Lots of new fish to talk about, and all thanks to having added that eco-system (see my previous post). Here is a power brown tang, named Tango. He's picking on our new coco worm. The coco worm is red, but he's in his tube cuz he doesn't like being picked on.
The tang family of fish is identified by a sharp razor-like bit at the base of the tail. You can see it clearly on Tango, although not so well in this photo. It's surrounded by the yellow splotch just in front of his tail. Tangs will flick this at you if they feel threatened, and those razors can cut you!
Next is a sailfin tang. Due to the color of his "striped pajamas," we named him PJ. In this photo you can get an idea of his size. Tango is about the same size as well. It's nice to have several larger fish now.
We couldn't resist this cute little honey damsel. We named him Pinky cuz he's so tiny. Here's a closeup, then another photo for perspective.
The last of the new fish is a mandarin goby. She's actually quite beautiful, with red, green, and blue all swirled about. It's hard to see since she found this nice hiding place. Yes, I know for sure that she's a female. Mandarin gobies eat only "pods," or copepods, miniscule arachnids that live in the live rock. Just to make sure we had enough of a population of pods, we bought a jar full and dumped them in the eco-system below the tank, where they can live in the cheato and be fruitful and multiply.
In addition to the coco worm, we got these three feather dusters. We got three because they were all stuck together. I like that they're different shades of brown. See Angel and a fire shrimp in the background?
I think we're just about done with new additions. There's just one more fish that we have our eye on--a blue hippo tang. (Remember Dory from "Finding Nemo"?) We'll probably be picking one up at the end of the week.
Check out this strange phenomenon. Don't know what's happening to my red starfish. I'll have to ask my friends at The Seas forum.
I moved the coco worm and it's much happier now. Came right out and posed for this shot. It actually looks like it has two heads...see the two red blooms?
The tang family of fish is identified by a sharp razor-like bit at the base of the tail. You can see it clearly on Tango, although not so well in this photo. It's surrounded by the yellow splotch just in front of his tail. Tangs will flick this at you if they feel threatened, and those razors can cut you!
We couldn't resist this cute little honey damsel. We named him Pinky cuz he's so tiny. Here's a closeup, then another photo for perspective.
The last of the new fish is a mandarin goby. She's actually quite beautiful, with red, green, and blue all swirled about. It's hard to see since she found this nice hiding place. Yes, I know for sure that she's a female. Mandarin gobies eat only "pods," or copepods, miniscule arachnids that live in the live rock. Just to make sure we had enough of a population of pods, we bought a jar full and dumped them in the eco-system below the tank, where they can live in the cheato and be fruitful and multiply.
In addition to the coco worm, we got these three feather dusters. We got three because they were all stuck together. I like that they're different shades of brown. See Angel and a fire shrimp in the background?
I think we're just about done with new additions. There's just one more fish that we have our eye on--a blue hippo tang. (Remember Dory from "Finding Nemo"?) We'll probably be picking one up at the end of the week. 
The tube takes it down to a tank under the aquarium. First it enters the section with the blue bio-balls. Those catch a lot of particles and need to be removed and cleaned on occasion. That might get to be old, so eventually we might replace them with live rock rubble.
The water then moves into the main chamber. This houses "miracle mud," live rock rubble, and an algae called cheato (CHAY-toe). Cheato looks and feels just like Easter grass. 
Lastly, the water goes into the fourth chamber, out to a pump, up a tube, and back into the aquarium. In the photo below, in the blurry darkness on the right, you can see a white pipe that comes up and around and connects to that bumpy black piece. Everything looks so calm and peaceful, you'd never know that the water is really rushing out of there.
The really amazing thing about this system is that the water travels at a rate of about 500 gallons PER HOUR! And it's only a 55-gallon tank!
