Wow, what can I say, I thought my Dad was playing a joke on me when he said that there was a message on Ultimate Reef saying my tank had been nominated and awarded TOTM, I still cant really believe it.

A really big Thank You to everyone that voted and thought my little Nano was good enough to be considered for such an award. As Dad says it is very humbling. Since joining Ultimate Reef last year we always look at TOTM but I dont ever think Dad or I believed that a Nano would ever be acknowledged in this way and for sure not mine.

This is my first ever Marine tank and was a surprise Christmas Present from my Mum and Dad last year, so its just over one year old. It was such a thrill to wake up on Christmas morning and see the tank in my bedroom, i still dont know how Dad managed to keep it a secret from me. There were five pieces of coral, my two clown fish and a Blood Shrimp, it all looked very different from how it does now even though the rock work is still the same.

My tank is a JBL Nano cube 12DX as imported into this country by D-D Aquarium Solutions. It is a moulded glass tank with rounded front corners and a curved front. It has a moulded plastic hood and a built in 3 stage filter compartment

Its overall size is 16 inches long x 14 inches wide x 15 inches high and it has a total capacity of 12 US gallons. My tank holds exactly 5 UK gallons of water, I think it is very important to know exactly how much water is in a nano tank so that you can work out the correct amount of additives.

The tank sits on top of a built in unit in my bedroom and all the electrics are on a shelf in my wardrobe which is next to it so that there is no way that the tank water can come into contact with the electrics.It also means that all the cables, plugs and timers are hidden out of the way.

There is 7.1 Kgs of live rock in the display area and a further 1.2 Kgs of live rock rubble in chamber 2 of the filter.There is also a one inch covering (approximately 2.5 kgs) of Caribsea arag-alive special grade Aragonite live reef sand on the bottom of the tank.

My tank has the standard lighting that comes with it when you first buy it. These are controlled by an electronic timer due to come on at 10.30 am and go off at 8.30 pm

I will let Dad explain the technical stuff.

The stock lighting in the Nanocube 12DX is the most intense lighting available in any off the shelf nano.
The 2 x 24Watt 50/50 power compacts give a total of 48 watts of light over a surface area of only 168 square inches or approximately 40 watts per sq ft.

The 50/50 daylight/blue tubes generate the following PAR outputs.

• waters surface 480
• 2 inches below surface 280
• 6 inches below surface 140
• 10 inches below surface 70

Which means that with consideration for specific lighting requirements and careful placement most corals can be grown.

The tubes are replaced every six months which seems to be the point where output starts to drop significantly.

The JBL nanocubes have a remote electronic ballast, however for some reason D+D have chosen on the imported models to use old fashioned magnetic ballasts and starters. I intend to modify this for Alexandra in the future to electronic ballasts which are more efficient.

There are also two blue LED's under the hood for moonlight effect, however due to the way JBL wire the remote power supply it is not possible to use a timer for the main lights and at the same time be able to use the moonlights. Again i intend to modify this so that it will be possible for Alexandra to have a moonlight effect in the tank.

I have a Maxijet 1200 pump in chamber 3 of the filter which is attached to a rotating nozzle giving lots of changing water movement in the tank. There is also a Maxijet 600 in chamber 1 which is attached to a normal nozzle pointing at the surface to give a gentle ripple effect. Because of the shape of the rock work there is flow throughout the tank. Again over to Dad for the technical stuff.

The stock pump was replaced with a MJ 1200 and connected to a Hydor flo using a length of Eheim flexi tubing. The nozzle rotates approximately every 20 seconds to give a very varied and dynamic flow patern which i believe is a major factor in the success of this tank.
Before the tank was even wet i drilled a small hole 1 inch below the intake grill in the first chamber. This enabled a MJ 600 to be positioned in chamber one which returns to the main display area via a standard powerhead nozzle which is directed towards the surface to aid gaseous exchange and helps to maintain a fairly stable Ph.
The total turnover is 1500 lph which after allowing for a 40% drop in efficiency still gives a turnover in excess of x40. However due to the aquascaping this is not readily visible.

My Tank has a filter compartment at the back of it which is divided into three sections. The water from the display area enters the top of chamber 1 through a grille. In front of the grille is a surface skimmer, this is a piece of plastic with teeth cut in the top which you can adjust the height of so that only the top 1 cm of water is sucked into the fliter.
In chamber 1 is the maxijet 600, the Ph probe for my Ph monitor and the temperature probe for my heater controller. I also have a small filter sock filled with Rowaphos which is sandwiched between two pieces of filter sponge and these sit so that the top of the filter sponge is just below the bottom of the grille intake. The water flows from the bottom of chamber 1 into the bottom of chamber 2 where there is a small piece of eggcrate at the bottom. On top of this is 1.2 kgs of small live rock rubble and on top of that is a piece of Chaeto. Above chamber 2 stuck onto the plastic splash guard of the hood is a small LED light which has 12 blue LED's and 12 white LED's. This lights the Chaeto and helps it grow. The water then flows from the top of chamber 2 into the top of chamber 3. In chamber 3 is the Maxijet 1200 and a 50 watt Hydor Theo heater/thermostat. Also in this chamber is a 3 inch x 6 inch piece of Polyfilter, a small filter sock filled with Rowaphos and another small filter sock with some carbon in it. Again over to Dad.

