265 Gallon Mixed Reef

**Heidi** · 03-09-2011, 01:59 PM

Beautiful system you guys have! I love the midas blenny! I impulsed bought one when I first set up my tank and he got the ich and died. I had never even been to the petstore he was from but he was such a cool fish. I have ordered another to add to my big tank from somewhere I trust, can't wait to have that frisky guy again! SO cute and fun to watch

**MH_Courtney** · 03-10-2011, 10:35 AM

So I finally got a chance to take some pictures last night. I am stilling trying to figure the camera out so bear with me. I was finally starting to get decent pictures with the T-5s and now the LEDs are harder to get good pictures because there is definitely a lot more shadowing in the tank. I used the tripod for the first time last night and what a difference. I don't know how I ever got any decent pictures without it. A little bit harder to use the tripod for the fish but I was getting a much better ratio of good to bad pictures. I got 3 good pictures of the Powder Blue in one night where normally I am lucky to 1 good fish picture in about 5 nights worth.

Anyway on to the pictures. There is definitely a noticeable difference with the LEDs versus the T-5s when you look straight on at the tank. I am starting to get used to the black bars because of the braces but in pictures it looks terrible. I will say that up until a few days ago I was still doubting the LEDs. You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it. The T-5s were working fine and we were getting good color and growth. However….since switching to full LEDs I am seeing even better polyp extension then I have ever seen before. Also several of my acans that were a little plain looking are starting to morph with some greens and yellows. Only time will tell for the long term but the results I am seeing already definitely has me convinced that it was a good switch not only for money and energy savings but for coral growth and color as well.

Powder Blue Tang
PowderBlue3 9 11contestpic - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

PowderBlue3 9 11contestpic - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

Midas Blenny in his hole
Blenny3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

Blue Green Tort
This one doesn't appear to have grown a lot from the previous shot I have of it but I fragged off the larger right branch and I now have a frag almost the size of this colony in my frag tank.
BlueTort3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

Chromis

Frogspawn

Green Torch
greentorch3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

Hairy Mushrooms
As you can see from further up there has been a lot of growth here
HairyMushroom3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

ORA Joe the Coral
This has so much polyp extension you can barely see the skeleton, the difference in polyp extension in this picture compared to the previous one is insane.
joethecoral3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

joethecoral3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

Orange Digitata
orangedigi3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

Powder Blue Tang
powderblue13 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

powderblue3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

RBTA and Clowns
Not sure if you can really appreciate the size of this RBTA but the hammer next to it is a 4 headed frag and the clowns are 2" and 5". This is the easier one to see but you will see in the full tank shot that there are 2 in the tank and the other one is about the same size but most of it is behind the rock.
RBTA3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef

Acan

Full Tank Shot 3-9-11
Not quite head on, too much stuff in the way for the tripod but I will try not to be so lazy next time.
The colors are tad bit off in some of these, the color in the FTS are pretty accurate though.
fts3 9 11 - 265 Gallon Mixed Reef