New Member Says Hello

[cliscum]

Hello Reefers-

I have just joined the Atlanta Reef Club and begun ordering the components for my salt water aquarium. I was wondering if their is a good place in the Atlanta area to hide from my significant other when the bill comes, and drink away the bill myself?

Anyone in Atlanta know a good place? I may become a regular.

-Charles

 

[flyingarmy]

Charles...welcome to ARC. A great resource and place for those with the same aflictions you have...SW tanks. As for a place to hide....you are on your own. We all have ways of laundering the money, bills for this addiction. I just tell my wife I am a crack dealer with lots of overhead.

 

[jason sartain]

Welcome Charles.

 

[ralph atl]

welcome

 

[stacy22]

Charles, the trick is to get your significant other to become interested as well....if you can do that, you've got it made!

Welcome to ARC!
Stace

 

[derek_s]

Welcome Charles. Good stores around us include Saltwater City in Kennesaw, Marine Fish in Marieta, Creation Reef in Woodstock, all of which are sponsors. Pets Unlimited is small but nice as well, but is currently not a sponsor (thus no discount).

Since I am probably near you, let me know if I can assist you in setting up your tank once you get it. We are trying to get the ARC mentorship program off the ground, so you can take advantage of that if you like!

 

[gwhiz]

Welcome Charles! I just tell my wife that it (whatever it is) cost $25. That 100 lbs of live rock? $25. That new skimmer? $25. And I bought her a clam, so if the $25 routine doesn't work I can always fall back on "...but it's for your clam!"

As for a place to hide.....I built a bar next to my tank so I didn't have to go far!

 

[cliscum]

Thanks everyone, cat is defiantly out of the bag with my aquarium obsession, and I am very happy to be here. I have so many questions that my research has been unable to answer, little pieces of my planning that I hope the club and its sponsors can assist me in filling in. With that lead in, I plan to hijack my first thread into some of the questions that I have.

Back story: I have ordered the 5 stage plus RO unit from bulkreef, a bucket of carbon and GFO, a two chamber reactor, and the necessary components to cure live rock from petsolutions.

The plan is to cure my rock while I get the tank, sump, and lightning figured out. This is the phase where I bring you all beer and presents so that I may look at your setups.


My first question is about LR. I would like to ask for some pictures of your LR setups and where you bought your rock from? I am quite curious if you get what you pay for in this arena, or if it is a matter of preference. I am currently planning to get LR that is completely dry so I work it into a bonzi arrangement.
Pictures and possible sources of where I should get my rock would be valuable to me, I have found it available from bulkreef and pet solutions, but really want to see what I am getting without paying an unnecessary premium.
More questions to come, this thread should be all over the place, so pull up a chair!

-Charles

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Welcome Charles...


Best advice I can give you is to buy your rock from tank breakdowns... You can normally find it for $2.50-$3.00 a lb that way. You know it is cured and ready to go that way... Next stop would then be from Sal at Saltwater City in Kennasaw if he is still selling rock for $3/lb. To be honest, I have found some of his rock to have aiptasia but you can work around that. Next option is off e-bay. You can find it for about $.99-$2.00/lb that way and shipping will run you about another $1/lb. Problem with the e-bay stuff is it is uncured and would need to be cycled before hitting an established tank, or cycled with a new tank. Other problem with e-bay rock is I find most of it to be "bubble-gum" pieces. Just round boulders that are great for a base but hard to aquascape an entire tank out of.

Now, is all rock created equal?!? Yes and no... Rock from different areas (ie, Fiji, marshal island, Tonga, etc) have different characteristics to it. Marshal island is very porous and light for its size and often comes in shelf shapes. Tonga is more branch like. Fiji is the most abundant. Caribbean is very heavy and dense. For the most part, it all does the same general thing. Although, I would say the more porous and light the rock is, the better. More holes you nooks it has in it, the more surface area and thus the more bacteria can grow on it.