[ToxicDice]

So a month ago I dumped a bunch of live rock into my system and began re-curing it. Several days later after the ammonia levels dropped to next to nothing I opened up the magical ball valve and brought the fuge on line with all it's glorious DSB potential. Nitrites quickly dissipated away and nitrates even bottomed out around 2.5 by the end of the second week.

All was good and I forced myself (and my 2yo and 5yo who were clamoring for Nemo, 'Meemo' as the little one says) to be patient and for another two weeks. We watched the coralline flourish, color return to corals on the rock, and the last little bits of deadness get blown off the rock by the 30x flow rate I had so painstakingly planned. I vented the hood and got the temperature to stabilize at a fabulous 78.4-78.6°F, tested for calcium, Ph, phosphates and alkalinity and found all to be remarkably stable and remarkably 'perfect' according to various sources. The AquaC-EV120 even got tuned to perfection as the nutrients declined. As I said, all was good.

And then it was time for the snails. In my wildest dreams I never could have imagined the level of excitement that two dozen snails could generate. The largest, a Margarite snail was promptly named 'Megatron' by my 5yo and hours of fun was had watching him obliterate the fuzzy algae growing on top of a particularly prominent rock. After several days I felt bad for the snails who had to do a lot of wandering to find their meals in that vast display tank and began transferring some into my fuge where the low flow rate and cheap HomeDepot compact fluorescent light were spurring the kind of algae growth I had braced my wife for in the display tank, something that has not happened yet.

So happy was Megatron in his new algae-covered home that he showed himself to actually not be a he at all, but a she, as she and another snail took turns shooting, ahem, 'stuff' into the water. One big milky white cloud from the little snail followed by another cloud of a gazillion little green dots from Megatronna. Yes, we felt obligated to change her name given that most startling development. All is good in the new tank and even better in the refugium, at least for Megatronna.

Alas things do not seem to be perfect in my glass and PVC creation. I have yet to see even a single pod or worm in the display tank or the refugium. Coralline, and corals seem to be sprouting or returning to color everywhere but not fauna, nada. (that almost rhymed...) So what gives? Shouldn't there be some worms or pods somewhere by now?

[ToxicDice]

What's up guys, where are my worms and pods? Do you think I need to seed the sand or something? Is it too early for me to see them? What gives? I'd feel much better about this whole thing if I just knew if this was normal or not...

Thanks in advance for your time and help!

[boba40]

i would like to think that you would see some type of critters in the display tank.i too have had live rock in the tank for just one month and the tank is full of life.[i don't know what half of it is but none the less it is there]i evev inherited two fewather dusters that hitch hiked on two pieces of rock.you might want to sneek a peek at the tank at night when the lights are off with a flashlight.when my 8 yr old daughter did that the other night i couldn't believe the amount of life that comes out at night.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

Bob is right,use a red flashlight.It is a color the critters cant see so you went send them into hiding.I think you will be pleasantly supprised.

[dinor2]

My pod population goes thru cycles as I don't have my refugium completely set up yet, they'll explode into hundreds, maybe thousands and my fish go to town on them. Then, i don't see more than a couple or so in the tank for a month, then, they all come back... I'll be adding some cheato in my refugium (aka my overflow box) along with the lr rubble in there and that should give them a better place to keep their numbers up.

[ToxicDice]

I've tried a regular flashlight but I'll rig up a red one. I was wondering, I have blue LED moonlights that go on when the actinics and 12Ks go off, would that blue light be chasing away the critters?

Thanks for the feedback guys!

[boba40]

toxicdice,have you had any luck finding any life in your tank?