Part II has landed - full tank shots

[Madratter]

I'll write more tomorrow but Richard sent out my part II today. His generosity is really quite overwhelming. In fact, I'm going to have to try and figure out what a lot of the stuff he sent actually is.

Anyway, here are some full tank shots before I turn into a pumpkin at midnight.

You might recall from my original message that I am setting up two tanks, both 12g nano cubes.

First the tank in the family room:

And the tank in my den:

 

[Madratter]

First, I really want to thank Richard for making this such an enjoyable experience. I cannot remember ever having a better experience with any vendor, online or in person. Richard was very helpful before I even placed my order, giving advice where it was needed, answering questions, and even telling me when necessary that what I wanted to do was ill advised.

I ended up buying a 24 gallon version of "The Package" that I split between two 12g JBJ Nano DXs. I also purchased an extra peppermint shrimp and Starfish. The order when it came was very well packed, and the instructions that he provided with part 1 of "The Package" were clear. I had a choice of airports and choose to use the one that had Southwest Airlines. That turned out to be an excellent choice. Part 1 of the package, in addition to the live rock and live sand had many interesting hitchhikers, some of which I have already documented (porcelain crabs, 9 Cerith snails, various other snails, a few small limpets, a yellow ball sponge, star coral, cup coral, red macro algae, a sea cucumber, various small feather dusters, sponges, tunicates, etc.). My wife looked at the rock I got and remarked how much better and full of life this rock was compared to rock I have gotten in the past (which I had hand picked!). After following Richard's instructions, the tank cycled and the rock and various critters came through in great shape. His method of shipping in water obviously does work.

Two weeks later, I was ready for part II of "The Package". I received the second half of my live rock, my cleanup crew, and lots and lots of goodies that Richard threw in as free extras. He is well known for doing this and he certainly didn't disappoint me. I also received another set of clear instructions on what to do. I haven't actually weighed the live rock that I ended up getting, but I'm pretty sure that I ended up with a good bit more than what was actually advertised. Between that and the fact the JBJ 12g nano cubes have back compartments that reduce the space in the visible tank, I ended up having to put one really beautiful piece of large live rock over in my 20g long. Otherwise, the rock simply would not have all fit, let alone had space for the extra goodies he sent.

I had so much stuff that it wasn't until about 11 pm when I had all the critters acclimated, the rock put in place, the cleanup crew split between the tanks, and all the goodies in place as well. I had gotten back home from the airport around 5 pm.

Among the goodies I got were something like 5 different kinds of gorgonians, two yellow ball sponges, a red tree sponge, a couple of other large sponges, two Condylactis Anemones, a Flower Anemone, a tiny little Tiger Goby, two clams, and two small Recordea Florida Mushroom Polyps.

The bottom line is this, I am extremely glad I chose to purchase "The Package" from Tampa Bay Saltwater, Richard was an absolute delight to work with, and I hope he gets many more customers for running his business in such a great fashion. If/when I need more live rock, cleanup crew etc., my choice of where to get it is beyond obvious.

Here are a couple of shots of my tanks. First the tank in my den:

The tank in my family room:

Thanks Richard! This whole experience has been fantastic.

 

[noahm]

cool stuff. I don't think you can fault anyone for being too generous, but I think we all know the feeling of trying to place everything that Richard sends. That's a very nice blade gorgonian btw. I just noticed the other day that the polyps on mine seem to be coloring up with a very nice pinkish/white mouth. Seems to be a fast grower ime.

 

[coral_lagoon]

Man those are some show size sponges. Your sponges are going to start growing and multiplying. I have 120 so pounds of Richard's rock and my sponges are off the hook. Not as nice and big as yours though..

 

[AFL]

Tanks look great MR! I just got part 1 of the package for my 12dx, I can't wait for the cycle to run its course so I can catch up with you!

 

[lionbacker54]

madratter-

i had almost the exact same experience. great to work with richard, southwest made pickup a breeze, and was blown away by the quality of the rock and the extras. i also had my wife comment on how much better the TBS rock looked than the other rock i had gotten in the past! don't anticipate anymore tanks soon, but if i do, i'll definitely head back to richard.

