How it began.....

As I said before...I started the tank on 2-8-11.  I bought the NC dx 12g from Marine Depot.  It came securely packed and arrived within a day.  It helps to live in Southern California, where M.D. is located! 

Here's a picture of the tank where it sits in my kitchen, next to my computer.  This was my water test.

Considering that we live in earthquake country, we added a little lip to the table top as a just in case.  You can never be too safe, right?
The leak test went perfectly.

I added about 12 pounds of rock to the tank.  I decided to go with marco rocks.  This is cured dry rock.  It's not live rock but it's pre-cycled, according to the website.  It's fantastic rock with interesting shapes.  It's very porous.  And the best part, in my opinion, is that it has no bad hitchhikers on it! 
I also seeded this rock with one small piece of uncured live rock.  This one piece made the dry rock and the sand "live". 

Here is a picture of the rock newly added to the tank:



For the cycle, I added a deli shrimp to the tank.  I actually ended up getting the shrimp for free because it didn't calculate on the scale...lol.    I left the shrimp in the tank for about 4 days.  It provided me with a strong cycle.  I was then able to start adding coral and a cleanup crew after 2 weeks of setting up the tank.  I left the lights out for the duration of the cycle and experienced diatoms only after I had a regular light cycle.  I've found this method to work the best so far.

3-30-11

This aquarium was born on 2-8-11.  It is a mixed reef with soft corals and LPS (hard corals).  I have many varieties of mushrooms.  I love corallamorpharians and believe they are highly underrated.  That's why I'm focusing much of my reef on them.  I also love the leather coral species, of which I currently have 4 types in my tiny tank.  I'm looking forward to sharing my reef tank with the world.