My Salt Water Aquarium...

[Magnus]

Well, it's been up running for about a month and a half. It's a bit of a challenge...one must keep an eye on nitrite, nitrate, ammonia and ph levels, and not do anything drastic to the eco-system once it's starting to establish.

It's a 55 galon tank (about 3 feet long, 18 inches high, 12 inches wide). It currently has 50 lbs of base rock (the whiter rock), and about 5 lbs of live rock. Live rock has all the organisms on it that will act as a natural filter for everything in the water. You can also get some pretty cool things growing on the tank. The organisms will also spread from the live rock onto the base rock as well, which will increase the filtration.

Right now I have some green and purple algae in the tank, as well as my first inhabitants. 2 emerald crabs, and 5 blue legged hermit crabs. If my ammonia levels are ok in about 5 days, I'll be adding a clown fish (Nemo). I also bought a 3rd piece of live rock with what I've been told has some kind of clear marine sponge on it! Which is cool...with live rock you never know what kind of cool stuff you're going to get.

First set up:
[url:33pxacjs]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v39/TlantMagnus/Fulltankshot.jpg[/url]

The emerald crab's names are David and Goliath...you'll see why:

Goliath (about 2.5 inches across, including his legs): [url:33pxacjs]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v39/TlantMagnus/EmeraldCrab1.jpg[/url]

David - hiding in this pic (maybe 0.75" across): [url:33pxacjs]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v39/TlantMagnus/EmeraldCrab2.jpg[/url]

Biggest Hermit Crab: [url:33pxacjs]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v39/TlantMagnus/HermitCrab1.jpg[/url]

Sponge: [url:33pxacjs]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v39/TlantMagnus/NewLiveRock2.jpg[/url]