The tank has isopods!

A sign that a tank is maturing is the presence of pods... copepods, isopods, amphipods, etc....  they are small creatures that become food for the larger creatures, complementing the diet of prepared foods we feed the fish with.

We had already seen copepods in the tank (very very tiny, in the crushed coral substrate), and last weekend we saw isopods in the tank, in the internal scraper of our Mag-Float glass cleaner:

Note that the real size of this picture is approximately 1cm across, so these guys are visible but quite small.  Picture taken with a macro lens.

After seeing them on the cleaner I noticed some of them crawling on the live rock, so it seems like we have a nice population, even though our aquarium doesn't have a refugium.