the bad news.. and the good news..

[reefworried124]

Okay, the bad news is that my tank is now seriously overrun with all types of mean green algae. It is all over the rock in the form of moss and feathers and is all over the glass and my equipment. It is going to take a really long time for me to scrape the plants off the glass (I know:welcome to reef keeping).

And the Good news is, that my nitrate levels are at 0 and I am going to do a 50% water change tonight and then go to the LFS tommorrow and pick up 20 astria snails, 20 blue leg hermits, a couple red legs and a lawnmower or bicolor blenny.

and some more bad news: my computer is not being shipped until next friday, so I can't show you all any pics. I wish you can see my tank, it is all green with algae now.

But Im really excited now. This is the moment I have been waiting for all of my life. Well, maybe 3 months of it. I am finally adding fish and other aquatic lifeforms in to my tank. And, in my opinion on the quality of my setup with the help of my fellow fish friends at TRT :

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

But there is still alot more to do of course.

p.s. you know that stuff that is in the collection cup of your protein skimmer? Yeah, it looks like skimmate, but itsnot. hahhahahh!! get it? snot!!?? Itsnot?? Thanks pals!

[reefBoyDc]

Almost there! scrape off all the algae from the glass (a razor blade works great for this), get as much as possible off the rocks and the equipment, then do your water change. The cleanup crew should take care of the rest within a week or two.

[ballvice]

I agree...you are going to be AMAZED at what 50 hermit and 50 astrias can do!

Frank

[rwdandald]

Waiting for the bad news........all you have said so far is that you have established a tank capable of supporting marine life and proven it - CONGRATULATIONS!!! And as an added benefit you get to expand your husbandry to other more interesting creatures - what is the bad news?

[cath]

Yeeee Hawww...those three months of waiting do seem like you whole life. Now we're waiting for pix

[Melissa]

You may want a turbo snail. They are really good at eating algae and cover lots of area - I wouldn't get too many though. They like to knock over frags that arent cemented down...

Melissa

[reefworried124]

thanks for the replys buddies! I went today, and I bought 15 astrea snails, 10 turbo snails, 20 blue leg with a couple of red legs crabs. They didn't have any bi color blennies, so I got a lawnmower blenny. It is pretty cool, about 4 hours after I put him in the tank he came out from hiding and he started to gobble up some algae. Not eat, he actually "gobbled" it. Its a pretty funny looking fish! He is a little big though, maybe between 3-4 inches, but with all that macro hair algae and moss and all kinds of algae in my tank, I think I will need a big one like that. Reminds me of a bullfrog kinda.