Firstly I have to start by thanking everyone at ultimate reef for voting for my tank, it was a massive shock and very much appreciated. Ultimate reef members have helped me greatly over the years along with my LFS, and without you all I would not have achieved and picked up the knowledge in keeping a reef tank.

I first started keeping fresh water fish when I was ten years old and from then I've always kept the interest going and very slowly progressed in tank size. It wasn't until roughly five years ago I took the plunge into salt water tanks which I'm really glad I did. My wife was the one who actually encouraged me to move up a level into this great hobby of reef keeping. The first reef tank consisted of all soft corals, T5 lighting and bio balls for filtration along with a turboflotor skimmer. That's when the bug really hit me although I promised myself I would never upgrade to SPS or LPS corals along with bigger equipment. If I had a pound from every reefer who told me the same story and then ended up upgrading to halides etc I would be a very rich man. So, I upgraded my tank and the rest was history so to speak.

The main display tank is 60" x 24" x 24". I have the tank fitted with an 40mm overflow pipe. I sometimes feel I wish I had of added a second overflow to allow more flow in and out of the sump but it's not really an issue for me as I get a decent turnover with just the single pipe.

The sump is 48" x 24" x 24" which holds all my equipment plus extra living rock. I keep it rather straight forward and use it for the extra water volume also. I have the sump placed in my dining room which is great as it keeps the noise levels from equipment really low in my main display which is placed in the living room next door. I'm hoping to purchase a 250w spiderlight to fit to the sump and use for fragging my SPS. In time I hope to have a decent frag tank at work!

My lighting consists of three 250w mini luminarcs powered by electronic ballasts. All three lamps were 10K BLVs which I have found great in the past but having read about the reeflux 12Ks and the feedback they were getting I've just changed over. I also use two 80w narva blue T5 atinics that I find are a nice mix with the with the halides.

I use four Seio pumps for water movement. With three 6000lph, one 12000lph and a sun sun 12000lph I get a really decent flow. But, if I had it to do over again I would definitely go for the closed loop setup. I find it extremely difficult to clean the pumps without breaking my SPS now that they have grown. I would like to upgrade to Tunze streams on a multicontroller in the very near future as I hear good reports from fellow reefers. My return pump is a 1060 Eheim which also adds to the tank flow.

I find one of the most important factors in keeping a reef system stable is a good but a non-complex filtration system. Mine consists of roughly 100kg of Fiji rock with good flow. I use a Deltec ADF850 skimmer which is gravity fed from the tank overflow. I also use a small v2 skim 400 model for very small doses of ozone (approximately twenty minutes each night) just for water clarity. I have tried a lot of different methods but in the end found my simple way has been the most successful way for my tank.

I use an ATC 800 to keep my temperature at the desired levels which is 26 degrees. I have found it to do a great job at keeping the temperature stable. Three desktop fans do the cooling and two 300w heaters in the main tank along with a single 300w heater in the sump for heating. I have rarely ever seen anything much more than a one or two degree sway so cant complain. I do have an air conditioner in my living room to help with the room temperature.

Magnesium and Calcium is supplied via a Korallin 3001 Calcium Reactor fitted to a pH controller. I had found it very difficult to to maintain these levels along with KH until I changed my media to coral gravel plus 10% Mag Pro and finally 20% Korallen Zucht Calcium plus. I can honestly say after trying nearly everything else these three supplements have been the best so far and I can now keep parameters at consistent levels. I put two drops of Iodine in daily and have been for the last few years now. I don't feed my corals that often as I feed my fish quite heavily but it is something I plan to do as I have seen from other reefers on the forum that it gives good results in better colours. I'm also using an AP509 as a Phosban Reactor filled with 700ml of ROWAphos which is changed monthly. The only other thing I add is ozone although already mentioned this is in very small doses for water clarity. I have the same views on additives as I have on filtration - keep it simple.

I feed a good mixture of frozen foods as I find its very important in keeping healthy colourful fish especially with the tangs. I use mysis, krill, brine shrimp and anything else I can get my hands on including flake, ocean nutrition one and two mainly to keep my powder blue happy, and finally a mixture of pellets. As mentioned I feed quite heavily, small amounts approx six times daily.

