Monthly Archives: October 2012

10.17.12

What the heck is ICH...

Posted by Christina // 5 Replies

When people start getting into the saltwater hobby, they soon learn about ich. The scientific mumbo-jumbo is Ichthyophthiriasis. You will usually hear it called “white spot” or ich for short.

Ich is a very contagious, very common parasite that affects aquarium fish.
Here is the ringer…it can be lethal.

Ich appears as very tiny white specs on the fish, no bigger than a grain of salt. The spots are generally consistent in size and once they are there, you need to treat them.

Early signs can include the fish scratching on the rocks or swimming in an odd behavior. Like they are doing an uncomfortable little dance trying to brush this infection off.

Ich is for fishies what colds are for you and me. The causes can be bad water conditions, live food that’s infected, and even stress.
Believe it or not fish get really stressed when you change their environment.

Ich spreads like a second grade chicken pox epidemic, so you need to be careful when you are buying fish to look for the symptoms above.

If you do happen to catch a little white spot, there are a few treatments.
We usually start by supplementing garlic in their food, that helps to boost their immune system and fight the parasite.

There are lots of medications that you can buy at local fish stores, but we have not tried any so we aren’t giving out recommendations. There are other remedies like UV light treatments, fresh water dips, lowering your salinity levels and even adjusting your temperature. Like I said, we haven’t tried that so we can’t give you any advice. Now if you want to know about vodka dosing….we got cha.

Our best recommendation is to pay attention to your tank, you will catch ich early and be able to take simple steps to get your fish back kickin.

10.16.12

Jazzing up your jars....

Posted by Christina // 11 Replies

I have come across a lot of sweet and vintage sugar jars, and I love them.
I felt inspired.

I have a Silhouette Cameo so I can be crafty and cut vinyl, and the last few weeks I have gone vinyl crazy. Don’t worry you will get to see them all soon, pinky promise.

Slapping it on my glass jars was at the top of my list.
If you have been feeling inspired as well, here is a little vinyl how-to for you.
Easy peesy lemon squeezy.
Each of our little jars is a star, and they are ready for their close-up.
Vogue.

Yes, our sense of humor may be a little perverted. But we smile every time we gotta make koolaid now.

It’s all in good fun, anyone else tried spicing up their sugar jar lately?

10.15.12

Our favorite things...Octoberfest edition

Posted by Christina // 8 Replies

It is that time again…..already

Here are our favorite things for the month of October. 1. I am digging the scarves lately. Bright and fun, printed and sweet…it doesn’t matter. These are my perfect fall accessories, this one is on my crush list.

2. I slapped “Every Month is Oktoberfest” on my toes on a recent pedicure trip. It is the first time I have ever put a dark and moody color on my toes. I generally stick to girly pinks or hot summer brights, so this was a refreshing change. I love it so much I ordered a bottle when I got home, I love how it reflects different colors in the light.

3. I will admit…I broke down and bout the iPhone 5 the day it came out. Only because my friend Sally asked me to go with her, and only because I had an upgrade on my kickin it old school phone. Gotta say, I can not put my phone down. I love it almost as much as bacon. Suuuweeee.

4. With the weather changing I am preparing for the dry hands and tootsies. Aveda’s Hand Relief is the best lotion I have ever found, it is rich and creamy but not greasy at all. Plus, it smells like fruit loops ohhh yum. Go get you some.

5. Oh the smells of fall, they make me so happy. We have candles…multiple candles in every single room. We change them with the seasons and I have been waiting to bust out the pumpkin candles for about three weeks now. The time has come for bonfires and pumpkin spice everything. I am one happy lady. 1. You are bound to see a lot of spray painting projects on the blog soon, and we have been working with a few different brands. Valspar has becoming my favorite spray paint without question. It sprays with ease and covers evenly, very good quality. Makes it a little less of a chore to spray paint all the stuff Christina brings to me.

2. I am getting really excited for all the Halloween candy to be hitting shelves, Twix is by far my favorite candy bar of the season.

3. We just switched the dogs over to Buffalo Blue brand dog food after a series of bad food run ins. It is difficult to find something that is healthy for both pit bulls and peek-a-poos. This all-natural brand has successfully kept both dogs full and happy. The little one even eats all of her food in one sitting, which is new. Two paws up.

