r/saltwateraquariums

If any of you are familiar with the coral farm in mass, they sell these things called crud cups. Basically some rock, pieces of whatever mixed in, and they sell them.

I bought two. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but im actually impressed. This is a few days after dumping the crud cups into a mushroom box and running it in my sump. Photo has been color corrected because of the blue light in the sump but it’s almost spot on.

Now what the heck do I do with this stuff? Can I glue these things onto frag plugs or just let them attach to rock and then just move them into the tank? Thanks in advance.

Excited to add some fish and small cleanup crew after cycling the tank. Next stop... The ugly phase!

It’s been a little while since our last post, so I figured it was time for another ReefShield Aquatics update! I've been super busy with life recently, so it's been a little longer than I had planned.

We’re now about one month away from closing on the house, which means we’re getting very close to the point where this stops being a construction project for our builder and starts becoming a real fish room project for me!

The basement is basically complete and this is the state we will be inheriting it in. A little bit of drywall, exposed ceiling joists, and a whole lot of open space. Behind the scenes, a ton has happened since the first post. The electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and other mechanical systems are now in place, and we recently passed our rough building inspection. This is the part of the build where a lot of the work isn't fish focused, but it's laying the foundation for everything that comes later.

Once we close, then the fun part begins! We're getting close...

While we've been waiting, I've been using the time to plan out as much as possible so that I can hit the ground running once we get the keys.

I've been working through the tank layouts, quarantine systems, filtration, RODI / saltwater stations, water-change systems, electrical/equipment locations, storage, humidity control, and probably about a thousand other little details.

I'm trying to solve as many problems as possible before I start putting tanks and equipment in the room. I'm sure I'll still make plenty of mistakes, but hopefully I can avoid some of the really expensive ones.

Does anyone have any cool ideas I should consider before I get started?

Today I started noticing these little worm like tentacles in my tank! It’s a macro algae tank with pulsing xenia (obviously) and mushroom corals. I only noticed these things — there are at least 5 — today because my biggest bristleworm was crawling around in this area.

Two of the wormy things seem to be coming about of the same point as one of the xenia, but others are randomly placed on the rock. They can retract really quickly, so one moment they’re there and the next they’re gone.

I’m very new to this so I don’t know if I should be concerned or not!

[effacé]