Day 3
Siphoned off 15g of water from off the sand whilst trying to get as much crud off the sand as possible. On second look the entire bed is filled with crud. If I go sand I am going to have to eventually remove this entire bed and replace it.... Frick I wish I knew how to do that without causing a major upset. Frustrated a bit.
Took the rock all out to give it a better brushing and look for crabs or other nasties. Found one more crab. Looks alot like an emerald, but it doesn't look like the emerald I used to have so I'm getting rid of it. Only kind of crabs I like are little hermits and pom-poms, personally.
Moment of sadness for the loss of my scape

Ah well I knew that was coming. Going to be a while before I can put that in and have it left that way. Diatom filter pretty much cleared the detritus storm within 15 or so minutes. I am starting to love that thing. I see the skimmer is sensitive to water level...

disgusted mandarin hiding in the corner after the "poo-storm", notice how nasty the sand is

About 10 minutes after the WC, notice the destruction of my scape

wah

Skimmer noticeably not working when 5gals is missing from the tank

diatom filter

Whole shebang--yeah the backround is a bit cheesy (it's wrapping paper, lol

) I may or may not change it depending on how lazy I am. The pc light is definitely too small for the tank, eh?
Edit: I sure use the words "notice" and "noticeably" alot....just had to giggle about that :P