Tank Journal Archive

[reef_newbie]

So I guess the next and perhaps most exciting phase of our journey has been adding life.

We used Carib-Sea Arag-Alive sand to kick things off, along with a frozen prawn tail or two.

We introduced a piece of live rock early-May (along with quite an increased level of anxiety... how much could possibly be living in/on one piece of rock!!??)

We seemed to have our 'cycle' without really noticing it, and things really didn't get too ugly. We still feel like we are waiting for it to happen, but things have been stable for a while now.

 

[MagicJ]

You need to be careful if you leave it too long before introducing some fish etc as the bacteria growing as part of the cycle won't have any ammonia/nitrite/nitrate to feed off and will decline in numbers.

I would probably start introducing some fish, but still take it slowly.

 

[IJG3145]

GOLDEN RULE: Never double your bioload in less than a month. First month, one fish. :)

 

[reef_newbie]

Thanks guys :) We have added fish.. But that's the next chapter in the story!

So, within a week of adding the live rock, the diatoms exploded! The middle pic is 1 day after the top, and the bottom pic is 5 days after that! We got a nice coating of hair algae as well


We found brittle stars, bristle worms and stomatella. Oh and a mantis shrimp!




Some interesting growths (and some not so welcome...)


So we bought a Peppermint Shrimp (though he didn't take to the aptasia quickly enough for our liking so we plugged it up with aquarium silicone..) His name is Peppy. And more recently Peppy le Poo-head because he decided to abandon his semi-visible home for a very concealed space so we can never see him unless we coax him out with food...) He is a bit of a boss - drags a whole prawn tail into his cave and goes nuts!

 

[MagicJ]

If you use live rock then you have to expect some hitchhikers - some good and some bad.

Peppermint shrimp will want to hide, especially during the day - it is their way of staying alive :)

 

[reef_newbie]

Yeah we knew that re the live rock.. which is why we started with dry.

We were persuaded by some more experienced to get a bit of live rock, realising we would get some critters.

Its been exciting and interesting for sure, but definitely more stressful!

I adore the stomatella though, we have counted about 6 so far.

 

[IJG3145]

Stomatella and brittlestars (except large green) are great to have in your tank. I buy them in for every new tank build. Stomatella are particularly good because they get into almost every little crevice doing their cleaning work.

 

[reef_newbie]

I really love them! They are all named Snug because they look like a snail/slug. Some have shiny shells, some look all fuzzy. I love watching them nom away at the glass too! I sound like such a child haha.

So, we ended up going down and collecting a couple of trochus to help clean up all the hair algae. Got 6 little guys - 2 in the sump and 4 in the display.

This was their achievement in just 4 days!

 

[MagicJ]

It would be cool to be able to collect your own things :)