Looks like it’s been about three weeks since I told you I was going to build a marine aquarium. Well, I’ve been telling everyone who has any idea of how difficult this is to get right that I’m embarrassed because it’s just going so damn well. I’ve never had a tank go so perfectly, but I think I owe that to using 100% live sand (wet sea sand actually bagged and shipped out from Fiji and other tropical regions) and my live rock was well cured. Essentially, this gives you all the bacteria and other micro-organisms you need for a stable saltwater environment. Then, of course, you’ve got to keep it that way, unless you want to do water changes every week. A competent saltwater aquarist ought not have to do any more than a 20% water change once per month.

Alright, so here’s where we are, so far. Ideally, that link takes you into a new tab or window and Quicktime will play the video in highly resolute 640×480.

All those corals and polyps are live, of course, and there’ll eventually be a lot more. You have to add stuff slowly, so as to not overwhelm the creatures that take care of all the crap. Underneath what you see is a protein skimmer (the bubbling plexi tube) and a refugium where you grow macro-algae, so as to use up nutrients for same in order to keep the algae growth inside the tank to a minimum.

Alright then. Until the next update.