Just thought I'd check in... has it really been only 3 weeks?
All is well in Biocube land. I filled the tank on 9/12, added 30# cured LR on 9/13, and added the first snails a few days later. After a few more days and all parameters looking good we added a red-banded pistol shrimp and yellow watchman pair, who promptly split up when we put them in. Also added two nassarius snails and a sally lightfoot crab, all from Vivid.
The goby did fine and marked out his spot by the next morning under a rock, but other than hearing clicks we didn't see the pistol shrimp for days until we finally located his burrow in the back of the tank. The goby mostly hid but would start coming out when he was hungry. I was feeling very cheated that the most exciting thing in the tank was the crab.
However the crab died mysteriously a week after putting him in... found him right next to the pistol shrimp's burrow. Hmmm... probably not, but ya still have to wonder.
Went to the frag swap last weekend and Dave pulled some xenia (I know, I know... its on its own rock and I'll move/frag it if it starts to creep), a monti cap frag, and some green birdsnest from his outdoor tank for me. Most of the xenia died but one colony took off and is thriving. I also picked up some GSP (I know, I know...) at SPS Coral and it came right out by the next morning and also seems to be doing well. On its little rock. Out on the sand, not close to anything else. I broke the birdsnest into 3 pieces and it also seems to be doing well.
The day before yesterday I stopped at Rainbow and got another nassarius, two peppermint shrimp, and a young royal gramma who doesn't like the flow in the tank but will come out as soon as the pumps turn off for feeding.
And this morning the pistol shrimp finally burrowed through to the goby's cave.
We saw him this morning during feeding, and the goby seems bolder now. Total time to reunite: 12 days.
As for tank upgrades, I've added:
Intank Media and Fuge baskets (have chaeto thriving in the fuge with a submersible light timed offset to the main tank lights)
AquaticLife 115 skimmer
ViaAqua Titanium 100w heater that hasn't had to turn on once
JBJ 1/15 chiller (still have to plumb it in but running into space issues in the back)
Tunze Nano ATO
Apex full with lab PH probe. I LOVE THIS THING.
Jebao WP-10 (and just got the cable to control it via Apex - took the Koralia and JBJ wavemaker out)
Hydor rotating deflector for the return
Cobalt Aquatics MJ1200
Swapped out 6 of my 30 LEDs for 1 green, 1 red, 4 UV from RapidLED. Have a cable to hook them up to the LED controller but am waiting for some mono-coax adapters to arrive before I can hook that up.
R2 moonlight
Replaced the hood fans with 2 Noctua 60mms, which are high CFM/low dB
Got some great deals on some of this at the Marine Depot sidewalk sale and picked up the chiller from jayhawk on here.
Parameters have been good but I need to re-test my phosphate (it was .14 when it was tested a couple of weeks ago, but hopefully the chaeto and extra GFO I've been running have helped). All I have is the API test kit and the range goes from 0 to .25 so that's not useful. I wound up just buying all my water (RO/DI and saltwater) at SPS Coral, since I'm only changing 5 gallons at a time.
Had a diatom bloom, but the snails made short work of it. Other than that no sign of algae; my rocks are turning green but it seems to be coralline, not real algae.
So, so far, everything is looking good. I might add a skunk cleaner, but otherwise the CUC is complete. I'll be looking at more coral and fish... probably not too many more fish, 1 or 2 and ultimately a pair of ocellaris.
Yaaaay!
And here are the pics, I learned my lesson!