Reefer

No, not that kind, you silly people!  I got my new aquarium on Saturday!

Chuck and I had driven down to Austin last Thursday to spec out the one I wanted, but neither of us drive a vehicle big enough to get it home.  Fortunately, Chuck’s parents agreed to meet us down there this past weekend in their truck.  I’m actually glad we were forced to wait, though, because I ended up with some pretty good deals.

For those of you who don’t know anything about salt water aquariums, you have to stock them with live rock.  Live rock is basically built up calcium carbonate from dead corals.  Live rock is considered ‘live’ because of the various micro- and macro-organisms that live on and inside of it, feeding marine fish, invertibrates, and living corals.  When purchasing live rock, you’ll more often than not get ‘uncured’ rock, meaning it’s been out of the water for some time and considered dead.  You can usually tell that the rock is uncured simply by the color.  It’ll be stark white because there’s no algae or other micro-organisms growing on it.  Cured live rock will begin turning brilliant shades of green, purple, and blue, and rock that’s been present in an aquarium for years will usually be completely covered like these…

Anyway, I got lucky.  One of the store’s customers is moving out of the area, and was nice enough to return her cured live rock rather than discard it.  She had dropped it off Saturday morning, and I got there just in time to snatch it all up.  The biggest benefit of purchasing cured live rock (aside from the simple fact that it’s prettier), is that you only have to wait a couple of days to add fish to your new aquarium.  If you purchase uncured live rock, you have to wait up to a month before you can stock the tank.

Yesterday afternoon, after testing our water, Chuck and I headed back to Austin, hit two different shops, and returned home with more live rock, several pieces of coral, a few invertebrates, and literally boxes of fish.  I haven’t gotten any shots of my tank and fish yet, but you know I will.  It still has a lot of growing to do!  For now, though, I thought I’d just show you what all we came home with.

Green Chromis.  Came home with two of these.

Royal Gramma.  Small and fiesty.

Firefish.  Another small fish, but fun to watch.

Purple Queen Anthias.

Banggai Cardinalfish.  I had one of these in my last tank, and I loved it.

Black & White Percula Clownfish.  These can be kept in groups of the same species, so when we get some anemone, we’ll probably get some more.

Clown Tang.  Beautiful and active fish.

Magnificent Foxface.

Blue Maxima Clam.  I think this is the kind we bought…

Cleaner Shrimp.  Brought home one of these.

Fire Shrimp.  And two of these.

Hermit Crab.  And about 20 of these little dudes to help keep my tank clean.

We brought home four pieces of coral, too, but I’m not even sure what they are.  We just grabbed a few that we thought were pretty.  Believe it or not, the tank still seems a little empty, but it shouldn’t for long.  We’ll keep adding coral and fish here and there, and everything we have will soon start to grow.  In fact, the live rock that we purchased has started to sprout some coral, as well… apparently remnants of coral that the previous owner was growing.  I’m excited to see what all pops up!

I’ll post pics when I get a chance.

Cheers!
Felina