My tank after 1 month

[Pete Harcoff]

Been one month since I started cycling this thing. Haven't tested the water yet, but I plan to in a day or so to see if it's been cycled. Here's a pic of the setup:

Any advice or does that look good as far as reefs go?

I've only had the lighting setup for a week. During the 3 weeks w/o light, a lot of the algae that was on the rocks died off. But since getting the light, the algae looks like it's coming back. I think I had a diatom bloom (that's that red-brown algae right?).

I'm getting some hair algae on the rocks as well. If the tank is cycled, what would be some good shrimp/snails to start cleaning that up? Or should I wait a little longer?

I'm also getting a lime-green coloured algae (not hairy, though) on the rocks. I'm not sure what it is. Any ideas?

And I think I've got some purple coralline growing, but we'll wait and see...

Before adding corals should I wait until I've got a good growth level of coralline?

 

[Andrew]

Looking good so far... and you don't need coraline to keep corals but make sure you've a good calcium level before adding corals and keeping the calcium at a good level will also promote coraline growth.

 

[Ti]

nice

 

[jawaiianmon]

I like it.

 

[Pete1399]

I like the rock! Mine is as interesting as yours right now!

 

[Pete Harcoff]

*bump*

Thanks all. Does anyone know what that lime-green algae is?

 

[sttroyiii]

What kind of rock is that?

I think the lime green algae is typical with a new tank. Mine is 3 months old and I still have it, even with a lot of snails. The coralline is slowly taking over the green.

 

[oct2274]

i like all the caves and overhangs.......keep up the good work

 

[tkenm377]

looks good congrats and have fun adding!!

 

[Pete Harcoff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7123290#post7123290 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sttroyiii
What kind of rock is that?

It's Fiji rock.

 

[Chromed1]

Pete,

How many lbs of Fiji do you have in that setup? Is that your 56 gallon?

 

[Pete Harcoff]

Yup, that's my 56 gallon. I have about 50-60 lb of live rock in there, plus about 10-20 lb of tufa and coral rock that I'm using as a base. The sand bed is about 3-5 inches deep, so it nicely covers the base rock.

 

[Chromed1]

Pete,

Did you hand pick the rock? It looks like you spent some time on the arrangement and bought to accomodate.

 

[mg426]

Nice start . Be a good idea to start Keeping the ca and alk in balance.

 

[sruiz]

looks great.

 

[tranz]

Looks great can't wait to set up mine. I would wait a couple more weeks and add some invert like snails to clean up your algae problems. Mexican turbo are great for those.

 

[Pete Harcoff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7124001#post7124001 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chromed1
Pete,

Did you hand pick the rock? It looks like you spent some time on the arrangement and bought to accomodate.

Yup, I hand picked it. I had a rough idea of what I wanted the reef to look like, so I picked out pieces that I thought would work well together.