Well there isnt much to add to that other than that chamber 2 acts as a safe haven for pod life and also as a way to export nutrients from the system when the Chaeto is harvested every month. It also helps assist in keeping the Ph fairly stable as chamber 2 is lit on a reverse cycle,on at 8.30 pm and off at 10.30 am.

I have a 50 watt Hydor Theo heater in chamber 3 of the filter and a 6 inch clip on desk fan on the side of my wardrobe directly above the air intake grille on the hood. These are both controlled by an ATC 300 which dad added after two near accidents with heaters not turning off when they should. Over to you again Dad.

Heater/thermostat combinations are not designed to work in such small volumes of water and with such a narrow operating band as required in marine Nano tanks.The continual on/off of the heater which is needed to keep the temperature stable results invariably in the heater sticking in the on position with potential fatal consequences. Luckily in both instances it happened during the day and when someone was around to notice the problem before any serious damage resulted. Looking around for a suitable controller I found the ATC 300 which has two sockets and a seperate compact controller come display unit. One socket controls the heater via the remote temperature probe which has been placed in chamber 1 of the filter and the other socket has a timer facility which turns the fan on from 10.30 am till 9.30 pm. The Thermostat on the heater is set one degree higher than the one on the controller so that should the controller develope a fault the heaters stat will act as a fail safe. However in normal day to day running the ATC 300 has complete control of the heater.
The desk fan is positioned directly over the air intake grille of the hood, pushing air from the room into the hood where it passes over the lighting and is then expelled from the hood via the two small PC fans which are built into the top rear of the hood. This arrangement has increased the overall efficiency and has been able to maintain a stable temperature range between 25c and 26c since it was installed 9 months ago.

I use Kent Marines Nano Reef part A+B every day. I started at the recommended dose of two drops per US gallon of tank water but for the last 4 months I have had to increase this to 3 drops per gallon to keep up with the demand of the corals as they grow.
Sometimes I need to adjust the water chemistry and then I use the Seachem range of products like:

• Reef builder
• reef carbonate
• reef complete
• reef calcium
• reef magnesium
• reef strontium
• reef iodide
• reef plus and reef trace

I like using Seachem products as they have a dose calculator on their website which is handy and I prefer to use the liquid suppliments when I can as they are easier to use.

I feed the fish half a cube of frozen Mysis or Artemia every two days.
Every day I feed 3 mls of live Phytoplankton (we have been growing our own since Christmas), I also wave a frozen bar of Cyclopeeze in the water for a couple of seconds at the same time and add six drops of Kent Marines Microvert for the filter feeders. Three times a week I directly feed the Sun coral either Mysis or Artemia and the Goniopora a mix of live phyto, microvert and dried cyclopeeze. Once a week I add 0.25 mls of Korallin Amino life and a small amount of DT Oyster Eggs to the tank. I have to be very careful with the oyster eggs as my Maze Brain goes into an aggressive feeding mode and stings anything within its reach. I have had to rehome three corals into my coral farm because of this and they are all healing well. I have also moved the Maze Brain slightly so that it cannot reach any other corals.

I do a water change every week of 4 liters which is nearly 20%. I syphon out the same amount of tank water and then use a piece of airline tubing to syphon in the new water, this takes about one hour and I think it is better for the corals than just pouring it in. I was worried that for some of this time my Acropora at the top of the tank is out of the water but Dad said that this happens on reefs in the wild and doesnt do the coral any harm. It seems happy enough and keeps on growing well, I now have six large frags of it in my coral farm and it needs fragging again now.

Twice a week I swap the filter sponges in chamber 1 and rinse out the old ones.

I also top up about 100 mls of RO water once a week.The hood fits the tank really well and there is very little water loss.

Once a month I change all of the Rowaphos, carbon and Polyfilter. I also take out half of the Chaeto at the same time, and rake over the top of the sand,the corals seems to like this.

Every three months I clean the pumps and the return nozzles.

I also do the following water tests and keep the results on an excel spread sheet.

• Every week, Calcium, Alkalinity, Ph and temperature.
• Every month Strontium, Iodide, Magnesium, Nitrate and Phosphate.

The best bit is every three or four months when I have to frag the corals which have grown too much, its fun looking at them and working out which is the best bits to frag and put in my coral farm.

I am lucky that Dad helps me with the maintenance and tests otherwise it would take forever.

I have had a few problems in my first twelve months looking after my nano, some were bad, some were good and I have learnt alot from them all.

