Interesting.....I wonder how the lava rock will work out long term as a biological bacterial filtration over live (reef) rock. It will be cool to see as this tank progresses.

Very nice looking tanks you built there! I will be following your contest build :)
Have fun and best of luck to you :)

I wonder the same. The lava rock is porus and most island are volcanic masses

I'm actually not too concerned with the state of the rock since I use porous ceramic media in the filter.

I think that lava rock will do great...

Whooo! Yesterday, NH4 readings were off the charts (<8 mg/L). Today, they're down in the ~0.5 mg/L range. I'm also getting a cloudy bacterial bloom in the water. I'll wait until the bloom clears then throw in a bunch of micro brittle stars and bristleworms.

For those of you who haven't seen a bacterial bloom, here's what it looks like:

http://imageshack.us/a/img842/4282/bacterialbloom.jpg

This is a good thing during cycling; the bacteria scavenge all of the available nutrients and out-compete any nuisance algaes, so you get to skip the entire three "weeks of ugly tank" phase so common to new set ups.

Just some changes to my original plan:

1. I've also decided that the tank looks a little dim, so I'll add another Illumilux and see how that looks (I have one lying around, just missing the legs).

2. With the increased light, I'll be able to plant a nice little colony of Grube's Gorgonian at little spire of rocks in the center. I was originally going to throw feather dusters there, but the gorgonian is much more forgiving if the tank isn't able to produce enough bacterial and algal fauna.

Tested the water last night and this morning with NH4 readings at zero. Bacterial bloom has largely subsided, so I've gone ahead and added the anemones (which were stinging all of my Zoas in my frag tank).

Clubby Anemone:

http://imageshack.us/a/img198/4900/c...anemoneint.jpg


Tube Anemones:

http://imageshack.us/a/img818/9330/cerianthid03.jpg


http://imageshack.us/a/img708/3249/cerianthid04.jpg


http://imageshack.us/a/img812/7020/cerianthid05.jpg


Full Tank Shot

http://imageshack.us/a/img42/9770/addedanemones.jpg

Now I just need to wait for them to settle in. Hopefully they'll stay where I put them.

As you can see from picture, I am in sore need of a feature or focal point to draw the eyes. The club tentacled anemone doesn't count since it will, in all likelihood, move under one of the rocks. I'm thinking I'll plant that Gorgonian in the center at the end of this week to address this situation.

Other than that, I've decided that I will use brittle stars instead of Nassarius as a clean up crew for the time being. They won't disrupt the sandbed and allow the anemones to properly settle. I'll take a second look at the snails once the anemones have erected their tubes.

Questions and critiques welcomed!

Here's a quick update of the Club Tipped Anemone:

http://imageshack.us/a/img827/1742/c...danemone03.jpg

Looks like he's going to holding ground where I put him. His buddy should recover shortly also, I accidentally tore the poor guy's foot when I was prying them off the rocks they were attached to.

Cool that anemone is pretty

this anemone looks awesome i wish i could get hitch hikers like this instead of aiptasia and clove polyps lol