West Fort Worth Tank Tour

This Emporer Angel (Pomacanthus imperator) is just gorgeous. And yes, it isn't entirely reef-safe.

The latest casualty was a large rock that was covered with zoanthids. Keyword: was.

During a dash to the restroom, I found a Nano tank in their office.

In the kitchen, another tiny tank held baby Bengaii Cardinals that Mitzi has been raising from fry.

Note their size compared to the temperature probe in the background, or the airstone.

Larry's 200g reef

Larry recently converted from a 150g and a 100g setup to this new 200g reef tank. It has been running for 3 weeks. To avoid being blinded by the lights, he and his wife built a wooden canopy that shields their eyes.

When I took a peek at the lighting, I was surprised to find this fixture!

That is a thing of beauty. Would you hide it?!

A Sailfin Tang and some corals.

Mushrooms.

Zoanthids, and a cute clown in the background.

More zoos. Larry said that all of his livestock came from the Frag Swap last November, or from our monthly raffles.

Another impossible to photograph firefish. This is a purple one.

We aren't sure what this coral is, but it reminds me of a type of elegance. Any idea?

Some type of open brain. If you can ID it, please let us know.

The Sailfin and the Foxface swam together quite a bit.

Scotty's 180g Reef

Scott's tank has been up for about 9 months or more. His previous tank suddenly blew out the back, and it was a total loss. For a long time he was looking for a new one, because it had to fit the stand he already had. This was custom built with a center overflow in the back.

The canopy opens in the front and both end panels open as well.

Looking at this piece in person, the green of those button polyps were very stricking against the blasto in the background. It didn't come out nearly as good in this picture. Darn.

This is probably a deep sea acropora. A really nice piece, that is about 7" wide now.

These wierd bubbles are all over in the tank. If anyone recongizes it, please let us know. They act like an algae, but don't really look like one. They are pink, and some have veins in the tissue.

Cathy's 140g Reef

Cathy's tank is recovering again. It crashed twice last year, due to the city running pure ammonia through the water lines on two different occasions. Each time, it destroyed all of her efforts. (Yes, she uses RO/DI, but it went right through the filters undetected. She now tests the "pure" water just in case). The tank is doing well, and she has some very pretty fish and corals.

I'm not sure what Josh was thinking when this picture was taken. That is me in the blue shirt looking at the base of the tank, head tilted down.

Cathy fed the tank to show us how the engineer goby comes out of its home.

You can see the head of the goby coming out of its buried tube. Cathy put this in the sand so that the fish would dig under her rockwork.

What you can't see is that the tail of that goby is visible in the tube coming out of the sand futher back. That engineer goby reminds me of an eel! It must be 8" long. That fish is a Harlequin Sweetlips.

A piece of Pavona that was fragged at our Coral Propagation Workshop was mounted to the overflow box with two-part putty. It looks very healthy, and should be pretty nice in a few more months.

Marc's 280g Reef

Everyone crowded into my home to see the 280g reef.

The Naso was the crowd favorite. But the longer they looked, the more they found in my tank.

Some zoanthids. They look totally different with my camera, but David didn't adjust his white balance before taking this picture.

One of my four mandarins ends the tour. About 15 to 20 people stayed and I braved the drizzling rain to grill some hamburgers. We ate and talked for about an hour, and by 7pm the house was quiet again.