some of you who helped me out yesterday knew i was having trouble with measuring my salt levels and my hydrometer, and it put off my purchase of LR. Not only was i disappointed that i had to wait to buy it, i was also disappointed when i looked at it in the store...the 7.99/lb stuff was tiny little rocks, and the 12.99/lb was big, but just ok looking, nothing to make me say wow (except for the price!).
so i came home, upped my salt in the tank, and browsed here. i was looking in the for sale section and saw that a member was selling his LR for 2.50/lb! the pics of his tank looked beautiful, and the feedback from the sale of his corals was excellent. i PMed him, and sure enough, he had plenty left, and he lives about 20 minutes from me. so this morning i went back to the lfs with my broken hydrometer and a cup of water. it was up from yesterday, but still low, and the hydrometer was off by 8 points. they gave me a different one, (different brand, more expensive, but exchanged it for the same price), tested my water on it, and it was much more accurate...still off by -1, but better than -8! so i came home, mixed up some more salt, tested it, back to the lfs to confirm, all looked good at 1.023, so i called eugene, who was selling the rock and went to meet him. he wound up giving me 25 pounds of figi rock from his two year old 75 gallon tank for $50! it looks really nice.
so, as disappointed as i was yesterday, it turned out to be a great experience for me. still getting a refractometer though.
what can i expect now from a cycle with rock that's been in an established tank? it was in a styrofoam cooler wrapped in wet newspaper out of the tank for about 30 minutes. will that cause a lot of die off? here are a bunch of pics...lmk what you all think, and any ID info would be appreciated as well.
so i came home, upped my salt in the tank, and browsed here. i was looking in the for sale section and saw that a member was selling his LR for 2.50/lb! the pics of his tank looked beautiful, and the feedback from the sale of his corals was excellent. i PMed him, and sure enough, he had plenty left, and he lives about 20 minutes from me. so this morning i went back to the lfs with my broken hydrometer and a cup of water. it was up from yesterday, but still low, and the hydrometer was off by 8 points. they gave me a different one, (different brand, more expensive, but exchanged it for the same price), tested my water on it, and it was much more accurate...still off by -1, but better than -8! so i came home, mixed up some more salt, tested it, back to the lfs to confirm, all looked good at 1.023, so i called eugene, who was selling the rock and went to meet him. he wound up giving me 25 pounds of figi rock from his two year old 75 gallon tank for $50! it looks really nice.
so, as disappointed as i was yesterday, it turned out to be a great experience for me. still getting a refractometer though.
what can i expect now from a cycle with rock that's been in an established tank? it was in a styrofoam cooler wrapped in wet newspaper out of the tank for about 30 minutes. will that cause a lot of die off? here are a bunch of pics...lmk what you all think, and any ID info would be appreciated as well.
