First off I’d like to thank everyone that voted for my tank to be TOTM, thank you! I am very surprised and exceptionally chuffed because there are some lovely tanks on here so means a lot to get the votes.

I have been keeping marines for 5 years now and can’t ever see my house without one. This is not my first tank and definitely not my last!

My first marine tank was 3ft x 15’’ x 15’’ with no sump and lit only by 3x t8 tubes. This was an ideal tank for me as a beginner as I learnt a lot of valuable lessons. Since then I have had a couple of 4ft x 2ft x 2ft tanks, a 6ft x 2ft x 2ft tank and a 6ft x 2ft x 30inch high which was my last tank before the Deltec I’ve got now. All of these tanks seem to have improved every time in different ways so hopefully one day I will own my perfect tank ( ha is there such a thing )

The tank is a Deltec 4ft x 2ft x 2ft panoramic made from 12mm glass, it has a floating base made out of 2 pieces of glass. The stand is a steel box frame covered by silver full mica. The quality of the tank and stand is amazing and you definitely get what you pay for! The 2 doors on the front can be removed and there is no centre brace which makes getting things in and out very easy. For me this is a must because I’m always changing something like my skimmer etc.

The lighting on this tank is 6x 54w t5's. I chose t5's for this tank because I’d never tried them before and really liked the look they give – on top of that that they don’t produce the heat of halides which helps with running costs and they’re slimmer. The light unit is homemade! I had a few old t5 units laying about and decided to cut them up and make one that would hold 3 twin ballasts and 6 tubes. The tubes are a mixture of aquascience and kz. I have 2 blue 22k, 1 white 15, 2 white 14k and one 12. Overall I’m really happy with the colour but I am thinking of making another unit to hold 8x 54w tubes!

The blues come on at 11am, with 2 of the whites coming on at 12pm and the other 2 whites at 1pm. At 9pm in the evening 2 of the whites go out followed by the other 2 at 10pm and at 11pm the blues turn off.

For circulation I have an Aquamedic OR3500 return pump and a Vortech mp40w. Prior to purchasing the Vortech I used 2x Tunze nano 6055's on a multi controller. These are great little pumps but I was never really happy with the look of them despite the fact that they’re small! I decided to get a Vortech and I’m very happy with the all round flow and it’s great only having one small pump in the tank.

Filtration is about 60 kilos of live rock, a Deltec apf600 skimmer a Deltec 509 Phosphate reactor and every month I throw a bag of carbon in the sump for 1 week. My sump is very basic and empty as I wanted it simple and easy to clean but there is a possibility in the future that I might change it all by adding a sandbed and a bigger skimmer!!

Heating is a single 300w heater! To date I haven’t needed any cooling as the tank never goes over 27 degrees – a result of having T5s and the Vortech – no heat to heat up the tank!

I sometimes put a spoonful or 2 of TMC bio calcium in and if need be a bit of Salifert Kh /pH buffer but apart from that I rely on water changes to keep my levels up.

I feed my fish late afternoon when I get in from work. Every day I feed 1 whole cube of brine shrimp which is just dropped into the tank! A couple of hours later I put a pinch of ocean nutrition flake in, and in the evening I put a sheet of nori in the clip. Once a week, if I remember, I put a pinch of cyclopeeze in before the lights come on just to give the corals a bit of food.

Maintenance is low on my tanks! I clean the glass every other day and the back glass once every couple of weeks. The skimmer cup is emptied once a week and I do a 10% water once a month using either D-D H20 salt or Reefcrystals. My tunze auto top up tops up any evaporation loss.

I’ve had my problems along the way but sometimes you need them to learn about this hobby. I don’t test my tank much, as I feel if everything looks happy and healthy then something must be right, and if one day I think something doesn’t look right then I test and if needs be – adjust!! I never used to quarantine my new fish but previously I added some fish which nearly ended in a full wipe-out so now all new fish are quarantined.

I love my fish and a reef isn’t a reef without them - my favourite fish are tangs. My last tank was full of them but because this tank is smaller i couldn’t keep them all so now I only have a blonde lipstick tang, a powder blue tang, a convict tang and a tomini tang. They’re joined by a peacock wrasse, a goby, a breeding pair of perc clowns. I haven’t finished yet either – there are still a few more fish on my wish list!

I have 52 SPS corals in my tank and 21 LPS corals in my tank. 90% of my SPS have been grown from 1 inch frags over the years of keeping them. I’d i rather buy them as frags because this way you know they are acclimated to tank life and it’s nice to watch them grow out rather than just spending out on a big coral.

For the minute I’m just going to try and make this tank the best I can! I really want to just keep it as it is and let it grow out into heavily stocked SPS reef. Having said that... when I move house I will definitely upgrade, I’ve always wanted an in-wall tank with fish room behind so as they say... watch this space ;-)

I would like to thank this forum and everyone on it. Without UltimateReef I wouldn’t know half the stuff I know now and certainly wouldn’t have the things I have now. On top of that I’ve met some really good people on here who I now class as friends. Thanks everyone!