And then there were fish...

My LFS was kind enough to test my water today. I haven't bought my all-in-one test kit yet but it should be coming in this weekend. The water tested perfectly, so I predictably started browsing the tanks in the shop for some good suitable corals to add.

My shrimp, hermits, Zoas, star polyps, and cloves have all been doing very well. The shrimp in particular is feisty enough that as soon as I reach into the tank, he swims up and climbs all over it to "clean" me. What I have in the tank so far is not very sensitive, but at least I know I had decent chemistry in the tank. I felt pretty comfortable adding some more livestock.

First was a small rock with two heads of Ricordea Florida on it. They'll look good near the bottom front of the tank, where the low to moderate flow and light suits them well. Second was a rock with a pair of Dendrophyllia ("Dendros") on them. This is a pretty expensive coral at ~$50 per head... I was only charged for two heads, but noticed that there are two little budding heads near the base of one of them. There are already tiny tentacles coming out of the two buds, so I will hopefully soon have four Dendros around the front of my tank. These are a great looking coral and add a lot of movement and character when they fill out. Third, a freshly fragged Frogspawn colony (Euphyllia divisa) with three heads that looked stunning in the tank when I bought it. Naturally, it deflated as soon as it was picked up and put in the bag for transport.

 

And finally, my first two fishy inhabitants of the reef- a pair of almost completely black Ocellaris clowns. The LFS was holding them for me as a pair. They are very young and still have a bit of orange on their chin, but that is supposed to turn black with age. Although other variants of Ocellaris clowns are more expensive or rare (picassos, snowflake, etc) I really prefer the black morph. They're very active and difficult to photograph with automatic settings on the camera.

Bought a package of frozen mysis shrimp to begin feeding regularly. Both the clowns and my Dendrophyllia will be fed regularly, and anything else that will accept food. Now that the tank is becoming more inhabited, it is time to start thinking about the macroalgae in my refugium. There wasn't enough load to produce significant amounts of nitrates in the tank until now- with all the coral mucus sloughing off my recently transported additions and the small amount of waste from the two clowns, the inevitable nitrate increase will need to be addressed.

All corals are, for now, in a somewhat temporary position until things start to settle down. Nothing has been glued, and for the most part it has worked out. I am beginning to realize why so many people curse their hermit crabs (or avoid them completely). I have seen my small colony of cloves face-down on the sand, and my zoa colony rolled off my main piece of liverock twice just in the past day.

Another point of good news- there is currently a light diatom bloom in the tank, specifically on the face of the white liverock. No telling how bad the bloom will get, but brown algae is usually a good sign from what I read- it means the tank is more or less fully through its cycle and the nutrients that diatom algae require are being produced by the tank inhabitants. That leads back to the previous statement about possibly beginning my Chaetomorpha clump in the refugium (chamber 2). Maybe this weekend.

I'm starting to realize why one of my friends gave me a sagely, light-hearted warning: "if you get into this hobby, make sure you start with some deep pockets". Yikes.