Continually Amazed

[PamelaMueller]

I am continually amazed by this process! Richard is fabulous and our tank is spectucular thus far. I can't wait for Part II (which is this afternoon)!!!:bounce1:

Our story:

We picked up our first shipment of "The Package" on November 10. The airline called us and said "your boxes are leaking all over the place and we are shipping them back if you don't come and get them." REALLY? So we retrieved our first half of the package, not knowing what to expect. The boxes weren't leaking! The airport staff had been turning them on their sides to move them around - SERIOUSLY?

Anyway we got them home, opened them up, and plopped everything in the tank according to Richard's instructions. The tank is fabulous!!! I will post images below of the progress - our tank was crystal clear in about 3 hours. Our ammonia spiked day 4 to .5 ppm and ran .25 for 2-3 days. We lucked out and never did have to cycle our water. Yesterday our ammonia was 0ppm and remained at 0 today.

We've seen tons of life in our tank and had a lot of hitchikers arrive with Part 1. We have a serpent star that is totally fabulous. We have a ton of snails and crabs in there already. We have some amazing growths on our rocks, including Caulerpa, an Anemone, Tube Coral, Hermit Crabs, a tinly little Black Urchin, several Mollusks, Tunicate (dark purple and orange), and a lot of unidentified objects! The list goes on and on and on and this was just Part 1!!!

Richard has been spectacular. I've bombarded him with questions and he has been supportive and helpful the entire time. We couldnt' be happier!

Photos are original empty tank, 1 hour after we started the process, 3 hours after we started, and the final aquascape for part 1. The final shot is of our youngest daughter Tori in front of the tank.

 

[PamelaMueller]

Additional Images...

Additional Images...

Here are some images (close up) of critters in our tank...

 

[liverock]

Part two....

Part two....

How did you do with part two?

Was Southwest a bit more friendly with your boxes?

sea ya
Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com:spin2::spin2::spin2:

 

[Jaxom]

Pictures look fantastic, can you give us a little info on your tank and what you ordered from TBS, thanks.

 

[PamelaMueller]

Part II - Tank Update

Part II - Tank Update

On Thursday we drove to St. Louis and picked up Part 2 of "The Package." I must say I was really impressed with Southwest Airlines and the way they handled our delivery. We literally zipped in, told them who we are, paid the shipping, and they helped us load. They even gave us plastic for the back of my car so we wouldn't get the flooring wet! The packages were barely leaking (go figure, they didn't flip them on their sides)! It was a very easy and enjoyable experience!

We got home around 8:00 p.m. and unboxed everything. Ok so I know what I was expecting - some smaller pieces of live rock, and the colorful items I've seen online, and the cleanup crew. When we opened the first bag of rock, I about had a heart attack. These pieces of rock were not smaller, nor were they anything like the live rock I've seen before. They wOn Thursday we drove to St. Louis and picked up Part 2 of "The Package." I must say I was really impressed with Southwest Airlines and the way they handled our delivery. We literally zipped in, told them who we are, paid the shipping, and they helped us load. They even gave us plastic for the back of my car so we wouldn't get the flooring wet! The packages were barely leaking (go figure, they didn't flip them on their sides)! It was a very easy and enjoyable experience!

We got home around 8:00 p.m. and unboxed everything. Ok so I know what I was expecting - some smaller pieces of live rock, and the colorful items I've seen online, and the cleanup crew. When we opened the first bag of rock, I about had a heart attack. These pieces of rock were not smaller, nor were they anything like the live rock I've seen before. They were literally stunning! It took us forever to figure out how to place them in the tank to show them to their best advantage!! We finally undid some of our previous aquascaping to fit in all the new stuff and OMG I am floored! We made a mini cave in front. You wouldn't believe the rock that looks like a dragon - he's sitting on the top middle of the tank watching over everything else!

And OMG the sponges! The color is amazing! The cleanup crew is awesome, and the two starfishes are entirely too cool to watch! We had three baby cucumber hitchhikers and half a dozen or so baby starfish floating around in the tank. We saw (and snapped a pic) of this tiny little peppermint looking star fish of some kind. It looked like he was waving at us fromt he top of his rock! The sea whips are fantastic! We were seriously floored. OK so I've read every one of the testimonials on the TB Saltwater website. I mean literally every one. They don't begin to describe the experience. The colors are briliant and Richard (on his Nov 15 post) said he found some marvelous rock. We are the lucky recipients of his haul and he is pure genius. Through emails back and forth I learned he literally visualizes how the tank should look when he's harvesting. I simply hope we did his work justice when we put the tank together on this end because the package (part 2 in particular) is literally breathtaking.

