have liked but so far I am quite happy with how it is looking.

Life has been having it's ups and downs recently as I get back into the habit of getting up for classes and such. I am starting to stress out already about keeping up with work. Hopefully this semester I won't compromising my study for the sake of my social life. After playing around most of last year, it's time I actually bothered to study and do well.
I have also been quite lazy in doing random things that I really want to do such as backing up my computer, finishing certain TV shows, tidying up random parts of the house, etc.

I seem to keep running out of time to really do anything. I'm hardly doing anything and I'm generally at home, but I just never get around to doing what I want to do. On the note of time, I really like this clock that Alan bought me. It's so cute. It drives me insane at times when I'm trying to sleep and all I hear in the middle of the night is constant ticking but it's nice to have an actual alarm clock again rather than just using my unreliable phone/boyfriend as an alarm clock.

This is my Alan for anyone who doesn't know. He has been watching TV in bed while I've been on the net. In the last year and a half, my life has changed so much. Going to uni, meeting new people, all of that doesn't compare to how much this boy has changed my life. It amazes me at times that he can put up with me 24/7. We spend so much time together since we live under the same roof but we never seem to get bored of each other. I never thought my parents would be so understanding about Alan and I moving in together but after 19 years of life, I've come to realise they never fail to understand me despite me never actually talking to them about my personal life. My family has no doubt been one of the most important things in my life. Although Alan is yet to really spend time with my aunts and cousins, I am glad that he is slowly becoming part of something that is such a big part of my life.

New blog!

2009-03-01T08:12:00.000-08:00

Time for a less depressing blog where I actually bother to update rather than only updating when I'm feeling emo. Went to a mate's house for lunch. Organised on a count of this awesomeness that we found called the "Bacon Explosion";

I'm personally not a big fan of bacon but this wasn't bad. And it surprisingly didn't taste as fattening as it looks.

Will update later, it's 3AM and I need sleep.