I finally had a chance to get all my established live rock moved over this weekend, and I am very happy with how it turned out. The photos don't capture the caves between all the rocks as well as they really look, and but the 4" gap off the back panel was intentional, as was the valley between the two islands to allow for water flow and open space for fish and branching coral. One big caveat with using seasoned live rock is using acrylic dowels or epoxy to create the structure is far more difficult, so I built this underwater to preserve as much existing life as possible.
I mounted at least 40 remaining Acropora fragments/mini colonies of the 150+ that I had at my prime several years ago, and as you can see I have ample space for dozens more pieces. I really miss all of Wet Thumbs pieces I lost over the years, and will be looking for several of these pieces to add back to the collection. I also moved the odantanthias fuscipinnis, Dejongi basslet, squirei fairy wrasse, hooded fairy wrasse, and candy basslet over to the display today, and the conspicuous is staying in quarantine for the time being until the coral stabilizes and resumes growing again. I also plan to add a personatus angel that is about 1/3 the size, and would prefer to add this first.
I also swapped out the newer Apex head unit with built in wifi with my older unit from 2010, and have the calcium reactor running independent of the controller as I get it dialed in.
I mounted at least 40 remaining Acropora fragments/mini colonies of the 150+ that I had at my prime several years ago, and as you can see I have ample space for dozens more pieces. I really miss all of Wet Thumbs pieces I lost over the years, and will be looking for several of these pieces to add back to the collection. I also moved the odantanthias fuscipinnis, Dejongi basslet, squirei fairy wrasse, hooded fairy wrasse, and candy basslet over to the display today, and the conspicuous is staying in quarantine for the time being until the coral stabilizes and resumes growing again. I also plan to add a personatus angel that is about 1/3 the size, and would prefer to add this first.
I also swapped out the newer Apex head unit with built in wifi with my older unit from 2010, and have the calcium reactor running independent of the controller as I get it dialed in.