Attaching photos - let me know what you think! We had one casualty (sorta). An amazing sea urchin was in our package - I believe he's a tuxedo urchin? He did great night one and then stopped moving and shed all his spines. It is heartbreaking! He is still alive thus far. We are babying him with seaweed parked right at his door (if you will) and watching him. No clue what happened to him if anyone has insight. Our water parameters are still rockin' and we deposited our first 3 fish in the tank tonight - a copper banded butterfly, a six striped wrasse, and a fire goby. The goby immediately disappeared from sight and we haven't seen anything of him LOL. The other two are exploring their new world. We are going to sit tight for a while and watch the tank closely for cycling and water parameters before we do anything else. So far so good - we did 1 water cycle (today) in the entire process.

The quality of Richard's products is simply amazing! I can completely see how this tank will take care of itself - we've had amazing results thus far! And I would 100% recommend using Tampa Bay Saltwater to anyone! All our friends already know!!!

More about our tank - we have a 95 gallon glass tank - 48in wide, 25 in tall, 18 in deep. We have 2 Marineland 360 canister filters, a protein skimmer, two heaters, a turbo jet pump for current, and Reef Capable LED lighting. The only problem we've had with the tank is regulating the temp (heat increases) as it is sitting in a custom-built shelving system. We are remedying this by installing a tank fan (on order but not delivered yet) so we are using an oscillating fan for the duration - works great!

 

[PamelaMueller]

Additonal Photos

Additonal Photos

Pic 2 is the sad little thing that is left of our urchin!!! We are still hoping he'll pull through.

 

[mndfreeze]

Tank looks nice! Please post pics over time so we can see progress. I really want to see some of the TBS stuff over the long haul, especially the sponges since they are known for being a pain in the butt to keep alive.

 

[PamelaMueller]

Will do! So far the tank is progressing very well. We have some corals on the rocks that flouresced last night in our moon lighting (LED). It was so cool!!!

We have 2 mantis shrimps in the tank we need to remove. Any ideas????

 

[Jaxom]

Thanks for the info about the tank, you've done an outstanding job putting it together. What did you end up ordering from Richard, I'm thinking about ordering the 90 lbs package with only 120 ibs of rock.

 

[PamelaMueller]

To Jaxom

To Jaxom

We ordered the 95 gallon package. I was hesitant - figured I'd go wtih the 90 but I'm SOOOO very glad i went with the full 95 gallons. That gave us 190 lbs rock, 95 lbs sand, 95 hermits, 48 snails, 4 cukes, 2 stars, 2 shrimp. It is unbelievable what the rock really looks like. I will have "clear" photos to post today - we got the real camera out instead of my smartphone so the pictures are amazing. I would suggest you go wtih your actual tank size and don't downgrade the amount of rock. Richard is really brilliant at visualizing what the end result will be. We have so many nooks and crannies and caves built with the rock that the fish and critters have endless options! It is well worth it!

 

[PamelaMueller]

Updated Pics

Updated Pics

Here are some of the tank photos taken with an actual camera (not my phone)

 

[PamelaMueller]

Two More Pics

Two More Pics

Final pics of this week.
Anyone care to come catch my mantis shrimp?

 

[Jaxom]

Nice looking tank Pamela, you guys did a great job with your landscape.

 

[gmate]

Amazing pictures. Was considering getting some LR from a friend locally for dirt cheap, a dollar a pound, but seeing the amount of life on the LR in the first few posts is seriously slanting my decision right now. And I know I have to get that order in before December too....shoot. So tough!

 

[PamelaMueller]

To gmate

To gmate

I would seriously get my rock from TB Saltwater. I was also considering cheap local rock (which is saying something since we are in the middle of the corn belt!!!). But the rock is just rock - there is nothing growing on it at all. What I've seen elsewhere (in the 5 stores around here that carry saltwater supplies) is just wet rock with nothing else. What I received from Richard is amazing! We are watching all of the new life spring forward - we have some amazing things growing that we haven't really identified yet. It is a daily surprise!!!

 

[PamelaMueller]

Week 3 Update

Week 3 Update

Well its week 3 after we added our Package from TB Saltwater (Week 2 after the second shipment of live rock and sponges etc.). The tank is fabulous. We couldn't be happier. Unfortunately we are totally battling nitrates and nitrites at this point. Our ammonia is 0 and our pH will not regulate (topping out around 8.0 even when we add buffer). We lost a few sponges (which we expected) but the darn water parameters are not stable. We have been doing water changes to lower the nitrate levels. Yesterday they were 50 ppm and the (nitrites were just a trace - slighly above 0). We purchased a nitrate reducer and used it. I figured the tank is doing its cycle but I don't want to lose anything in the process.

Any thoughts????