My 5 day old 2.5 AGA w/ AC 300 Mod

Well, this is my first reef tank. I'm coming from a somewhat intermediate fresh water background (eclipse 3 braz. puffer tank, 10 gal. Blue crayfish tank, and small pond outside)... So I thought it to be only natural to work my way up to salt water.... especially since I'm originally from a coastal city.

Anyways, here are some pics of my nano... Please do be patient with me, since I am still in the (beginning) learning process on reef tanks. Also, I know there are some people on the board who seem to jump on newbs who ask questions that could have been searched... I'll try not to do the same but if I do, please forgive me for that too. Part of the asking of questions on a forum (even if the question has been posted over and over again) is to be able to interact with other forum members anyways; and when you're a newb (especially in this hobby) you need all the help you can get.

Here's the front view.

Top view, with AC 300 on back.

Top view of Aquaclear 300 mod... running 150 propeller and set at lowest setting. Baffled, and strained, as well.

My tank is "cycling." I am using cycled live rock, (cycled) live sand (straight out of my LFS established aquarium), and Nature's Ocean Nutri-Sea Water (supposedly ready to go water , Ph balanced, trace elements fortified, etc....)... Right now my cleaning crew consist of only 2 hermits(blue and scarlett). Anyways, all that said, how long should I wait for a cycle? A week? Or the normal 2-4? Also, I am going for a variety in colors when it comes to corals/polyps etc... so what kind of life forms can I have in my 2.5 that are easy to take care of for a novice, yet aren't too dull in color? I'm not much for browns and mushrooms.. except for the blue mushrooms I've seen. Are some polyps harder to take care of than others? Or do they just differ by color?

Lastly here are some pics of UFO's in my tank, please identify them for me if you can... thanks in advance!

Brown blob in middle of pics:

Pink and Brown Neuro-blob looking things:

Copepods?

Lots of rock in that tank! I like it. #1 is a foraminiferin (sp?); they're good. #2 is maybe a sponge? Maybe a macroalgae? #3 is probably copepods but they look like tadpoles!

Nice... thanks. I hope there isn't a thing as too much live rock... I know there is a thing about not enough flow... but with the HOB running, it moves the water well. Oh yeah.. I was going for a reef wall look.

You should have moved the baffle further away from the intake on the refugium and put your heater in there.

Also you didnt have to buy the smaller impellar all you needed to do was cut about 1 mm off each of the paddles.

Nice tank! I like the rock...

Yeah I noticed that after the fact... was planning on putting the heater in with intake tube (it can be done with some clearance) but then checked the length of the 25W heater with the depth of the intake compartment and it's a no go. So my two options are to either aquastik (rather than tear the whole thing down and use silicon) another baffle in between the refugium and the intake area (it wouldn't hurt to lower the gph anyways), or just drop the heater in the refugium. What sounds better?

Another question... are feather dusters a hassle to have? and where's a good place to get one if it will work in my tank?

What kind of snail is this? Right now it's only about 1/4" in diameter...

bump?