Comedy comes in the guise of a nasty little clownfish. Very cute, and loads of personality.
The tragedy is that the poor Damsel didn't take too kindly to said clown, and managed to stress itself to death. Sigh. Ah well, that's part of trying to keep a tiny slice of the world's largest ecosystem in one's living room.
Le clown:
I also made some rather extensive modifications to the inner workings of the tank.
First order of business was to re-vamp the back end. I took out the sponges, bio-balls, Ammo-Carb, non-functioning heater, thermometer, and stock pump.
I added an inTank media basket with filter floss (pillow stuffing from Wal-Mart, another great tip I learned on Nano-Reef!), Purigen, and Chemi-Pure Elite in the first chamber. Removed some backing from the second chamber, rigged a home-made light box on the back (also read about it on N-R), and put some chaeto in there. Replaced the heater and thermometer in the third chamber, and upgraded the pump to a MaxiJet 900. I also gutted a damaged Marineland LED light fixture I got in trade and modded it into the hood behind the stock PCs. Hooked the lights up to a timer, currently 10 hours with the main lights on and the 'fuge lightbox on opposite them. I may change it so the LEDs come on on hour before the PCs, and then turn off an hour after for a ghetto sunrise/sunset cycle. Worth a try.
After all the new hardware was in, I got a few more snails and hermit crabs to replace the ones lost over the last several months, along with a peppermint shrimp to help get my Aiptasia infestation under control (hitchhiked on the LR, didn't know better than to let them do their thing).
Mod pics:
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