My Saltwater Journey: a diary
- Thread starter AnnetteG
- Start date
Do you have any tips on bargain shopping?? My roommate gave me a 29 gallon tank (which I paid for by cleaning it out and finding a home for the fish), and a stand. I want to set up a reef tank, but I am a full time student without a job. Where do you find your deals? And meet these people who want to give you free goodies??? At the moment it looks like it is going to be a looooong journey to getting my tank up and stocked, unless I somehow come up with lots of money or some bargains. Any suggestions would be appreciated!!!
Ask & Ye Shall Receive!
Okay, last weekend, I was dumb and put in 2 little green chromis thinking they'd be fine because my water was 0's across the board and they were so teeny, they couldn't possibly produce enough ammonia to kill themselves. Well, no, but apparently, they don't like "new" water and they rubbed themselves on my rocks and killed themselves that way instead. I fished one of them out, but I haven't found the other one. I suspect he made his way under a rock at the bottom or something. The first one was In between two rocks! :duh: I am learning a little at a time here. I guess I was feeling all "freshwater cocky".
Anyway, so the 2nd fish has become my ammonia source. :headshake2: I've also added in 2 live whole rocks! :lol2: From two different places. The larger one has red furry stuff on it that I think is cyanobacteria. The smaller one has lots of pretty colors. A pretty bright green, purple bits, lots of red. All of my base rock, which was previously alive, almost dead rock when we got it, has lots of purple spots growing larger and it's all getting a rusty brownish algae and green algae all over it. (see pics below!)
To cap off the update, the water parameters are Ammonia 1, Nitrite 1, Nitrate 0, SG is 1.025. My plan for the time being is to continue adding live rocks as I am able to buy them and at some point along here, I'll put in a few hermits. But not till I see the ammonia and nitrate come down and nitrate get started, right?
We were going to be buying a lot of live rock and animals and inverts from a guy on CL, but I decided to let that go for now. Financial reasons, along with fear of killing all the animals. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
Tonight or tomorrow I plan to drain some water out and do some rearranging of my rocks. I've been reading library books and realized I need to bury the bottom layer of rocks more and I want to make sure everything is fitted together tightly before I continue adding more Live Rocks. We're getting a nice refund from The Man, so hopefully some of that will get allocated to my Hobby! :grinyes:
So below are pictures of what the tank is looking like right now and closeups of my rocks. Oh and I'm including a picture of the wet/dry with the rocks in there since we removed the lava rock. (which was only in there for about 24 hours)
Oh and one more thing, to answer the Doll's question about my bargain hunting techniques, it's just persistence. I follow CL and Freecycle all the time, contribute to Freecycle as well, and I post wanteds asking for specifically what I want (and why) because you never know who's reading the ad. :grinyes:
So enjoy the pics of my rocks! I felt special today when I saw a request for an update! :y220d:
Here is the wet/dry as it is now:
Here's a view from the right side of the tank:
This is a view of the highest rock in the tank, which I hope to someday have an anemone on.
Children screaming....more later!
Okay, last weekend, I was dumb and put in 2 little green chromis thinking they'd be fine because my water was 0's across the board and they were so teeny, they couldn't possibly produce enough ammonia to kill themselves. Well, no, but apparently, they don't like "new" water and they rubbed themselves on my rocks and killed themselves that way instead. I fished one of them out, but I haven't found the other one. I suspect he made his way under a rock at the bottom or something. The first one was In between two rocks! :duh: I am learning a little at a time here. I guess I was feeling all "freshwater cocky".
Anyway, so the 2nd fish has become my ammonia source. :headshake2: I've also added in 2 live whole rocks! :lol2: From two different places. The larger one has red furry stuff on it that I think is cyanobacteria. The smaller one has lots of pretty colors. A pretty bright green, purple bits, lots of red. All of my base rock, which was previously alive, almost dead rock when we got it, has lots of purple spots growing larger and it's all getting a rusty brownish algae and green algae all over it. (see pics below!)
To cap off the update, the water parameters are Ammonia 1, Nitrite 1, Nitrate 0, SG is 1.025. My plan for the time being is to continue adding live rocks as I am able to buy them and at some point along here, I'll put in a few hermits. But not till I see the ammonia and nitrate come down and nitrate get started, right?
We were going to be buying a lot of live rock and animals and inverts from a guy on CL, but I decided to let that go for now. Financial reasons, along with fear of killing all the animals. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
Tonight or tomorrow I plan to drain some water out and do some rearranging of my rocks. I've been reading library books and realized I need to bury the bottom layer of rocks more and I want to make sure everything is fitted together tightly before I continue adding more Live Rocks. We're getting a nice refund from The Man, so hopefully some of that will get allocated to my Hobby! :grinyes:
So below are pictures of what the tank is looking like right now and closeups of my rocks. Oh and I'm including a picture of the wet/dry with the rocks in there since we removed the lava rock. (which was only in there for about 24 hours)
Oh and one more thing, to answer the Doll's question about my bargain hunting techniques, it's just persistence. I follow CL and Freecycle all the time, contribute to Freecycle as well, and I post wanteds asking for specifically what I want (and why) because you never know who's reading the ad. :grinyes:
So enjoy the pics of my rocks! I felt special today when I saw a request for an update! :y220d:
Here is the wet/dry as it is now:
Here's a view from the right side of the tank:
This is a view of the highest rock in the tank, which I hope to someday have an anemone on.
