I finally decided to start up a tank after months of debating it. The MASC meeting in 2006 was really cool and I had some coral In Eggplant’s tank since then, growing and (I like to think) longing for their own home. So Egg and I went fish tank shopping. We stopped at Aquatica out near Fuquay, but all they really had were some JBJ tanks and I was hoping for at least an Aquapod like Egg’s. We then went to Down Under to see what they had. Turns out is was my lucky day as they had just started up selling a sweet in-house custom tank. They call it the Down Under Cube. It’s a 30 gallon display tank, cude shaped, with very thick glass, a reinforced lip and an overflow chamber with holes to go to a sump. Their package included the tank, a 20 gallon sump tank and the plumbing between them, a custom cabinet, a combo light much like the Coralife 24″ light (metal halide, 2x compact fluorescent and LEDs), a return pump, an in-sump skimmer, a heater, a floating thermometer, a 55gal bag of Reef Crystals salt mix, a bag of live sand, a hydrometer, flake fish food and various chemicals including a pH/Ca buffer. They also offered to stain the cabinet if I brought a stain. I took a stain and poly coat for them and just had to wait.

Later I ordered a Reef Keeper 2 controller like Egg has from Digital Aquatics. All in all it was a vary exensive day and all I had were some receipts. But soon.