Update.. I'll post some pics when I get a chance.
The tank and inhabitants are getting happy. The nit. cycle went like clock work, exactly what was expected, happened within the right time frame. Had a small amount of diatoms, and a little hair algea at the end of the cycle, cuc quickly wiped it out and has stayed clear now. Water parameters have been stable at 0's for weeks now. PH had been running a little low, I'm slowly bumping it up. Cal and alk are running high, I think that's from the purple up I added to kick start the coraline. I stopped adding the purple up several weeks ago, and I've done a couple small water changes, and they're slowly coming down. I added a HOB Skimmer/refuge(refuge is still empty at this point, but will get some macro in there soon). The skimmer started producing a little foam after running for 3 days. I'm sure it will produce more as I get more livestock in there.
Live stock I've adde so far:
after the Nit cycle, I started with couple hermits and snails
week later, 2 ocellaris clowns - Flyers Colors - orange white black
2 weeks later, more cuc (quicky wiped out the little bit of hair algea i had)
a coral band shrimp (he's shy, but comes out once in a while and has molted twice now)
3 weeks later I added 2 fire fish
1 colonly of zoans, and a 4 or 5 frags of various colors.
Live stock are all eating well and looking good. I did loose one clown after that first week... He never ate anything from the time I got him. I picked up another one a week later and they are both doing very well after a month Zoans are looking pretty good, but the green dragon eye seems like it could open a little more. I've moved it up a little higher, i'll see what happens. its a realy tight colony, so I'm not sure how much they open when they are packed in tight like that. All the other zoan frags are fully open, and look like they are starting to split and growing bigger. And I'm seeing green and purple coriline starting now(I started with dry pukani rock). I have a feeling its gonna take off like crazy in a few more weeks.
Next up(in a few more weeks), will be a Coral Beauty, and maybe a Yelllow 2 spot Hogfish I saw at the LFS. I also still have my eye a Flame Hawk, but I'll hold off a bit for that guy. Some more polyps, shrooms... and then some softies, a leather or any sugestions please ?
I'm bummed about the one clown, but I think its been a pretty sucessful startup so far.
