obstinate.org

Progress

3 Gallon Pico

Overall the tank is doing great, it currently looks great, and that’s the point, right? There are a few things that have happened that I thought I would detail.

• Filterless to Filter – The tank was getting messy, no amount of water changes could keep it clean. I ended up giving up and getting a little nano sponge filter. It has helped dramatically. Cleaning the sponge every few weeks seems to be enough to keep everything crystal clear. I think making sure I don’t keep the light on for 4 days straight helps, too.
• The Cichlid Massacre – I picked up 6 victorian cichlids and put them into the tank. After doing a water change, I poured in the replacement water too fast and it stirred up the sandbed more than I wanted. As a result lots of detrius got pumped into the water column. All but one of them died. So there is just one tiny yellow cichlid in my tank now, but I like it like that. I think I will keep him alone for awhile.
• Scum – I still get a lot of this oil slick on the surface of the water, I cure it with water changes that include using a plastic cup and ’skimming’ the surface of the water.

12 Gallon Nano

My 12 Gallon planted tank has not been doing so well. I have this invasive (carnivorous, im told) hitchhiker plant that grows like crazy and looks nasty. Additionally, the algae growing on the glass grows at an unacceptable rate. Last night I turned off the light and plan to leave it off for a few days to help kill off the algae. Additionally, I lowered the lighting period from 12 hours to 7. Hopefully this will help.

I almost never touch this tank, and want to try to keep it this way. I am going to seriously need to figure out how to get rid of this hitchhiker. It seems to be very invasive so I am not optimistic about it. I may have to resort to ’starting over’. I am not looking forward to that.

Little picture to satisfy the fanboys.

The first thing you need to know about the new Maserati is that I haven’t driven this car. I felt compelled to write this after seeing a few on the road, and looking over the details. This is one of the first supercars that got the recipe right.

Think about how many 100k+ sports cars you see on the road. If you think about it really hard, you almost never see Ferraris or Lambo’s – you see more 100k+ mercedes sports cars than anything else, I see SL500/600/55’s daily. I see Ferrari’s around once a week. I think what Maserati have done with the GrandTourismo is give you the excitement of a supercar without all of typical drawbacks. Here’s why:

1. It has an automatic gearbox – Yes, having the sweet SMG clutch-auto transmissions is great for the track, ever try driving one around town? It is not fun, other than the Audi DSG (there are other variants of this spectacular BorgWarner trasmission coming in this years’s M3, and the ‘09 911 line) but for the most part high end cars are wither manual’s, or SMG’s. I’ll take the automatic for LA traffic, thanks.

2. It doesn’t have a volcano for an engine – With around 400 HP and a a 4,200lb curb weight, this thing has enough power to get you into trouble, and fun without melting the asphalt. I always feel sympathy watching people in their 650hp Lambo driving down the 405 – what’s the point? And because it doesn’t have the enormous engine, you aren’t afraid of using it.

3. It looks AMAZING – The visual feast of this car is fantastic, something you don’t even get close to with any merc, bmw, or other luxo-sports cars, it is simply STUNNING. Its exciting just to look at, and that is half of the battle won. No 9 year olds want a boring SL600 pinned up on their wall, but they would want one of these.

This is the recipe for success, lots of these will sell to poser soccer moms who want to look fast, and they will also sell lots of these to true enthusiasts who want to drive fast, but not die for the cause. Kudos.