It's still hardly anything yet, but I'm so excited.  First, I want to thank Rick (B-Rad) for mentoring me and being patient since it took me so long just to get this far.  Then Dustin (TotalChaos13) for the great deal on the sand and rock with life on them.

Okay, so for the last six hours or so, I've been getting this tank in order and tearing down and cleaning my two extra tanks.  Now that I look at the tank, it seems as if it's all coming together even though I still have a long ways to go.


I'll fill the water up to the top soon, just being lazy after all the other work I've done.  But I mixed both batches of rock and even though I haven't put them in any configuration I'd like to yet I still think it looks good.  I'm going to A.E. in Davenport tomorrow and going to pick up some epoxy for later when I do stack the rock for good.


They look like they actually survived the 15 minutes out of water yesterday and doing well.  I have two more heads sitting on the sand that look like in the exact same shape.  Should I put them on the rock?


I think it's a mushroom.  But I do have a few of them.


Here's the difference between the two batches of live rock.


Also, I have about 4 snails moving around the tank.  Should I get some hermit crabs or something to eat the algae from my first batch of live rock?  I'm going to keep up on my water changes as well as I can hoping to keep everything alive in the tank that I can.

Man that is awesome. I can remember poring over rock checking out all the cool life you can find.

Congratulations. I got a few things from Dustin as well, including a few of those loose yellow polyps (like yours) and a red mushroom (probably like yours as he had several on one rock) The yellow polyps are really taking off and are pretty cool. The red mushroom is nice and bright. You got some good stuff from him.
The yellow polyps seem to like more light in my tank so you may want to move them up. I just used a turkey baster to blow them in some holes in my rock and they have already planted themselves and begun making mats. One even has started to produce new polyps already. By the speed at which they are growing in my tank you may want to think about strategically placing them as they may take over spots that you wanted for something else. Just my observations.
Good luck.

Thanks for the info.  Because the two heads on the sand look like they are doing well.  I'm guess I better rearange my tank asap.

I''m thinking about then putting the rock I got from Dustin on top of my rock because the pieces I got from pet solutions are bigger than the pieces I got from him.  I'm going to dinner with the family then back to the tank in a few hours.

Thanks for the tip.

I rearranged the live rock so some of the polyps and mushrooms are towards the top and other living pieces are exposed.  I also bought 10 blue legged hermit crabs and they've been munching on the live rock ever since they were put into the tank.

I'm going to keep as good of any eye as possible on these guys to see if they survive.  I think it might have been a bit early to put in some live stock, but the snails looked like they were surviving alright, so I thought I'd give them a try.


The piece of rock 2nd from the right on the top looks like a skull.  It took me longer than I thought to beable to stack the rock so it looked decent with exposing as much life as possible to light and water flow.  I rearranged them about 5 times before I was satisfied.

Yellow polyps require regular feedings to survive. Light is not even a real necessity for them.

Just think if that really is a coralline encrusted skull in your tank...

Well, something must be up with it because the top of it has been scraped clean by the hermit crabs and snails.

hhhmmm. Thanks for that info. Perhaps it is just a difference in flow then. The ones higher up seem to be growing faster. i.e. longer skirts, mats expanding, new polyps growing

Increased flow also means an increased likelyhood that food will flow past them. There my also be a light deal with them, but IME you can keep them in at least very low light.

I added three Koralina pumps.  2 of the #3's on the top of each side and a nano in the back to create flow striaght to the front through the rock.



I also added the two firefish gobies.  They come out every once in a while and eat pretty well, but mostly hide thus far.

and I've been trying to look up this little booger, but I'm at a loss.  It doesn't have claws like a shrimp, just six or eight little legs towards the rear of the body.  Any suggestions?

Do you have any free time Sunday or Monday?  Doesn't matter, Morgan works all weekend and I'll have the kids like usual.

I went and picked up some stuff from phathead today.  I got an overflow from him also.  So now I just need to get a pump and I can really start on my filtration.  I'm going to call Hill's Paint Store this up coming week and see if they cut some pieces for me to turn my 30 into a sump.

I'll give you a call tomorrow sometime to see how Monday's looking.

Basically, I thought about getting the pieces of acrylic and siliconing all the pieces except for where the pump will go so I have some play for when I get a pump.   Then I have a few smaller pieces of live rock and some rubble I'll put in there too.Â

I'm running two magnums right now with just filter mesh and activated carbon until I get the sump going.  I've read bio balls actually keep your nitrates high from mulitple sources, so ain't gettin' those.  I should be able to but Phosban or something of the like in the other 350 and inline them later.  That reminds, I should turn of my UV and take it out.

that thing in your last pic I'm almost 100% is an amphipod

a picture update picture real quick.  I finally gave in and bought a new camera.

DON'T FOOL WITH THE CRAB!

Champ's version

Those are pretty nice pictures. What type of camera are you using? Keep an eye on that diadema. I had one and he liked to eat my montipora.

Oh yeah, and dont grab him by the spines. When I sold mine, I grabbed a handful of spines to pull him out of the tank.

It left about 5 long red marks along my hand, looked like the spines burned an impression into my hand.