4. Who watched the Red Bull Stratos jump? I was glued to the tv watching the little capsule rise and rise and wondering how this guy was going to survive temperatures of 96 degrees below zero. It was awesome, didn’t realize it took five years to plan jumping 24 miles either. That guy has guts.

5. Jason Motte has been my hero for a couple years now. I got his jersey for Christmas last year (thanks to the little miss) and he has really been rocking it in the post season. He even picked up a bat the other night. Go Cards!

10.12.12

Inspiration for everyone....

Posted by Christina // 6 Replies

These are my favorite finds from the blogiverse this week…. Get this pretty little print over here.

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Instead of a pocket full of posies….I would like a trunk full of beautiful blooms.

I gotta send some snail mail…just so I can transfer images with packaging tape.

Get beyond lost in this cloud installation….some people get all the creativity.

My next Halloween party….I am serving up some blood.

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I hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with lots of prettiness and inspiration!

10.10.12

Our fish get crunk when we vodka dose....

Posted by Christina // 10 Replies

Recently, Tim and I had a bit of a nitrate problem.
We did some research and kept coming up with a very strange remedy.

Vodka dosing.
This perfect drawing found right here.

Let me tell you that the night T came to me and said he wanted to put vodka in our tank with my beloved fishies, I was a little more than leery.

I did my research right away since like most men, he couldn’t wait more than five minutes to get started.

Since we are still officially “youngins” we did happen to have an extra bottle of vodka just lying around, but before he started ~~popping bottles~~ pouring away…I had to get my facts.

I have heard stories of haters pouring nasty bleach in their enemies tanks to kill everything in the tank…..so mean.
If you ever want to break my heart, just threaten that above sentence.

I did what any caring fish mama would do….I made a pun.
Then I got my research on and found out where this crazy idea came from.

Charles Delbeek, M.SC. who is a marine biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium explained that: “the “vodka method” is a means to add inorganic carbon in the form alcohol to cause bacteria to grow. In boosting bacterial growth, nitrate and phosphate are incorporated by the bacteria, lowering these values in the water. The excess bacteria are then either removed through skimming or are consumed by other organisms, such as sponges.”

There were a few debates over this method but the general consensus was it works really well but is a little bit of a shock to your tank so don’t dose alcohol everyday or anything. Which is fine by us because we don’t want to host an A.A. meeting in our tank every Monday.

I gave Timbo the go ahead and he poured in the dose he already had preportioned and waiting.

We are by no means recommending this, because we haven’t done it enough. I will say that we have seen a drop in the nitrates and maybe it’s just in our heads but the colors seem to really be popping!

Check out what my phone thinks…

We shall see…I will keep you posted.

Don’t you love learning new things about your hobbies!

10.09.12

You need to know about the nitrogen cycle....

Posted by Christina // 1 Reply

When you start a new tank you must let the circle of life take over folks.

We usually call this the nitrogen cycle or sometimes the startup cycle but you will hear it called many different names. It is essentially the process of letting beneficial bacteria colonies establish themselves in your tank so that all your pretty corals and loveable fish can live.

Every new aquarium must go through the nitrogen cycle. It can take anywhere from 3-6 weeks or sometimes longer, but each tank is different so it will vary. You can find out where you are in the cycle by testing your water regularly.

The three components involved are ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. The best way to monitor the nitrogen cycle is by getting a saltwater test kit that will test the three components involved in the process. Test your water frequently and record your results to find the phase. Ammonia and Nitrites should test at zero, and Nitrates would ideally be at zero but can test up to 20 ppm (that’s parts per million for you folks in back) before you hit the danger zone. Once your tank has completed the nitrogen cycle, the nitrates are broken down by special types of bacteria which turn nitrates into harmless nitrogen gases which escape into the atmosphere. Your tank will remain more stable and you are now able to add some livestock.

I know what you are thinking, if there is no livestock to begin with then where does you ammonia come from?
Well, if you add live rock to your tank it will begin the cycle.
You can also throw some fish food in there to get it poppin.

There are a ton of great resources for learning about the ins and outs of the Nitrogen cycle out there on the interwebs.
Now go give your friends this science lesson…you’ll sound super smart!