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sorry to hear about the goby, but that's good news with the peppermint shrimp. I'm glad you are enjoying the dark side.

As for your shrimp choices, both pistol and coral banded shrimp can sometimes be aggressive with other shrimp. It might be ok in a 55 as they could possibly stake out different sides of the tank, but I'd be a little worried and keep a really good eye out if you chose to try that.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I did end up getting a gold CB shrimp and it has settled in nicely, with the exception of setting up shop at the back side of the LR. I also managed to get a really good deal on a used 250W EVC MH ballast, socket, and reflector. I plan on getting another one for the other side of the tank when I find another deal. I still have a while before I actually set them up though, but getting them as I find them helps. One thing I noticed is the reflector is just about the same width as the tank, would bulbs in the 14-15k range be fine without the use of actinic lighting?

The tank is still fishless and besides the orange lyretail anthias I haven't seen any anthias for sale besides the purple queens, which appear to be one of the more fragile anthias'. Anyone have any luck keeping purple queens? If I do get these I will make sure I see them eat first.

The other inhabitants are doing well, I have given up on the goby still being in there . I also found one of the astrea snails upside down today, hopefully soon enough.

What does that mean, Bob? "Till the cows come home." Where have the cows been?

I managed to find some Bartlett Anthias at a LFS I read good reviews about on a local forum. I went up there yesterday and got 3 of them. They are all females with one showing a little more purple on the head than the others. I fed them some frozen mysis shrimp last night and flakes/pellets earlier today which they all accepted voraciously. They went into a freanzy over the food and even munched on some of a shrimp pellet that was stirred up by the current. They seem to be doing pretty well, but I have only had them for about 24 hours.
P.S. the astrea snail did make it.

What does that mean, Bob? "Till the cows come home." Where have the cows been?

After two weeks of success with the three anthias I picked up a gold stripe maroon clown. I have been keeping an eye out for quite some time and they all seem to be around the same size, around 2-3 inches. I'm going to let him get significantly bigger then down the road get another small one. It's hangout spot in the tank at the store was a clam larger than a football.

A Koralia 4 was added for additional water flow to one end. Should I take the spraybar off the output of the sump and just point it towards the powerhead at the other end? Right now the flow of the powerhead is to the left, slightly upward and spraybar pointing to the front of the tank, slightly downward.

I have taken an attraction to the bangai cardinal but I'm not sure how close I am to being fully stocked by the time I get another gold stripe maroon clown down the road. Would one or a pair be fine or pushing it too far?

What does that mean, Bob? "Till the cows come home." Where have the cows been?

I'm a big fan of dispersed flow, so I'd keep the spraybar myself.

As for the bangaii cardinals....it would be out of order in the stocking scheme, and I'd worry about the clown beating up on it. That said it might be worth a try if you can keep an eye on them for a day or two to see if they settle in well. I'd only do this if you are positive about your water quality (test the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, PO4 consistently), then keep an eye on it down the road as your tank matures and fish grow as it would be pretty well stocked.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I decided against the bangai cardinals. I also upgraded the lighting to 2x250w MH's but still need to replace the bulbs. I still need to enclose the sides of the hanging platform because they light up the whole hallway. I'm thinking of going with reeflux 12k without any other light supplement. Since the last post I got a orange spot prawn goby which has settled in and colored up nicely. I have found a 4" GS clown and sucessfully introduced the two clowns and they have settled in without any trouble. Suffering from MTS I managed to find a free 180g wood tank with stand, which is currently empty. I might put it into a wall at a later date, till then I will probably leave it empty.

What does that mean, Bob? "Till the cows come home." Where have the cows been?

Cool, what are the dimensions on the wood tank?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

there is such a thing as a wood tank??
Any chance of a pic of it?

The outer dimensions are around 72"l/22"d/27"h. I haven't taken a pic of the tank yet, but here is a good link I found in a previous post on this site about building one, seems like a pretty easy DIY project if you had the time http://www.garf.org/tank/buildtank.asp

What does that mean, Bob? "Till the cows come home." Where have the cows been?