Tickled pink.....

[Alberta-newb]

.....and purple and red with my live rock!

A big thanks to Kevin and Doug for all your help in getting this "newb" going. I really enjoy my weekly trip(s) into Calgary to visit your store and I appreciate your patience with all my questions!

Thought I'd share a few shots of my set-up so far..not the greatest as I'm still trying to figure out my camera

This is the left side, made up of almost entirely of rock from your store





This is a shot of the right made up of a mixed bag from several locations:






Your LR has been incredible! As I mentioned before, my tank never went through any cycle when I added LR from Red Coral, in fact it dramatically improved it. I noticed after my first purchase from you (around 20 lbs) my nitrite dropped from 5 to zero within 2 days and the nitrate dropped from 10 to 5. Now 3 weeks later everything is at zero even with adding more! I can now see the corraline algae is really starting to take off and has been spreading to the duller rocks, I can hardly wait untill it starts covering over the plumbing and glass.

The best part has been the hitchikers that came with it, so far I've seen a bunch of stomatid snails both in black and tan as well as several mushrooms including this nice red one which is now almost 2" across:



I have no idea what the green thing is to the left of it. Possibly a mojano anenome? Hoping someone here can identify. So far it hasn't been a problem and he does shine nicely under actinics.

Also being a new tank I've gone through a few stages of algae and diatoms but no real nuicance ones since adding LR from Red Coral. There is quite a selection of interesting macro algaes though. This shot shows some bright yellow that recently started as well as one of the 3 Kenya tree hitchikers (circled) that appeared on this one slab (if my identification is right?) They are all about 2" tall and looking healthy.


The photo only shows a small area of this slab, there also appears that some very bright flurescent orange mushrooms may be forming on it as well. I'll post some pics as they develop and I improve my photography skills


Anyway, thought I'd share a little. You guys have been great and I look forward to many more visits!

Francis "Alberta-newb"