5 Gallon Nano Reef

This tank is only a few weeks old. I set out to create my own tank based on the '5 Gallon Bullet Proof Nano' system I describe elsewhere on this site. The details of the tank's maintainence and equipment can be found on the Bullet Proof page, in greater detail.

Currently, the tank has 10 lbs of live sand, 5 pounds of fiji rock from Jeff's Exotic Fish (see the links page), 2 scarlet hermits, 6 astrea snails, a small colony of mushrooms and a rock covered with button polyps. As the tank matures I'll be adding more animals to it, predominantly more mushrooms. My plan is to completely cover the back wall of the tank in rocks covered in a variety of different mushrooms, while having the buttons and perhaps some green star polyps for variety. I don't plan on adding any fish, nor do I plan on adding other mobile invertebrates.
 
The images below are low-resolution. Clicking on them will open up a larger-sized file with better resolution. The images below average between 20-25k, full resolution images run around 75k each.
 

	In this photo once can clearly see the button polyps in the front of the tank and the mushrooms against the back glass on the left.
	Here's a closeup (albeit blurry) of the button polyps. The colony is a small one, on a piece of rock perhaps three inches long. Total cost was $10, and it should spread fairly quickly.
	The mushrooms in these photos don't portray their colors very accurately. While red tinted, they are more black then anything else. Some specimens have a thin brown-green band running just inside their outer top edge, which is very attractive.
	In these photos the narrow 'band' discussed above can be seen a bit more clearly then in the photo above. I expect the mushrooms to propagate fairly quickly, which makes this a very economical specimen; it's total cost was $15.
	This photo provides an impression of the actual size of the tank. It's really quite small.
	This side-view photograph provides a nice look at the mushrooms and some of the rock, but was taken to illustrate the placement of the filtration equipment and the rock itself. The rock is not flush with the back wall of the tank, and the intake for the Skilter 250 is placed discreetly behind it. Not only is this more visually attractive, but it allows for better circulation and maintenaince. Don't build your rock formations like brick walls!