wild SPS corals, Marshall Islands

[r-balljunkie]

they blasted the place with more nukes than imaginable...to many negative people out there...how is freakin fish food gonna be bad....what ever you do,just dont pee in the ocean cause thats gonna cause some un-fixable bacteria wipe out...lmao....how far is bikini from where you are in the islands?

yeah, previous post tickled me.

im not too sure. i know there was a dive tour last weekdend, from here to Bikini, my best guess is 250 miles. i was told it was a days trip by power boat. there used to be weekly flight service, but that was some time ago. Wreck diving is big around here, and from what i hear the wreck diving @ Bikini is amazing.

on another note, coral spawing season is coming up. sure would be nice to get some spawning shots. :beachbum:

 

[r-balljunkie]

Love the pics and living vicariously through you. That would be my heaven! Thanks!

no problem. i wouldnt mind digging into a slice of some good ole chicago deep dish right about now. one of my favorite cities, awesome nite life. its give and take out here, no big city living. im a simple guy, not a biologist, scientist, just a reefer like everyone else. i hope these pics and comments provide some insite to natural reef habitats.
ill do what i can to keep the pics flowing. the wife is bugging me about going diving this weekend, might get off my lazy arse, and burn a couple of tanks.

enjoy

c

 

[SERVO]

C

This is an great thread! I love the experiences and love the fact that some people don't realize they live in glass houses.

So I bet you really miss some good Tex-Mex!!!??

Keep up the posts! I'm green with envy!

 

[agcneves]

Granden pictures!

Congratulations for the initiative and please stay posting the pictures and your reports. :thumbsup:
Best Regards!

 

[Reffer831]

PLEASE TELL ME YOU GOT THIS ONE SOME HOW....and I really like that deep water looking one...thanks for sharing, I really enjoy this thread.:bounce1:

 

[Cgreene]

Id like to see an update on what you have selected to stock your tank with!

 

[nemokeeper]

i wish!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bigsink]

Great thread. Was there in 1994 and have been trying to get back for years.

 

[MerDoX]

Great pics. Subscribed.

 

[ziyaadb]

subscribed :thumbsup:

 

[r-balljunkie]

Great thread. Was there in 1994 and have been trying to get back for years.

Bigsink, retreads welcome back, you know that. :lmao:

Sorry for the lack of updates. My wife has been bogarting the weekends with her deep sea fishing. Father's day and other activities have put a damper on diving, but I plan on being in the water this weekend. still kinda spooked after my swimming in 'pool' with the shark. I'm gonna pick a different pool next time.

No new corals

made some small system tweaks, added an APEX lite controller. the trusty ACjr served me well, but time for the new. Big shout out to TB aquatics for shipping to APO. i hate when people price jack you on the shipping.

lowered the water level in the tank by dremeling the teeth slots lower. easier to clean the glass now.

I also ordered a set of Maxspect Mazarra S x 3 LED's. really excited about getting the new lighting next month. The tank has really stabilized, and all the old survivors, new additions are doing well. im going to start the transition back to synthetic salt next week.

got a new flash unit for my underwater camera, since the ocean claimed my difusser on the factory flash, and olympus wants close to 60 bux for a stupid piece of opaque plastic.

Once again you guys get to be victimized by my shoddy photog skills.

hope to have some new reef porn for you guys soon!!

GL

C

 

[Cgreene]

Bigsink, retreads welcome back, you know that. :lmao:

Sorry for the lack of updates. My wife has been bogarting the weekends with her deep sea fishing. Father's day and other activities have put a damper on diving, but I plan on being in the water this weekend. still kinda spooked after my swimming in 'pool' with the shark. I'm gonna pick a different pool next time.

No new corals

made some small system tweaks, added an APEX lite controller. the trusty ACjr served me well, but time for the new. Big shout out to TB aquatics for shipping to APO. i hate when people price jack you on the shipping.

lowered the water level in the tank by dremeling the teeth slots lower. easier to clean the glass now.

I also ordered a set of Maxspect Mazarra S x 3 LED's. really excited about getting the new lighting next month. The tank has really stabilized, and all the old survivors, new additions are doing well. im going to start the transition back to synthetic salt next week.

got a new flash unit for my underwater camera, since the ocean claimed my difusser on the factory flash, and olympus wants close to 60 bux for a stupid piece of opaque plastic.

Once again you guys get to be victimized by my shoddy photog skills.

hope to have some new reef porn for you guys soon!!

GL

C

Scared of a black tip reef shark? lol. 3 years ago, I went on a Blackbeards Dive trip in the Bahamas. Went on a shark feeding dive. 13 Black tip reef sharks came out to feast. Scariest thing I've done in my life!!

Not to hijack your thread but here are some pics of my experience with black tips.

I would say the scariest part was seeing the big shadows swimming by under the boat and having to jump off the boat into the water. We swam around the pit, and descended to 55 ft. Sat on our knees with our backs to a 10 ft tall reef while the divemasters hooked up the pully as you can see in the pic about.

Always enjoy reading your thread.

Casey

 

[markie mark]

R-balljunkie,can you please go diving with your camera please...and then hook the camera to the computer and upload pics on to reef central...lol

 

[dannytom99]

great thread, love the pics

 

[Banjo]

Awesome thread. I'm so jealous.

 

[r-balljunkie]

Scared of a black tip reef shark? lol. 3 years ago, I went on a Blackbeards Dive trip in the Bahamas. Went on a shark feeding dive. 13 Black tip reef sharks came out to feast. Scariest thing I've done in my life!!

Not to hijack your thread but here are some pics of my experience with black tips.

I would say the scariest part was seeing the big shadows swimming by under the boat and having to jump off the boat into the water. We swam around the pit, and descended to 55 ft. Sat on our knees with our backs to a 10 ft tall reef while the divemasters hooked up the pully as you can see in the pic about.

Always enjoy reading your thread.

Casey

i dont mind sharks out in the open, but when you got one trapped in a pool at low tide, in what equates to a bath tub, no good :lmao:

nice pics. no problem on the threadjack, more the merrier.

 

[r-balljunkie]

R-balljunkie,can you please go diving with your camera please...and then hook the camera to the computer and upload pics on to reef central...lol

MM.

I feel sooo cheap, all you guys want me for is my pics

managed to get in the water today, one dive only at the coral junkyard. I tried to take some pictures to give an idea of the scale and mass of this coral head. I've dived this spot at least 10 times, and we have not covered the entire place. it keeps going and going. we thought we would get back to the same place we found the zoa's, no such luck. once your down there, it all blends in. you don't want to spend 20 minutes looking for something when you only have 35 minutes or so bottom time in the area.
still working out the kinks with the new flash. it seems I had a tendency of blasting too much light on the closeups, need to work on toning it down a bit
still our favorite walk in dive for the diversity we get to experience.

i hate to make analogies to movies, but today we felt like we were on Pandora, underwater version, from the movie avatar. I cannot even start to describe some of the livestock or layout of the formations we seen. pure eyecandy..stuff ive never ever seen before. Some corals kinda cross between flower pots and GBTA's, some funky bubble corals, soft scrolling formations, etc. picked up a few corals for the tank, some nice lobo's and a couple of starfishes.
we still have a couple of air tanks on the back porch, might get another dive in tomorrow.

enjoy the pics

 

[r-balljunkie]

 

[r-balljunkie]

 

[r-balljunkie]