I'm in.

01. you sir are a god amongst men

Great year.. but not a leap one.. thus 2004 still owns you.

Thank you and good luck!

OMG I think I'm the old man of this contest. Go '01!

Good Luck

Im rootin for the Old Man! Good Luck!

I suppose I can update this thing today. Progress is moving along well, I got my 18w retro from Nanotuners and I picked up a Penn Plax Cascade 100 filter. Don't ask, its cheap, small and blue. I painted the back of the tank blue so the filter kind of blends in a little. Tonight I finish up the hood and base. I know we are not being judged on these but I decided to do something a bit... special I'll hopefully get some pics up tonight. I'm thinking tomorrow I pick up my liverock and wednesday the tanks sole inhabitant. I'll let that remain a surprise.

Might want to make sure that Grid in the pump is allowed. May be considered a mod.

Oh, that was my old AC 300 when I was going to go in CUSTOM. Totally different filter now, totally stock. Thanks for noticing though Do I have to post a new entry photo with the other filter?

Okay, its late so I'm keeping this short. Base and canopy done. Here are some pics. What do you think?

Ooooh, that's a bit different. I like it!

Best regards

Ann

Its a trendy night club for your fish . Seriously, I like the way it looks did you have it cut and welled or whats the process behind it?

No welding required. I built a nice sturdy hood and base and sheeted it with diamond plate. It took about three hours and fourty cut off disks to cut it out with my dremel. Then I just attatched it with spray adhesive.

awesome woodwork!

Thanks If I knew how much work the diamond plate was going to be I might not have done it!

Thats a cool hood, how did you bend it? and are you tryin to cut in on my secret invert that I'v got coming up?

I'm supposed to pick mine up tonight No bending either! All the joints are butt joints. The spray adhesive isn't holding too well in two spots so I might put in a couple screws.

Looks good!

For the screws, ya gotta find some good looking screws to give it that refined industrial look

^^^^^what he said^^^^^^

(stainless steel philips head would be my choice)

Really nice so far, keep up the good work!

I was thinking chromed cap screws

Got the sand in, tank filled and about 4.5 lbs of marshal island rock. My camera doesn't have a white balance adjustment so the pics come out a lot more blue than they are in person.

~edit: after playing with the color balance in photoshop, I got it almost perfect. Better?

I likey.

Cool aquascape.

Update time, got my mantis last night. She was kind enough to hold still for a pic.



What do you think? She is a very dark green/brown. I've read that when the change environments they change color with their next molt. I'm hoping for a lighter color

Something I'm noticing is that with a lack of surface skimming, I'm getting a film on the surface of the water. How do we combat that without breaking the rules?

Nice looking rockwork!

Getting rid of the surface scum is going to be interesting since surface skimmers are a no-no.

Like the mantis too. I saw a Fu Manchu Lion at the LFS today. Hmmmmm?

to combat surface scum I think that dipping a cup in may be the only way without breaking rules.

The Full Mantis

Great minds... tank looks great too.
-greg

Fabulous Mantis shots!!

I like your 'scaping too.

Best regards

Ann

Mantis shrimp are cool, but to be honest, they are some of the scariest looking things I have ever seen. I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat late at night, dreaming about finding one.

New FTS, added a nice torch, calustrea and a green/purple ricordia. The mantis is going away as soon as I can find a home for her, she is just too big for this tank.

Love the stand and hood.

Sweet new corals. Sorry to hear that your Mantis is being moved, she is a big, I didn't realise. What are you going to replace her with?

Best regards

Ann

Unfortunately I haven't decided yet. I want something kind of out of the ordinary but small. This mantis is almost 3.5". Anyone have any ideas?

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harlequin shrimp. may be hard to feed, but you only have to do it every 1-2 weeks.

Well, a lot has changed since last update. The mantis is now happily living in Ohio and I replaced him with a simple peppermint shrimp. When I added the Torch frag it came with some nice aptasia frags but the shrimp took care of those overnight. The torch pretty much doubled in size so I fragged it out and traded it for some yellow star polyps, green mushroom and a few kenya tree corals. I have also added two new ricordia and four new zooanthid species courtesy of Sharky's Reef. Here are some updated pics for your viewing pleasure.

nice torch! is it as yellow on the tips as in the pic?

that red zoo looks nice too. is that two species on the same rock or babies of the bigger?

Yep, the color on the torch pic is pretty much spot on. The one red zoo I didn't even pay for, it was just on the frag They zoos were supposed to be different shades of blue, but they really look purple in my tank.

Nice and clean looking. Love the torch, great colour morph.

Best regards

Ann

Well, a lot has changed from day one. Rather than bore you I'll let the pictures do the talking. From the beginning: