Grin's Happy Birthday Reef

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Grins

Girl Reefer...we do exist
May 1, 2007
10,449
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Charlotte, NC
Well my tank has hit the big one year mark. Still very much a new tank and yet I marvel at what I've discovered about the hobby during the past 12 months. Saltwater keeping is everything I thought it would be, and startingly so much more. The vast amount of life under the surface of our tanks, let alone the ocean, waiting to be discovered is humbling and I know I've found a lifelong hobby.

Enough of that though, its all about the pics right? =)

March 2007
The Craigslist "complete reef tank set-up" COUGHbullcacaCOUGH



April 2007
New rock added, the damsels (Satan and Saddam) evicted, and upgrades begin.



July 2007
Metal halides, sump added, more rock and my first corals.




September 2007
More rock, more fish and more corals of course.




October 2007
After the corruption by Clown, Salty, CPD, etc...a rbta was added.




November 2007
Never happy with the aquascape I change it yet again.



December 2007
I buy a large shelf rock that was sincerely too big and of course demands a change of the rocks again.




February 2008
You didn't think I could honestly leave it alone did you? The fish liked this one much better than the last.



March 2008 (today)
Well the last rockwork was great for the fish to swim through but they were all living on the right side of the tank and it was difficult to add new corals. So a change in order again! Big surprise huh? The downer in changing your rockwork this often is you can keep hiding the coraline and showing areas where it has died back because it was buried or touching other rock.


the right side of the tank:


and the left side of the tank:
By the way, I had noticed that the spectrum of the left bulb didn't seem to match the one on the right, but it wasn't until I saw these photos today that I realized how off they were! Bah, last time I buy Hamiltons. The color is off in this one, seriously off, it looks much greener here for some reason. Oh and a disclaimer, I just fragged some of the palys on here so the zoa garden isn't looking in prime shape.
 

Grins

Girl Reefer...we do exist
May 1, 2007
10,449
0
0
58
Charlotte, NC
And since we all love pictures, some more from inside the tank today:
Ricordeas (blue one is splitting)




One of my two favorite types of sponge in the tank contrasted nicely by some of the blue stripe mushrooms



Blue hairy mushroom, still a little peeved at me from yesterday's re-scaping.
 

Lady G

It's a mafia thing, nothing personl
Oct 6, 2005
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WI
gingersassatelli.bodybyvi.com
I love it Grins!!! :perv:
 

Grins

Girl Reefer...we do exist
May 1, 2007
10,449
0
0
58
Charlotte, NC
How about some LPS?

This was the freebie bubble from a frag demo that I was warned was probably dead.


Today it looks like this:


The branching hammer was accidently fragged during yesterday's aquascape but no worries. You can see it is still peeved off as well, but check out how many heads are splitting!


The open brain when I first got it:


last night when the tank cleared, guess who discovered the brain and decided to adopt it? I'm not sure I'm wild about the idea and will keep an eye on it to see if the brain seems too stressed.
 

Grins

Girl Reefer...we do exist
May 1, 2007
10,449
0
0
58
Charlotte, NC
Some misc. shots

The new pink hynophora


It is very unusual looking close up (at least to me)




The green monti cap that I was a bleached piece of "eh, maybe it is dead monti cap" tiny coral fragment on a piece of rubble when I got it. Amazingly it started to color up in the sump and now has polpys and new growth.



The blue xenia when I first got it:


And now that it has a home on the back glass, I peeved it off to show you the new growth:
 
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