[Chasmodes]

I've read about the oyster rock possibly being a phosphate problem...something I'll have to experiment with. Fortunately I don't think that this tank will require much light. I'm going to use whole oyster shells in the LR mostly for cosmetic reasons, so the rock will look more like an oyster reef, not crushed oyster shells, so maybe that will help. Also, the salt in the DIY LR will be long dissolved before it goes in the display tank, so that shouldn't be a problem. I also plan to mimic tidal movements, so hopefully that will help keep slime algae down to a minimum. The rocks for use in the display tank will look like large clumps of oysters, hopefully with lot's of nooks and crannies for blenny hiding spots. I'll scatter some oyster shells on the sand bed too. My initial plan was to scatter oyster shells as the entire display, but I felt that I needed the filtration of the LR in addition to the sand, so why not incorporate both?

The rock found in the bay is mostly clay based...not very porous. There is some sandstone as well. All of it seems to come from Calvert Cliffs. It may have enough of the right bacteria to seed the rock in addition to the live sand. Sand is plentiful, mostly silica and quartz I think.

I think that in this system there may not be a wrong way to do it simply because these animals are so hardy. That said, I'd like to find a successful system and give these animals optimal conditions... This system won't have the color and beauty of a reef, but it will have it's own appeal. Actually, the male striped blenny gets extremely colorful during spawning! If that happens then I'll know I'm on the right track.