Here are some more that I snapped now that my computer is behaving better.

"Jedi Temple" acro. Can't really capture it's true color yet, but I have a new Sunpower 6x39w coming thursday that should make this baby show it's true colors!

Reef crest

Reef crest, reef slope, and non-photosynthetic crevasse

Green & blue maxima

Torches

Well, after the big crash and nearly dropping out of the hobby alltogether, my girlfriend and mother convinced me to stick with it.

Part of my inspiration to stick with it is create a more dramatic aquascape (done), upgrade the light (ATI Sunpower 6x39w came in today), start with larger SPS colonies (see pics above), and deport my girlfriend's favorite fish to make room for ones I like. Since we recently started up a 37g hex for her mushrooms, we also took the opportunity of the tank crash to move the clowns and gobies over, as well as turn in our demonic 6 line to the LFS.

Now, I only have 3 green chromis in the tank so I've been on the lookout for some really nice fish. I picked up this Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse (I think) from a shop last night and boy, is it gorgeous! It has a little fin damage, but I think it'll grow back.




Now, I just wish I could figure how to get good clear pics of fish with a point-and-shoot digital camera. I've been shooting the corals with the <SCN> setting on <underwater> with -2 exposure and no flash. I can't seem to focus on moving fish with this approach, anyone have any advice?

I installed the Sunpower last night and it looks sweet. Not much room for the 6 LED strips now, but it may not need them. I'm using (3) 460nm and (1) 420nm out of the 6 bulbs so the colors look pretty insane with the bulbs alone.

The full daylight intensity is insane so I dialled it down to 2 hours for today. I just hope that's a mild enough start.

I'm glad to see this up and running again!

WOW the carpenters has some amazing color to him. Nice score!!

Glad to see you are back up again! Your Jedi Temple acro looks so sweet, even without the ATI fixture. Your wrasse is such a beauty too. What type of heater are you using now, BTW?

It's a titanium heater, I wanna say Finnex?

The new Sunpower is up and burnin' away. I was able to grab some shots during the first 1.5hr acclimation daylight period. Even just the 2 actinic bulbs look brighter than my old 4 bulb fixture with 6 LED strips. I think the SPS are going to go crazy too. I had decent growth with my old fixture, but I have a gut feeling that it's going to be double now.

I also moved some pieces around to spare the LPS from the direct light. I made a cool shelf with 4 non-ps colonies on the left side and split my torch into 4 pieces to place under the arch on the right.

Here are new full's and some random shots of new pieces from the frag swap.

FTS/BTS


Blue Hydno

Dendro frag

Miami Orchid

Porites colony

"Dyson"

Practicing my fish shooting skills. My 3 chromis.

Sweet dendro.

More acros to fill in the gaps:

I dont know if you've already been asked this question but I was just wondering what type of substrate you are using and if you are liking it? I was thinking about using a black substrate to make my colors pop but have been thinking about color absorption etc. Ive heard that black backgrounds can actually steal light from the tank. Just wondering on your opinions. It's probably easy to keep clean!

beautiful tank. love the black substrate

The blue hydno is amazing!!!

Thanks all.

I believe the substrate is tahitian moon black aragonite sand. I love the contrast it gives to the tank and it's colors. IMO, some white sands can reflect enough light back up to wash out colors. Everyone that's been over to see the system says they love it also.

The only problem is your live rock is contrantly breaking down and the little white rock chips torn the black into a salt & pepper look. I usually spend about 30 minutes a week pulling bits out with a turkey baster.

I don't have many comparison pics or substrates, but here are some of our mushrooms in the 50g

and then moved into the 37g hex with crushed coral

wait just a min. those mushrooms sooo arent in the 50 anymore they are in my mushroom tank. I think we need to post more mushroom tank pics pretty please

Black Cherry Blastos from Tenacious716. One of my favorite LPS!

Well, it's now been 3 weeks since the crash and thanks to the frag swap, a lot of generous local reefers, and a tolerant girlfriend, I've managed to re-stock nicely. Here are some new shots with current stock and after moving some corals and rock around.

Front 11/30/09

back

orange digi

happy maxima

ORA Frogskin. I know, I said I wouldn't go that direction again but I couldn't resist.

ORA Blue Iris, Bellina, Slimer

Unknown acro. Could go blue or purple with green or blue polyps.

Puffy blastos. I think they actually may be bleaching, the center used to be black. I'll move them into the shade tomorrow.

Pink milli. Check out the improvement in polyp extension from the pic on the 22nd.

"Jedi Temple" acro/acropora copiosa. Started to bonsai/prune it into an interesting growth pattern. The right side may be next to go, I like the look of the lone left side and it's curve.


That's all for now, lots more new stuff, but it's all so small I'll need to let it grow a bit before they're photo worthy.

WOW!!!!!

Thanks mate. The angle I took the shot at was low so the shadowed areas look very purple as the light passes through the tissue and skeleton. The true color is a baby pink like the shot on the 22nd, but I liked the way this one came out nonetheless.

I really dig the color contrast of ORA and LE sps with green polyps and blue/purple tissue, but healthy hairy millies will always have a place in my heart and tank also.

Here's a big update since I finally have time off work.

Things are moving along well in the 50g display since the crash and re-stock. I now have 7 chromis, 1 carpenter's flasher wrasse, and our red scooter. The stock is 100% stony corals aside from some GSP hitch hikers and blue clovers that went sexual before I took them out. Everything has fully acclimated to the new 6x39w ATI Sunpower and vodka/mb7 dosing. Growth is really shocking on some of the pieces.

50g front 12/24/09

back

A couple coral shots, I will add more later.
Growth tips on pink milli

New heads on acan. This piece literally started as a bare skeleton covered in coraline and zoanthids.

Black cherry blastos

Big acro colony I got for a steal. Not sure on species and it's pretty browned out, but it's showing some amazingly fast growth in less than a week and the growth tips are starting to look purple.

Another unknown acro that was browned out. It's starting to look yellow with purple tips but the growth structure kinda looks like ORA Borealis.

A third brown out acro recovery. I believe it's a delicate staghorn. Growth tips are blue and polyps are nuke green.

Unknown acropora allthough it's one of my favorites. Super blue tips with green base, may be a tort.

"Jedi Temple" acropora copiosa after trimming and pruning.

Phonape birdsnest

Setosa

Digi, may be a superman lookalike if the base holds color as it grows

Cap showing nice growth on the left side

Meteor shower fully encrusted it's little rock. I'll have to mount it on a larger piece or frag it soon.


As always, thanks for the comments and reading.

I had some free time since the chocolate shop is closed all week so I played with macro focus. Some pics are better than others. Thanks again for looking.

Acan

Acro

Another acro

and another acro...

sure love my acros...

yeah...

pink n green chalice

frilly mushroom

blue hydnophora

meteor shower

green nepthea

Porites

Spikey mushroom

Montipora spongodes

Neon toadstool

Undata

and a cool yellow sponge

Beautiful captures here. Well done!

Thanks Henry~

I added two chalk bass last week, they may be my new favorite fish. They are very colorful, active swimmers, and weren't expensive! Here are a couple pics, sorry for the blur, still trying to master fish photography.

Very nice chalk bass! I want to get a pair for myself soon. You'll have to keep us updated as to how they do!

I have one in my tank, cool enough fish. Leaves everyone alone, a voracious feeder though. Reminds me of fresh water bass coming to the surface to feed. I think he would be fish jerky by now if I didn't have the mesh top on the tank.

Good to know! Looks like I'll have to complete the canopy for my tank before getting the bass.

Good point Henry. One of mine actually jumped out of the tank at the LFS when the owner was trying to bag it for me. One also jumped out of the bag while I was acclimating them.

They seem calm and happy now. I have tons of cliffs and caves in my scape for them to hide in and I feed about 3x a day so they're not frantic trying to get food.

Amazing tank, both before and after.

Sorry if I missed it while reading through, but how did the claim process end up? Did they pay out anything?

Mmm keepin it real. Nothing like some good SPS.

Nothing man. I tracked the shipping recently and Marineland Claims department received the package on Nov 19th. I was supposed to hear back in 2-4 weeks and nothing so far. I haven't tried to contact them yet, but things got crazy being an entrepreneur during the Christmas season with the added bonus of a litter of 6 unexpected puppies.

Here's my monthly update on the 50g breeder...

One of my chalk basslets went carpet surfing and I added this beauty:


Here are the fts's and some wide shots of the scape and corals growing in. I was pretty happy as this batch matches the look of my Sunpower and bulb combo pretty well.
Front side 1/21/10

Back

Left end - front view

Front center

Right end - front

End view

End closer

and closer

right side from the back

center back

left back


Thanks for looking

Very nice.

Well, I can honestly say this has been the best day in a very long time. After 3 months of not hearing a word, I received a check in the mail from Marineland. A full compensation for all losses related to the exploding heater and following system crash.

OMG so many possibilities now...

Thanks a ton to the LFS owners in Rochester for their help persuing the matter.

Nice!!!

More random pics. Sorry, I get bored when I've done my maintenance and there's nothing to frag.

Congrats! What exactly did they cover?

Coral losses. A LOT of them, I was honestly shocked. All my fish and CUC survived luckily. DRF&S refunded the heater cost.

The tank is looking beautiful pisces! that torch is awesome!

WOW! Congratulations! That's great.

These tanks make me want to go toss a hair dryer in mine, lol.

any updates?