I'm in the contest now. I hope its not to late to join.
Here is my entry photo



And heres another pic after I filled it


Sorry for the bad picture quality. My camera sucks plus i'm not very good at taking pics of my tanks.

YAY! Another contestant! Good luck

Thanks for the good luck! I guess I should probably post some specs. Everything is stock since i'm in the stock contest. I took out the ceramic rings and bio-balls. I am leaving in the activated carbon at least until the cycle is over and I will probably replace it every month or two. I also left in the sponge. I may leave it in or take it out later. I'm getting some LR/LS tommorow, i'll post a pic when I get it in. Thats about it for now.

Mat

Today I picked up some LR/LS. The LFS just tore down someones tank so they had alot of nice LR that was literally purple from all the coraline. I got a few pieces of that and then some pieces of branching rock that did not have much color but have been in there for a month so they were mostly cured. It is all Figi and Tonga Branch rock. They were also nice enough to open a bag of LS and just sell me 5 lbs. I don't have any pics right now because the whole tank is a major sand storm. It is so cloudy I couldn't see what I was doing with the rock so I just threw it in there. Tommorow I'll stack it how I want it and then post a pic.

Mat

sounds great! good luck!

I stacked the rock today. I spent an hour and a half and I still don't like it but I just left it like this. I will probably restack it later today or tommorow but for now this is what it looks like.

Please comment on my tank and tell me what you think.

good start... what livestock did you have in mind?

Welcome to the competition! Good luck!

For coral i'm probably going to do a mix of softies and LPS. For fish one yellow clown gobie OR bi-color blennie. Then either a cleaner or fire shrimp and other critters (eg. snails, hermits, etc.) When I was at the store yesterday getting rock and sand they had these really nice orange zoos. I got them and put them in my 20h while this tank cycles then I'll move them over to this tank.

I restacked the rock. Now I think it looks perfect!

How do you guys like the new rock structure? Sorry about the reflections, how do you take pics without them? Do you take them at night?

Welcome to the contest

I liked my rock how it was, BUT..........the whole structure collapsed! I didn't feel like restacking it tonight so i'll fix it tommorow and post a pic. The ammonia has spiked. If it continues at this rate, i'll be done cycling by next weekend, i'll just have to see what happens.

Well I finally decided to stack the rock. This is my third and hopefully final rock stacking. I tested my water yesterday and today and my nitrate peaked and is now starting to go down. Here is a picture of my new rock structure.

On my rock there were some button polyps that happened to survive the cycle. Here is a picture of them.

I think this aquascaping is much better than the first two.

This is my favorite too. I liked the second one when I did it but now in comparison I think this one is much better. There are more shelf type places to put coral, which I will have LOTS of!

I tested the water today and my nitrates were at 15 ppm. I am taking this as an indication that my cycle is almost over. I did a water change today (about 3/4-1 gallon) to help take care of the nitrates. I ordered some frags from SeaCrop which are scheduled to be delivered Thursday. I hope the tank is ready for them and if it isn't i'll just put them in my 20h until it is ready. I think it will be ready because all of my rock was fully cured. I will stop by the LFS to get some snails and hermits before my SeaCrop order comes.

Today I tested my water again and did a water change. Tommorow my order from SeaCrop is coming. I will post pics of my order tommorow when I get it. I did not have a chance to get any inverts and I can't spare any from my 20 gallon. I hope everthing is fine. I also added some frags from my 20 gallon.

Here is a Xenia frage I added.


Here is a mushroom I added.


Here is a full tank shot.

Tell me what you guys think.

pretty mushroom... what kind is it?


Aquascaping looks great. Good mixing of different LR.

I'm not really sure. It just came on a piece of LR when I set up my 20 gallon. It was in a cave in that tank and I thought since it wasn't doing anything there, it would be nice in this tank so I moved it over.

it'll look really nice when it starts to spread.

Put my on the frag list... haha..

Theres actually 2 shrooms on that rock. It spread in the 20 gallon too. There are 2 shrooms in the sand in the 20 gallon. And it spread like that even though it was in a cave. I can't imagine how fast it will spread right out in the open. I'm probably gonna glue those shrooms onto this rock in this tank.

If you turn out all the lights except the tank light, and take the picture at night with no flash, you can get great pictures. If they don't turn out, try taking them at different times at dusk and you will get some good ones.
-John

Thats what I was thinking I should try. I tried closing the blinds but it didn't work. I always have the tank light on with the flash off. I'll try it tonight.

Today I recieved my SeaCrop order. All of these corals are from SeaCrop. These are the individual corals.

Hammer


Green Galaxia


Red Centered Zoos


Green Star Polyps


Lavender Hairy Mushroom


Candy


Full tank shot


This coral is not from SeaCrop. I bought it locally a few weeks ago and held it in my other tank while this tank was cycling. Here are my Orange Zoos.

I would love to see your tank and corals but were the pic is supose to be it comes up with a small red X.

I just tryed to view the page and I saw that they come up like that. I'm trying to fix them.

I think I fixed them. Do they work?

yes.

Yup they sure do now.

BTW nice tank

Well theres not much new going on with the tank. I replaced the magnet cleaner that came with it with the aquarium systems twister one. It is alot thinner and now I can get everywhere in the tank plus it has a much stronger magnet so it actually cleans. The stock one didn't really even clean.

The Candy Cane frag just wouldn't stay in place or if I found a place it would stay, it wouldn't look good so I finally just glue it in place with this aquarium epoxy putty stuff. I really like how it looks in its new place. I'll post a pic later.

Well I figured I should bring my thread back from the dead. It's been awhile and alot has happened! Please tell me what you think. I totally reaquascaped the whole thing after recieving my second order from SeaCrop. I also added a False Percula clownfish. I realize he will eventuall outgrow this tank and when that happens he will move to my dad's office. He is the perfect size for the tank right now though. Enough of my blabbering, onto the pics.

First an FTS


And now for some shots of the individual corals:

"Blue Candy" Not really that blue but cool anyway


Daisy Polyps


Blue Striped Shroom


Xenia happily pulsing away


My super cool centerpiece Maze Brain


Alveopora and Zoos


One of 3 Scarlet Hermits


Neon Green Frilly Shroom


And last but not least, and FTS under moonlights


Please comment on my tank and let me know what you think.

The one that says daisy polyps is the same one as the blue candy. Heres the daisys.

[img]http://tinypic.com/ehk8cw.jpg[/img]

Some more pics just for fun.

Heres a great shot of my Alveopora. Its doing great and looking better than ever before in it's new spot.


This is a nice FTS where you can see the clown. He seems to be very happy and is the perfect size for this tank.


Lemme know what you guys think.

your tank is stunning. I am trying to get my 12 gallon to look nice right now and this has given me some inspiration.
off to the LFS

Harial

Looking good. Your corals are really starting to fill out.

Thanks for your comments. Today I got my hands on my mom's camera which is better than mine in every aspect. I didn't really think the pics I had posted before really brought out what the tank actually looked like. These colors are much more accurate and I think the tank looks more realistic over all.

First an FTS


Heres another decent FTS


Heres a pretty good shot of my baby clown


Here is my "zoo garden", I have more zoos in the tank but there are a lot in this area. They are not all open right now but there are red centered, greens, and oranges.


I think this shot is cool. It almost looks like hes out in the wild.


Thats all for now. Let me know what you think.

Here are some final pics to finish out the contest.

Mushroom Garden looking good


Blue Candys lookin nice


The only thing added since my last post was this candy


Star Polyps


And Xenia


Thats it for me. I hope the judges like my tank.