taking a new direction

when i first got into the hobby i stocked my tank with a bunch of softies.  over the years they spread and while they filled the tank out nicely, they started to become a nuisance to me.  i had a colony of sinularia that spread like wildfire over the years.  mushroom polyps, gsp, zoas, etc. started to encroach on my sps.  now that my attraction to sps has kicked in, i decided to get rid of most of the softies and focus on the sps.  i tore down the tank and took out all the rock with the unwanted softies and swapped those rocks with a buddy of mine for virgin rocks.  

here is the tank before tear-down:

aside from all my sps, i kept three finger leathers that haven't caused any problems, a toadstool, a pagoda cup, brain coral, and a few zoa and gsp frags that i will keep in the sandbed.  heres a picture of the rock that i got in return: 

sorry about the bad pics.  this isn't all the rock that i got.  the total is enough to fill a 33 gallon trash can.  there's some really massive pieces that should be great for aquascaping.  right now i'm in the process of boiling all the rock because he had bad aiptasia and bubble algae problems.  then i'm going to give the rock a week or so of fresh water baths, then i'll start curing it.  here's a picture of a cloudy tank after the temporary aquascaping:

thanks snake!  it's something that i've been wanting to do for a while.  once the rock is all cured and the tank is re-scaped i have to get new bulbs, a new union for my calcium reactor, and a pH controller.  my reef club is having their mega raffle so i'm hoping to get some decent frags.  i've gotten all of my sps from frag swaps or from reef club members and i'd like to continue that.  

now to figure out what to do about my fish.  i'd like to get rid of the pj cardinals and engineer goby.  maybe replace them with some anthias and add another tang.

here are some images of the tank that i took literally a minute ago:

thanks krista.  i broke one of the orange monti caps in several pieces and they are now sitting in the tupperware behind my brain coral.  not sure if i will glue them back to a rock or give them away.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gemmy 

LOL...send them to me. 

send me the packaging and i'd mail them to you

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slice 

+1

 

Looking Great Eric!

thanks slice.  i'm pumped to have freed up so much room

some pics after the halides went out taken a few minutes ago:

heres an awkward shot of the monti frags... there's three in there, the largest is about 6" X 5"

so far so good.  all the fish and coral seem to be happy.  i've decided on adding a midas blenny after i get the chance to remove the unwanted fish.  that will happen once the new rock cures.

i've been thinking about looking into a 300DD.  it wont be for a while now, but i definitely want to start planning out the system and the components.  in the interim, i will use the current set up to grow out frags.  when the time comes to switch tanks, hopefully by summer 2012, i will remove all the sps from the rocks.  i've been trying to really THINK the next system through and i reckon once i get the 300DD i will use acrylic rods to create the aquascape.