KP Starter Liverock

[Riona]

First off, great customer service from the owners.  I emailed to see if I could get a suggestion for how much rock to get and while it took him a bit to get back to me (they are packing orders a couple days a week, and diving most of the rest.  It's fine.) but when he did, he offered to speak with me on the phone to talk about what I needed.  Dealt with me not knowing exactly what I wanted, and being vague because I'm a bit of a derp on the phone.  Always a plus in my book.

 

As for the rock, it's so nice!  I'll eventually be able to get pictures.  I got 20# of it overnighted to me.  Still smelled nice and fresh, even though it was in paper not submerged.  Also made the box lighter to walk inside.  

 

Really, half of this stuff is pink and purple, and it's got tons of stuff on it.  A lot will likely end up being kinda bad, but it's got STUFF!  I found a smashed crab (ow, poor thing, even if I don't want them in my tank.) at least 4 brittle/serpent stars.  One was partially smashed, but seemed active, so I figure if it dies something'll eat it.  One was iffy (couldn't tell if green/blue-ish/reddish under my tank lights and with saltwater all over my hands didn't wanna mess with my phone to see if I could get either the flashlight or the whites) but I figure I'll notice it getting big if it's one of the big fish eating greens.  The rest clearly had bands on their legs, and I think that means they're the safe sorts?  Found a few pistol shrimp (pop goes the reef tank  ) but I'm a weirdo who likes those, so I don't mind.  (Sadly still no mantis shrimp.  I might have to set up a little nano for one and order it specifically.)  I got a snail that I put in the ID forum here, and asked them via email about.  Dunno what sort it is, and it's in a bucket of water I'd changed out of the tank (likely not healthy, but it was all I had on short notice) until I get confirmation it's an algae eater instead of a meat eater.  I've seen some empty (boo.) tubes, and at least one feather worm crown, which is nice.  There are a handful of fleshy macros in there that I've got no idea on, but hope stick around.  So long as they don't take over at least.  Also have a couple sprigs of codium that I noticed that I hope stick around.  One of my faves, so keeping it would be nice.  I also got a pencil urchin, though some research shows that I might need to set him up his own tank since they may or may not eat coral and other stuff like sponges that I'd like to try to keep around in the tank.

 

It's also SPACEY!  I got some from the gulf (got a lot of good hitchhikers, not overall in love with the rock otherwise.  NOT shaming the company, though, since they just bought it and are still getting into the swing of things, plus the customer service was amazing.) recently, and it's really dense and doesn't take up much space.  The rock I got in the mail today takes up about twice the amount of space in the tank.  At least.  The smallest of 6 rocks is about the same as the smallest of the 4 I got from the other place,  

 

And that's what I noticed just pulling it from the bag to put in my tank.  No telling what I'll end up finding going forward, but I hope it's all as fun to discover as what I have so far.  

[DevilDuck]

Post pictures! 

[less than bread]

Sounds awesome. I have an extra tank I'm not currently using and I've thought about getting what I like to call "Super Live Rock" with tons and tons of life on it and just see what crawls out. Very fun way to start a tank

[Riona]

12 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

Post pictures! 

Just got a new phone (about time) a few minutes ago.  Once I've got it figured out, and hoping it has a better camera than the last, I'll try to get some.  Once I get around to wiping the diatoms off the glass.