Day 28

New critters! Here's one of my new crabs, he's a gorgeous purple color and hopefully will help bring more coralline algae into the tank... the goal here is to have purple rocks within about 6 months.







More of the new brood. I put in 5-6 new crabs and about 5 nessarius snails.. the snails promptly RAN and I can no longer find them... I'm hoping they are hiding under the sand somewhere.







As soon as I dumped in some new crabs and a few empty hermit shells, it seems every hermit crab from miles around came and exchanged houses, my tank is starting to look like a used shell lot.









Eeeeeew diatoms are getting BAD! I'm assured by everyone that has a tank that it's a good sign, supposed to happen after the cycle has finished but WOW, there is brown on everything and everywhere. One of my poor snails is now covered in it too.








Hair worm #4, if they are reproducing I'm in trouble because I'm gaining about 1 a week.







This picture is fuzzy... look very closely toward the center top of that middle rock and you can see a clear blur. That's a critter. I actually have a bunch of them, copepods maybe? See John! I do know what some of this stuff is.








Butterfly scared me to death!! I got up yesterday morning, turned on the PC lights and she was clear! I could see her tummy and her heart beating. I rushed to work in a panic but then found out that some fish actually fade when the lights go out, it's a camouflage. Within a few minutes of being under lights she got her color back.

Day 27

Not a lot happening... I do have one new hair worm for a total of 3... I wonder how many more of them I have hiding behind the rocks where I can't see them! I'm having serious bubble issues though and I suspect my Penguin 350 isn't working. I'm going to try a different filter but I'm also thinking of adding a sump! How convenient, you can put 20 gallons of water into a rubbermaid tub, toss in your filter and heater and the water in your tank cleans up! Plus, turns 55 gallons of water into 75.. can't help but love that!

Day 25

Busy weekend! Our cycle finished so we got our first fish! Her name is Butterfly (named by Kyna) and she's a Yellow Tail Damsel. So far she's dwarfed in our tank but seems to be doing ok.






I have some little white dots appearing all over my rocks. Here's a handful on my smallest live rock and one of it's critters. Snail eggs maybe?

Everything in the tank is turning brown! I knew it was coming, but it's a nasty sight. I'm dying to scrape the brown stuff off of my filter, powerheads and the back glass but I don't think I'm supposed to. I'm still inundated by microbubbles and snail poop. I've posted on some forums asking for help but so far no one's come up with anything.

Oh! I also have 10-20 tiny white moving smudges on my glass.. copepods maybe? They are smaller than a grain of sand and move fairly quickly, can't wait til they grow up and I get to see what they are.

Day 19

Not much happening lately, just more critters seem to emerge every day. Here's a bristleworm that came out of my coral rock. I also have a 2nd hair worm that was living in the same coral rock.




That "thing" I was talking about yesterday again... here with it's mouth open. Still not 100% sure what it is.




I have diatoms! So my base rock is turning live slowly and my cycle is kicking in. I have crabs and snails to handle the diatoms but at least I'm showing some progress towards fish.




I have no signs of ammonia so now I'm just waiting for the nitrites to go away and I'll be ready for some bigger critters. The kids keep asking me where Nemo is.

Day 18

Remember this picture from Day 4?



Yeah well that crack in the middle, lefthand side of the thing I wanted to scrape off? It's a MOUTH! I noticed last week that the crack had broken open.. didn't think anything about it then tonight a crab walked by it and the crack closed! It re-opened a few minutes later... CREEPY!

I also found a baby snail.. sooo cuuuute. It's a little critter about the size of a grain of sand but you can see the little tentacles on it's head and slinder body so I think it's a snail.

Sad news though.. my coral is peeling :( Can't be good, will keep everyone updated.. everyone? Hrm, anyone read this?

Day 17 Update

I had a new critter appaer tonight! I love new critters... after searching I think it's a Hair Worm (cirratulid). It has long flowy tentacles that move independently and against the current.

Day 17

I put in the first of my cleaning crew, I'm starting to get "things" growing and figured they would now have enough to eat. I'm supposed to have 55 cleaner critters (1 per gallon) but WOW, my tank would be full of inverts.


These 2 hermit crabs went right to work on some algea on my rock.



I feel bad for this little hermit crab, one of my snails has latched onto the back of his shell. With the added weight the crab can't move so he just walks in place and is digging a small hole for himself.



Another hermit..



These two snails are in a deadlock embrace, hope they seperate soon!



Odd looking hermit shell



Temp : 79
pH : 8.2
Alk : 12
Calcium : 460
Phosphates : 0
Ammonia : .50
Nitrite : 5
Nitrate : 40
SG : 1.025

Day 15

I put in some Live Sand today so let the seeding begin!! I also added my first piece of coral... hang in there little guy!





Little guy opened up a few hours after I put him in my tank





Tank shot... You can barely see my piece of coral over on the top rock on the right.

Day 12

I got a new live rock to help seed the dead rock. I have one "thing" on part of the dead rock, it looks like a thick spiderweb and there are actually a few of them covering some of the holes. I'd say they are dime sized to quarter sized and flow with the wavemaker so VERY thin.






Complimentary Tank Shot




Temp 78
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrite (unkn)
Nitrate (unkn)
Ph 8.4
Alk 7.4
Salinity 1.024

Day 10

The water is clear this morning! I like the rock, I think there's plenty of room for critters to hide. The cycle also is underway so we should have snails and crabs in the next week! I have apitasia anenome so my peppermint shrimp will be happy when I get him, lots of work to do.



PH 8.0
Ammonia .4
Nitrite .25
Nitrate 5ppm
Alk 7.5
Temp 80

Day 9

I got my rock! I organized and re-organized it on my floor and when I found a stable base with lots of flat spots for coral I decided to let it be (it's dead btw, wouldn't play with LR on my floor). One of these rocks is HUGE and very heavy, hard to maneuvre so it's staying put.

I tried for stability with lots of caves.





Ugh, my tank hasn't had clear water in 4 days since I put the sand in. I'm hoping that now that the rock is in and I'm just starting to cycle that it'll all clear down. Oh, more water is DI'ing so the top few inches will be full in a few hours.

BTW this rock is Argonite so it will be LR eventually, yay!

Day 6

Over the last few days I've added 3-4" of Dead Sand into the tank. Friday I get my 55lbs of Live Rock and Monday I get some Live Sand to start repopulating everything. Right now I'm just waiting for the dust to settle, it's pretty murky! My poor Rock Critters.





PH 8.4
Ammonia .4
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Alk (unkn)
Temp 79