Adding Again

We're at it again! ;-) We've added another 10 lbs. of uncured rock, 22 hermit crabs, 2 peppermint shrimp, and 2 blue velvet damsels (all though one didn't make it past the next morning). We also removed the air stones and were VERY surprised by how crystal clear the water became without them!

The tank:

The shrimp (either Jacques or Pierre):

The blue velvet damsel (swimming with our regular blue damsel in the second photo):

And, since we were already at the pet store and it's a free service, we had them check our water while we were there - they said it was perfect! >.< But, that doesn't help us solve our red algae/cyano problem. It's spreading rapidly! We've added a Koralia powerhead to help the current in the tank and we've tried keeping the lights off for several days. No luck reducing the problem yet. The only option we may be left with now is to treat with Chemiclean.

The blue velvet damsels are MUCH less shy than the other blue damsels (and I happen to think they're prettier, too!  ;-)  Goby has become a tad more social and we are seeing him come out more often as well.  He still LOVES to stir up the sand and create his mountains and valleys.  In fact, if the other fish start messing up his art, he chases them away!  LOL

We've also built our own sump! We used a 20 gallon, tall tank and added four panes of pre-cut glass to create baffles and separate the pump and protein skimmer from the live sand and rock we plan to house in the center of the tank. We also plan to move our water heater to the sump and may use one of the HOB filters as a refugium.  These are the pipes that will control the water flow to the tank:

We have also purchased a 75 GPD, 5-stage RO/DI filter to make our own water that can be used to top-off the tank and do water changes.