Zombo's CADlights 22: Mantis Palace!

[Zombo]

Well, my CADlights 22 gallon tank arrived at work yesterday (on my day off); a couple of my reef-keeping co-workers inspected things thoroughly and reported all was well; Props to Ken at OceanReeflections and Eddie at CADlights for their awesome customer service!
I couldn't resist getting it set-up and cycling, so off to Preuss Pets I went to pick up LR and saltwater. Now, with a significantly lighter wallet, the Mantis Palace is cycling with #20 of very nice live rock :) I'm still awaiting delivery of *two* protein skimmers, an ASM Mini-G (which will be for sale) and an Aqua-C Remora (which will be the skimmer for the Palace). Lighting is 2 x 14W Actinic and 2 x 14W 10,000K whites, all 4 T5HO's -- I'm not planning on making this a coral packed tank, maybe a few rhodactis/ricordias and some GSP is all.
No substrate in the tanks as of yet (I was too poor), but I'm planning on using Fiji pink sand to a 1.5" to 2" depth. After it's all cycled, the "Mantis sin Nombre" (a female G. chiragra) will be moved into her Palace along with a modest CUC.
I'll bring the camera to work tomorrow and snap some preliminary pics! :)

 

[peel]

whoo! another mantis tank. i finally got mine set up at college. can't wait to see pics

 

[paintballer768]

Oh pics pics pics :)

 

[Zombo]

You want pics? You Gots Pics!

Here we go! The CADlights 22 "Mantis Palace" -- still cycling!

A nice pice of LR with tons of coralline algae:

More generic live rock, in a hastily assembled pile :)

A top-down shot:

Two shots of the living "mystery bivalve" -- anyone ID this?

The obligatory FTS!

Still bare bottom, as I was too broke to afford the sand -- I'll add it later on....I'm not really planning on coral-packing this tank, as it more specifically being set-up as a home for my G. chiragra:

Thanks for checking in my thread! :D

 

[Nate82]

i thought you couldn't keep a mantis shrimp in a reef tank? well either way tank looks great

 

[Saltysteele]

sweet, zombo!!

in your pic of your mantis, looks like it's saying, "what? you lookin at me? you lookin at me??"

:tongue:

 

[Zombo]

sweet, zombo!!

in your pic of your mantis, looks like it's saying, "what? you lookin at me? you lookin at me??"

:tongue:

Dr. Roy (the world renowned stomatopod expert) says that G. chiragra can easily outstrike a Peacock mantis *twice* its size. Apparently they are very, very, very nasty ;)