I’ve kept fish for around 25-30 years my first tank was an acrylic 10ltr with two goldfish, through the years upgrading to larger tanks then moving on to tropical but most of the time keeping both, fish started breeding, I now had good reasons for another tank I can remember telling all the tales and making promises to my Mrs and next thing another setup was born, our house soon looked like a small aquatic shop.

Around seven years ago just Googling around I came across ReefPark and UltimateReef with absolutely no thoughts what so ever of keeping a Reef Tank not even a FOWLR, I could hear my Mrs in the background "Don't even think about it", Just looking dear was my reply, to be truly honest here, I never won her round, I quite simply never had to, for her to see the beauty of the fish and corals spoke out on my behalf it was the start of a new era for us.

Our 1st setup was a Trigon 190 and myself being a complete novice having researched nothing, I'm quite ashamed to admit that i never even knew what an RO unit was when we started out, we were also buying on impulse, etc. The build thread is here.

I can remember when we set this tank up my family and close friends thought I was in need of psychiatric help, I mean before when they visited they just knocked at the door and came in, now there was a Guy running out to greet them and dragging them in to show them Plant's..I mean corals, crabs and starfish with words spilling from my mouth like Look! "that's part of the sea and it's in my living room” it wasn't long after the Trigon thread the tank went up for sale, we never had any problems with the setup apart from missing halide glass due to being bought 2nd hand and not knowing it was supposed to be there, we had also lost two fish, we just decided to have a short break without having any fish also we had received a good offer price for the setup. A few month's passed and we bought a five footer(current tank) with the intentions of building a new reef tank but circumstances changed, in the end we set the tank up with Malawi's instead which ran for several month's virtually paying for its upkeep due to many breeding occupants. Circumstances changed again and the reef tank was put in motion, a standard five footer was bought to house the Malawi's as we preferred the Panorama tank for a reef setup, selling off new Malawi broods helped towards 2nd hand equipment for the reef tank. For this setup I was making a list of hardware and stocking as I wanted it to last and have it running with good equipment with minimal problems etc, who was I kidding, this year alone we have replaced three pumps. The build can be viewed here. There have been many periods in the last three and half years that I was starting to accept salties were far too advanced for me but my Mrs would give me the support to not give up and would also remind me of what we had spent, I’ve came to the conclusion that future upgrades will not be a problem.

The tank is 59 inches long x 20 inches wide x 24 inches high with a central weir containing twin 40mm bulkheads. There are twin 25mm returns from the sump.

The sump is 36 inches x 18 inches x 12 inches. There is a deep sand bed (DSB) with caulerpa and cheato algaes.

There is an Arcadia twin 150w halide fitted above the tank with 10000k BLV's. The unit has been modified to house eight LED moonlights.

There is also a Hagen HO T5 54w light unit fitted with 2 x Giesemann Infinity Actinics.

The lighting cycle for the tank is, LEDs on 23.55 to 13.05, Actinics on between 13.00 to 00.05 and the halides between 14.00 to 22.00.

Water movement within the tank is mainly provided by 2 x Tunze 6100 fitted with 6000 transformers on controller which pulses between 30% - 100%.

Supplementing this is the sump return which is an Eheim 1262 return pump.

There is an approximate turnover rate of 36x within the tank.

The sump is lit 24/7 with a 125w Envirolight. There is caulerpa and chaetomorpha grown in the sump and these are thinned on a three to four week basis with any transparent leaves removed on sight.

The main tank has around 90kg of live rock which sits on frames made up of marley waste pipe. The skimmer is a Deltec APF600 which runs alongside alongside a Deltec Phosphate Reactor. The reactor contains Ultiphos and is changed fortnightly.

I also run carbon for around a week every three months or so or (sooner if required). I've found soft corals mainly Zoanthids close up if I run carbon 24/7.

There is a single Visitherm 300w heater in the sump. Cooling is done using Habistat Cool Control & 5" Homebase Clip-On Fan. This works well for us and the system temperature remains fairly stable at 26/27c.

To supplement CA and Alk I use an Aquamedic KWR1000 Kalk Stirrer. This is filled with 160grams of Kalk on a fortnightly basis and runs 24/7. I don't add any other supplements.

We’ve opted for individual controllers rather than relying on one piece of equipment to control the tank. We have an ATC300 Temperature Controller, a Pinpoint pH Meter, and a Flood Alert Alarm.

The top up is controlled by a Deltec 240v Auto Top Up which is connected to a Seko Br3 3ltrs/h peristaltic pump which in turn feeds the kalk stirrer.

The tank is fed 4 times a day by the resun autofeeder which is filled with four varieties from the Ocean Nutrition range along with delicasea. They also have frozen foods consisting of Mysis, Krill, Brine Shrimp and sea veggies fortnightly. The tangs receive their Supermarket Nori every three days. On a monthly basis the tank also receives a feed which is a mixture of Cyclopeze, Coral Frenzy & frozen Cyclops.

I do a 25% water change fortnightly using D&D H2O which is made up to 35ppt. I clean and exchange the media in the kalk & phosphate reactors fortnightly.

Cryptocaryon irritans.

