Bamse's tank: step 1, rocks and algae

[bamse]

Hi everyone,
My tank is 11 days as today :bounce1:, and while I still have some issues with the setup, the rocks are recovering slowly after the tank relocation.

I am posting some photos (if I get the linking right).

I am new to all this, and I have no idea what could be bad and could be good. If you notice anything I should worry about, please let me know.


This is a photo taken the day the first rock plunged in my one day old tank. The water was still pretty cloudy at this point. The rocks I got looked pretty good.

 

[bamse]

(the photo is pretty bad, I am learning this as well as I go)

 

[bamse]

The rocks were covered in some grayish stuff and sand. I have changed 25% of the water after day seven, and every now and then I tried to clean the rocks with a turkey baster.
After 10 days in the tank, the grayish matter started to fall and lots of stuff seems to be growing everywhere. I am happy to notice that much of the original algae is still present.
I haven't notice a huge ammonia or nitrite spike so far.
Oh well, these are some photos from today (under 1 actinic white and 1 superactinic, which I believe shows better the young green stuff):

This is one of my favorite rocks so far, color-wise:

 

[bamse]

There is some red and green hairy stuff growing here:

 

[bamse]

and here:

 

[bamse]

Here are some white hairy bushes, growing on one rock mostly. There is detritus caught in the threads from a recent cleanup session.

 

[bamse]

These are some spaghetti looking algae I am not sure what to make of:

 

[bamse]

More green patches, and a sign of my main battle as of now: micro bubbles! :eek2:

I've tried a couple of things, and this pest is driving me nuts. I've ended up improvising a micro-weir in the skimmer from a plastic cup and remove one power-head. Less bubbles, but still highly annoying.

 

[bamse]

This is a green tip, probably not happy in the shadows, not sure what it is either, but it was there from the day one:

 

[bamse]

Another of my favorites, this rock came completely covered in stuff (much of which was a muddy mess) and I refused to clean it. I've dropped it as it was in the tank hoping to save as much as possible from the stuff on it. Now that is started to shed the grayish stuff, it turns to be quite colorful:

 

[bamse]

More bubbles and green patches here:

 

[bamse]

On top of that rock there is still lots of dead stuff (looks dead to me, grayish, not too lively). Hopefully it will go off in time.

 

[bamse]

On this rock there is a small bubble like algae, too small to say what it is:

A shelf rock here:

A rock with small yellow spots and green hair:

More coraline:

This rock is growing a red wig:

More unidentified stuff on a top rock

 

[bamse]

Oh well, this is all I got for tonight. If this is boring stuff for you old salts out there, my apologies :lolspin:.
To me, this is all new and highly exciting . I don't mind caring for algae and stuff while trying to bring my tank in the right shape for the first coral :bounce2:.

 

[SleepyMike]

Those are some nice rocks! I remember the first time I put rocks in my tank and got started on the aquascapeing. I think that was the most fun I have had. Then comes all of the frustration trying to get everything healthy.

Good luck! Looks good so far.