Chapter II: Live Rock
My Inspiration:
Neptune Aquatics BC14. The first "populated" BC14 I ever saw - and boy is it GORGEOUS!
So I forgot to mention that a colleague of mine, up in Washington State, is also a Reef-Nut (BC8 and 29) and he somehow, inadvertently, kinda became my short-term "Mentor." I suspect he was starting to get a little annoyed with my badgering non-stop questions and he provided the URLs for a few good online resources and also mentioned that there might be some "local" reef-clubs I might want to look into. So that's how I found NCRC
Well, I also yammered on about how I had my live sand and water in the tank, and how I was getting ready to go buy some live-rock. But @ over $6/lb, I was kinda "ouching" over it. Well, bless his heart, he checked our local Craigslist and found a guy in the South-East Bay who was selling his rock for $2/lb. Now, I got to badger someone else via email and, long-story-short, I drove up on Monday and picked it up. $40 got me 22# of rock - Yay!
This is, essentially, what it looked like - only there was more of it:
This is actually what's left over now (and I'll be bringing it to the swap).
Well, since it was mostly rubble, I decided to stop at Neptune's on my way home and pick up a couple of big chunks of their Marco rock to form an arch.
Then, the minute I got home, I started plunking rocks into my tank:
Not bad for a first attempt, if I do say so myself!
So now we play the game of "Sit and Wait." Wait for the live rock to seed the Marco rock; Wait for microorganisms to start doing whatever they do; Test every 2-3 days to make sure "things are happening;" Wait for my add'l Gee-Gaws to arrive..........
At this point, I think it's kinda like watching paint dry. But at least there were no Newbie Mistakes/Panic Attacks for this particular installment!
Soon, I hope to post Chapter III: Things are Happening!
My Inspiration:
Neptune Aquatics BC14. The first "populated" BC14 I ever saw - and boy is it GORGEOUS!
So I forgot to mention that a colleague of mine, up in Washington State, is also a Reef-Nut (BC8 and 29) and he somehow, inadvertently, kinda became my short-term "Mentor." I suspect he was starting to get a little annoyed with my badgering non-stop questions and he provided the URLs for a few good online resources and also mentioned that there might be some "local" reef-clubs I might want to look into. So that's how I found NCRC
Well, I also yammered on about how I had my live sand and water in the tank, and how I was getting ready to go buy some live-rock. But @ over $6/lb, I was kinda "ouching" over it. Well, bless his heart, he checked our local Craigslist and found a guy in the South-East Bay who was selling his rock for $2/lb. Now, I got to badger someone else via email and, long-story-short, I drove up on Monday and picked it up. $40 got me 22# of rock - Yay!
This is, essentially, what it looked like - only there was more of it:
This is actually what's left over now (and I'll be bringing it to the swap).
Well, since it was mostly rubble, I decided to stop at Neptune's on my way home and pick up a couple of big chunks of their Marco rock to form an arch.
Then, the minute I got home, I started plunking rocks into my tank:
Not bad for a first attempt, if I do say so myself!
So now we play the game of "Sit and Wait." Wait for the live rock to seed the Marco rock; Wait for microorganisms to start doing whatever they do; Test every 2-3 days to make sure "things are happening;" Wait for my add'l Gee-Gaws to arrive..........
At this point, I think it's kinda like watching paint dry. But at least there were no Newbie Mistakes/Panic Attacks for this particular installment!
Soon, I hope to post Chapter III: Things are Happening!
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