A little redecorating

I started with an existing tank in May 2008, having never owned a goldfish- I had a salamander once for about a day and half! I read and read and read some more, bought every reef guidebook and magazine, surfed and posted, and asked a million questions at the LFS. Tested and changed and fed and fussed, and bought a couple "starter" corals. Now I finally got the nerve to actually change something in my tank- I aquascaped a little. I'd love to hear what you think- and thanks to all who respond to the "newbie" questions with such patience and humor- the top pic is "before"-

 

it looks really good , but i would say get some more live rock, you will need more to place different corals in different places depending on the animals needs, other than that your off to a great start!

what type of lights do you have?

 

ditto to what Nano said and ya know Aquascaping is subjective! I think it looks very nice! How are the fish liking it? I like to change mine around every now and then to keep em guessing. lol

 

I agree more rock but it looks good

 

ok food for thought. it looks like you have alot of sand in there. you must keep you bed clean either by animals(a sand starfish alone isn't good enough) or manual cleaning. once enough stuff builds up in your sand bed it will leech back into the water and crash your tank. im telling you because in my tank about 1 and half inches of sand, is just now starting to give me trouble 4 years after i set it up. and ive been working to clean it out but its quite difficult, i can only do alittle bit at a time because it screws up my parameters. even doing a little bit i still get a couple day algae bloom after cleanings. i think its alot better if you don't do it the way i did it, let it all build up tell its do or die.

 

Oh and think I would do more base rock than buying more live rock.

 

hahahaha thats funny!

 

You know, I think the fish like it better- (but fish are like men, they'll sit on any couch as long as it faces the TV- oops, was that sexist?!). I'm still trying to figure out coral placement- I tried to mimic where they were in vertical relationship to the store tank, and I got a great reef guide book that helped.
Nano- my lights are a Aqualight Pro, with 2 MH, 2 compact fluorescent, and 3 LED. I just changed the compacts, and next check will change the MH- they are about a year old.

 

Sostoudt- the back of the tank (behind the rock) is down to the glass in places. The clown "dusts" and spreads more sand forward- I can't figure that fish out! I also have the goby, and I vacuum every water change. Now, of course, algae happens- but I've been pretty lucky so far (jinx)!