Our first inhabitants!!

Our first inhabitants just came home with me!! exciting news.  3 Snails and 3 Hermit crabs.  Pictures and species names coming soon!! right now they are acclimating to the new water temperature.  I also got another 7 pounds of live rock and a power head thanks to Lynda for the present to her “three sons”!! Thanks Lynda.

Our tank!

Today was finally the day (well actually it was going to be tomorrow but since it was a holiday we got paid a day early :)) We finally got our tank! The tank came into the house yesterday and today we go the live sand, live rock, and water! now its complete.  It looks a little cloudy at the moment as the sand settles back to the bottom.  We are so excited to finally have it in the house.  The pumps are running and we have it on a timed light cycle already.  It was quite the event adding 30 gallons of salt water to it.  We also purchased a power strip complete with digital timers built-in.  Can’t wait until the water is actually clear enough to see through.

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