Children screaming....more later!
Thanks!
Okie, here are a couple of pics of how it's looking right now:
full tank shot:
and the newest pet rock addition:
I think that one has some really cool colors on it.
Won't really be doing much else to it till the taxman sends me my money! Thinking of ordering some uncured rock via fastest delivery possible and tossing it straight in there! :headbang2:
ETA: oh yeah, and I've been looking at T-5 retrofits with individual icecap reflectors, so we may (crossing fingers!) get one of those to put in our canopy so I can have less limitations on what I can keep in here!
Okie, here are a couple of pics of how it's looking right now:
full tank shot:
and the newest pet rock addition:
I think that one has some really cool colors on it.
Won't really be doing much else to it till the taxman sends me my money! Thinking of ordering some uncured rock via fastest delivery possible and tossing it straight in there! :headbang2:
ETA: oh yeah, and I've been looking at T-5 retrofits with individual icecap reflectors, so we may (crossing fingers!) get one of those to put in our canopy so I can have less limitations on what I can keep in here!
Updates!
Picked up live rock, fish & sand over the weekend! Click to read all about it!
and more here.
Here are the latest pictures!
Tank:
Right Side:
Pair of Gold Headed Sleeper Gobies & CBS:
You may notice he's missing his arms. If you read the links above to my other posts, he was attacked by the Lunare Wrasse that came with the rocks, sand, & fish that we bought from a guy who was moving and couldn't take his tank with him. The Wrasse & all his companions, except for the below little cutie, were evicted. I am hopeful that CBS will regrow his arms. He's active and moving around the tank now and eating, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Mr. Foxface
Cutest fish ever!
Anyone care to guess what exactly he is? The LFS guy told me he was a Tiger Sleeper, but to me he looks more like this.
Picked up live rock, fish & sand over the weekend! Click to read all about it!
and more here.
Here are the latest pictures!
Tank:
Right Side:
Pair of Gold Headed Sleeper Gobies & CBS:
You may notice he's missing his arms. If you read the links above to my other posts, he was attacked by the Lunare Wrasse that came with the rocks, sand, & fish that we bought from a guy who was moving and couldn't take his tank with him. The Wrasse & all his companions, except for the below little cutie, were evicted. I am hopeful that CBS will regrow his arms. He's active and moving around the tank now and eating, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Mr. Foxface
Cutest fish ever!
Anyone care to guess what exactly he is? The LFS guy told me he was a Tiger Sleeper, but to me he looks more like this.
and a few more for ya!
Found this live rock with mushrooms attached yesterday when I took in the fish I had to evict and picked it up along with the 3 gobies! So exciting!
These guys are all over the place and are very curious and outgoing now that they're settling in!
Thanks for reading! More to come as the tank develops!
Found this live rock with mushrooms attached yesterday when I took in the fish I had to evict and picked it up along with the 3 gobies! So exciting!
These guys are all over the place and are very curious and outgoing now that they're settling in!
Thanks for reading! More to come as the tank develops!
That was one of my favorite movies when I was younger. Wasn't it about racing cars and getting as close as they could to a cliff or something...and one of them went over the edge?? GREAT SONG (...makes me feel crazy, makes me feel so mean - dun duh, da -da - ooohh yea...on the dark side...ooooh yea. Nothing's gonna save me from a love that's mine, slip to the dark side across that liiiiinnnneeee - the dark side oooohhhh yeah).
Ah. That felt good.
More Updates!
(and I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers that movie! Hee!
Okay, we scored another 30 pounds of live rock from a guy breaking down his tank on Friday night! We also took his fish - 2 Sebae clowns, 1 six spot goby, 1 firefish and 1 cleaner shrimp, multiple crabs and snails!
Click HERE to help me with questions about the fish & such.
Here is the latest picture of the whole tank:
as you can see, it's really starting to come together!
The firefish, I think he's my favorite!
The six spotted guy - not sure if I'll keep him permanently:
and the two clowns & you can see one of the feather dusters!
Lemme know what you think!
(and I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers that movie! Hee!
Okay, we scored another 30 pounds of live rock from a guy breaking down his tank on Friday night! We also took his fish - 2 Sebae clowns, 1 six spot goby, 1 firefish and 1 cleaner shrimp, multiple crabs and snails!
Click HERE to help me with questions about the fish & such.
Here is the latest picture of the whole tank:
as you can see, it's really starting to come together!
The firefish, I think he's my favorite!
The six spotted guy - not sure if I'll keep him permanently:
and the two clowns & you can see one of the feather dusters!
Lemme know what you think!
