[Melanie]

I'm feeling better today. Not so discouraged. Thank you all for your posts and Lynn for your pms.

To Bluespotjawfish-Thanks for letting me know I don't have to do/buy everything today.

To Sasquatch - Most of the stuff you see in my tank is synthetic "rock". I only have a few pieces of Fiji base "live" rock that has looked pretty dead for about 3 years. Only recently started getting the corraline algae back (with the water changes and light bulb change.) I will take a close pic of the prettiest piece today so you can see it.

To Dentoid - Both of those links are helpful and I am going to devote some time today to read them thoroughly.

To Dr. Hank - Thank you for the encouragement and reminding me to give myself permission to take a break if I get too discouraged.

To lcstorc - Thank you for all your support. I do think I want to replace my sythetic rock with live rock and my first step would have to be a light. Otherwise all the live rock "stuff" will surely die. I only have one tube flourescent.

To Dave K - I really appreciate the time you took to give me some very good advice. I have been thinking about how to do it without going crazy spending money right away, but still following your suggestions.

Note: I don't plan right now on having corals. Maybe someday in the future but for the time being I want to learn how to make a fish only tank, with some inverts (like snails and crabs), work properly.

Today's plan is to do a water change of about 20 gallons. I won't do the usual sand stirring, glass cleaning, rock rearranging because I have the new firefish and I don't want to stress him out. He's only been in the tank for 2 days.