Hello from the Big Sand Box

Welcome to the reef- we like pictures...

 

OK I was bored so here goes. Unfortunately I don't have a tripod.

 

Ok photos didn't work need to do some research on adding photos here.

 

One more try.

 

Welcome to 3reef! Hows the aquarium market over there? How are the fish stores?

Nice tank by the way.

 

Nice setup! Welcome to 3reef, and thank you for your support of our troops!!

Any chance of posting pics of the town you're in? Kinda off topic, but foreign countries always fascinate me.

 

Exactly! Thank you very much! Welcome aboard, great pics, looks good. How/where are you able to get your livestock from? Is it expensive or just like the states? Luna

 

There is a place here where called Friday market that contains about 60 small shops in two buildings. You can find just about anything there from Macaws to alligators to monkeys to chipmunks to Chinchillas and occasionally falcons. Going there almost makes you want to puke the way the animals are kept. I hate to support them but they are the only game in town. PETA would call in the National Guard for support after seeing the first shop. Arab culture is not big on animal rights or even human rights for that matter when it comes to foreigners.

Glass Chinese made Tanks here are pretty cheap, My 60 Gallon with Stand and 3X54 T-5 Hood was just over $200. The 180 I'm looking at with stand is going to cost me around $1000. I've seen an Acrylic 500 gallon go for about $9250 with stand. I am able to order equipment over the internet. The equipment available at the shops is mostly the cheap Chinese made junk. There is one shop there that deals in quality equipment and is where I picked up my remora pro skimmer and vortech pumps. some of the prices are decent others are insane Vortech MP20s run roughly $314 U.S. $425 for MP40W, yet my Remora pro with pump was $380. 3 or 4 shops carry almost Kent Marine Additives and supplements. The shop with the decent equipment carries a few Tropic Marin additives and supplements.

Flame Angels sell for about $81 each, Coral Beauties around $20 each, most shrimp run about $10, Harlequin and Banded Coral Shrimp $20 each, Ribbon Eels around $55, Elegance Corals range from $66 to $92 depending on the size but not the variety be it Aussie or Indo in collection. Indonesian Elegance Corals seem to do very well here as opposed to those I've heard about in the States even better than those of Australian collection. The shop keepers useless when it comes to information on keeping the fish they sale. There are roughly 30 Mandarin and other dragnets wasting away in bare glass display tanks for sale at any given time. Of course they never ask about the maturity of your tank or your copepod/amphipod population before or after the sale.

The Pipefish and Seahorses I've seen readily accept frozen mysis and brine shrimp. Although my Pipefish accepted mysis shrimp from introduction to my tank he has stoped and the only thing I see him eating anymore are the copepods on the back glass. The horses still eat well though on frozen. Despite the dismal keeping of the animals there everything I''ve bought there has readily accepted food upon introduction to my tank. the corals have opened up within hours of being placed as well. Maybe they were starvign from the shops display tanks.

Zack B I'll see about adding some local photos to my gallery for you, I don't want to post them in a thread. Will send you a PM to check them out once I take a few and load them.

 

AWSOME TANK!!!!!!!!!!!! and yes, thanks for protecting the great land most of us take for granted!!!

 

One thing I can not get here and haven't been able to find is anyone willing to send is some Cheato and trigger pods for my Refugium. Is there anyone willing to donate a bit and send to me? I would pay and certainly wouldn't expect an arrive alive guarantee but I would think that enough would survive to seed it. But I would like to add some to my Refugium.