New Tank Cycling - What Are All These Things??!

OlyaVictoria · Feb 22, 2017

Hello!

So I am very new to SW and I am starting out with a 13g nano (Fluval Evo). I went to a great fish store in my area where everyone seemed to really know what they were talking about (not that I would really know) and they helped me figure out what I should do to set up my system.

So I got:
~11 lb of Live rock
~7 lb of live sand
15 lb Salt Water
5 lb fresh water (for top offs)

The tank has been cycling for 1.5 week and today I noticed so many things in it. Researching online I have discovered that the little circle things are Hydriods (which sounds absolutely awful) and the other ones may also be another type of hydriods. There are also little white bug things crawling on the glass (which are supposed to be good?)

If anyone could give me any advice on what to do or even confirm what everything is, I would really appreciate it.

Pretty sure these are Hydroids:

No idea about this one:

Tube Hydroid? Is that even a thing...

No idea here:

Tinny little buggies:

and another totally weird random thing in the sand >_<

Thanks again!

saltyfilmfolks · Feb 22, 2017

Mesusea hydroids, they will fade away. Clove polyps(free corals) feather duster worms(score!), copepods, some random algaes, and sand worms CUC. Sweet tank!

OlyaVictoria · Feb 22, 2017

OlyaVictoria said:
went to a great fish store in my area where everyone seemed to really know what they were talking about (not that I would really know) and they helped me figure out what I should do to set up my system.

saltyfilmfolks said:
Mesusea hydroids, they will fade away. Clove polyps(free corals) feather duster worms(score!), copepods, some random algaes, and sand worms CUC. Sweet tank!

Thank you! I'm going to look all of those up

brandon429 · Feb 22, 2017

agreed w salty
everything shown in those good macro pics is why lr costs more than barren white rock, which takes months and years to look like the live rock above

http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

that link has direct correlation to the type of live rock used here...its a skip cycle setup. the rock is maturing nicely, but never did have to cycle at all, or all those little animals would be dead due to the ammonia spikes. you moved live rocks from one tank to another, and skipped the cycle, nice going. those feather duster worms are very sensitive to the process when it goes awry, in this case it went fine like we show with group B rocks from that thread. taking time to make sure your tank is secure, temps and salinity all good, lighting, is fine to do theres no rush. Just knowing your bacteria stayed alive just fine from the pet store to home gives you lots of cleaning and changeup options for the future, live rocks don't mind being moved at all.