Like many we’ve lost a few fish to this parasite. We started to control this by using Ozone but due to severe headaches and feeling sickly even though I was dosing the recommended levels, using a controller, running through carbon etc a slight odour was still present and strangely only affecting myself. You will recall the other five footer we bought to re house the Malawi's, this was now sitting empty as we were now strictly salties only even though things were not looking good. I found myself starting to spend a lot of time in the Fish Health section on Ultimate Reef and do honestly regret I even went there. There is good advice from members who have quarantined their livestock from day one and had 100% success but for us it was disastrous, we lost more fish during quarantine even though I was following top advice from Ian (Wombat) using copper and a test kit. Of all the fish that died (or should I say poisoned) I lost a yellow tang I’d had for a while. She had been through numerous battles to this parasite. Among others we also lost one of our clownfish that died due to taking skin scrapings etc. The clown died because copper treatment wasn't working so we tried Hyposalinity at 1.009. It was suggested to do a skin scrape and take a look under the microscope. On doing the skin scrape this removed some of the protective muscus from the fish. On returning the fish to the tank too much water was taking in and the fish drowned.

I had remembered reading an article about a fish's internal Osmolarity which is 1.012 during my research on C.Irritans.

My mind was that full off numerous articles I had read and I was completely stressed out with all that was happening I simply forgot, losing the clown was the final straw. The remaining fish were returned to the display a TMC 30W UV was fitted and the tank left alone.

Since then I will never regret moving the remainders to the display, some may think it is ignorance or stupidity but for us it worked and continues to do so today. Since all fish were returned to the display last year we have added another eighteen fish since January this year with no losses or parasite infections, all fish look pristine with crystal clear eyes. Obviously not top advice but the quarantine period was just too much for us, I would say for myself more, probably because I was more involved than my Mrs with the tasks in mind, I don't feel bad about anything when I look back as I believe I tried my best even though I failed, I think it's fair to say for fish quarantine to be fully effective you would have to treat fish for all known parasites, on saying that, the fact will always remain that prevention is better than cure.

Our Contradictive Quarantine Thread (well there were moments I did believe things were getting better)

Nitrate:

For the first two and half years NO3 levels were 50ppm+ I was doing things I would never have dreamed off if I hadn't been a member on UR like adding sugar, vodka etc I soon stopped after reading & hearing of further problems etc.

I then stumbled over SCOOBs thread "Nitrate free-fall, 70 to 7 in just 14 days" following his findings I soon found myself making more promises to my Mrs, like "what's the damage? We’ve only got one tank now it won't cost a lot, and it's only two bottles!". Coughing out more cash on Fauna Marin products ie. Ultra Bak & Ultra Bio, I bought quite a few bottles I can tell you but never got anywhere near SCOOBs results even after several months. I think I managed to get NO3 to around 25ppm at one time.

I did however find a remedy! Prior to water changes I started to disturb the substrate behind and under the rockwork also at the front of the tank and within a few months NO3 started to fall. Nitrate levels in the tank now sit at zero and I am totally chuffed.

We have 24 fish in the tank and it's a great thing to have a tank with fish that all get along 99% of the time! The remaining 1% being that our Sixline Wrasse will give chase to our Leopard wrasse now and then but for time being the Leopard outswims the sixline and he gives up!

Only a couple of corals remain from the 2nd hand 4ft setup we bought to start this build off (See Tank Thread for more info) as all we were really after was the Live Rock because it was very cheap!

Those corals are the Pearl Bubble Physogyra sp. and an unknown stubby finger leather which now settles near the back of the tank.

All other corals were purchased from various retailers. We’ve also had a few frags from Roddy & Sharon (Frogfone) which got us started with SPS.

Basic cleanup crew consists of about five black leg hermits plus hundreds of dove snails and a few Stomatella Varia. 1x huge Brittle Star approximately 18" span, 1x Blue Linkia. We did have two cleaner shrimps which were with us for around two+ years but both seemed to have vanished (maybe they were a night time meal to our Flame Hawkfish). Bigclaw Snapping Shrimp who lives in our sump. We have a Derasa Clam which was bought online and was sized at 60mm due to no stock I was offered a larger clam, it arrived, on opening the package I found I had a much larger clam around 7 inches which for us was excellent. Sometimes when a water change has been carried out or halides have just switched off our clam spawns. A fascinating thing to watch.

I must say, When Chris (MaidstoneMarine) notified me our tank has been awarded TOTM I responded "are you serious?".

I am totally blown away to be picked for TOTM as this is something I never ever expected having viewed many of the awesome tank builds in members tank specs. I’m proud of how much I have achieved and learnt since moving to salties not forgetting tips etc I have received/picked up from members here on UR. It's a great forum to be a member on. Funnily enough I always complain about the tank to family and friends that it just doesn't look colourful enough, they then look at me a strange way. It's a fantastic hobby and even though we all encounter problems at some period, I think I can safely say I’m totally hooked and can only think about what the future holds towards these fantastic creatures. I would love to keep a Taeniura lymma Stingray - it's a dream but you never know.

For our current tank the past two years an upgrade of a larger tank has been planned and twice other priorities prevented this. It is on the cards for next year as room is slowly disappearing not only in the tank but also the cabinet.

Thank you to those who nominated our tank, it is an absolute honour to have our tank as Tank of the Month.

A big thank you to you Chris for your patience and help on doing this article, we wish you all the best in your new home.

A big thank you to our salty addict friends around us, Manta aka Ross & Lara, and Frogfone aka Sharon & Roddy - they have been giving me some good info and help since the beginning of us keeping salties.