I just recently moved to the Harlingen area of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and while my number 1 hobby is growing coconut palms, I also like having a marine aquarium. I wold like to have another 26 gal. natural reef tank like the one I had when I lived in Coral Springs, Florida. I prefer to collect my own live rock, fish and invertebrates. I also like to use natural seawater in my tank. I have have had vvery good results with this despite what a lot of the "experts" at a pet shop would say about never using natural seawater. Hey, the way I look at it is if I am going to be keeping native sea creatures from the local area, then why not use natural seawater? It's worked good for me. I like to collect my own specimens from the shore, especially around rocky areas like jetties. I have heard that the South Padre jetties have good visibility for snorkeling in August and September and may be good for collecting. Anybody got any good suggestions on exactly where to go and when to go there?

John