# Powell River Jasper's New Reef tank (donated Biocube 14 g build)



## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

So, this will be a different tank journal than most in that I will be posting most of the pics and info, rather than Jasper, the owner of his very own first reef tank.

This reef tank is the result of a lot of very generous aquarists (mostly reefers from BC, AB, SK, and PQ) who all donated tank, stand, equipment, supplies, frags, livestock, and funds to help this fifteen years old boy get his wish come true.

Here's Tyler "spitfire", who donated the Biocube, stand & other goodies, along with Laurie "The Guy" who donated frags to this endeavour too.



This is what the donated frags looked like in my holding tank at home in Burnaby:



What it looked like on the BC Ferry ride up to Powell River Monday morning:



Felicia (who is NOT a morning person, just like Daddy) came for a Father-Daughter trip:


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Waiting for the second ferry:



The build pics will have to wait until Jasper's mom uploads them since my hands were kind of wet and busy putting the tank together. So here is Jasper getting his first look at his new reef tank:



Some pics of the reef (first day - cloudy, Tuesday - much clearer):





Pair of beautiful Grade A Snowflakes from Mindy (Myka):


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

More random pics of new reef tank:







I will post more pics after I download them onto Photobucket.

Thanks everyone who donated and made it possible to make Jasper's wish come true.

Sincerely,

Anthony & Felicia


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

*one word comes to mind..... *



*Job well done Anthony and everyone involved!*


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Some more pics:







Skunk Cleaner Shrimp donated by J&L Aquatics:


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

On our way home Wednesday:





Daddy's little helper:



Again, huge thanks to all who got involved to help a young boy none of us even knew or had met before.

Everyone's involvement and generosity really renewed my faith in the human race. There may be hope for us after all:bigsmile:

Anthony


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Yes, it was a tiring trip and long commute (5 hours each way with two ferries to catch, each way), but well worth the effort.

We started setting up (Marie & I) around 12:30pm and finished by 1:45pm. After that, Jasper and his family spent 6 to 7 hours that afternoon/evening just sitting by their new reef tank looking at all the cool new inhabitants. So yeah, well worth the effort.

Wish I could have stayed longer but I had to catch up on my work after taking off for almost 3 days to go to Powell River.

Here's an extra treat for you photo-hungry reefers:



A quick snapshot of Marie's new 300g reef (yes, pic is too blue but just thought I'd add this into this thread anyways).

Thanks Marie for giving Felicia and I a place to stay while getting Jasper's reef tank up and running. Also major thanks for agreeing to provide the pre-mixed saltwater and taking care of the tank when Jasper's family are out-of-town. Literally could not have done this without you.

Sincerely,

Anthony & Felicia


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

This looks great, Anthony! Together with the story and the look in Jasper's face... just brought tears in my eyes. Felicia is such a sweetheart, what a lovely picture of you two!
Thanks a lot for the update! Looking forward for more pictures! Hope Jasper is very happy with his tank!


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

This is definitely awesome. Glad to see Jasper is entertained by the tank!


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

A few more pics:







I believe these pics are among the ones taken by Jasper himself.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Wow!! Need to get you over to scape my tank =)


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

wow nice job !


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Really nice and well done, I wish I was there to c Jasper's face. I am glad everything went well


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Hello All,

First – apologies for not posting sooner. Jasper has been experiencing some declining health, and with moving into our new house, the hosting of a box-war…and non-stop company, we’ve been swamped! 

We are all delighted with the BioCube14. Anthony (and his daughter Felicia) and Marie came and spent a few hours setting it up and checked up on it the next day. We are finding it more compelling than television! We have a number of corals whose names we are still learning, a pair of snowflake clownfish Suture and Dex, a cleaner shrimp Sir Edmund Hilary, a mandarin goby Bond, a royal gramma Francisco “Pistols” Scaramanga otherwise known as Paco or the Man with the Golden Gun, three hermit crabs named after sherpas; Tenzing Norgay, Sano Babu Sunuwar (Babu) and Nima Chhamzi, a snail and two tube worms (bonus!) as yet unnamed. Many many thanks must go out to those who donated equipment and fish and corals. Anthony explained how rare some were and how far away they have come from. This has been an excellent gift – not just for Jasper, but for our whole family and has inspired many hours of together-time gazing at the tank.

We’ve had quite a bit of action already – the climbing antics of the shrimp and crabs inspiring their names. Also – Bond must have put a hit out on Paco – because he was dead and being devoured by the snail one morning. (We suspect transport shock as we rarely saw it). We are already talking about a replacement with Anthony. The corals have all popped out and everyone seems to be doing well now. Yesterday morning my husband exclaimed “There’s a second shrimp…it must have been hiding all this time – it’s totally transparent!” We soon learned that the shrimp had simply molted – very exciting.

We are all learning more about aquaria every day, as are our friends and family. Thanks for getting us started in this fascinating hobby!

We’ll post more as our tank evolves.

The Mohans


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Copied from Jasper's parents' post on Canreef. Can someone (John) please edit this post to open the pics here?

http://imageshack.us/a/img849/9863/6tj.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img194/6941/bcta.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img20/9231/nabv.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img189/8272/e9ph.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img21/5504/zkfp.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img14/5569/gut0.jpg


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## Foxtail (Mar 14, 2012)

Awesome!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Hahaha that's awesome, Japer got a chair on front of the tank already lol


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## davefrombc (Apr 21, 2010)

I can only attach 5 files per post, so here's the pix in two postings


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## davefrombc (Apr 21, 2010)

The 6th photo


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Thanks Dave.


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

Wonderful! Enjoyed the update and the pictures!


