8 entries · Page 1 of 1
Quick update since it's been a bit. The anemone has moved twice this month, currently parked near the back left and the clownfish energy in this tank is basically the gramma acting like he owns the anemone's spot even though he's not a clownfish, he just hovers near it constantly. Chromis school tighter than they used to. Everything's just settling into a rhythm at this point, no drama to report which honestly feels nice for once.
Nothing new to report really, just sat and watched the tank for a while tonight. Chromis are schooling loose around the middle of the tank, corals are still on the smaller side but coralline is starting to spread on some of the rock which I think looks nice. Bare rock is still visible in spots but less than before.
The yellow watchman goby has claimed a little cave under the rock and is doing that thing where he sits right at the entrance just watching everything. Corals are starting to fill in a bit more too, chalice has some new growth on the edges. Cleaner shrimp keeps stealing his spot when he's not looking which seems to annoy him but he never actually chases it off.
Hit an algae outbreak this week, brownish film all over the sand and rock, pretty normal for this stage apparently but still annoying to look at.
Added the first livestock today, went with the royal gramma to start since I read they're pretty hardy for a first fish in a new reef. Let the bag float for temp for about 20 minutes then added small amounts of tank water into the bag every few minutes before netting him out, wanted to take it slow since the tank is still so young. Only a couple small coral frags glued down so far, rest of the rock is still bare. He hid for like an hour then came right out and has been zooming around the rockwork since. Feels like a real start finally.
Still cycling, still no fish, still checking on it way more than I need to.
Got water in and the eheim classic running today. That thing gurgled for a solid ten minutes before it settled down and honestly scared me a little, I thought I did something wrong. Turns out that's just normal for these canister filters getting primed. No rock changes, no livestock, just water moving around empty rock right now which feels kind of anticlimactic after all the hardscape fuss.
So today was the day. Rock is in, sand is in, tank is bone dry still. My husband walked by and asked why I was staring into an empty glass box for 20 minutes lol. Told him it's the hardscape, it matters, he did not seem convinced. Took way too long moving one piece of rock like 2 inches to the left and back again. It's dry rock so no rush on the water yet but I wanted the layout locked in before I start filling. There's still a bag of sand sitting on the floor I haven't used, might tuck some more in the front later.
