Actually Pat, I have all that in day one minus the colt coral, I got the small colt a week ago. This tank was break down 5 weeks ago in order to have it moved to added 3 more tanks plus a sump as part of the system; this is tank #1. At weeks 4, yellow sponges already appear once again in the tank.
Only 30 gallons of the orignal water was put back the rest are fresh mix salt water. All the live sand were taken out so just live rock now. I have 3 clown, 1 yellow tang, 1 copperband, 1 pipefish, 1 lawnmow bleeny, 3 damsels, 1 watchman goby, 1 rainford goby plus shrimp, crabs, snail, clams of all sorts.
The top of mangroves need to be out of the water and re-position, so I'll be doing that next week; and yes, the mangroves are going to grow out to the top.
Gobie, mature live rock has nothing to do with it, its all about filtration. Not all the rocks are cured only about half the rocks are the original. I added some more rock when the tank was fill back up 4 weeks ago, the big pieces you saw on the pictures are all new rocks. Those new rock were cured after 3 days and at week 4 they are begain to mature. How do I know that? Coraline algae started to grow on the new rocks, sponges and dusters started to colonize also.
Billy1234 and foresteronw, what doesn't work for you?
Rob