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Well, it has been a rather a long time since I have put one of these up here. And I thought it was about time that I got off my butt and put another entry in here . Big news is that I have decided it is time for a change ...
What I mean by that is I have made the decision that I am going to slowly shut down my existing tank and start to set up a new one. With a few things that have happened over the last couple of years, probably the major one there is the stupid leaking tank, irritation with a tank set up that isn't quite how I want it and bit of lagging interest in my tank it is time to revitalise things. With shutting down my original reef tank setup, that does seem very weird. It has been a part of my life for 8 years now and been moved three times. Plus, with the type of tank that I am setting up next, it means that a number of the fish that I have had for all of the time, including my Sailfin Tang, will have to go as the tank will not be large enough. I have already placed a post asking if someone would like to take him and have someone interested in doing so. It is going to be very hard to see him go.  My Sailfin Tang, "The Shadow", that will have to be given up when moving to my new tank. Coffee Table Tank The next tank is going to be one that I have had kicking around in my mind for probably 6 or more years, a coffee table tank. Most of the major details about the tank are already worked out, including the handing of some of the problems with such a set up. Over the next couple of months I am going to start doing all of the drawings, purchasing and construction. It is something that I am realling looking forward to, especially since I haven't heard of any reef tanks set up in such a manner. If you happen to know of any I would appreciate if you dropped me a note to direct me to details. No need to reinvent the wheel if someone else has done it. The tank will most likely be 1200 x 600 x 450 mm in dimension, with the last 300 mm being the sump. So the tank will really only be 900 mm long in terms of display tank spacing. The end where the sump is located will be enclosed within a cupboard, that will probably end up being twice as high as the table and up against a wall. As I draw up the plans and then finally construct it, few of these things are likely to change. The tank will be close to a window in the room it will be in, as I believe it is very important to have good gas exchange over the water surface i.e. my current tank has air removed from over the top of the tank 24/7. There will be some short ducting running from the cupboard to the window a short distance away. More details shortly as I put them down. RamblingsI am constantly amazed by the amount of traffic and bandwith that my website here is generating. Below you can see the graphs for the last twelve months. Currently there is about 30,000 hits per day, or 1,400 unique visitors. The last couple of months has also seen a significant increase in the bandwidth, with it now sitting at around the 11 - 12 GB per month mark. Between November and December there was a substantial jump of 4 GB per month with almost no increase in visits or hits, which is a bit strange. I am currently looking into whether that is a CMS issue, as there has been no real noticeable difference in the manner in which people are browsing the website (i.e. looking at more images and less articles). Because of this increase in bandwidth the hosting expense for this domain has jumped quite a bit, more than I would like. In case you have found the resource here that I have provided and built up over the years worthwhile, on the bottom lefthand side of the pages you will now find a PayPal button to show your appreciation. Don't expect anyone really to make one, but it is there for you to use if you feel the need. Plus, it will mean that in the coming months I wont have to cut out things that contribute significantly to the bandwidth to keep it down to a more reasonable value. OZ REEF website statistics as of the 27th of January, 2006.
And finally a photograph of me taken at a Marine Aquarium Society of Victoria meeting last year. The meeting theme was how to propagate corals, covering as many different types of corals as sample colonies people could bring along. In the background you can see the cube tank of Naomi and Neil Creek, who were the host for that meeting. Myself, demonstrating fragging techniques at August 2005 MASOV general meeting.
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