 

[Madratter]

Noahm:

That blade gorgonian is actually two of them. That is why it appears so full. I decided to put them together like that. The amount of stuff I got was incredible. I had a hard time floating all the bags in my two tanks to acclimate them!

Coral_Lagoon:

Those sponges are great. I sure hope they make it. I tried to keep them underwater the whole time so that they never hit the air on my side. The add some wonderful color to the tank. My wife really loves the yellow ball sponges so I made sure those were in the tank down in the family room. She looks at the tank quite a bit.

AFL:

Thanks. The tank looks great because of all the cool goodies Richard sent. Just stay on top of your ammonia levels and before you know it, part II will be on the way. (But the anticipation does seem to drag it out). It's like waiting for Christmas as a child.

Lionbacker54:

Yeah - the combo of Richard and Southwest was a really good one. One thing I like about Southwest, is that unlike some of the other airlines, they don't have the 100 pound minimum charge. So when my part II came it at 80 pounds, that is all I got charged for. I did end up with one of my Pt I boxes leaking, but there was still LOTs of water in the box and I doubt it made much if any difference. I keep thinking about that 20L I have sitting with one rock in it now. Hmm.

I have to ask about your moniker. Linebacker 54 on the Cleveland team is a practice squad player. Is this a college player you like or did you play in college or high school? Or perhaps you follow a different pro team.

 

[lionbacker54]

madratter-

southwest also did the favor of calling ME when the package came in, and helped me load it in the car. your tanks look awesome by the way. i thought i said that in my earlier post, but saw now that i didn't. really sweet!

as for the moniker, i am a lifelong detroit lions fan, and my favorite player was chris spielman, a linebacker who wore #54. hence... lionbacker 54.

 

[Madratter]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15551038#post15551038 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lionbacker54
madratter-

southwest also did the favor of calling ME when the package came in, and helped me load it in the car. your tanks look awesome by the way. i thought i said that in my earlier post, but saw now that i didn't. really sweet!

as for the moniker, i am a lifelong detroit lions fan, and my favorite player was chris spielman, a linebacker who wore #54. hence... lionbacker 54.

Thanks!

Well Detroit is going through hard times right now but at least the Matt Millen era is done and gone. The question is how much of the problem was Matt and how much of the problem is Mr. Ford.

 

[coral_lagoon]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15550569#post15550569 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Madratter
Coral_Lagoon:

Those sponges are great. I sure hope they make it. I tried to keep them underwater the whole time so that they never hit the air on my side. The add some wonderful color to the tank. My wife really loves the yellow ball sponges so I made sure those were in the tank down in the family room. She looks at the tank quite a bit.

Mad,
When I got my rock. I exposed all of my sponges out of the water for 5 minutes. None have died. This big red knobby one here

Is still alive and thriving in my tank. The other sponges have grown and expanded. Im getting new sprouts all over the place..

4 months later

 

[lionbacker54]

whoa, awesome. yeah, i had all my sponges survive too. and mine were out of water even longer, because one of the boxes actually had the water drained out. the rock arrived wet. but everything still lived and cycled within 7 days. so i think (ime) that the sponge thing is overblown.

your tank is unreal btw. way to go man.

 

[liverock]

You guys are on top of it!

You guys are on top of it!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15552839#post15552839 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lionbacker54
whoa, awesome. yeah, i had all my sponges survive too. and mine were out of water even longer, because one of the boxes actually had the water drained out. the rock arrived wet. but everything still lived and cycled within 7 days. so i think (ime) that the sponge thing is overblown.

your tank is unreal btw. way to go man.

Customers like yall make it all worthwhile......both of you have done an incredible job of putting your tanks together.....which makes it a lot easier on me......Having customers who read and follow the directions, sure makes for happy tanks!

And your sponge observation is correct, overblown, as I shipped this rock dry, in 5 gallon buckets for many many years......which worked, but is not near as effective as shipping it underwater as I have done now for about 20 years.....

Richard TBS:rollface: :rollface: :rollface:

 

[Madratter]

Thanks Richard.

I took some more Pictures today. I have this awesome little shrimp hitchhiker that I discovered today. It was in the family room tank. It was roughly 5/8 of an inch long. It looks almost like a really small peppermint shrimp. To put it in perspective, it was on my yellow ball sponge.