I clean the skimmer out roughly three times weekly. Check all parameters every two weeks and generally just make sure equipment and tank is going well. I feel if you keep on top of things and don't let things get out of hand the tank should work away like it does naturally. The four main things I have learnt in keeping SPS is KH, pH, Magnesium, Calcium. If these are kept in check along with the right lighting and no sudden changes then the system will run well. I have no doubt that keeping SPS is a real challenge BUT I'm enjoying every minute of it.

Like every other reefer starting out I have had my fair share of problems. When I upgraded my lights from 150w to 250w luminarcs I shocked my corals and lost near enough everything but a few. I had decided to go for a fish only system, only for my family and friend Stevie MC to coax me into sticking with the reef. Without Stevie giving me SPS frags then I probably would have went for the non-reef setup.

Nitrates give me a bit of a pain for a considerable time. I tried the vodka method plus a deep sand bucket which worked but only for a while and the levels crept up once again. I decided to rebuild the rockwork and add more flow around it and gradually my nitrates have dropped to a more acceptable 10ppm instead of 25ppm which I know is not that bad either although when keeping SPS it's better to try and get them as low as possible I feel. I was getting a problem with aptasias in the past and found it difficult to zap them away so decided to get a filefish who has done a great job as I can't see a single aptasia in the tank! Let's not forget the dreaded hair algae which every reefer has had sometime or other.

Patience and time soon sorts any problems out and these days I have not had anything to get worried about, well up to now that is!

I have a few large fish in my tank and could maybe be doing with a couple less as it's not good with a mainly SPS tank. I love the challenge of growing SPS and watching them colour up and grow. I think it's a nice mix having the LPS for the swaying effects. I have started learning the SPS Latin names as that's something I have not paid enough attention to in the past.

My favourite fish by far are my four tangs. I have had them from they were young and have watched them grow. I'm very proud the way my powder blue has turned out, his colours and all round healthy look are amazing. I also decided to go for a blue throat trigger who has settled in really well and feeds like crazy. The only fish I wish I had never bought was the pyjama wrasse as he is a bit of a bully towards the mandarin wrasse at times. Most of my fish I have had now for around four years or so and all seem to be happy and doing well.

Powder blue tang	Yellow tang	Purple tang
Regal tang	Royal gramma	Filefish
Blue throat trigger	Maroon clown	Percula clown
Pyjamma wrasse	Mandarin wrasse	Watchman goby

My tank consist of mainly of SPS and some LPS. I'm in the process of trying to learn the Latin names which as you know isn't easy.

RBTA which has just split, Some mexican turbo snails, one black spiney urchin, two true peppermint shrimps and one boxer shrimp.

I'm pretty much going to keep the methods I have been using the same way as I believe if it's not broken don't fix it! The only changes will be to start doing small water changes weekly and gradually get around to changing my pumps to Tunze streams and a controller. I have been tempted to upgrade and have it in the wall but for the time being I will try and get that project out of my head! I strongly feel keeping my hands out of the tank as much as I can and generally trying to keep things controlled but as simple as possible has really worked for me. Make no sudden changes and keep on top of parameters has been the approach for me and I'm very happy with the results so far.

Gosh where do I start! Well first of all a BIG thank you to my wife Mandy for the encouragement from the start and not complaining when I needed more money for the hobby. To everyone on Ultimate Reef who kindly voted for me I really appreciate it. A big thank you to Leslie McCutcheon from Grosvenor Tropicals for the great photography work of the corals and to all his family and the staff from the shop. The shop has supplied me with great corals and fish over the years.

Many thanks to my friend Stevie MC for frag swapping and enjoying this great hobby with me and spending time to help each other out. Clayton Smith(reefworks) for the good advice in the past on keeping SPS. Rob (marine lighting) for the advice on the various aspects of lighting. Steve (reefdreams) and last but not least Chris for all his patience, help and the work in general he does to make this a great forum.