Let there be life!

My tank is now "Alive!"

I have been a bad blogger so I have a few things to catch you up on. The first being the tank now has life! In the main display and to a lesser extent in the sump I now have "Live rock" this rock is alive as it has a multitude of bacteria living inside it not to mention algae, and the possibility for other life to be packed inside nooks and crannies (such as crabs and sponges.)
The other life that was added chaeto otherwise known as chaetomorpha, It is a macro algae and is good for a tank because it competes with other algae and therefore reduces phosphates and nitrates (nutrients if you will.) It's also a great place for critters to live.

I managed to get 2 balls of chaeto 1 shipped from Toronto (priority overnight mail.) and 1 from the same guy I got most of my rock from. This helps promote biodiversity in my aquarium. In the chaeto itself I ended up with a few different critters, and have noticed some very small things swimming around as well as what I can only guess is a bristleworm (looked like a centipede!)

View of the refugium, with my chaeto (on the left under the light)

I have the live rock sitting in the aquarium now for 2 weeks, you need to give the tank time to grow the bacteria needed to process the bio load. The rock has a certain amount of die off and it starts the “cycle” ammonia ->nitrate->nitrite. A bacteria processes ammonia creating nitrate, anther consumes nitrate and produces nitrite, and yet another consumes nitrite and produces nitrogen gas which floats away. Each kind of bacteria needs to grow till the levels of each in the water undetectable. When this is done then the cycle is done and I can add fish (ETA 1 week.)

View of the display tank with the new live rock.