Diatoms and Clean Up Crew

Algae! I got green and brown goo growing all over, so it's time for some snails and crabs. I have one misc. crab, one astrea snail, and one turbo grazer in right now...but adding more real soon.

Rock is 3 Weeks Old

Well, I have had my rock in the tank for three weeks today, and good things are going on.


I have good green and red color algae growth, and my chemistry is panning out. The second white square from the top shows that my nitrites are almost zilch! My trates are still about 10 - 20 ppm, but that is pretty normal for a new tank. I am pretty stoked about getting some clean up crew to take care of some algae growth.



p.s. Here is a shot of my good buddy Herb's Feather Duster. He took it with his new Olympus camera...nice shot!

Tank Update - Nothing New

I pulled that mushroom out before it was too late. All my inverts and corals from the frag swap are in Kevin's tank. This pic shows that there is not much going on these days except for bacteria. Hoping for a diatom bloom soon.

Stats at 2:30 -
Temp: 80.9 little high...I know
Nitrite: .5ppm or less
Nitrate: 20 ppm
PH: 8.4
LWC: 063007 10:00pm 4 gallon

Fosters and Smith Conference

So I happened to be in the Reinlander area this weekend (wink, wink), and I mosied on over to the Fosters and Smith Coral Conference/Frag Swap. One word...AWESOME! So here are some picks to tell the story...a lot of pics. The first one is the new sacrificial lamb in my not quite balanced tank...one of many new aquired corals and inverts.









There were lots of freebies and adivce for newbies like me. To bad my weekend is already booked for next year...glad I went this year!

I think this is the last one.

I think this rock layout is the best so far. Will see. I am totally stoked about going to the DFS frag swap in Reinlander this weekend. I write it up when I get back.

Clearing up.

Well the water is a little clearer today, so here is some pictures of the first of many aquacultures in the tank. This rock is really awesome.





So I am leaving for the farm tomorrow morning, and I expect the tank to be an algae festival when I get home. Next in line is the big Diatom algae bloom. Brown nasty stuff!

Rocks Here!

Remember what the tank looks like empty...cause it ain't empty no more!!! Okay, so here we go...this is the second big step to a reef tank...live rock. Here is how it comes in the box.



So I spread out all the peices on one of Kelly's favorite towels...just kidding. The Tonga is on the left and Figi is on the right. I put some big Figi in the bottom of the 1st chamber, and I will smash up the rest for rubble around and on top of the bigger peices. The Tonga Rock is awesome.


So I tried to set up a good scape on the towel, but once I got two peices in the water turned to cloudy and I will have to wait to keep aquascaping the tanking. Here is how it looks for now. This rock has so many crevices and caves...that's a good thing.