I brought Part 2 of "The Package" home around 4:00 PM yesterday afternoon. We got the last gorgian "planted" about midnight. Eight hours of awe, discovery, amazement and appreciation!
The tank is a 135g acrylic bullnose set out in our living room as a divider. It is 30" deep, so planting stuff was kinda tough - I thought I was going to need a snorkle at one pont....
We opened the six boxes and immediately pulled out the critters. We had two guys over painting some of the rooms of our house and even they were amazed. I think there was a total of 17 bags of goodies - of course there was the promised snails, crabs, cucumbers, shrimp and serpent stars (one was HUGE). But there was also 5 anenomes, one sally lightfoot crab (??), one goby and probably 7 other bags of gorgian/corals. I had to float all of these guys in my 120g sump AND 55g refugium to get them acclimated.
Pulling the rock out of the boxes was awesome. Nothing smelled bad and the rocks were covered with sponges and encrusting coral. I can't wait to get the lights on to see what else came along with it because we found all sorts of stuff on the first part of the package once it got in the tank.
Dealing with the rock quickly got the nickname "The Great American Crab Hunt." My girlfriend took the presence of the bad crabs almost personally - calling them all sorts of derogatory names that dealt with family history and sexual preferences.....
I feel sorry for the kid that walks up to OUR house next Halloween dressed as a crab. He's gonna get a face full of seltzer water and attacked by a madwoman wielding chopsticks - followed by maniacal semi-psychotic laughter...
You can't praise TampaBay Saltwater enough. There is no way you could get this quantity/quality of stuff for the price, convenience and service.
The kids got home just as we were finishing up and we still squealing with surprise after we went to bed. I'm including pics - I haven't put the canopy back on while I do some work while I have access.
This is a shot from the side of the tank. Just look at all the color and life. Who else can provide a tank like this the day you add rock?
Pic across the nose of the tank. The curve magnifies the tank and makes it look surreal.
Look at the cucumbers! They were huge and immediately active. There is one all the way up near the overflow today. Look at the stuff growing on just that small piece of rock!!! I thought the plants would die off during the cycle of Part 1 but they weathered it like a charm - not that there was much of a spike - 0.3 ppm ammonia max.
Look at these two guys! They didn't look like much in the bag but man 'o man was it awesome watching them open up.
The hermits mauling a gorgian as if they were teenage girls in a room alone with David Archuletta....
More life!!!! That's actually two condy's back there. I thought it was only one, but when I dropped it in it split!!
Look at this one!!! As soon as we opened the box that purple color was just awesome!! When I put it in the tank it dropped down on a rock and ended up under one. We hope it comes out soon cause it's stunning!!
The sumproom downstairs where I floated the critters. It was full of floating bags and I had to put some in the 'fuge for room.
This is the canopy to the tank. Because of some poor planning on my part I had to mount the light in such a way I can't access the tank through the canopy. So you can see the little pneumatic cylinders I have rigged to at least lift the canopy up 6".
I'll take more pics once I get the lights back on.
The tank is a 135g acrylic bullnose set out in our living room as a divider. It is 30" deep, so planting stuff was kinda tough - I thought I was going to need a snorkle at one pont....
We opened the six boxes and immediately pulled out the critters. We had two guys over painting some of the rooms of our house and even they were amazed. I think there was a total of 17 bags of goodies - of course there was the promised snails, crabs, cucumbers, shrimp and serpent stars (one was HUGE). But there was also 5 anenomes, one sally lightfoot crab (??), one goby and probably 7 other bags of gorgian/corals. I had to float all of these guys in my 120g sump AND 55g refugium to get them acclimated.
Pulling the rock out of the boxes was awesome. Nothing smelled bad and the rocks were covered with sponges and encrusting coral. I can't wait to get the lights on to see what else came along with it because we found all sorts of stuff on the first part of the package once it got in the tank.
Dealing with the rock quickly got the nickname "The Great American Crab Hunt." My girlfriend took the presence of the bad crabs almost personally - calling them all sorts of derogatory names that dealt with family history and sexual preferences.....
I feel sorry for the kid that walks up to OUR house next Halloween dressed as a crab. He's gonna get a face full of seltzer water and attacked by a madwoman wielding chopsticks - followed by maniacal semi-psychotic laughter...
You can't praise TampaBay Saltwater enough. There is no way you could get this quantity/quality of stuff for the price, convenience and service.
The kids got home just as we were finishing up and we still squealing with surprise after we went to bed. I'm including pics - I haven't put the canopy back on while I do some work while I have access.
This is a shot from the side of the tank. Just look at all the color and life. Who else can provide a tank like this the day you add rock?
Pic across the nose of the tank. The curve magnifies the tank and makes it look surreal.
Look at the cucumbers! They were huge and immediately active. There is one all the way up near the overflow today. Look at the stuff growing on just that small piece of rock!!! I thought the plants would die off during the cycle of Part 1 but they weathered it like a charm - not that there was much of a spike - 0.3 ppm ammonia max.
Look at these two guys! They didn't look like much in the bag but man 'o man was it awesome watching them open up.
The hermits mauling a gorgian as if they were teenage girls in a room alone with David Archuletta....
More life!!!! That's actually two condy's back there. I thought it was only one, but when I dropped it in it split!!
Look at this one!!! As soon as we opened the box that purple color was just awesome!! When I put it in the tank it dropped down on a rock and ended up under one. We hope it comes out soon cause it's stunning!!
The sumproom downstairs where I floated the critters. It was full of floating bags and I had to put some in the 'fuge for room.
This is the canopy to the tank. Because of some poor planning on my part I had to mount the light in such a way I can't access the tank through the canopy. So you can see the little pneumatic cylinders I have rigged to at least lift the canopy up 6".
I'll take more pics once I get the lights back on.
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keep those pics coming! Your tank is so unique.