The hitch hikers were nice problems, the best being a single clear Zoa polyp that came in on the original live rock, it turned into a lovely pink zoa and grew and grew, I now have over fifty polyps of it in the tank and at least the same number as frags in my coral farm. The biggest problem is that it has grown on the largest piece of live rock and means I have to take down half of the tank when its time to frag it. Another hitch hiker problem was a pistol shrimp that also came in on the original live rock, I had heard its clicking noises for months but never seen it, so I was surprised to see it fall into the bowl when i was fragging the Zoa's in August. After a long chat with Dad we decided to put it back into the Nano rather than the coral farm even if it means an odd snail or two gets eaten every so often. The other hitch hiker problem was a small black urchin about 1 cm across that I first saw in April or May last year it just kept growing until it was becoming a pest and rearranging my corals every day, it was also eating all of the nice pink coraline algae, so in August it was the first thing to go into the sump of the coral farm where it still lives (all 6 cms of it)

A bad problem was the heater which I mentioned earlier, it was lucky that no damage was caused and since Dad installed the ATC 300 everything has been fine.

The worst problem was in October when we were using a new additive to adjust the Calcium level in the tank, the corals started to get bigger and bigger and we noticed that the Ph had gone from 8.2 to 8.7 in only a couple of minutes, then the corals started to get smaller and smaller and it started to look as if it was snowing in the tank, Dad decided the best thing to do was a fifty percent water change using water from the coral farm, this helped to bring the Ph down and after a few days the tank cleared and the corals returned to normal, but I did loose my two pieces of pink Dendro, the purple feather duster, my blood shrimp, and a couple of snails and hermit crabs. My Coco worm also lost its heads but they regrew very quickly thank goodness. We were not happy, we checked to see if we had added the wrong amount of additive but we were pretty sure we hadn't, so we threw the bottle away, I hope that never happens again.

At the moment I only have two Black and White (Ocellaris) Clownfish in my tank. They are called Skitty and Skatty. I would like to add another small goby or a firefish but Skitty and Skatty have recently become very agressive to any other fish I have tried to add, they see the whole tank as their piece of reef, Dad says they should be renamed Ronnie and Reggie. Mum and Dad bought me a Randalls Goby in November for taking my 11+ exam but I have had to put it in my coral farm because it kept being attacked.

I love corals and watching how they grow, move and feed, i have many different types in my tank and I dont think I have anymore room except for a little place I have saved for a Black sun coral when I find the right one.

These are the corals I have,Dad has helped me with some of the names:

Red Goni Goniopora sp.	Lime green plating Monti Montipora sp.	Red plating Monti Montipora sp.
Echino Echinopora lamellosa	Blue tip stagehorn Acro Acropora sp.	Lime green and cream candy cane Caulastrea forcata
Blasto Blastomussa Wellsi	Blasto Blastomussa merleti	Yellow sun coral Tubastraea sp.
Fluro maze brain Platygyra daedaleaa	Red and green open brain Lobophyllia sp.	Pearl bubble plerogyra sp
Ricordea Ricordea florida	Green and purple branching hammer Euphyllia sp.	Pearl white branching hammer Euphyllia sp.
Fluro green star polyps Pachyclavularia sp.	Green hairy mushroom Rhodactis indosinensis	Mushroom species Discosoma sp.
Duncan Duncanopsammia axifuga	Zoa's Zoanthus sp.	Pulsing Xenia Xenia elongatta

My favorite coral is the Red Goniopora which I have had right from the start.

Due to the problem with the over dosing that I mentioned earlier, I now have less inverts than I would like.

At the moment I have:
1 x large electric blue hermit crab
2 x small true turbo snails
1 x Coco worm which has regrown its heads
1x Pistol shrimp

I would like to add another Blood shrimp to replace the one I lost and also a very small bright purple feather duster. A couple more hermit crabs would be nice if I can find the right size so that they dont end up as expensive food for the Pistol shrimp.

Last year at school we were learning about how to setup and run a business and making a business plan. So during a school holiday I spent a whole day in my bedroom and wrote a business plan for setting up a coral farm. I wrote a list of all the equipment I would need and drew a plan of how I could move the conservatory furniture around to make room for the tanks. I also wrote a list of the corals that I wanted to grow and sell, it is so hard buying corals for a nano tank, I get so annoyed seeing a coral I like but it is too large or on a piece of rock that is too big or the wrong shape for the tank. I said in my business plan that I wanted to grow and sell corals that were pretty and the right size and shapes for nano tanks and also grow them from parents so that less corals had to be removed from the wild. I think Mum and Dad were impressed with what I did because they said yes and during the summer holidays we setup my own coral farm with three levels and 75 gallons of water. I want to grow and sell corals for a living when I grow up.

I hope Mum and Dad let me have my own user account on Ultimate Reef now and you never know they might let me have another Nano.

I know Dad would like to thank Colin and Steve at our LFS for letting him have space in one of their sales tanks last year so that he could make my tank a real surprise, thanks from me too.

I also want to thank Sue, Brian and Amy at Coral Garden Aquatics also Ben at Swallows Rayleigh, he always finds time to say hello and answer any questions Dad and I have.

But most of all I want to thank my Mum and Dad for buying me such a great Christmas present and for giving me so much help, your the best Mum and Dad in the whole world, I love you.