mimzy
Active Member
WOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!! I'm freaking out...can you tell? :hilarious
OK...I don't even know where to begin telling the story...I'm too excited, I'm all shaky and bouncy.....but I've got 3 hours to wait while things acclimate, so I may as well begin at the beginning.
So I've been wanting to find a closer LFS (Tropaquarium is awesome, but sooooooo pricey and 45 minutes away!!!), so I searched around here and on the 'net and found 2 places on Rt.22 not 30 minutes from us; Pet Shanty and Ocean Galleries II.
I was up early, so anxiously awaited an appropriate time to rouse the Beast - and eventually ended up dragging my Husband out of bed at the crack of lunch
He very graciously agreed to haul me around to both these places
Both look like awesome stores; Pet shanty even has this MASSIVE toadstool coral named "Steve," who's like 2 feet wide and is over 17 years old. GORGEOUS!!!
.... but Ocean Galleries by far had the best prices on corals.
We had stopped in Ocean Galleries first, looked around, asked for pricing, and told them we'd come back after a stop we had to make further down the road. We left and went to Pet Shanty, gawked at Steve for a while, then returned to OG.
The guy there was SOOOOO nice. Very informative, and very excited about fish and all things underwater. Great to meet a geek who loves his job :joy:
I had sooooooooo much to choose from - I didn't think I'd have too many choices with lowlight corals, but they had bajillions of different kinds of mushrooms and polyps and things. He was giving us phenomenal pricing on everything, so I really had to wrack my brain. Finally, I decided that what I got first didn't matter too much - everything looked so healthy, so hopefully if it does well in my tank, I can propagate it and bring it in to trade for other varieties.
I went with a nice mango sized rock (the big mangos, and exactly that shape, too) that was COVERED in gorgeous dark purple coraline that had 7 nickel/quarter sized bumpy, glowy green mushrooms (look just like the Green Rhodactis u can buy from this site) on it.
It was priced at 59.99, but he gave it to me for 49, and also gave us the astrea snail that had taken up residence on it. He said the snail had been on the rock since it came into the store, and he didn't want to part the little guy from it.
I wasn't planning on buying anything else, but then he (I am so annoyed I didn't get his name, but I DID get a card) took us over to a coral tank w/ actinics over it and pointed out some really beautiful button polyps. Big fist sized rocks that were just COVERED in the corals. 25 bucks. TWENTY FIVE!!!! How on EARTH was I going to pass that up???
So he packed everything for us with a good amount of water in each double bag, we paid and were on our way. Half the ride home I had to clamp my hands over my mouth to keep from squealing w/ excitement and scaring my husband off the road.
I took the bags out to look at them a few times, and have already discovered 2 tiny white sea star hitchikers on the mushroom rock, along with about 12 little brown zoos.
I cannot WAIT to see what other crazy hitchikers I end up with!!! src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/hot.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Hot!" class="inlineimg" />
When we got home, I set everything up that I'd need to acclimate them, and then went to put the bags into the tank for temp acclimation.
....uh oh...the bags were wider than my tank....they wouldn't fit!!!! I got nervous, so I took the temp in the bags - only about a degree warmer than my tank water, so I opened them up into the acclimation bucket and poured everyone in, making sure they were well submerged. By the time all the water had touched the air, it had cooled down signifigantly, so I started the drip - I'm nervous that I couldn't acclimate them slowly to the temp, but it was less than 1 degree, and it DID get them out of the bags faster.
So now everyone is sitting tight in the bucket, about 2 and a half hours left 'till they're done acclimating, and I'm so excited that I don't know where to put myself.
I got a few pix of everyone after I put them in the bucket - really doesnt do them much justice, but u get the idea.
I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO STOKED!!!!
In the meantime - all u folks with button polyps....have u found that they prefer higher or lower flow/placement?
Any suggestions as to placement (or anything else) for the shrooms OR the polyps would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!! :jumping: :jumping:
OK...I don't even know where to begin telling the story...I'm too excited, I'm all shaky and bouncy.....but I've got 3 hours to wait while things acclimate, so I may as well begin at the beginning.
So I've been wanting to find a closer LFS (Tropaquarium is awesome, but sooooooo pricey and 45 minutes away!!!), so I searched around here and on the 'net and found 2 places on Rt.22 not 30 minutes from us; Pet Shanty and Ocean Galleries II.
I was up early, so anxiously awaited an appropriate time to rouse the Beast - and eventually ended up dragging my Husband out of bed at the crack of lunch
Both look like awesome stores; Pet shanty even has this MASSIVE toadstool coral named "Steve," who's like 2 feet wide and is over 17 years old. GORGEOUS!!!
.... but Ocean Galleries by far had the best prices on corals.
We had stopped in Ocean Galleries first, looked around, asked for pricing, and told them we'd come back after a stop we had to make further down the road. We left and went to Pet Shanty, gawked at Steve for a while, then returned to OG.
The guy there was SOOOOO nice. Very informative, and very excited about fish and all things underwater. Great to meet a geek who loves his job :joy:
I had sooooooooo much to choose from - I didn't think I'd have too many choices with lowlight corals, but they had bajillions of different kinds of mushrooms and polyps and things. He was giving us phenomenal pricing on everything, so I really had to wrack my brain. Finally, I decided that what I got first didn't matter too much - everything looked so healthy, so hopefully if it does well in my tank, I can propagate it and bring it in to trade for other varieties.
I went with a nice mango sized rock (the big mangos, and exactly that shape, too) that was COVERED in gorgeous dark purple coraline that had 7 nickel/quarter sized bumpy, glowy green mushrooms (look just like the Green Rhodactis u can buy from this site) on it.
It was priced at 59.99, but he gave it to me for 49, and also gave us the astrea snail that had taken up residence on it. He said the snail had been on the rock since it came into the store, and he didn't want to part the little guy from it.
I wasn't planning on buying anything else, but then he (I am so annoyed I didn't get his name, but I DID get a card) took us over to a coral tank w/ actinics over it and pointed out some really beautiful button polyps. Big fist sized rocks that were just COVERED in the corals. 25 bucks. TWENTY FIVE!!!! How on EARTH was I going to pass that up???
So he packed everything for us with a good amount of water in each double bag, we paid and were on our way. Half the ride home I had to clamp my hands over my mouth to keep from squealing w/ excitement and scaring my husband off the road.
I took the bags out to look at them a few times, and have already discovered 2 tiny white sea star hitchikers on the mushroom rock, along with about 12 little brown zoos.
When we got home, I set everything up that I'd need to acclimate them, and then went to put the bags into the tank for temp acclimation.
....uh oh...the bags were wider than my tank....they wouldn't fit!!!! I got nervous, so I took the temp in the bags - only about a degree warmer than my tank water, so I opened them up into the acclimation bucket and poured everyone in, making sure they were well submerged. By the time all the water had touched the air, it had cooled down signifigantly, so I started the drip - I'm nervous that I couldn't acclimate them slowly to the temp, but it was less than 1 degree, and it DID get them out of the bags faster.
So now everyone is sitting tight in the bucket, about 2 and a half hours left 'till they're done acclimating, and I'm so excited that I don't know where to put myself.
I got a few pix of everyone after I put them in the bucket - really doesnt do them much justice, but u get the idea.
I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO STOKED!!!!
In the meantime - all u folks with button polyps....have u found that they prefer higher or lower flow/placement?
Any suggestions as to placement (or anything else) for the shrooms OR the polyps would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!! :jumping: :jumping:
really its not necessary! Get them used to the temperature and then toss them in. I usually drop my bags in my sump and like whenever I get around to it I rip them outta the bag and place them where I want them to go.
