It's Alive! (rock)

I got my first shipment of live rock last night. It really was quite the experience. I had to pick it up at the airport at the air freight terminal (around the back of the "real" terminal). It was eerie, and felt like some back-alley drug deal. I was waiting for all the sirens and lights. Freeze!

After finally lugging the stuff home, and with the gracious help of my buddy, Dave, I got the live sand bed and the first bit of live rock into the tank. Overnight, the tank cleared up from the silt that was with the sand. Thanks again, Dave, for all your help last night. :)

Before I get to some pictures, here's an update on the protein skimmer. I still have not gotten it from the LFS. I am going there tomorrow, and I am getting something - either my skimmer, or my money back. There are plenty of fish (stores) in the sea, so to speak, and I'll bring my business elsewhere if need be. If this guy wants to argue with me, I'll just never shop there again... it's finally come to that.

OK, so here are some pictures, most of which were taken within an hour or two of the installation of the rock and sand, and so are somewhat cloudy:

FTS - the sand and rock aren't in any particular location... just in the tank was the important part. I've started arranging the rock, but that discussion is for another post

There were at least a half-dozen of these tiny snail dudes. My first livestock!

This was the only hermit crab I found. He was gone this morning, and I haven't seen him since.

Is that a coral? Not really sure, but it looks cool. Somehow, I doubt it's an actual coral, but you never know!

That red golf-ball looking thingy is really weird. Is that a red ball sponge? Not sure, but we'll soon see if it does anything.

Snails, snails, everywhere... how many do you see?

In the center, there is a tiny feather duster - hard to see, because of the cloudy water. Better pictures of feather dusters and other worms in future posts.

This morning, I woke up to find out that an anemone crawled out from hiding overnight. I think it is a curlycue anemone - which don't host fishes, but aren't detrimental to the tank. I fed it some shrimp when I got home from work, and it ate it like it hadn't eaten in a long, long time. Just gobbled it up. I hope it doesn't die, but we'll have to see what happens as the tank cycles.

In addition, I also found a creepy crawler inside one of the rocks. I'm not sure, but I think it's a mantis shrimp - which will have to come out of the tank if it truly is that. I tried enticing it with some shrimp, but he just ate it and snuck right back into his little cave. Dave has named him "Larry". Hopefully, I'll be able to get Larry out of his cave, so I can trap him. If I can see him out of the cave, I can more easily identify him, and also get him out if he's bad.

I have to let the tank cycle before I can request shipment #2 of the live rock. Evidently, the second shipment has more decorative creatures living on it, like sponges, maybe a coral or two, or some other such creatures. Also, I will get my clean up crew (CUC), which include many snails and hermit crabs, a peppermint shrimp, a sea cucumber, and i think a serpent or a brittle starfish. It'll be fun to be able to watch all of that life get settled into the tank. Once the second shipment cycles in the tank, I'll be ready to go get my first fish. Yay! It's only about a month away now! Seems like forever to just go get a fish, but patience is the name of the game with this hobby.

Until next time...