After seeing many of the previous TOTM Reefs I'm just amazed that I was asked to contribute this month (not worthy comes to mind).

I've had a fish obsession since I was about 9yrs old, that started with fishing on holidays. Since then I've had an interest in fish in various ways during the last 30yrs. My father bought a 3ft tank 2nd hand that we kept as a tropical community, Red Tailed Sharks and Flying Foxes... that was around 1982. After that I got my own tanks in around 1987 and progressed into Marines in about 1989 and used a Sanders Picolo skimmer, boy have things moved on. For me fish keeping and fishing always went hand in hand, although are some what contradictory, however for me I've always loved trying to understand the behaviour of fish and that is key to success in either. The last 10yrs has been more about child care than aqua care and when we moved to Switzerland from the UK in 2005 we had to part with many of the animals that we kept as the place we moved to was much smaller, this some how was the trigger to look at fish tanks again.

Well what can I say ? It started of as a small project to get a tank for our oldest daughter at the end of 2007, this rapidly turned into a "can I have a reef" question to my wife, and living in another country I really wasn't sure about where I was going get what I needed. After convincing my daughter that she really did need a full blown reef aquarium I ordered a Trigon 350 and it arrived January 2008. The following 12 months have seen the tank go through many upgrades and various phases. I still believe that it will take at least 1 more year to achieve my objective (firstly I should work out what that is...)

The tank measures 123cm x 87cm x 65cm that provides 350ltrs and with it's 100ltr sump I calculate on 400ltrs after displacement as my system volume. It's now topless and has under gone many changes during the last 12 months. The cabinet has had the standard mod to get the sump in, not a fun mod when it's full ! but possible. As space is very limited some of the equipment is placed out side the cabinet, with more to come later this year. The 3 main challenges with a Trigon conversion is that of limited cabinet space, flow and lighting: these triangles of life just present us with some unique points to over come.

The tank came with the standard 4 x T5's lights. I soon added 2 more 39w T5's to increase the overall wattage but even with good clean reflectors I felt that this was not enough. Also access to the tank was not ideal with 6 x T5's plus reflectors, cables etc, so the decision was made to go topless and buy a suspended pendant. I wanted to get as many watts into that area as possible plus have some ability to play about with the colour spectrum as although I thought the 6 x T5's weren't powerful enough, I did like the colour range that they threw out.

Lighting is now provided by a Geisemann Infiniti unit with a 250w HQI and 4 x 24w T5's. The bulbs are as follows,

HQI: 14.500 kelvin Geisemann Megachrome Coral
T5: 2 x 24w Geisemann pure actinics
T5: 2 x 24w Korallen Zucht Fiji Purple

There is also a moon light led strip integrated into the pendant at the rear. All are on mechanical timers providing a phased on/off function.

Timing is as follows:

Actinics x 2 on at 11:45
Fiji Purple x 2 on at 12:15
HQI on at 12:45
HQI off at 22:45
Fiji Purple x 2 off at 23:15
Moon light LEDS on at 23:30
Actinic x 2 off at 23:45
Moon light LEDS off at 06.00

I dream of getting more watts in there, but this is only going to be possible if I order a custom Infiniti with 2 x HQI made in a short size, maybe next year ?

Trigons are notorious for being difficult to get the flow correct and so I used an engineers approach of 1 device in each corner.There are 2 Tunze 6045's and a Resun Wavemaker which in total provide a 45 x turn over rate which seems to work well. The Resun is at the back as it's huge and so this hides it well and the 6045's are in each corner and on view. I modified the Resun's attachment device by adding a Tunze magnet, it doesn't move any more ! I may at some point replace the 6045's with controllable Nano Streams, just because I love technical kit and would like to be able to vary the flow even more.

There is 50kgs of Fiji Live Rock in this tank, which probably is too much to be honest. As the corals are growing it's clear that I have to keep aquascaping to compensate for this, something that I'll do better next time. The Live Rock is placed on top of Eheim filter plates, not the traditional Egg Crate but is was the best I could get my hands on at the time and it at least provides some space underneath. The sump is a simple 3 chamber design with an Eheim Compact return pump that has a variable flow. It is fed via the Tunze Overflow box into chamber 1, this is where the skimmer takes it feed from. I use some floss in chamber 1 of the sump that I change each week. Chamber 2 is where the skimmer feeds back into and also is where I have a DSB, but this I am gradulally reducing as my ULNS gets into to full action. I have some carbon in a mesh bag that is located where the skimmer return comes in so that it goods a good flow of water over it, I change the carbon every 4 weeks maximum. The skimmer is a DELTEC MCE600 that works really well. I had to modify the cup area so that I can slide it out when it's full, space is so tight in there. Also I modified the return of the skimmer by placing some of the Tunze flexible overflow tubing on it, this allows for a smooth, bubble free return.

I use 1 x 300w and 1 x 200w heaters that are connected to an ATC300 controller which seems to work well. I also have 2 x Tunze Aquawind fans that are connected to a Habistat controller, each fan has 2 speeds that are manully selected. This all ends up requiring approx 4ltrs of RO top up per day, nicely provided by an RO MAN 2 stage plus DI unit that is located in the down stairs loo in a cupboard.

