7 days!

We have officially entered prep week! So much to do and new kittens are such a distraction!!

9 days!

Only 9 days till tank purchase!

Secondhand = Good for the budget

Hey Guys,

So I was doing some research today on the Biocube we will be purchasing in 11 days.  Lots of folks on the reef forums say that the water pump is not strong enough to maintain a water flow good enough for corals (water movement is essential to coral heath) so I started looking into purchasing a better pump and modifying our Biocube set up.  I looked on Craigslist and found a guy selling a heater and a Maxi Jet 1000 (heavy-duty pump) for $25! wow, the same day I find out I am going to need a better pump someone posts that they have one and they also have a heater?? I was just looking at heaters at the aquarium store and the one I would need was almost $30 alone! I quickly worked out a deal to purchase this stuff and met the guy right down the street at 7-Eleven.  Got the heater and pump for $25…combined value, $60.  Good deal!  Some pics of the new stuff are below.

Until next time, just keep swimming!

p.s. He also threw in a Water Deflector that is worth $10…total value of the package, $70!

You can check out all the updated tank specs on our Aquarium Specs page.

Anniversary or Tailgate?

I just got back from World Wide Corals.  As I told you yesterday they are having their huge 5 year anniversary sale.  Well, you see, I thought it would be a few people hanging out in the store…not the case.  There were TONS of people there just sitting around in the parking lot eating food.  This wouldn’t have been so bad…EXCEPT…there were tons of people putting tickets in the raffle boxes.  Yesterday, there were hardly no tickets in the ones I entered in but I am guessing that after today my chances have been reduced quite drastically.  Oh well, at least I only spent $11 and not like $50 on tickets.  I was planning on staying and listening to one of the experts talk about fish behavior but I just felt unconfortable there, like I didnt belong.  Not really sure why…maybe because everyone else seemed like they belonged…just chit chatting and talking about tanks.  Maybe its because I dont know very much about this stuff yet.  Well, anyway…guess Ill just have to wait for the raffle drawing tomorrow at 6pm.

Until then, just keep swimming!

p.s. only 12 days till we purchase our aquarium!

Fingers crossed!

World Wide Corals is having their 5 year anniversary celebration this weekend.  I just went up there and purchase 11 raffle tickets at $1 each.  They are having 7 different raffles which drastically improves our chances of winning.  I placed 6 tickets in the raffle for a $200 marine animal gift card which would be great! will be a great start to add some fish and corals after we get the new tank set up.  I placed the other 5 tickets in the Clown Fish raffle for a pair of Clown Fish which would be great as well since I was planning on adding an anemone to the tank first.  I think we all know that clown fish love sea anemones 🙂

Keep your fingers crossed! and of course I will let you know if we win.  The drawing will be Sunday night at 6pm.

Also for their anniversary celebration they are having 3 people who are rather known for their scientific work and books on marine aquariums.  I am going to try to make it to all 3 of these over the next two days.  Should be rather beneficial to the Reef Aquarium virgins like us.

Will let you know what I learn.  Until then, just keep swimming!

Me likey!

Greg just went and picked up the new stand for the aquarium! It looks so nice in the house…now I cant wait for the aquarium.  2 more weeks! You likey?? (you can click the pictures to enlarge)

Eureka, we found it!

So, we have been on the hunt for a stand for our aquarium.  We were going to simply going to buy the stand that goes with our aquarium.  Oh, did I tell you? we decided on a Biocube 29! you can check it out here.  The great thing about this set up is that everything is built-in, think of it as a plug and play Reef Aquarium complete with a mechanical, biological, and chemical filter, moon lights, LEDs, and everything you need  (expect knowledge) to start-up.  Anyway, back to the stand.  I was browsing through Craigslist yesterday and today and just happen to stumble on the perfect stand! it’s actually a TV stand but it goes perfect with our decor in the house (tropical island).  Its sturdy and looks great….in the store is cost about $300, the bargain I got it for you ask? A steal at $55.  Awesome, considering the stand that goes with the aquarium is $179!  This is about the only place where we could “cut corners” so I am happy we could save this money, now we have more for corals.  Greg couldn’t fit it in his car so he is going tomorrow with his Dad’s truck to pick it up…sooo excited! (check out the picture below).

Getting more and more excited by the day.  The official purchase date is July 5th!! Better hurry up and finish all my research.  Until next time, just keep swimming!

Yes, another trip to Sea in the City

Yes, we took yet another trip to Sea in the City today. I really wanted to show Greg the pulsing xenia that me and Deven saw yesterday. He agrees, this coral will defiantly be the first living inhabitant of our aquarium. We also found out that they can be considered “invasive” and that we will have to monitor them closely so they don’t take over any of our other corals. On a side note we might be able to trim pieces off and resell them since they are $59 per polyp at the store.

