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BlueAbyss
06-04-2009, 08:37 PM
So, I was in Prince Albert yesterday and picked up a few (extremely overpriced) items at Petland.

Who knew they sold live rock? :mrgreen: I spent a lot of money for what I got, but it's a start.

I picked up a bucket of Instant Ocean. Cost me 100 bucks. Ouch. I should have saved my money and had the H2Ocean Pro that I originally wanted shipped (it would have cost the same), but I was there, it was there... ya know. :wink: I wanted to get started anyhow.

I paid $50 for a 20 lb bag of Seachem Tidal Aragonite. Nice looking sand, dead, but nice.

I also bought around 2.7 kg of live rock (at $19.78 a kg). Not overly nice live rock, but decent shapes and they will make for a good base. There is some purple coralline growth on both of them (not on the side that I chose to show of course), and I ended up with a hitchhiker blue hermit of some kind. Tiny little guy, I noticed his shell in the leftover water from the rock.

So I emptied the tetra tank (they moved into an old 15 gallon I had kicking about), cleaned it, and added distilled water, salt, a HOB filter (150 gph), and a Rio pump that's meant for a skimmer but helped mix the salt.

I haven't added the substrate because I haven't decided if this tank is temporary or not. I may use this as my contest tank, and take more time to build the custom tank I've been planning for past couple months... I have issues with the design of that system.

Anyhow, a pic now that the water has cleared... excuse the ghetto cover and the lack of decent lights. The Rio has been removed and replaced with a second HOB filter, for around 25x turnover (conservative estimate).
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu56/TheVastMajority/001-1.jpg

Myka
06-05-2009, 06:11 AM
Ouch, those are some steep prices!!! :eek: Nice shaped rock though. Don't worry about buying "dead" sand, as the "live" stuff in the bag is essentially dead as well, just a well marketed scheme if you ask me.

mark
06-05-2009, 02:05 PM
so now it starts.

Prices aren't that far off. In Edmonton LR goes for $10/pound

LeeR
06-05-2009, 04:29 PM
oh man!... and i thought it was bad in vernon!

BlueAbyss
06-05-2009, 04:36 PM
Yeah the rock wasn't a bad price. Just everything else :biggrin: And there is no life on the rock either. Just rock, bacteria, and some purple coralline.

I have added substrate and rescaped a little. It's a good thing I picked the pieces of rock that I got, when stacked you can't tell there is more than one piece...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu56/TheVastMajority/005.jpg

Myka
06-05-2009, 04:57 PM
If you're wanting more rock I will have some for sale soon here if you're down in the Saskatoon area, and I will sell it to you for a lot less than $10/lb and most of it has lots of life and color.

LeeR
06-05-2009, 05:07 PM
thats a sweet aqua scape.

BlueAbyss
06-05-2009, 06:44 PM
If you're wanting more rock I will have some for sale soon here if you're down in the Saskatoon area, and I will sell it to you for a lot less than $10/lb and most of it has lots of life and color.

Awesome, I'll be looking to add to my rock for sure, if not for this tank than for the other. Just let me know what you want for it, and maybe I could get you to toss it on the bus for me? I won't be able to get to S'toon anytime soon, it seems... I've been trying for a trip in July but it doesn't look like it will happen.

thats a sweet aqua scape.

Thanks. I tried my best with the 2 pieces of rock I have :lol: Now I need decent lights, twin T8s won't cut it at all.

While doing this all I've been testing. Adding the substrate seemed to raise the pH to 8.4 from 8.2 yesterday. While I can't explain that, pH is back down to 8.2 today. Ammonia has been 0 throughout, 0 nitrite, yesterday nitrates were 5 ppm, today I have the same or slightly less. So I think the tank has had a sort of mini-cycle.

Myka
06-05-2009, 07:23 PM
Awesome, I'll be looking to add to my rock for sure, if not for this tank than for the other. Just let me know what you want for it, and maybe I could get you to toss it on the bus for me? I won't be able to get to S'toon anytime soon, it seems... I've been trying for a trip in July but it doesn't look like it will happen.

I don't mind putting it on the bus. I have some styrofoam boxes I can put it in. I'm not sure what it's worth in these parts, but I will get back to you when I'm ready to sell.

karazy
06-06-2009, 01:40 AM
looks good! i think the scape would look good with a branch/overhang coming off the right of the rock pile.

for example (these are just rough drawings to help express what im saying)

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh266/karazy101/0051.jpg

oor

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh266/karazy101/0052.jpg

BlueAbyss
06-08-2009, 02:26 AM
Interestingly enough, that's actually sort of the plan, karazy. It will all depend on what my next chunks of rock look like, mind you, but I am sort of aiming for a 'bonsai' look.

I got up this morning to a hermit crab scaling the corners of the tank. At first I though he was trying to escape, and then realized that he was actually climbing the silicone and cleaning bits of organic matter (left over algae from the freshwater setup) from between the silicone and the glass, where I had obviously missed some. I did toss half an algae wafer in yesterday, whether he ate it or not I don't know. So, can anyone tell me what he is (and how big he may get)?
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu56/TheVastMajority/001-2.jpg

And an updated FTS, though not much has changed. My rocks look a little browner than before, I expect some sort of bloom.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu56/TheVastMajority/002-3.jpg

Looking at lighting tonight... Hopefully I decide what I'm doing and then I will go ahead and get some lights. Otherwise, it's going to be a nano FOWLR, and we can't have that.

karazy
06-08-2009, 03:21 AM
Interestingly enough, that's actually sort of the plan, karazy. It will all depend on what my next chunks of rock look like, mind you, but I am sort of aiming for a 'bonsai' look.

cool! i love bonsai tanks. They really show that to have a good looking reef, you should have a good looking aquascape

BlueAbyss
06-08-2009, 05:24 AM
I agree. I think that half the battle in getting a great looking tank is the aquascaping. You can't just jumble the rocks together and expect them to look great (which is the reason for the one very large rock in my tetra tank).

Finding a piece of rock to complete the look might be difficult. Finding a piece with a relatively heavy end and a long shelf attached will probably be impossible. But I have high hopes :wink:

karazy
06-08-2009, 01:42 PM
haha, ive seen some pieces that look like that before, so dont lose hope.

SeaHorse_Fanatic
06-08-2009, 04:09 PM
The live rock is actually reasonably priced considering the extra shipping since it works out to $8.99/lb. Most places in the Lower Mainland sell their live rock at a retail price of $7.99+ (J&L's starts at $8.49/lb for small quantities) so that's actually pretty good pricing. The salt is way cheaper here though.

BlueAbyss
06-08-2009, 05:25 PM
Well, the salt would actually have been cheaper, but it was there and so was the rock... I wanted to get started since it was all right there :lol: I could actually have ordered it from Saskatoon, it would have come in on the bus. I don't know what shipping would cost, but the salt would be 64.99 for Instant Ocean... not bad at all.