Pictures of my Coralline Rock, first set

Overview of the whole tank. The lighting fixture over the tank contains a single 250 watt 6500K metal halide bulb, and two 9 watt actinic compact fluorescent tubes, used mainly for dawn and dusk simulation. The surge tank is not installed in this and many of the earlier pictures.

The center region of the tank. All shells visible on the sand were actually part of the live sand shipment. The live sand varies in size from large shells of several inches down to dust, which clouded the water when I first put the sand in, but which now stays put nicely.

A rock at the left edge of the tank. Note the snail in the pointed shell.

Numerous living shellfish came on the rock. Some look like clams or mussels, and some look like spiny golf balls.

This rock has a beautiful leafy coralline algae growing all over it.

A rock at the right of the aquarium showing at least three varieties of coralline algae.

The view from the right end of the tank.

A rock in the middle of the aquarium, carrying a bright orange encrusting sponge on the left, and a dark purple coralline algae on the right.

Halimeda algae, some orange sponge, and big holes cover this rock.

Encrusting coralline algae and Halimeda growing on rock and clams.

Sponge and coralline algae.

Another shot of the leafy wine colored coralline algae.

Two hermit crabs having a discussion. The hermit crabs and snails use the same shells, so you have to look for legs to see which is which.

Coralline algae

The middle section of the tank, looking left.

The lower left section of this rock contains a small colony of stony corals that came on the rock. Numerous such colonies can be found on the rocks. These are visible as white skeletons with brown tentacles halfway emerged.

The view from the left end of the tank.

A shot under actinic lighting of an unidentified snail (hereafter called "mystery" snails, not to be confused with the freshwater snail that sometimes goes by that name) that came with the rock. You can see calcium scale on the outside of the aquarium. I can't remove this with a razor blade or vineger. That's what you get for buying a used tank without checking it out thoroughly. Same comment goes for the scratches all over the glass.