We also discovered a new spices called mini clove polyp that are really cool and they don’t take over any other corals since they are non stinging. They fill in the spaced between your existing corals so your reef looks more full. Plus if you corals want to expand they can just take over the space…sounds like a perfect addition to our Reef Aquarium!!

On a side note, Jessica was not there today but another younger guy was and he was just as friendly and helpful! Just goes to reinforce the fact that the staff here is amazing.

Until next time, just keep swimming!

 

        

 

You wont believe how many choices there are!

Hey Everyone,

This will be aquarium blog number 1.  So far in our journey we have visited World Wide Corals (http://www.worldwidecorals.com/) on South OBT.  Over the past week we have visited 3-4 times.  This store’s selection is awesome! they have about 10 tank set ups for sale and lots of large fully stocked reef aquariums plus a very large selection of marine fish and corals.  At first glance, I was very impressed with the selection at this store.  After visiting a few times I realized that although there selection is great, the staff is hit or miss.  They are all very friendly but some of them seem to be lacking knowledge and just seem like they are more interested in the sale than anything else (well who isn’t).  For Reef Aquarium virgins this is the worst thing possible.  We all have tons of questions about tank set up, which tanks are better than other, etc.  Lets just say I know we will not be able to rely on their staff for our important questions.  I quickly decided that we would need a “reference” book if we were going to even contemplate setting up a Marine Aquarium.

I went to BAM and purchased The Saltwater Aquarium Handbook by George Blasiola.  You can view the book on amazon here.  This is a really good book! I like it because it doesn’t just tell you what to do and in what order, it actually teaches you the why behind the what.  So far I am about 30 pages in (don’t have tons of time to read) and I have learned about the 3 mandatory types of filtration, good and bad bacteria, nitrates, and other very interesting stuff.  I really wish I had not purchased the book only because now it is making me anxious about actually purchasing an aquarium.

Anyway, back to World Wide Corals.  Overall, it’s a really fantastic store and the coral displays up front are astounding.  After going there so often (I went again today since its only 5 mins from our house)  I decided that I wanted to visit at least one other store to see how it stacked up.  After some quick googling I came up with Sea in the City (http://seainthecity.com/) which is about a 20 min drive (by Orlando Executive Airport just East of Downtown).  Let me just say, the reviews online were very positive and they were very right! this store is great (from the outside it looks like an old burnt out building).  Although much smaller than World Wide Corals (they didn’t even have empty tanks for purchase) the reef displays are astounding. They have 3 very large but shallow reef tanks with way too many species to count. The real jewel of this much smaller store is the staff.  When we entered the only other person in there was the manager, Jessica.  She was by far more help than anyone on our journey so far! she took a very friendly approach to telling us exactly how we need to go about starting our Reef Aquarium.  How was I supposed to know that the first additions to our tank had to be snails and crabs?? (apparently these gross snails are essential to keep algae under control)  Because of Jessica I will definitely be back to Sea in the City for most, if not all, of my aquarium needs even though it’s an extra 15 mins out-of-the-way.  Next step in this journey, the purchase of the tank! I will fill you in on what we know so far tomorrow.  Till then, just keep swimming!

p.s. I absolutely fell in love with these pulsing xenia corals at Sea in the City…the little flowers actually open and close a few times a second…soooo cool!

~~Ricky

Our Reality, not our Corality

Hello, and thank you for joining us on this epic journey.  This blog is about the set up of a new salt water aquarium from beginning, to end.  When we say beginning, we mean it! We are starting this blog on June 17, 2012.  At this point, we have done nothing but decide that we want to add a Marine Reef Aquarium to our home.  Well, maybe that is not the only thing we have done.  We have also visited the largest salt water aquarium store in Orlando (which is a few blocks from our house, perfect!) and also purchase one book on starting an aquarium.  This blog will now follow us on the rest of our very long and eventful journey.

Greg and Ricky

Hi! we are Greg and Ricky.  We met 5 years ago and got married in 2008.  We were both born and raised in Florida and spent 4 years in Los Angeles together.  We are both 25 years old and love marine life.   We now live in Orlando not too far from Seaworld which fits us perfectly!  We both work in the hotel industry.

Deven

Hey bloggers! I will introduce myself as the brother of Ricky. I live with him and Greg and I will be participating tin  this blog, as well as with our new aquarium! I’ve always loved aquariums and reefs, so this new project presents amazing opportunities for years to come! (: I hope you guys follow along in our journey!