This is a picture of the tank after about 2 months. The basic setup consists of: undergravel filter with 4 updraft tubes and airstones, the fourth uplift tube has a powerhead attached; 2-3" of substrate, coarse crushed coral with medium argonite on top; several live rocks from Fiji and aquaculture; Millennium 2000 mechanical/bio filter (upper left), BakPak II Skimmer (upper right), and a heater.
Here's a close up of the right side of the tank showing the setup with the protein skimmer, powerhead and heater.
Right now I have 4 damsels in the tank, a starfish and some plants.
This is a close up of some interesting life on an aquacultured rock I purchased. I do not know what kind
of plants or coral this is but they seem to be doing well. Maybe someone can help me identify them.
This is a view of the top of the tank. You can see the mechanical/bio filter on the left and the protein skimmer
on the right. The top is stock right now, with 2 18" flourescent bulbs. From what I've learned, this is borderline
inadequate if I want to have any decent corals. I guess I'll end up replacing the top with a glass top and some
sort of hood. I'm still researching this.
This is a piece of semi-cured Fiji live rock that I'm curing in the tank. I'm still not sure what's on it or what
the white film is - maybe decomposing dead matter or something...
This is a piece of aquacultured rock that was actually cheaper than the Fiji rock by about a buck a pound.
I don't know why people get excited over the foreign stuff. The aquacultured rock I've found has a lot more
life and looks much better. This piece has at least one live clam on it and all kinds of other things. I don't
have much of an idea of exactly what most of these little creatures or plants are, but they sure look cool.
This is a starfish I got from a LFS, and some weird creatures attached to a shell I got from Indo Pacific sea farms.
They seem to be doing well. The starfish is a lot of fun.
Here is some plant life that I just put in that I got from Indo Pacific.
This is a view of my old 10 gallon undergravel setup. I keep it around because it's very well established:
about three years old. The bio wheel is from another 10gal Eclipse that I had and I figured I'd toss the
wheel in this tank until/if I get the Eclipse back running. That Eclipse is a piece of shit though - the
lightning is not something you can easily replace if the ballast goes out, which did in my case. I figure
eventually I'll take this tank and make it a refugium for the main tank. I split the Indo Pacific shipment
among these two tanks to see what happens.