oh man, tough luck with the mantis....... i love mine to death, they are the coolest animals ever. I really like this tank a lot though, keep up the good work man.

Ok, Update time! It's going to be mostly pictures, cuz I don't really have time to write my story out right now.

First the "before" shot:


I got this cool guy as a hitchiker on a coral from jakarta on our last order:


I got a few new corals, took out the xenia, and re-aranged the tank for better viewing of all the corals. The hammer was blocking views of the shrooms and the xenia was totaly covering a patch of zoas. With the new layout, everything is out in view!

New FTS:


You can see that I also broke my vow to follow this contest out fishless. I love these little clowns, and I had to get them. Here's the clowns with my new white feather duster:


And the other duster I picked up. You can see my orange and green acan in this pic too:



The rest of the pictures I took are a bunch of macro shots. Hope you enjoy!

Hammer coral:


Pipe organs:


My beige/tan/yellow zoas with one of the clowns:


My little orange zoas with the blue/green zoas on the left:


My "black" acan frag. This one used to have some red/white to it, but it has gone compleatly black now...


Candy acan lord:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06045.jpg[/img]

Pink spot mushroom. Another hitchiker:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06046.jpg[/img]

Green zoas:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06048.jpg[/img]

A better shot of the orange and green acan:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06049.jpg[/img]

My blue and red zoas, one of my favorites!:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06052.jpg[/img]


Blue bottlebrush acro:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06053.jpg[/img]

Orange monti:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06055.jpg[/img]

Candy stripe mushrooms and white feather duster:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06056.jpg[/img]

Random zoanthid hitchikers:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06057.jpg[/img]

Same pic, but with the focus on the blastomusa frag I recived:
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06058.jpg[/img]

And lastly, the coral whom we afectionatly just call 'bush'. I can't recal what the actual name of the coral is right now. And it's not named after the president. Im sure that my coral has a much higher level of inteligent thought...

[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Xytrix01/pico%203-24-06/Pico3-24-06059.jpg[/img]

Thats all for now! I'm going to try and re-size the smaller pics to match, stupid photobucket cut down the size on only some of my pix. I also have a few stories to write up, including all night power outages and "the flood!"

-Justin

that shrimp's nuckin' awesome! you feed it or is it strictly a scavenger in your tank?

that last one looks interesting, frogspawn-ish.

Love the shrimp!

Thanks for the update, looking fantastic.

Best regards

Ann

Placeholder post, content later....

Final Contest Post:

WOW! I can't believe it's over already... simply amazing. I have had such a great time with this tank, and it has been so successful for the most part. I also enjoyed the interaction in the forums here as well. I can still remember early in the contest, I would make an update post, and when I checked back a few hours later my thread was already bumped to page 3. (With tigah still on top of page one of course! ) It really has been an enjoyable experience, so I thank you all for that.

Not that keeping this little tank going hasn't been a challenge. It's gone through a few mishaps, a few fish, and a few missed water changes! It has managed to survive a tank overflow, a 9 hour power outage, and my constant tinkering with the way the tank ran and looked. So overall, I would have to say that the system has run very stable for the duration of the contest.

On to the lists...

Equipment:
-2.5gal AGA glass tank custom drilled with corner overflow.
-Semi-durso style overflow
-DIY CD spindle mechanical filter box
-5gal Painters Bucket sump
-75W Ebo-Jager glass heater
-Penguin 1440 in-sump return pump
-Dual outlet 1/2"i.d. return manifold
-Maxi-jet 600 pump for skimmer
-Custom built UTR nanoskimmer


Lighting:
-60W Total Light Output. 24 watts per gallon.
-3x 20W Coralife 50/50 Screw-in Bulbs
-Custom Built Vented Hood
-Dual 1.5" PC Cooling Fans
-1x 10W Coralife 50/50 sump/fuge light

Livestock:

Corals
-Orange plate coral (Montipora Sp.)
-Euphillyia yamanensis
-Blue Zoas
-Yellow/green rim Zoas
-Orange Zoas
-Mixed Zoa branch
-Green star polyps
-Green striped mushrooms
-Pipe organ coral
-"Dolphins blue bottlebrush acropora"
-majano anenomme (still yet to become a problem)
-Policipora dominiconis(sp?)
-Green hammer
-Neon green frogspawn
-Orange/green Acanthastrea echinata
-Black/red Acanthastrea echinata
-Neon green Acanthastrea echinata
-Blue/pink Acanthastrea lordhowensis
-White feather duster
-Purple feather duster
-Green Acropora Sp.
-7x Misc. Mushrooms
-Blastomussa wellsi
-Unidentified soft polyp coral

Fish
-2x True percula clowns (Captive bread)
-14x blue legged hermit crabs
-3x unidentified snails
-4x Brittle stars
-1x Bumble bee snail
-1x Pistol Shrimp



Pictures:
Full Tank Shots
Contest Start 11-7-2005


First FTS with corals 11-29-05


12-4-2005


Deadline #1 FTS 1-12-2006


1-14-2006


1-28-2006


2-7-2006


2-26-2006


3-24-2006


FINAL FTS 4-1-2006

How it works

Whole Setup:


Inside the light hood:



Back of hood /w fans


Sump and skimmer


Sump close-up


Drain and return plumbing /w splash sheild




Corner shots

Right side


Left side




Ok, That's everything I've got! I may post some comparison/groth shots if the threads are still open when I get home from work tomorow. It's just getting too late tonight.

Oh, and one more thing...

'05 is teh roxors!!!!!111!!

Dude that is freakin' awesome, nice work. You have definatley give '04 a run for their money Good luck in the voting man

Beautiful tank! The february FTS blows me away! Gorgeous.

Thanks, I really had a to of fun with this tank, and almost as much fun telling customers at the LFS I work at that my tank was this small. The looks on their faces are priceless!!!!

I'm not going to add any comparison shots, because I really don't have many good ones, and the batteries on the camera are dead anyways. So my final entry has the FTS shots, and I didn't see a need to repost my latest macro shots, as they are still on the top of this page... *shrug* So best of luck to everyone, and may the best pico win! (as long as it's an '05 tank )