1/11/06: Live rock & live sand added.
Well, I stopped at the above mentioned LFS today after my meeting. Aquatic Specialties in Kenner, LA, the place from which I bought my aquarium, has a good selection of livestock, and some very nice and helpful people (and I'll still likely buy most of my fish there). But the place I went to today, Coral Connection, was simply incredible.
They only sell saltwater stuff, and have just tons of fish and corals to choose from. It was a 2-story building in a semi-industrial area right next to the airport, a little drab looking on the outside, but inside was a different story.
On the bottom floor there was a room with several large vats of live rock at various price points ($2 - $7), and a couple of even larger vats of live sand with some snails and other critters. This room was sorta "utilitarian" looking.
But upstairs, things changed dramatically. Along with some very pretty nanoreefs, there was an absolutely gorgeous large display reef that looked sort of like a bowfront tank placed backwards, so that the flat side was facing the front, but it was built into the wall. Wild guess, it was probably around 300 gallons. This area was set up nice and cozy with carpet, and a couch for visitors to sit and watch (and presumably entice them into wanting a reef tank of their own). Along one wall were rows of small tanks displaying livestock for sale. In another room there was a large shallow pool with all of their corals. There was also a room with skimmers, pumps, powerheads, etc., and yet another room with an incredible number of new tanks for sale. Despite all the beautiful corals and fish, this sight was the most striking... I'm used to seeing just a couple of tanks in the other LFSs I've been to. This one probably had more tanks than all of the others combined, and many of these tanks were huge!
I could have spent hours there. But I had to stay on-task... I was there to buy rock and sand.
First of all, let me say that buying live rock was a lot harder than I thought it would be... picking out pieces (especially as a newbie) was difficult, since I didn't really know what to look for (aside from the "pick pieces that look like they have some life on them" suggestion that I'd read). But I'd also read that a lot of weight should be given to rock that has interesting shapes.
I ended up picking most of it from the $2/lb. vat, as this rock looked the best in terms of shape, holes/crevices, porosity, etc., and still showed at least some signs of life. I also grabbed a few smaller pieces from the $6/lb. vat that had more obvious growth. In all, I ended up with around 30lbs. of rock.
My only slight disappointment with this LFS was that they strongly encouraged me to go with the Arag-Alive bagged sand instead of the sand in their vats, which they said was from their tanks upstairs (that's exactly what I wanted!!!). I got 20lbs. of this, but it didn't really look like 20 lbs. (water is heavy, I guess!).
I'm not sure how many creatures I'll find, but here's what I've spotted so far...
Is this a baby cucumber of some sort? It's about the size of a cutworm... maybe 1 inch long. It's just been kinda hanging out in this one spot since I dumped the sand in, slowly wriggling around.
These appear to be a group of some kind of very thin little red worms. Sorry for the poor-quality photo... I don't have a real macro lens.
It's almost certain that I will not have the large number of hitchhikers (good or bad) on this rock compared to what I've heard about TBS. But in the end, it became clear that TBS is not a viable option at the moment... they're apparently having a lot of trouble harvesting rock right now, so it would probably have been months before I could receive my shipment.
Here's what the tank looks like now (again, the rock was just placed however I could fit it, just to get it in there until I can aquascape).
I think I may have too much rock. Well, some of it will go in the refugium, so maybe not.
--Mike
Well, I stopped at the above mentioned LFS today after my meeting. Aquatic Specialties in Kenner, LA, the place from which I bought my aquarium, has a good selection of livestock, and some very nice and helpful people (and I'll still likely buy most of my fish there). But the place I went to today, Coral Connection, was simply incredible.
They only sell saltwater stuff, and have just tons of fish and corals to choose from. It was a 2-story building in a semi-industrial area right next to the airport, a little drab looking on the outside, but inside was a different story.
On the bottom floor there was a room with several large vats of live rock at various price points ($2 - $7), and a couple of even larger vats of live sand with some snails and other critters. This room was sorta "utilitarian" looking.
But upstairs, things changed dramatically. Along with some very pretty nanoreefs, there was an absolutely gorgeous large display reef that looked sort of like a bowfront tank placed backwards, so that the flat side was facing the front, but it was built into the wall. Wild guess, it was probably around 300 gallons. This area was set up nice and cozy with carpet, and a couch for visitors to sit and watch (and presumably entice them into wanting a reef tank of their own). Along one wall were rows of small tanks displaying livestock for sale. In another room there was a large shallow pool with all of their corals. There was also a room with skimmers, pumps, powerheads, etc., and yet another room with an incredible number of new tanks for sale. Despite all the beautiful corals and fish, this sight was the most striking... I'm used to seeing just a couple of tanks in the other LFSs I've been to. This one probably had more tanks than all of the others combined, and many of these tanks were huge!
I could have spent hours there. But I had to stay on-task... I was there to buy rock and sand.
First of all, let me say that buying live rock was a lot harder than I thought it would be... picking out pieces (especially as a newbie) was difficult, since I didn't really know what to look for (aside from the "pick pieces that look like they have some life on them" suggestion that I'd read). But I'd also read that a lot of weight should be given to rock that has interesting shapes.
I ended up picking most of it from the $2/lb. vat, as this rock looked the best in terms of shape, holes/crevices, porosity, etc., and still showed at least some signs of life. I also grabbed a few smaller pieces from the $6/lb. vat that had more obvious growth. In all, I ended up with around 30lbs. of rock.
My only slight disappointment with this LFS was that they strongly encouraged me to go with the Arag-Alive bagged sand instead of the sand in their vats, which they said was from their tanks upstairs (that's exactly what I wanted!!!). I got 20lbs. of this, but it didn't really look like 20 lbs. (water is heavy, I guess!).
I'm not sure how many creatures I'll find, but here's what I've spotted so far...
Is this a baby cucumber of some sort? It's about the size of a cutworm... maybe 1 inch long. It's just been kinda hanging out in this one spot since I dumped the sand in, slowly wriggling around.
These appear to be a group of some kind of very thin little red worms. Sorry for the poor-quality photo... I don't have a real macro lens.
It's almost certain that I will not have the large number of hitchhikers (good or bad) on this rock compared to what I've heard about TBS. But in the end, it became clear that TBS is not a viable option at the moment... they're apparently having a lot of trouble harvesting rock right now, so it would probably have been months before I could receive my shipment.
Here's what the tank looks like now (again, the rock was just placed however I could fit it, just to get it in there until I can aquascape).
I think I may have too much rock. Well, some of it will go in the refugium, so maybe not.
--Mike