sgould

Some new shots. Kind of hard to tell from the pics, but the algae coverage on the rocks is much better now, and I expect will improve further with more time. Other than the addition of a Purple Firefish a few weeks ago, and the addition of some Starburst polyps today, the tank looks largely the same. It is still a bit early to be adding multiple corals as the tank is only about 3 months old. The parameters do seem to be holding very stable though, so that is good news. My wife has taken to calling the firefish "Beaker" because of his resemblance to the muppet character. I about died the first time she said it because it is so true with the permanently downturned mouth.

sgould

Better shot of the firefish.

fishlover1

Awe! I love your tank it looks so great with your fish in it and everything! Its awesome cant wait to see more pictures as it progresses!

agsansoo

Tank looks great. I really like the cave in the middle of the tank aquascape you have going ! If I can suggest a few starter corals for tank. One would be xenia coral. Xenia can pump, or pulse appearing as if they are opening and closing rapidly. Really fun to watch. Also red mushrooms are a good easy starter coral.

COBettaCouple

great pics! love the firefish, he's a beauty!

sgould

Thanks! The Gramma is pretty fond of the cave too, having claimed it pretty early on. There is another, smaller one, that you can't see in the pictures that is between the bottom of the rock and the bottom of the tank. The Firefish owns that one. I do have my eyes on pulsing xenia and mushrooms both. Kinda taking my time though, adding one thing at a time...its easier on the pocketbook, and gives the tank time to mature.

COBettaCouple

pulsing xenia are great

agsansoo

What type of filter are you running on your tank. I can see two hanging on the back of the tank. Also see the Cheato macroalgae down in back of the tank. How fast does it grow for you ?

sgould

The one on the left side is the protein skimmer. The one on the right is an aquaclear, which is just doing mechanical filtration plus phosphate removal. I have no cheato at the moment. Were you maybe seeing a reflection in the glass of the starbursts? They are green.

agsansoo

OK ... I really need to start wearing my glasses more. LOL Lets see, you have a protein skimmer, power filter and live rock. I would say you have all your bases covered.

sgould

Might be a little bit of overkill, but gosh darn it, I'm worth it!

sgould

Here are a couple new shots showing the Xenia I just put in. I hadn't really been planning on adding Xenia yet, but they had a wonderful crop of it at the LFS and I couldn't resist! In the 2nd pic you can see a lot of white specs on the sides of the tank. They are critters of some nature...copepods or amphipods perhaps? Very small at this point.

COBettaCouple

beautiful! about how much do those run for?

sgould

I bought just a small plug of rock with the Xenia on it for $35. They had much larger rocks, with correspondingly more Xenia, for $99 as well. Assuming I don't kill it off, this one should reproduce and expand the colony over time.

COBettaCouple

cool.. best of luck with the xenia, it's a beauty!

agsansoo

Post pic's when you have a chance.

sgould

Dude...the pics are like, so 5 posts ago!

agsansoo

Oops ! LOL

armadillo

HO did you do that, how did you do that, how did you do that? (smileys)

COBettaCouple

nicely done animation, agansoo, very nice!

sgould

Another updated shot. Only new occupants are some additional snails. The big change is the addition of a blue tank back.

Attached Images

SWTank091507.JPG (61.3 KB, 21 views)

Callum The Cat

wow so much blue!!

Peace Out Callum!

sgould

The blue is awesome...definate improvement in overall appearance!

agsansoo

Looks much better with the background and new lights.
What's next on your list for the tank ?

COBettaCouple

love the blue background - the tank looks better than ever now.

sgould

At the moment I am focusing on fine tuning to address some algae issues that are beginning to crop up. Nothing serious, and trying to keep it that way! I am debating adding a 2nd perc. clown fairly soon, and will be looking for more corals.

sgould

Here is an new shot of the xenia. In just 10 days it has already grown considerably. From this angle, you can see that it has nearly completed a division.

Attached Images

Xenia091907.JPG (94.8 KB, 10 views)

COBettaCouple

yea, it looks a lot different already! it's a real beauty!

sgould

Here's some new shots. The newest additions are a green open brain coral, and colt coral. The xenia is also considerably bigger.

Attached Images

	ColtCoral.JPG (66.1 KB, 6 views)
	OpenBrain.JPG (81.2 KB, 9 views)
	SWtank102407.JPG (72.2 KB, 13 views)

COBettaCouple

you've gotta stop doing that! you make it hard not to go broke and turn one of our empty tanks into a SW tank! beautiful & love the new coral! we saw some xenia at the fish auction & remembered how great yours looks, more temptation!