Grants Pass Oregon Aquarium Secret

Grants Pass Best Kept Aquarium Supply and Information Secret

While this weblog has long carried links to resources from American Aquarium Products and others, I have not posted an updated article/blog post about what many who keep fish (pond or aquarium) in Grants Pass are missing.



"American Aquarium Products" along with its sister site "Aquarium & Pond Answers" have grown into one of the leaders in cutting edge aquarium products (& some pond too).

As examples, American Aquarium Products is the largest seller of High End Aquarium LED Lights as well as T2 Aquarium/Multi-purpose lights in North America!

American Aquarium Products is also the leader and information about the use of Sponge Filters in aquariums & ponds. Although these are not new filters, the sponge filter fell out of popularity due to a lot of misinformation put forth by big box pet stores and disingenuous online retailers and aquatic forums. However the Sponge Filtration article proved how the the sponge filter beat out many popular power filters such as the Bio Wheel in bio capacity

Another unique product that American Aquarium has led the way in use, researched tests, & internet promoting are the Wonder Shells Aquarium mineral blocks. AAP has been using these unique mineral blocks that have been shown to improve essential positive mineral ion levels for 30 years, yet many right here in Grants Pass are not even familiar with this product.


As well these websites have the most researched aquatic articles found ANYWHERE on the Internet.
Many of these articles such as Aquarium Lighting and Aquarium/Redox Balance have received acclaim from around the world (often from researchers outside the anecdotal aquarium/pond keeping industry).

There are many more affiliates now of American Aquarium/Aquarium Answers, especially in their other field of expertise; UV Sterilization!
American Aquarium Products is an industry leader in both knowledge of UV Sterilizers, Clarifiers as well as having one of the deepest inventories of Premium UV Replacement Bulbs found anywhere (many clients hail from as far away as Australia).

UV Bulbs
UV-C Replacement Bulbs from the experts in UV Sterilization since 1979; ONLY quality UV Replacement Bulbs at competitive prices such as the popular 9 Watt UV Bulb

What is sad, despite the many research experts, visitors of sponsored forums, and regular clients of American Aquarium Products and Aquarium Answers, these websites are still not well known in their home town of Grants Pass Oregon, but for a few rude emails challenging information contained in the researched articles only to buy products from less than reputable sellers such as DR. F & S (which is well known inside the aquarium industry for their less than honest business practices).
It does not help when the local paper (the Grants Pass Courier, AKA the "Daily Discourager") ignores their home town aquatic experts when doing a story about poisonous fish a few years back only to get their facts wrong (of course the media nationwide are on a downhill slide).

Hopefully many aquarium/pond keepers will wake up to the internet leader in aquatic information/products in their own back yard before they are lured away (offers have already come in from New Jersey and Texas)to move these internet business base of operations to these states.

Here are a few other popular articles:

Aquarium Information
Basic to in-depth aquarium and pond articles.


Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle
The most accurate, researched, updated article on the subject of the Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle and cycling found anywhere on the Internet!

Freshwater Fish Care, Basics
Sound basic freshwater keeping information from someone with decades of aquarium keeping experience with links to more in depth information for those looking to step up in their aquarium keeping knowledge.

Aquarium Medications
the MOST in depth and accurate source of information about aquarium treatments, from antibiotics, chemical, to organic treatments and most importantly how to properly use them!

Gone Fishing Aquaculture Project; Klamath County Oregon

“The Gone Fishing" Aquaculture Project in Klamath County Oregon

I was recently researching Aquaculture projects in Oregon and I stumbled across this gem here in Southern Oregon (not far from the California border) that I feel my readers would be interested in. This aquaculture farm is used to raise 85 varieties of Cichlids from Lake Malawi in Africa’s Great Rift Valley as well as some from Central America.
“Gone Fishing” sells 250,000 of the fish annually to tropical fish wholesalers from Portland, OR to San Francisco, CA; shipped weekly by truck to Sacramento, and then by air to the various other outlets.

The “Gone Fishing” aquaculture project is located about 10 miles south of Klamath Falls, Oregon, near Merrill in the Lower Klamath Valley adjacent to the Klamath Hills.
The original ponds at this facility were constructed in 1984 and have seen limited use. Ron Barnes started the current facility in 1990 using the effluent from a geothermal greenhouse operation on the Liskey Ranch located on Lower Klamath Lake Road.

Geology/Logistics:
The geology of this part of Southern Oregon in Klamath County consists of large normal fault blocks, typical of the Basin and Range province. The Klamath Hills are typical of these fault blocks, allowing geothermal waters that circulate at depth, and move to the surface in shallow aquifers that are easily tapped for the Gone Fishing Aquaculture Farm.

At the original location, a greenhouse complex consisting of four 6,000 square-foot buildings are heated using a peak of 400 gpm from six geothermal wells ranging in temperature from 80F to 200F and all are around 100 feet deep.
The newer set of ponds are provide geothermal water from a 460-foot deep well that pumps up to 300 gpm of 210F water. The water surface in the newer well is at 120 feet and the line shaft pump bowls are set at 190 feet.

The water from the wells is alkaline with a pH of 8.8 out of the wells, but the chemical composition of the pond liners (diatomaceous earth) and soil surrounding the ponds reduce the pH to about 7.5 as the water flows through the system. The water is primarily a sodium-sulfate type of about 600 ppm that can be used directly in the ponds without harm to the fish. This is about the same chemical composition as the water of Lake Malawi.

