earthboy17 - Thanks! I grew up in NJ, lived in AZ for 5 years, and then moved to San Francisco in March. The apartment my wife and I moved into wound up being too small, so I didn't bother setting up the tank again because I knew we'd move again soon. In Oct we moved into a nice loft in SOMA that I think we'll be in for a while, and that's when I started the tank up again. Guess I've been out of the hobby for 8 months. I'm new here and don't really know anybody else in the hobby. Raddogz was really nice and gave me good info about the city when I was moving, that's about the longest conversation I've had with someone here and it was over pm.
The lighting I have is a 4x54W retro kit from reefgeek. The bulbs are long overdue for being replaced, and I'm planning to have that done before bringing in the first coral. The pics were taken with only two bulbs being on.
fraidso - professional
, I don't deserver that praise, but thanks, I'm glad to help. As soon as the cycle is over, the marco rock will be live rock, and I guess that'll take a month. I'll keep the thread updated when that happens. Will it have as much bacteria and be as biologically diverse at 5 weeks as rock that's been in the ocean for years? No, but over time the bacteria population will grow to be as good, if not better considering the huge amount of surface area on marco rock. As for diversity, I think it's overrated. The last time I set up my tank with LR, aiptasia and valonia were part of the diversity, and this time I'd rather choose exactly what goes in. Check out Kinetic's threads, he's setting up a sweet system now with marco rock as well.
rommelgin - that's not acrylic, that's starboard from the cuttingboardcompany. It was handy for aquascaping, but I got it mainly for the rock to sit on. I have an irrational fear of the glass breaking if the rock is directly on top, and an aesthetic preference of that surface over reflective glass. Right now it's a dusty grey because of the shedding rock, but it should be black, hehe.