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

So my friend Dean from Powell River will probably be coming down to visit this coming weekend. I will be sending some more stuff up for Jasper's tank so if anybody wants to send something up please let me know and we can arrange it.

Anthony


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

i got some mad nice gsp il send up


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Dean will be leaving Monday morning. Received a bunch of nice frags from ScubaSteve this afternoon. Gonna go buy a small colourful wrasse to replace the lost Royal Gramma on Sunday. So any other donations need to be here by Sunday night preferably.

Thanks,

Anthony


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

Very nice thing you did for this young fellow! 
I've
Spent a lot of time at Canucks place and know what families go through.
Canucks place has a huge saltwater tank. The kids there all enjoy it.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Horrible news. Jasper passed away today. Sorry can't type much right now. Feel like crap.

Anthony


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## dino (Aug 29, 2011)

sad to hear this 
ill be sure to go and hug my family makes me appreciate how fortunate I am.


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## m_class2g (Apr 21, 2010)

So sorry to hear this..... 

Anthony you did a great deed.


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## The Guy (Nov 26, 2010)

Very sorry for the loss Jasper, my saddened thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

wow......what a shock. sorry to hear this as well.


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

That is so sad to hear. I can't fathom losing my child. My prayers go out to his family.

Respectfully,

Stuart




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

I have no words


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## Durogity (Jun 10, 2013)

I was just showing my wife this thread two days ago, I don't think she'd be able to handle the news right now, she gets so emotionally involved in stories like this. I truly feel for his family and everyone on the forum whom had a relationship with him.

-Jason


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## aQ.LED (Nov 13, 2012)

sigh... very sad news, as a parent of 3 kids, I can really understand the loss. My prayer goes to the family.


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## badrad (Aug 6, 2012)

Sad indeed. A life extinguished much too early. But the pain is finally gone. May he rest in peace.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Sad news. I just started following this thread a few weeks ago. Atleast Jasper got to enjoy his saltwater tank, even if it was just for a short time. Big props to all of those who helped with his tank. The people on Bcaquaria are amazing. May he rest in peace with forever dreams of his little nano salt water tank. Im sure he is smiling right now as he watches from above. 

Cheers Bcaquaria members. You made a huge difference is this young boys life with a simple act of kindness !!!!!


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

My prayer goes to the family.


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

Oh  This is so sad  Thinking of the family today!


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Very sad news indeed! Anthony you did an awesome job of putting this together and making it happen! Helping him knock something off of his bucket list in the short time he had was a great deed my friend. Though he only had it for a few weeks, I'm sure it provided alot of happiness in the short time he had. As for the awesome BCA members who helped to make this happen...you guys ROCK!! Thanks to each and everyone of you who helped make a dream come true for an awesome young man whose time on earth was far too short!
Thoughts and prayers for the family! RIP Jasper!


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

He has a very loving family. He stayed strong


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

Both myself and my wife are in pain to see this news.... 

I was about to put some things for sale so that the proceeds can go to his tank's maintenance and seeing this post has put us both in shock.
It makes me realize how precious each moment in our life is.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

One last update.

Texted with Jasper's dad and found out that they were eventually unable to keep up with maintaining the tank and most of the frags & fish were re-homed with my friend Marie. They again want to thank everyone who donated to making their son's (Jasper) dream of having his very own reef tank a reality. They have really enjoyed having the tank and it brought untold amounts of joy to Jasper during his last weeks, which is really more than we could have ever hoped for. I am sorry Jasper only got to enjoy his reef tank for a few weeks, but anything that can bring a smile at that time in his life is really well worth the effort and expense. 

Reading this thread and the related threads on this project, from conception to completion, has brought me great happiness and sadness at the same time. I only met Jasper on that first trip to Powell River (didn't make it back in time on the second trip), but he made a lasting impression on myself and my own little girl, Felicia, who made that memorable father-daughter trip up to Powell River with me. She still sometimes mentions Jasper and we talk about that trip and why we went up.

Again, I need to express my deepest thanks to everyone who donated, participated, or gave moral support for this very worthwhile project. The tank may now be dismantled, but the spirit of community and human kindness expressed by everyone on BCAquaria and Canreef, from across Canada for an ill little boy who wanted to have a reef tank continues to inspire me and renew my faith in the goodness of people. Thanks from myself, Felicia and Jasper's family for making this project a reality.

Sincerely,

Anthony


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## Daryl (Jun 1, 2010)

Wow. I just found this thread and read it start to finish. I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in 5 short pages.

I'm so impressed by the efforts and generosity of the membership, here at BCAquaria.

Good on all of you.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Just re-read this thread from start to finish and almost two and a half years later, still ended up in tears. RIP Jasper. May your spirit continue to live on in the lives of the people you touched. 

Felicia and I very much enjoyed meeting this brave little boy and that experience continues to touch us and make us appreciate the people in our lives.

Again, thanks to the BCA and Canreef family for everything they did to help this project from start to finish.

Merry Christmas everyone and please, please, go hug and kiss your kids.

Anthony


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I read this thread from start to finish -- what a rollercoaster of emotions. Such a high to see Jasper get his wish thanks to the huge efforts of the aquarium community and especially Anthony. And then, Jasper's death at such a young age. Although he only had the tank for a short time, I think that the tank probably brought him joy and something creative and positive to focus on, some life even as he was dying. That is a huge gift to Jasper and his family. Thank you, everyone. I seem to have missed this whole thing at the time that it was happening.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Was discussing a father-daughter trip with a new BCA friend, which brought back vivid memories of my own father-daughter trip with Felicia to Powell River four years ago. 

Jasper, buddy, you are still remembered and missed. RIP my little friend.

Now it's time for me to go kiss my little girls good night. I'll say a prayer for you & your family Jasper.


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