Hey all. I've been keeping saltwater for almost 3 years. I just made the leap to reef this spring and I want to share this with you. Get yourself a hand lens or magnifying glass. I'm surprised I haven't seen this recommendation in any of the books I own or in any forum I've read. I'm sure it's out there, and I'm not the first to think of it, but wanted to share. It makes observing inverts especially more interesting. Corals, snails, stars, pods and shrimp are super cool to look at magnified.
I personally bought this particular one and I'm really really pleased. Hours of viewing enjoyment.
When I first set my reefs up I would sit all night watching all the critters come out of the rock work and deep sand bed. Its a completely different world when the lights go down!
Anthony Calfo turned me on to the Ogle's Mesoscope years ago and loaned me his to try. Amazing for looking at things in microscopic detail.
My daughter taught me to use a little hand lens to look at the slow movers in my tank when she was four years old. She had it for looking at ants and beetles and flowers... In hind sight, it seems like an obvious leap to the aquarium, though my old brain never made that connection.
Every once in a while, she gives me a book that she has illustrated showing all of the inverts she saw that day. Complete with names like "copepod" and "bristleworm" and "red crab". Spelled differently every time. I save them all!
That's pretty cool. I've always wanted a microscope to look at stuff in the reef. I seen a scuba arctile that said if you knew what was in sea water you wouldn't dive, then they showed this picture. Its one drop of seawater under a scope.
Needless to say whenever I go diving now I have the vision that I'm drinking all this stuff. <Shudder>
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I'm one of those with a lil stool sitting in front of her tank people. This would sure come in handy.
There's nothing like being a Reefer!
