Thanks for the kind words. Natural is definitely what I was going for with this one. It's an unconventional look to be sure, at least I don't see many tanks like it when perusing the web. I've been very happy with how it's going though. I'm a newbie to marine tanks. My background is in low-tech f/w planted tanks, which probably shows in what I've done with s/w. I like to let nature take care of nature to the largest extent possible, and figured the added biodiversity of saltwater would allow for a much more robust micro-ecosystem than freshwater could ever sustain. This tank has made me an absolute convert to marine systems.

The coolest thing so far has been watching the lionfish emerge from the shell it was in at the store. It was always shy and immobile there, and not very food motivated at all. Since hitting this tank, that little guy absolutely owns the space and exhibits much more of the interesting behavior this species is known for. It's also starting to take frozen foods. It's happened naturally, without any cajoling or intervention. Fu Manchus are notorious for refusing anything but live foods. Week by week, you can watch this thing slowly reprogram its way of 'hunting' to better track dead food moving in the current. All it's life it's looked down to track inverts moving along the bottom. It's learning to look up for stuff floating in current. Absolutely fascinating.

I've been doing some rescaping to open up the left side of the tank. Give me a couple of weeks to sort it out and I'll update the thread.