Its pretty much setup now. Lights are on, sump is running and doing its thing, and so we’re just waiting for the water to ‘age’ properly and stabilize with the right chemical makeup and salinity.

Here are the first couple shots of it. As always, click on the images to bring up the bigger versions.

First, the tank’s guts below (left), sump and power cords and all that not very neatened up yet. The sump will also eventually contain the protein skimmer, but you don’t generally want to put that in until you’ve already established your nitrate cycle and have some living things in it.

Tank Guts

Next, the tank, with both the actinic(blue) and white lights on (right). The flash didn’t go off as a result. It actually doesn’t look quite this blue, but you get the idea. Also, its obviously still a bit cloudy. Everything should settle out nicely in the next few days.

Tank White Light

And finally, the white light is off and just the actinic is on (below left). This is the sort of ‘nightlight’ effect that will keep it all healthy even during nighttime. It also does simulate a ‘moonlight’ sort of effect. It isn’t necessary or essential to the health of the tank, but it sho’ do look cool.

Tank Blue Lights

Addendum:

An updated image (below right) once the water cleared up, some live rock was added, and a few fish thrown in.

Tank Clear

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