[Brighteyes_13]

so the tank has been circulating for a week, with no bump in any readings. I think the month in the bins did the job for cycling my rock. Scott and i spent the last few days assembling the hood and today we are sealing the inside surfaces of the hood and stand wood. Tomorrow we will be siliconing any remaining gaps and seams and mounting a t5 dual strip to get a bit of life in the tank. While taking a break from sealing the hood i spent some time searching for life in the tank. A little feather duster survived the curing cycle. I think i scared Scott when i was telling him to hurry and come look. I was so concerned i had cooked all the little life off the rocks that i was thrilled to see something alive in there. I also noticed a bit of green algae growing on one of the rocks and on the cord to one of the powerheads. Its amazing what can survive through such a harsh process as curing.
I guess the next thing we will be looking for is the diatom bloom. Up until now the tank has had no dedicated lights over it, just ambient lighting from the room.
If the parameters stay consistent we'll pick up a small clean up crew to keep the algae in control and maybe a small fish sometime before christmas.