The "Live Sand Activator" bag had been floating in the tank all this time and to my surprise I found a bunch of Zebra Hermits scrambling around on the surface of the gravel! It was time to take the plunge and I tried (unsuccessfully) to pour the LSA onto the more hidden parts of the sand...

[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/messy.jpg[/IMG]

Noooooo! My beautiful sand! Hopefully I can mix it in a bit later on.

I sat down...

[B][SIZE="4"]Strombus Grazers, Sand Clams & Nerite Snails[/SIZE][/B]
These guys were in some pretty mucky water and I really thought they were dead; but just like the worms, after warming up they started to stir. The clams disappeared into the sand pretty quickly once they were added to the tank, which was fun to watch! (You can see some reaching out with their white feet in the pics below.) The nerite snails continued to play dead all day until the nightlights came on.
...

[B][SIZE="4"]Pinky Cuke sub Brittle-Star[/SIZE][/B]
A large Brittle-Star was substituted for the Pinky Cuke. I was a bit annoyed that I wasn't consulted about the substitute order, but it all worked out because this guy is way cooler than a cuke!

[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/brittlestar.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/brittlestar-close.jpg[/IMG]

[B][SIZE="4"]Hermit Homes[/SIZE][/B]...

More excitement today... My critter package arrived from [URL="http://www.ipsf.com/"]Indo-Pacific Sea Farms[/URL]! Yay!

[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/ipsf-package1.jpg[/IMG]

I ordered their Mix & Match Special:
[LIST][*]6 Bristle Worms[*]6 Sandbed Clams[*]6 Nerite Snails[*]6 Strombus Grazers[*]6 Micro-Hermits[*]Reef Amphipods[*]Podflakes[*]Live Sand Activator[*]Hermit Homes[/LIST]
...and the Super Mix & Match...

Well it's been 4 days and everyone is still alive! Woohoo!

First a confession... since my last post I've discovered that a pH of 7.8 is actually quite low... so my bad! I've never checked pH before and the brief investigation I did before yielded the wrong answers. Oh well, the tank seems no worse for it, but if anyone is reading this and thinking of trying Dr Tims One & Only Bacteria, I definitely recommend keeping an eye on pH, as it really can drop when you do multiple...