
I am posting a link to the photobucket folder so I don't have to clutter the thread w/so many additional pictures and save myself the time of copying/pasting them all in.
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b306/rachelschoen/Aquariums/45G/
45G Tall Aquarium (36" long, 24" high, 12" wide)
So my 1st shipment came before Richard left on his vacation and had over a month to get settled in. Pictures 1-13 (photobucket for whatever reason has the 1st uploaded as the last picture, so they're backwards...but look at the file name and you'll see the file number) are just the 1st shipment and show the enormous growth of macroalgae after only 4 weeks. In that shipment I caught one mantis and lots of crabs. The mantis was particularly hard to catch, but I managed in the end. Unfortunately, probably due to all the club soda he had to put up with, he didn't make it. I counted at least 5 types of macroalgae on the rock - 3 green and 2 red/purple. The greens consisted of the easily seen round leaf type caulerpa and the 2nd and 3rd are probably some type of blade caulerpa - one being thin, feathery blades and the other being fat, thick blades. The red/purple algae resembles that of a stalk-like red algae I think I've seen called grape algae. The other red algae is feathery.
The second order was due at 10pm, but was lost, found, delayed, and then delayed again. It finally made it 31 hours after it first went into the air. What looked to be the remains of a decorator crab and a slightly more smelly 2nd rock box was all the repercussions of that though, so I'm quite impressed. I have decided I don't like South West Airlines though, so if I ever need more rock I think I'll have to request a different carrier


The Rest of the Package & Extras:
So as you can probably see in the pictures, there are two tree sponges - one orange and one red. There is a half of a sphere red sponge, and what I've called a 'cauliflower-type' orange sponge. These add some very cool colors to the tank, but I wonder at their survival rate. If I may ask, who still has their TBS sponges after 2 months? Back to the extras - a purple whip gorgonian - gosh it's purty! And then another thick and very large gorgonian. If I get my wish and this turns into the seahorse tank I want it to be, these will be *great* hitches. There are numerous tube/cup corals and a tree of little cup corals that's simply awesome to look at. There was also a little blenny, and man, is he ever CUTE =D He's got a lot of personality and went to chomping away at the algae on the rocks from the 1st batch. Two anemones - I believe one sebae and one condi. A porcelain crab, decorator crab that I found in the rocks (not the smooched one), a mushroom coral, two peppermint shrimps, a serpent seastar, lots of snails and hermits, and I think that was about it. Hope I'm not forgetting anything, but there really was quite a bit extra =D
One last note:
A few days before the 2nd shipment of rock came in, a coral beauty angel fish started going psycho on my corals/clams/feather duster in my reef tank. She had previously been reef-safe for a number of years, but probably due to the stress of moving, she started picking at a number of things. I moved her to the 45G, and a day after the 2nd shipment arrived, an isopod was attached to her caudal peduncle. I think the isopods were already there with the first shipment, but I just crossed my fingers and hoped they were 'the bad kind'. Apparently that didn't work though