The average annual sunshine in this part of Oregon is also quite high (as even winter cloud cover is not as continuous as western parts of Oregon due to the blocking affects of the Cascade Mountains). This also allows for some duplication of Africa’s Rift Lake areas high amount of sunshine, although the lower winter sun here at this latitude does substantially lower beneficial light energy such as UVA as well as PAR light wave lengths (UVB is not considered necessary for fish, while UVC although useful for UV Sterilization as found in UVC Bulbs does not even reach the Earths surface even in tropical latitudes). This may slow the growth of plant material grown in the ponds for these generally omnivorous fish.

A Little History
In 1998, Ron Barnes purchased 80 acres of land just north of the greenhouses on the opposite side of the road. The operation has grown to 37 ponds located on the Liskey Ranch and 35 at the new “Gone Fishing” location.
Future plans (that may already have been accomplished) are to raise food grade Tilapia here as well.

For further information, please see these sites:
*http://geoheat.oit.edu/bulletin/bull23-3/art2.pdf
*http://www.geothermal.org/articles/fish.pdf
*http://geoheat.oit.edu/bulletin/bull24-2/art3.pdf

For more Aquarium Keeping Information/Resources:
Aquarium Information

Oregon Shark Cam; Also Wobbegong Shark Tanks

Shark Cam brings Coast Aquarium to life on the Web

From www.kgw.com/news-local/stories

By FRANK MUNGEAM, Kgw.com Staff

The KGW "Shark Cam" is a partnership with the Oregon Coast Aquarium, providing a fish-eye view into the Aquarium's "Passages of the Deep" exhibit.

Web visitors to KGW.com can now enjoy the same experience as Visitors to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, who are immersed in Keiko’s former home through acrylic tunnels surrounded by several feet of sea water. "Passages of the Deep" gives visitors an experience almost like walking into the open ocean.

Visitors get to come face to face with large sharks, rockfish and bat rays swimming above and below. Waves surging against the tunnel give visitors the impression they are beneath the ocean. And the Oregon shipwreck resting on the bottom increases the feeling of being early undersea explorers.

Now viewers of the KGW "Shark Cam" can enjoy that same experience: an up-close view of sharks, rockfish and bat rays swimming across the desktop of their computer!

Comment
This is a really cool place to visit, and now you can visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium from your home via the Shark Cam!!

For Home Shark Tanks

Here are a few points from my Experience:
*Make sure your aquarium is large enough for the shark to easily swim around, often this means a saltwater aquarium in excess of 200 gallons
*Consider temperature; a popular shark sold for the aquarium hobby, the Leopard Shark, is a cool water fish (under 70F) and this along with the fact these will eventually outgrow most aquariums.
*Consider Feeding Requirements; large meaty foods like small pieces of fish, squid, shrimp, and live goldfish (although I have found disabling the goldfish with a cut just behind the head will both attract the shark and allow the shark which has trouble tracking scent trails in a boxed in aquarium is strongly suggested)
*Consider the Tasselled wobbegong (48 inch max) or Northern wobbegong (30 inch max), as these sharks do not obtain the larger sizes of many sharks sold for aquarium keeping PLUS these sharks prefer the warmer waters of the average home or office aquarium (over 75F)



View Shark Cam:
Shark Cam

Earthquakes off the Oregon Coast

Possible Volcanic Earthquakes off the Oregon Coast, the week of April 12, 2008

From this article:
Unusual earthquakes measured off Oregon coast
By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press Writer.

I know this is not really an Aquarium or Pond related story, however since it involves the local ocean waters of Oregon and I find this interesting, I thought I would post this.

“GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Scientists listening to underwater microphones have detected an unusual swarm of earthquakes off central Oregon, something that often happens before a volcanic eruption — except there are no volcanoes in the area.

Scientists don't know exactly what the earthquakes mean, but they could be the result of molten rock rumbling away from the recognized earthquake faults off Oregon, said Robert Dziak, a geophysicist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Oregon State University.

There have been more than 600 quakes over the past 10 days in a basin 150 miles southwest of Newport. The biggest was magnitude 5.4, and two others were more than magnitude 5.0, OSU reported.

On the hydrophones, the quakes sound like low thunder and are unlike anything scientists have heard in 17 years of listening, Dziak said. Some of the quakes have also been detected by earthquake instruments on land.

The hydrophones are left over from a network the Navy used to listen for submarines during the Cold War. They routinely detect passing ships, earthquakes on the ocean bottom and whales calling to one another.

Scientists hope to send out an OSU research ship to take water samples, looking for evidence that sediment has been stirred up and chemicals that would indicate magma is moving up through the Juan de Fuca Plate, Dziak said.

The quakes have not followed the typical pattern of a major shock followed by a series of diminishing aftershocks, and few have been strong enough to be felt on shore.

The Earth's crust is made up of plates that rest on molten rock, which are rubbing together. When the molten rock, or magma, erupts through the crust, it creates volcanoes.

That can happen in the middle of a plate. When the plates lurch against each other, they create earthquakes along the edges.

In this case, the Juan de Fuca Plate is a small piece of crust being crushed between the Pacific Plate and North America, Dziak said.”