Islandoftiki

I thought C&C was stocking RO filters now.

Well, the house is going to be packed up by the movers on Thursday/Friday. I've already packed up most of my aquarium equipment. Our shipping container arrives tomorrow. They load the container early next week after my tool box comes home from work on a flatbed tow truck (It's a very large tool box). At that point, I'm not working until we arrive in Hawaii and my tool box is unloaded. We'll also be camping out in our house with nothing more than an air mattress, a couple of sleeping bags and a few suitcases of stuff to get us by until we make our exit from the mainland in early November. It's both exciting and a little terrifying. On a very positive note, I just got my first job offer yesterday. It's not as much money as I had hoped, but it's a pretty solid offer and certainly a living wage. I'm expecting to get additional job offers in the coming weeks, so we'll see how those pan out. Here is all of my equipment. Sitting in boxes...

Since I sold my ATO along with Betty's tank, here's a new one to replace it with. It'll be a while before I get to use it, but I figured it would be best to get it stateside and put it in with our household goods that are being shipped in two weeks. I also got 25 lbs of dry Fiji rock from BRS that will be coming along for the ride.

It's going down the drain tonight if nobody wants it...

Pamela has been full-time busy for the past couple of months doing the impossible--securing a rental house for us near Kona (where I'll inevitably be working). Today, I'm happy to say that we signed the papers on a rental house! At this point, everything is going perfectly. Having a place to land is a huge load off of our shoulders as our date for arrival in Hawaii is rapidly approaching. This house ticks all of the boxes for us, with maybe the exception of space, so anybody visiting us will need to sleep in the garage or in a tent. That said, we will have an amazing ocean view. Time to invest in a telescope for the upcoming whale migration! Here's a pic of the house we'll be renting: Once we get settled in, we'll be looking for a house to buy.

Anybody want about 10 gallons of free 0 TDS RO/DI water? This batch was made with brand new filters in my BRS 6 stage system. I'm breaking everything down and packing up my RO/DI system and this is what's left in my 30 gallon container. If anyone wants it, send me a PM. I'm in inner SE Portland near 39th and Hawthorne. Cheers! John Bertram

Thank you to everyone who was able to come to the shindig last night. As always, a super fun crowd! Thank you to everyone for the well wishes and I'll do my best to organize one last event just before we bail on Oregon.

Muahaha, You are correct, sir. I shall not be forgotten for I will taunt you with beautiful pictures of Hawaii and it's amazing sea life for all of time!

Morning bump! See you all there tonight! For those of you who haven't joined us before, it's always a ton of fun and you'll learn a lot of practical reef keeping tips!

Haha, awesome!

Reminder Bump!

And gone.

pending

These canister filters have been collecting dust in our garage and I'm not going to schlep them to Hawaii. They are remnants from my freshwater days. I have a ZooMed 501 and a Cascade 700. They were working fine the last time I used them a couple years ago. Probably need some minor cleaning and new hoses. They should have all of the important parts. Anyhow, they are free to whoever can come pick them up before 3:30pm Saturday or after 11am Sunday. Inner SE Portland near 39th and Hawthorne. PM me if you would like them! They are good quality canister filters for freshwater. Both are practically silent.

Ok folks, as requested, we'll be doing a little going away party and happy hour at Moloko on Wednesday September 24th. The plan will be to meet up at Cuttlefish and Corals (http://www.cuttlefishandcorals.com/) if you get there before 6pm then we will walk over to Moloko at 6pm when C&C closes. For those of you who haven't been to Moloko yet, it's quite a treat. They have lots of saltwater tanks! http://www.molokopdx.com/ As many of you already know, I'm moving to Hawaii and this might be one of my few opportunities to see some of you before we're gone! Cheers! John

So, we've signed the final paperwork for the house sale and scheduled the movers and the shipping container drop-off. It's all going to plan so far! I've given notice at work and October 13th will be my last day! I will be unemployed for the first time since I was 17! (I'm 43 now). I keep thinking I want to put a personalized vanity plate on my car in Hawaii, but haven't been able to figure out what to go with. Today it dawned on me. The Hawaiian word for mantis shrimp is 'alo'alo, and that's what it's going to be. How cool is that? I dunno, I think it's cool. Anyhow, many many things to do in the next 30 days, so I'm going to be a busy guy! Here are a couple pictures of Pamela interacting with Betty the day before we moved the tank to it's new home...

Nice seats at the Timbers game last night...

Last night, our beautiful and enchanting mantis shrimp, Betty, went to her new home. She waited patiently in her bucket of water while we emptied the tank to movie it. She sat is Pamela's hand for a very long time while we were loading all of the gear into the cars. It was a very sweet and touching goodbye. The tank move went well and we had Betty and Barney set back up in their tank by the end of the evening. We're going to miss her very much.

Are you sure you've never spilled saltwater down in that crevice? I used to get this same salt creep type thing all the time when I'd spill a couple drops of water down into the seam where the plastic base met the glass on my Fluval Spec.

The beautiful yet tragic results of a pyrex dish exploding in the oven...

This is me...

You need it tonight? I'm working until noon tomorrow if you're also working in Tigard. I could bring a 5 gallon bucket to work tomorrow.

30 gallons on top in inner SE Portland (near 39th and Hawthorne)

Importing any non-endemic species of coral, fish or invert is pretty much a no-go. All stony corals are off limits, but apparently soft corals are fine as long as it's not in a protected wildlife area. They have all of the regulations online. Everything I've read is that they don't have fishing licenses and/or none is needed for collection of livestock for a personal aquarium. It's when you start selling stuff that you need special permits and licenses. I'll be confirming everything with the local authorities first, but from my discussion with the one fish store in Kona, most people collect their own soft corals, fish and inverts for aquarium use.