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Three weeks in, and I just noticed that my glass is covered with thousands of pods. Hooray!
They're likely brought in by all of the little ocean additions I've thrown in - growing bits of macro algae that I've found with roots, a few loose bits of dead coral, some mussels that I was storing for dinner (don't judge! I have a permit! And they're warm water mussels, from the local beach.)
I did use high quality cured live rock, but my bet is that the stuff that came directly from the...

Well, I lucked out. I hope.

I picked some snails off the rocks the other day to start my clean up crew. My book said they were topshells, and ate algae, so I added them to the tank. I keep my local reference book on the beach when I collect, so I don't have to bother with unsuitable species or accidentally bring home protected species. It is also a handy keeper for my permit, which I must laminate!

At the time, as I have a cycling tank, I had the usual brown algae,...

Did more research into local fishes. The local clowns are fine, basically any angel or tang isn't. Which is a shame, they're so lovely to see in the tide pools. Such temptation!

I collected a bit of a cleanup crew, and added it once I had amonia and nitrites at 0 for a week. Started small, 6-7 small snails (topshells, according to my book) a couple of limpets, and a chiton. The snails are amazing with brown algae, as it turns out!

Also realized that the zoanthids that...

I've set up, and done a bit of the cycle. Ten days in, and my ammonia has been zero for four, after the spike, so I took the big step of hitting the tide pools.
I initially wanted only local for everything, then realized how hard that would be. Live rock isn't allowed on my permit, nor is aquaculture, and the sand is silicate. So I grumbled a bit and bought live rock, and some aragonite sand.
However, the tide pools are coated with corals and anemones, and I've seen clownfish and...