On Sunday 25May2008 Brad wrote

Ron,

Here is the quick letter I promised.

About 3 months ago I was looking to get into saltwater aquarium hobby. I had never owned a fish tank before and I had a lot of questions. I had always stayed away because I had heard that it was very expensive and hard to maintain. Well I decided to go for it anyways. I looked around town trying to find a place that sold saltwater setups and came across Aqua-Rama. Not having a good knowledge base I listened to what they had to say and thought that I was walking away ok. They sold me a tank and what they said was the necessary supplies as well as 15 lbs of live rock and 5 Damsels. The whole thing was about 750 dollars. I went home and set it up exactly as they had said. The rock was very ugly with brown spots all over it, but they said it was normal and would be ok. Within 24 hours I already had a dead fish and my tank was smelling really funny. I called them back and they said it was normal and to just bring the dead fish in and they would replace it. Well I really did not want to put another fish in there to die so I asked if I could wait. They agreed. Later that night another fish died on me. I was starting to panic at this point. The next morning I went to PetSmart and they referred me to Ron. He came out that evening and explained to me exactly what was going on. He said that my fish had a disease and that my rock was also in bad shape. He had me smell the rock and it was terrible. He told me what we needed to do to try and save the tank. The next day I went to his place and bought about 50 lbs of base rock and 5 lbs of sand. I also gave him my damsels to try and rescue ( he could only save one ). I shut all the lights off ( by the way, the pet store sold me the wrong lights for a saltwater setup so I was out even more money at this point ) and let the tank set for three days. After the third day the water had cleared up and it was starting to look good. The next thing I bought was cleaning package b and some carribean live rock. I let that stand for about another week and then started putting livestock in. Now the difference is amazing. I have 3 fish, 2 decorator crabs, 2 coral shrimp and a ton of coral. I lost the before picture of how terrible the tank was, but here is the latest that I have. I thank Ron and his wife for the great knowledge of this wonderful hobby and for helping understand that it is not as bad as what it could be. I call Ron often when I see changes in my tank and he is always very helpful. The pet store pretty much sold me what they did and said I was on my own. I am grateful that I found TnT's phone number and that they were able to help me save my tank and enjoy the beauty of it today.

Brad Owens