Hello!
I am new to posting on these forums and have been researching reef tanks for about 3 weeks now.
Currently I've only added live rock/live sand and have been observing and adjusting. I didn't plan on rushing anything, although I am looking forward to incorporating corals and fish. It's been 3 weeks now, with the only change being adding more live rock.
I replaced the bioballs with fragmented pieces of live rock which were used for the same purpose at the reef store - the tank is 29 gallons, with about 45 pounds of liverock (fuji & gulf mix).
I do have two snails and, was greeted (and startled) earlier today by a small brown shrimp.... he scurried out of his little cave, quickly came up to the glass, stared me down with the creepiest set of eyes I've ever seen for about 20 seconds, and then went back into hiding. There's also a clam which looked like a part of the rock itself - it closes up when I look at it more closely.
I figured the next best step would be more diligent research, adding a clean up crew of sorts (since the snails and shrimp seem to be okay) after a good thorough water testing, and then incorporate a protein skimmer to the setup before proceeding with corals and fish.
Wish the photo was more glamorous, but I'm very happy so far!
Thank you for looking...