New stuff on the way
 

Today I called up the folks at www.garf.org and ordered one of their reef janitor packs. Essentially a total of 82 hermits and snails to control the algae in my tank. I have a really big red diatom bloom going on right now and the few snails and crabs can't keep up. They'd much rather eat other stuff. I think this is definitely a case where large numbers will help. The one end of my tank where the majority of substrate came from the old 60g tank is becoming carpeted with red algae.

In addition, whenever you order a janitor pack, they include a free coral frag from their clippings. I don't know what I'll be getting so it will be interesting to see. It will all be here Thursday. I'll post pictures.

They also offer frag packs at 5 frags for $100, and they throw in two more for free. I may consider this when I'm ready to really start adding corals.

I have heard mixed reviews about garf.org. Please post pics when you can and let us know the results!

Yes please let us know.

Anyone else purchased from garf before?

Well, the woman I spoke with was Sally Jo, wife of founder/co-founder of the place. We had a short but very nice conversation. I told her a little about my tank and complimented her on the many beautiful pictures of her tank that I had seen. I could have got any combination of snails and hermits in the package, up to a total of 82. They were $1 each. I only ordered their 55g pack as I already have a small cleanup crew and honestly I can't picture that many little critters scurrying around my tank until I get all the new LR in place. I opted for a 50/50 split of hermits/snails. I also get the free mystery frag, but I could have also chosen to get two pounds of their GARF Grunge, a live substrate starter that I don't really need right now. I like the idea of a clean sand/coral bed. If this all works out, perhaps I will try ordering one of their frag packs in a month or so.

In my opinion the grunge is over rated. You can get pretty much the same effect (if not better) by getting a few pieces of quality live rock form multiple sources (atlantic, pacific, etc.) and a few fistfuls of live sand from a few different established systems. Are there any local reef clubs in your area? If so then that is a good source for live sand seed.

I agree with you on the grunge, and by looking at it I get the impression of a lot of waste rubble at the bottom of the tank. I like a much cleaner looking substrate (except when it's covered in a red algae bloom like mine is right now).

Sadly, I have yet to find any truely local aquarist societies in the are. There is one well known one that my step brother belongs to, but to drive to their meeting would take over an hour. Not really up for that yet. I'm sure there must be one in Philly, but again that's a ways away from here. Maybe I need to start one.

Today is the day. New critters!:D

I'm really wondering what my mystery frag will be.

This is the fun time. Waiting and then finally getting to open it to see what it is.

We look forward to seeing the photos and finding out what your mystery frag is.

what did you get?

Nothing yet. Still waiting. You?

Yea they're in the tank already... Looks like I got shorted by 10 frags, but it appears that a superman monti was thrown in. We'll see when they open up when I get home.

Lucky you!!! EVERYONE D12 HAS THE SUPERMAN! Okay everyone knows where to get their frag from. LOL

Not sure yet... Polyps didn't open on the monti. Will look later. Don't go jumping the gun LOL

I found out the new sump will be here Monday when I will be out of town. I made hubby promise to come home during lunch. To bring it in and check to make sure this one is not broke.

OK, here's what I got:

A bag full of snails with very little water and a wet paper towel

A bag full of crabs with very little water and a wet paper towel

A bag marked corals that said "GORG and STARZ" with what appears to be a gorgonian floating upside down in the water attached to a cork and some styrofoam and a frag that looks like some kind of SPS. I'll get pics up shortly. Not sure what to do with the gorg, as I don't really want a cork in my tank. Need some help there. The frag had broken loose from it's small rubble rock so I had to reglue that.

I don't have the warm and fuzzy feeling with all this.

The crabs did start to eagerly devour my red diatom bloom on my substrate.

More to come

OK, my bad. It wasn't a cork. It's an aragocrete plug or something. Attached to it appears to be a purple gorgonian, possibly this:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=608

Not sure about the other coral yet

That is really pretty. Not a bad freebie.

Here's what I got: