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:
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.