Now that the huge PITA of dealing with air freight at Hobby is behind me by a bit, I have to say, I'm really enjoying the rock. I know I have one decent sized Gorilla crab to catch, but there is SO MUCH cool stuff in this tank already. I used standard sand - didn't have him ship me sand - and it's already FULL of red worms and bugs. They're everywhere. The entire tank is FULL of life. Hermits, anemones, filter feeders, several porcelain crabs that I spotted tonight, macro, corals, sponges, brittle stars, tunicates, pods, worms... It's almost a shame to stack the rocks, because I'm sure I'm squashing something cool!
My son and I have spent the last couple late evenings with a pen light doing a scavenger hunt. I'm going to catch this gorilla crab somehow, add some fish & see how the tank matures over time! I don't really feel the need to go all nuts on coral, even though I'm sure I'll add different pieces as other stuff dies back.
I'd like to go all Caribbean with fish, but there's only 1 Tang option & I don't want to keep the Atlantic Blue Tang in a 2' tank... so I'll probably do a Tomini Tang. Probably add a Cherub Angel even though everyone thinks it's a bad idea; I just love that fish. Maybe a Royal Gramma, as they're Caribbean, and a pair of Clowns, and that's about it.
Assuming I do those 5, any thoughts on order to add them would be appreciated. I'm thinking about adding the Tang first to see if he eats the macro in there, but I've always added them last in the past... hmmm.