Here is a picture of the Flower Anemone you sent:

And finally, another picture of a porcelain crab hitchhiker:

 

[Madratter]

Things are still going well with my tanks. I finally managed to trap one of the mantis shrimps in my family room tank. One down, at least one more to go.

The gorgonian to the right in this picture:

is growing back over some of its skeleton. It is back over that little bare branch to the left.

I have had some losses. In particular, I lost one of my anemones for no apparent reason. The other one seems to be doing quite well. I also lost a peppermint shrimp. I'm pretty sure that one lost a fight with a great big mantis shrimp that was sharing the tank.

My other peppermint molted just yesterday. I also had a quite large gorilla crab in the same tank molt the day before that. I need to get him out as well.

 

[lionbacker54]

cool matratter. love the pictures, thank you for posting! i found two more porcelain crab, one is a decent size. four! not as many as the 20-30 that one of the other posters (noah?) has, but i'll take it!

i also had a gorilla crab molting, and kept him around for a while since i love crusctaceans! he, however, was caught terrorizing the clean up crew, so he now lives in the mantis shrimp tank. they are roughly the same size, so they leave each other alone.

both my mom and mother in law really love the tank. they are thinking of getting into saltwater now! if they do, i know this guy in florida who sells some pretty awesome live rock...

 

[Madratter]

As mentioned in my last post, my one gorgonian has been growing back over some of the skeleton that was initially exposed.

This photo shows how the one stalk has grown back almost to the tip (2nd branch from the right). And another stalk which had been bare below a small branch has now completely covered that branch over (furthest branch to the right).

Here is an image of some of the polyps on my Blade Gorgonian:

And finally, here is a closeup of my starfish:

If anyone is wondering, I'm alternating feeding Microvert and DT's phytoplankton.

 

[MichaelBrock]

The variety of life on this rock is just incredible. I visit this forum several times a day just to check for new pictures. I'll be placing my order this weekend and I'm really looking forward to the day I get it into my tank.

I'm surprised there isn't a new "class" of salt-water aquarium, TBSLR.

 

[Madratter]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15642594#post15642594 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MichaelBrock
The variety of life on this rock is just incredible. I visit this forum several times a day just to check for new pictures. I'll be placing my order this weekend and I'm really looking forward to the day I get it into my tank.

I'm surprised there isn't a new "class" of salt-water aquarium, TBSLR.

It is amazing the diversity of life that is present. There is all kinds of stuff that I haven't even begun to photograph that is present. For example, I have some very large sea squirts on my one rock. They are roughly the size of golf balls (although not really spherical).

Of course the downside is that inevitably, there are some less than desirable critters. I finally caught the large crab (body about the size of a quarter and quite thick) that I have been after. I have been setting up the old "glass at an angle" trap without any success. Last night I attempted to feed my starfish but unfortunately my peppermint shrimp made off with the goods. I tried again with another piece and this time a hermit got it. A little while latter my wife tells me that the crab I have been trying to catch now has the piece of shrimp meant for the starfish. I take a look and it turns out I think I can net the thing if I turn the one rock it is by on its side to block the crab's escape. I do that and it does help. But I end up chasing the thing around with a fondue fork trying to either skewer it or get it in the net. The shell of that thing was like steel. The fondue fork wouldn't go through it! I did finally get it in my net. Sweet success! :rollface:

 

[noahm]

Those serpent stars can fend for themselves. Don't stress about feeding them as long as you feed the tank in general. I have 6 and have never targeted them. They will pick up even tiny bits to fill their needs. If you do want to feed them specifically, just mince up a shrimp into about 1/8" bits. They will get some and will even steal it from others if they get hungry.

Crabs are always fun to catch. I had a beautiful purple rock crab that finally got caught in the open. I scooped him up in a net first chance. He and the sump got along fine until he crawled into the section with a large mantis...

 

[lionbacker54]

serpent stars are actually pretty cool animals, imo. i've seen them pluck food out of the water as it floats by, looking rather like an octopus. they seem to have a great sense of smell too, scurrying as soon as food hits the water.