[AcanQueen]

Thought it was about time I got round to posting some pictures of our tank - now that we've finally stopped moving the newer acros around . I even got hubby to clean the back glass !

Daytime


Evening


Well this tank has been through quite a few transformations over the years - hubby finally won the battle & most of my softies are out & his sps are in although i'll never give way with my lps. Guess we need his & hers tanks- shame there isn't the room.

Acro island


Giving the finger


Acanland


Cataland (otherwise know as the serial killers)


The Beast (always hungry)


Some of my boys...
Whipfin who's a bit confused about his species as get's very excited by the Anthia


Pink Boy (nightmare to photograph but finally got a half-decent pic of him)


Mr Tang - "Now what am I supposed to do "


Couple of Macros....
new lobo under actinics


close-up of the Beast


Hope you enjoy the pics, still some growing out to do but in another six months should tie together better (so long as we don't start moving things again) .

Sharon

[ben]

a very beautiful tank , nice work.

and great photos too

[chriss]

Very nice looking tank. Those whipfin wrasse are batty fish, does yours change color? Out's gets a deep violet color to the underbelly and tail from time to time.

Chris

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

Stunning ,Credit to you

Clean healthy looking Tank with some stunning corals and fish ,Very well laid out system and Like said the pics are top class .

Thanks for sharing with us and if you have any more pics please post them up

yours


jas

[Matt G]

Tank looks fantastic. Any further details on it?

[TrevC]

That's a VERY nice tank.

Stunning pictures.

Well done.

[EVERTON 1]

Wow! Love the rockwork.
Brian

[AcanQueen]

Thankyou all so much for the lovely comments- i was a bit nervous about posting as i am new to this board & have never been a member of a forum so it's all a bit new to me.

Yes Chris the whipfin does change colour just like you said but the funniest thing is why he keeps flashing the anthia- doesn't do it with any of the other fish & there's no aggression. Batty & desperate is a good way to to describe him!

Hi Quigs the lighting is T5's- six 80w Gieseman tubes 4 being white & the other 2 actinics. The lighting is very white at the moment but the tubes are due to be replaced and I'm going to try some ATI tubes in an equal mix to see if the colours will pop a little more.

Jas i know the only reason you were nice is because you're terrified that i will bring my Mum in again (she's got a soft spot for Jas thinks he looks like Bruce Willis). As for pics how many hours have you got! Anyone who knows me Never asks to see my pics unless they want to die a slow, boring death.

Hi Matt
More details on the setup:
Tank is about 6x2x2 - had it made a bit narrower to fit an alcove so really about 20" wide which makes aquascaping a bit tricky - difficult to get a sense of depth.

The sump is 150L food container behind the tank and has all the gubbins in there:
heater
calcium reactor
DIY auto-topoff
carbon in a phosban reactor
skimmer (Deltec TS1060S).
returns (10 year old eheims still going strong)
Top off is on a peri fed by a kalk bucket outside.
Lighting is a DIY T5 frame
Circulation is 2 ancient Tunzes that were converted to streams and do a great job. On a controller for pulsing/wavey stuff. When the overflow is low it really sounds like the tide is coming in.

Tank has been running for 10 years and prior to that we had a 4ft for about 18 months. It's been through many changes and cockups over the years and over the past 3 years or so it's gradually moved over to mostly LPS and SPS. We've finally got it to the state where we're just going to let it grow out.

Sharon

[pt1000]

The tank is a superb ,it is a credit to you.What was you feeding at time of pic's

[dave14]

That's a real credit to you, loving the aquascaping and placement of corals

Post up some more pic's, I don't think we'll get bored

[AcanQueen]

OK Dave said you wont get bored so here's some more pics

Had a lot of fun doing the rockwork, really its like rock kebabs & has worked pretty well. The only one thats leaned a bit is the column with the big stag



Here's some more of my boys, starting with my favourite fish

Garfield (coz he's fat & stripey) very tame & will feed from my hand although i never knew fish could get obese!





A new boy working hard eating nasties



One of the Damsels taking a temporary break from squabbling



A couple of my favourite corals

Trachy still very small but incredibly beautiful



Lobo which is just outrageous



pt1000 asked what i was feeding at time of pics but i wasn't feeding anything - a lot of my lps have their tentacles out most of the time especially the Acans & War Coral. I do tend to feed a lot (can't resist it) & i guess they're always waiting for the next meal.

More recently had some unexpected behaviour from the SPS, I think maybe the pocillopora has spawned as little pocs are popping up all over the tank. Managed to get 3 shots but others just can't see with the camera.

This was the first one i noticed, is the biggest & growing like the clappers



This one is in almost complete shade



This one is very close to the war coral - not a very good survival strategy



If it did spawn I missed it (typical) or maybe it didn't but can't think of any other explanation?

Sharon

[lindsay]

Yeah,stunning tank,both corals and fish all look very healthy.Very good photos,look forward to more updates.

[chriss]

Nice photos, what is the lined wrasse?

Chris

[AcanQueen]

He's a Halichoeres melanurus or tail spot wrasse. Seems quite laid back & an active hunter although likes to sleep in as he gets up about 2 hours after all the other fish!

[AcanQueen]

Finally had a bit of spare time and got the camera out again so thought I would update my thread

First of all a pic of the new boy, Henry the Pipefish, kindly given to us by friend. Despite my concerns he seems to be doing rather well:


I thought it would be good to show how the tank has developed over the last couple of years.

June 2009:


April 2010:


Today:


Looking back it really has surprised me just how quickly SPS can grow - they should come with a warning "guaranteed to make your tank not big enough". I found some old pics of a few of the corals when they first arrived:

Pink Hystrix - October 2008


Today:



Nana - October 2008


Today:


Guttatus - October 2008:


Blue Tip Stag - September 2009:


Guttatus and Blue Tip Stag Today:


Ok, so we know SPS can grow quickly but this one was a surprise:

War Coral AKA The Beast - October 2008:


Today:


Not only is it still growing but it's almost completely overshadowed.

Unfortunately they're all running out of room so there's some battles going on. This one made me laugh:



Quick update on the Pocs...

This one's growing really quickly but had to take the pic from above, think I need some tips from Lindsay about this:


And this one's so desperate it's growing on the return pipe:


Last pic, just one I thought was rather pretty. Hope that it will develop into what you see in the wild where the clams nestle among the coral.

[Tony_B]

Very nice indeed, superb growth.

[dylan]

that such a nice tank the growth is superb credit to u!!!

[chriss]

It's always good to look back at earlier photos, the growth always surprises you, you never really notice it day-by-day, only when you look thru those old photos do you realise, hey, things are coming on. It starts to get interesting when corals "meet up".

Chris

[jed]

beautiful tank! could you possibly post some details\pics on your filtration and equipment setup,pls