Little bored this weekend so took some pics...

Let me first make a disclaimer that there's really not any useful info in this post...more of a little arts & crafts project over the weekend.

That said...the tank is a 55 gallon that I bought as an established tank almost 2 years ago and have since put in some rock, a few fish, bunch of coral, replaced/added plenty of equipment, etc., etc. Currently have about 140 lbs. of live rock, aqua c remora skimmer, penguin bio-wheel, and phosban reactor for filtration. Added circulation by 3 maxi-jet 1200's and 2 micro-jet 450's, which alternate every 15 mintues between the left and right sides. Lighting is Current Orbit 4x65W power compact. All water paramters stay good (with the exception of calcium which I have a tough time keeping up).

Here's a couple of shots of the female clown hanging in the bta. It took about 4 months before she started hosting in this anemone, and now she rarely leaves it alone...



Here's the male hanging by the other anemone, which I'm actually not sure what type it is. This anemone was in the tank when I got it, was doing good for a few months, then decided to walk around the tank. Wasn't doing good at all, and it actually shrank to about the size of a golfball, got stuck in the intake screen on one of the maxi-jets and lost almost a quarter its body. I placed the remaining part by a rock and it took and gradually grew back and is now looking better than before.


This would be Mr. Pink (aka pink margin wrasse). He's one of my favorites. The day after I put him in the tank, I was looking into it and he jumped out of the tank and wizzed right by my head. Not sure if he was gunning for me or not. Anyway, I was very glad to be there to put him back in the tank.



Before looking at the next pictures, please be aware that I now know that it's not a good practice to house two tangs in a 55, but did not before. I do plan on upgrading to a much larger tank in the next year or so (hopefully a 225), the fish do get along fine, I do have someone with a larger tank that can take them if it ever came to that, etc., etc.
Anyways, here's some shots of the purple tang and the blue tang..




Here's Ol' Blue with the ruby head wrasse. In the first shot, you can see (besides my camera) my only SPS (acropora), which has some decent color. I've placed it at pretty much the highest spot in the tank I could, but I know it would look great under metal halides (that will be on the dream 225).

...continued...

Here's Mr. Grimmace Fridmani. In the background of this shot you can see my latest attempts to thwart the hairy mushrooms' not-so-secret plan to take over my tank. When I switched out my dsb a few months ago I replaced the rock so some of the mushrooms would not get any light. They didn't shrink or anything - they just bacame a little transluscent. I recently took two out using the surgical method of sucking them up with a siphon hose during water change and hacking it off the rock with my dive knife. As you can see from the nubs on the left, it's growing back. These things are almost as bad as the xenia as far as weed-like growth.


Speaking of the xenia, here's a decent shot of it. Let's see, put in 5 stalks half a year ago, recently took out 6 stalks to give away, and this is left. I just don't get the math.


Here's the blue spotted watchman goby (aka Rick James). The purple tang likes to believe it's his tank, but everyone knows it's really Rick's.



Here are the clams. On the derasa (the 1st one), you can see a little ridge down towards the base of it's shell. That's how big it was when I got him about 9 months ago. It's now more than twice the size. I believe this guy is mostly responsible for me having a tough time with calcium levels.




My prized speciment, the red lobo. It was about half the size and a quarter of it was bleached white when I got it. It's come back very nicely. The second shot is of it feeding at night (turned the light on for a minute to take the picture).



The tube anemone. Very pretty, but unfortunately decided it liked it better in the back of the tank, mostly out of sight.

...finished.

Here are some misc shots of the left, center, right and overall tank....






A few actinic shots...




That's all she wrote. To all those annoyed, sorry for the pointless post. But I do believe that if at least one person was able to waste even 5 minutes of work on a Monday morning, I've helped.

Thanks all for the kind words. I'm very happy with the tank these days, although I do find myself constantly fighting the urge to upgrade to metal halides....must...wait..for..bigger...tank.
Frobie - glad I could help make Monday at the office a little better. I have to admit that I've killed about 20 minutes today looking at these photos again, but between being an accountant and it being Monday, I don't think anyone could blame me.