OK, OK - Here is the Aquarium Update, Finally

In order to stop the relentless nagging about the newest activities on the 55 gallon aquarium in Utah, I am finally providing a synopsis of the accomplishments. Lights arrived SHATTERED! (The two compact florescents were in lots of little shards. The connector ends were crushed pretty badly. The plexi-glass covers were really scratched up from all the shards. The reflectors were bent and damaged. But the metal halides and lunar LEDs are fine.) Called the Light vendor before I even opened the box and he was great. He said "Call me back with a list of what is broken and we will send it out." I love good customer service. New lights are being shipped out along with new reflectors and new plexi-glass covers. Plumbing parts were purchased and assembled Protien Skimmer was installed Return pump was installed SCWD wave maker was installed Aquarium and Sump were fully water tested with tap water Powerheads were put in place - one with a rotating nozzle to create alternating currents 45 pounds of aragonite sand were added 30 pounds of crushed coral were added 15 pounds of puka shells were added 10 pounds of GARF Grunge were added 10 pounds of GARF Grunge Plus were added 5 pounds of GARF Grunge Lite were added to the refugium Waited 2 days for the cloud to clear up. 'Washed' the gravel and Drained the tank Filled the tank with RO water (Reverse Osmosis - filtered) Created a new cloud! Added quilting batting to help filter out the fine particle cloud Mounted the powerstrips and organized all of the power cords Setup the timers for the lights Stared at the sand bed hoping to find some nice hitchhikers - none found :( Added a couple of scoops of substrate, macro algae, and two snails from Matt and Cami's tank (yay! two snails!) Added about 6 pounds of live rock rubble to the sump Now we wait, and look at an 'empty' aquarium until the Nitrogen Cycle completes (which will probably need some help with fish food or dead shrimp since there is practically nothing in the tank to die off.) I have been told that the diatom bloom (brown algae growth) has started to cover all the rocks. Yay! This means that the cycle has started. I guess I should look into ordering some snails and crabs (the clean-up crew). The agrocrete rock structures that I order from GARF still have not arrived! Not sure what is up with that! So that's it for now. Next on the list: The Cleaner Crew Aquascaping Refugium Macro Algae Fish Corals