As you've guessed by now I run a Korallen Zucht ZEO based ULNS system and I dose as follows,

ULNS:
ZEOstart 0.75ml per day
ZEOfood 4 drops every 3 days
ZEObak 4 drops every 3 days
ZEOzym 2.5ml every 3 days with the ZEObak & 500ml tank water
K-Balance 6ml per week

Plus:
KZ Coral Snow 4ml alternate days
KZ Coral Vitalizer 4ml alternate days

Finally:
Mag/stront 50ml per week
Iodide 50ml per week

I change 75% of my ZEOlites every 2 months and I use them in a passive system ie a mesh bag that has a 400lph powerhead directed at them, this is on a 3hrs on - 3hrs off set up. The Zeolite bag gets a hand massage/shake up each day after lights out, this is done at this time as the SPS have a better polyp extension during this time. I dose the ZEOstart directly in front of the bag. The plan is to evolve to a ZEOmatic reactor from FM later on this year. The calcium is provided by a DELTEC PF509 Calcium reactor that is controlled by a PH controller that has the C02 linked in via a solenoid. It runs with Rowalith C+ reactor media that I change as required, seems to be every 6 months approx with current growth rates. As the PF509 has no PH probe hole, I have placed the probe in a small container that the reactor efluent feeds in to, this gives a pretty similar result as to having directly inside the reactor.

I don't have a computer (yet) although I do use a number of individual devices controlling various aspects of the tank. I use a Tunze Osmolator 3155 for the Top Up system. It is remotely located i.e. it hides behind the sofa, no space left in the cabinet. I use a 25ltrs food grade container as the resevoir and top this up every few days or so. The DELTEC PF509 Calcium Reactor is controlled via a PH controller that drives the solenoid, this will need upgrading at some point as it's only a low quality device. I also now have a Habistat cool controller for the fans. I'd like to add a controller at some point as I like the idea of keeping an eye on things when I'm not there...

My wife feeds the fish at lunch time each day with Ocean Nutrition small pellets. Then I feed between 1 to 1 1/2 cubes of frozen (Cyclops, Mysis, Lobster Eggs, Krill, Spirulinia) each evening. Also I feed my Sun coral every other day with a variety of frozen food. Over all the corals have something each day. I don't tend to keep a rigid regime on what I feed as I prefer to vary it as much as possible. I just have to take care not to over feed when I'm about the house more, this is easy to do without realizing it. I usually feed my cleaner shrimp a piece of of Squid before I feed any of my corals (especially the Sun) so that he doesn't steal from them.

This is one of my favourite parts of reef keeping. I do enjoy to keep things well looked after and having kept many animals over the years from rats to raptors I've learnt that good husbandry is vital. Each week i carry out the following,

Every few days:
Clean front glass with magnet
Top up the top up
Empty and clean the skimmer cup, usually every 3 days

Weekly:
Clean algae of front and side glass with bladed scraper
Change the floss in the sump
Clean light covers
Fill up my RO containers
Carry out a full set of tests
Blast Live Rock with Turkey Baster

I carry out a 10% water change every 2 weeks, I use KZ Reefer Best Salt

Every 3 months:
Clean out the powerheads
Clean out the sump pump
Strip down the skimmer

I change my T5's every 6 months and my HQI bulb every 12 months.

As some of the equipment that I use is not so common here and the fact that all shops have limited opening hours, I tend to keep spares of most parts (top up pump, powerhead 6045, impellor, skimmer parts, T5 tubes, HQI bulbs) This way I can be prepared.

Firstly I've never had any problems with this tank, only challenges ! When your wife calls you at work to say that there's smoke coming out of the back of the tank, you know things aren't good !!! My dodgy bubble trap had blocked up in the skimmer that I had at first, a Red Sea Prism (I confess, please forgive me?) and water had ended up on the socket at the back of the tank... Next was the time when I was travelling in India and I got pretty sick, was in bed half dead and my wife was texting me to say that something was wrong with the tank. She got no reply (still half dead) and so after 8hrs decided to ask a neighbour for help, the rest is history but I learnt a lesson that I can tell you. I have kept a pretty rigid regime with the QT, it's only a 60 ltr tank but I use it more like a hospital (treatment) tank as I move fish into my frag tank after 2 weeks, this is 160ltrs and is a more natural environment for extended periods. I find that in a small and bare QT you are more likely to loose patience and take risks by putting stock into the main display too early. I still get a rapid build up of film algae on my glass, I've had this from the early days. I can't pin point what it is and I've tried several things to reduce it. This just means that I have to clean the glass a little more often which isn't that bad to be honest, although I will solve this issue one way or another !

I guess one of the challenges of a young tank is to try and stop yourself getting carried away when stocking your fish. I confess that I have impluse bought on occasions although I'm learning to control this (honestly). I started out with the old faithfuls of a Yellow Tang and a Rabbitfish, these have been great although the Rabbitfish is starting to develop the usual bullying habbits. I tried as best as I could to plan my stocking but getting my hands on what I wanted, when I wanted it just wasn't possible here, so there were some deviations along the way. I now try to find any unusual Gobies and small fish that I can add as I find these small fish fascinating. One of my favourite and most charming fish is the Flame Hawkfish, he's a real character. I have an Iridis Wrasse in the frag tank waiting to go in at present plus an Orange Spot Filefish on a frozen food training program, he's doing very well at present.

Yellow Tang (Zebrasoma Flavescens)	Regal Tang (Paracanthurus Hepatus)	One Spot Foxface Rabbitfish (Siganus Unimaculatus)
Coral Beauty (Centropyge Bispinosus)	Flame Hawkfish (Neocirrhites Armatus)	Green Clown Gobies x 2 (Gobiodon Histrio)
Mandarin Gobies (Male & Female) (Synchiropus Splendidus)	Pyjama Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus Hexataenia)	Royal Gramma (Gramma Loreto)
Bi-colour Blenny x 2 (Ecsenius Bicolor)	Blue Chromis (Chromis Cyanea)	Magnificant Firefish (Nemateleotris Magnifica)
Neon Goby (Gobiosoma Oceanops)	Diagonal Shrimp Goby (Amblyeleotris Diagonallis)