My first tank!!

[BL1]

Made a few additions/changes here's a new FTS and my coral additions

 

[RIJohn]

Nice shots and your tank is coming along nicely.

 

[Bifferwine]

Nice to see the alve starting to come out!

 

[reeffreak]

Really nice pictures!All the corals look fantastic,I'm especially fond of the alveopora.

 

[BL1]

Thanks guys, the alveo is coming out more and more every day. Everytime it comes out more though my stupid urchin decides to crawl all over it :frustrat:

 

[BL1]

So, quick update ... I tried to start moving around my corals last night to make some ric and zoa gardens but when I tried to stick them to the rocks using the epoxy they just kept falling off. I'm gonna have to figure something different out because I'd like to enter the POTM contest this month.
And while looking around my tank today, I found two new hitchhikers
You might not be able to tell but that coral the crab is next to is close to 2-2.5 inches tall. That crab is BIG, he's easily as big as my smaller clown

Here's another guy whose decided to take up shop under my new coral

 

[Bifferwine]

The crab looks like a red emerald crab (they come in all sorts of colors). He's a good guy. As is the beautiful serpent star! Guys with markings like that are expensive, so good finds!

 

[BL1]

I'm pretty sure it is an emerald, I have quite a few I just couldn't believe how big this one is. I definitely love the star, I'm glad he posted up right in the front middle of the tank. My LFS actually sells these guys for only $10, if that's cheap maybe I should start offereing some up here ;-)

 

[dcantucson]

You could probably double your money! :lol: Great looking shots you took. Beautiful tank.

 

[Leslee]

Cool Hitchikers! I can't wait to see your zoa and rics gardens!

 

[ironnie7i]

that is one good lookin tank!! Im actually in the process of buying a NC HQI and using TBS.. I keep seeing really good reviews from happy customers. Do you think I should? how was your experience?

 

[BL1]

I really like my NC but, honestly I think if I were to do it all over again I would do two things differently. I would either go all out and get the LED NC because overheating really was a big issue for me when I first set it up. I had to add a refugium to solve my heating issues. Or, I would just ditch the NC all together and just get a regular 29g tank and some nice T5 lights.
There are two problems IMO with the NC, one is that it's a 28g tank but, there's really only like 20-22g of actual space in the tank and also the front glass is bowed so it makes looking into it funky.
As far as TBS goes, I don't have anything bad to say at all. Richard the owner was a great guy to deal with, very personal service. The stuff he sells is great quality and he includes a nice CUC into his package. The only thing you'll have to worry about is hunting for mantis shrimp and bad crabs when you first set it up.

 

[BL1]

It's been a while so I thought I'd update everyone ... as a few of you know I had to go away for the last two months so my LFS was taking care of my tank for me. Unfortunately, the day I left my power went out and my LFS didn't come to the house till about 3 days after ... well, my return pump ended up burning out, I lost two fish (flame angel and blenny), 2 pepp. shrimp, and all the rest of my inverts except for 2 emerald crabs and a handful of my snails. On top of that, I got a cyano outbreak in my refugium. All that really sucked but, on the bright side, my corals have never looked better or been more open. Here's a few pics of them

 

[BL1]

 

[Bifferwine]

Your corals do look great for having been without power! That flower pot is stunning.

 

[BL1]

Thanks Biff! It's definitely my favorite coral

 

[d2mini]

Nice stuff.
Sorry about the power outage.

 

[BL1]

I was playing around after I did my water change today and I caught this pic of my clown .... well being a clown :)

 

[BryanS]

WOW!!!! THat picture is amazing I wish I could get a picture that close up and that clear.

 

[cageburn]

SWEET pics!