so... how am I doing??

[Lostmind]

I bought some books back in december... started lurking on bbs's in april or may. Bought my tank in the beginning of june... here is how things have gone so far:

First week of june purchased 125Gallon tank and stand and red sea berlin turbo classic skimmer, hood with 2 x 175Watt MH and 2 x 65Watt actinic. Bought a sump rated for 75 gallons. Reinforced the stand and did plumbing (3 configurations due to trial and error), have 2 return pumps and 1 closed loop (3 x customsealife Velocity T4's). Filled with water the first week of july, 140# live rock landed on the 16th of july. Filled my tank, tested and did water changes about 2x per week (I think I should have done water changes more often to keep the ammonia down, seems to have killed everything on the rock).

Here is what I have logged for my tank so far:

Date PH NH4 NO2 NO3
july 18 - 7.85 1.5 0.1 2.5
july 19 - 7.85 1.5 0.1 2.5
july 20 - 7.85 1.5 0.1 2.5
july 21 - 7.85 1.5 0.5 2.5
july 23 - 7.85 1.75 0.5 2.5
july 25 - 7.85 1.75 0.5 2.5
july 26 - 7.85 2+ 0.5 2.5
july 27 - 7.85 2+ 0.5 2.5
july 28 - 7.85 0.5 4 100
july 30 - 7.85 0 3 100
july 31 - 7.85 0 2 75
aug 3 - 7.85 0 0 50
aug 6 - 7.85 0 0 2
aug 10 - 7.85 0 0 0

Everything is 0's from here on out.

On the 12, I got the amazing brown carpet in my tank (diatom bloom) by the 15th, it was gone. I am now on some minor patches of green algae - have a few spots (ok, half a dozen or more) the size of a quarter speckled across my rocks.

I am definitely seeing a lot of coraline growth coming back. Its great. Should I be adding critters or wait until my tank is matured a little more? I hear snails are tough to acclimate and don't tolerate water fluctuations well. But I would like something to eat my algae spots - my only fear is, that since I dont have anything in my tank and I am not feeding right now, that my critters (snails and crabs, etc) would die if I bought them because after they eat the algae, what is left as a food source?

I have already upgraded my skimmer to a Aqua C EV-180 which pulls yellowish brown goop even tho I am not feeding my tank or anything. Although I do notice that my rocks are still spewing long tubes of poo (I dunno what it really is, its just long strings of dirt).

I also plan to upgrade my lighting. I bought everything before deciding what I wanted to keep (I know, bad me). Now I know I want to keep SPS mainly and it's gonna take more lighting and more patience and more money (just like every hobby I have).

Anyways, So how am I doing... and whats my next step?

 

[Len]

I think you're progressing very well, and I commend you for keeping logs of your aquarium's data. It sometimes seems useless at the time, but it's a good educational tool in hindsight.

I think you're set to go with adding livestock slowly. Snails and most clean up inverts are sensitive to chemical and physical variations, but I think you're tank has settled in now. I'd start by adding a few snails; if algae persists to grow, more can be added at a later date. You can also try one small fish and some hardier corals (like LPS) now and start adding more down the line. LPS should do fine with limited lights and SPS can wait til you change to your new lights.

Key is patience, as you already know

What you're seeing on the live rock could be many things including excrement or vermetid mucus strings.

 

[Lostmind]

Excrement from?

I am still wondering what is actually living in the rocks. I just bought a couple more books today - reef invertebrates (by anthony calfo and robert fenner) and ultimate marine aquariums (by michael paletta), hopefully the reef invert one has a section on what critters actually live inside live rock.

Because, honestly - I cant see how anything lived thru shipping and all that. the rock was damp and covered in damp newspaper, but thats not really enough to sustain life, is it?

As for patience, I am barely holding on Rock isnt so exciting and my girlfriend asks me daily when I am going to buy her a nemo... doh!