Thread for my 150 gallon build:

[url]http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2449938[/url]

I just got started in this hobby in 2012, an old fart with only freshwater experience. My threads show this inexperience, painfully, and only now am I to the point where I'm trying to dial in color rather than just keep acros alive.

^ The above was not true, I experienced another instability crash in 2016 and only swearing off GFO and moving...

...

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,...