The UltimateReef.com Tank Of The Month feature has been running now for many years. Throughout this time we've all be treated to some of the most spectacular and inspiring tanks that you could hope to find. TOTMs are not just visually engaging, their differing setups and excellent husbandry techniques have been a source of education and enlightenment for many of us.

So this month we're taking some time to revisit a few of those previously featured to see 'Where they are now'.

Tank Status: Still running!

Update: Further to my separation over two years ago, the tank has been left in place with me not living in the house it is situated. The sheer scale of the task to break it down an sell it off was just one step too far given all the other changes, and so it has stayed there with virtually no maintenance. The ZEOvit system I was running wasn't applied, and when the skimmer needed a strip down to clean, it wasn't put back on. The calcium reactor eventually stopped and there must have been only 100ltrs of water change in the past two years, with alternative calcium additions being in the form or aragonite powder until that ran out. All in all the tank was almost entirely neglected apart from daily fish feeding by my ex.

Problems / Issues encountered: With such sustained neglect, I wondered if there would be a complete tank crash given the steady input of nitrogens and phosphates and no ZEO /skimmer/water change to export this., and litttle in the way of element addition to support SPS /LPS skeletal growth. Of course a fair number of specimens suffered from RTN/STN over the months and years but as the pictures show, a fair number have not only survived, but even thrived. There were phases of major algae blooms, and still to this day the apatasia are healthy colonies (and not so ugly if one looks with a fresh eye) OK maybe not!

A month or so ago I was given an ultimatum - clean the tank or dissemble it ...now!! The latest algae cycle were calurpa which triggered the memory that this tank was originally set up as a refugium filtered system. I took the caulerpa, put it in the sump - added the sump light - which was with the huge pile of unused kit to be sold at some point, and now this has taken , the tank appears to be settling into a new sustainable rhythm. DOH! No idea why I didnt think of this a couple of years ago when the skimmer came off.

So its come full circle. I am surprised by how much has survived a no maintenance regime. The proceeding years must have established a very sustainable system, and the original aragonite sand is clearly keeping the the non organic chemestry in good shape. I believe the tank would be overflowing with rainbow SPS if I had kept the ZEOvit system going, but if this system is anything to go by, 500ltrs with light and aragonite is enough for some of our charges.

I do feel slightly ashamed some SPS inhabitants have perished, but no LPS or fish losses.

Any major stocking reconfigurations: None!

Future Plans: If the offer on a new house goes through, I plan to move the tank there in early summer, and pick up where I left off with much more active husbandry that is possible from living in the same house. I hope that some of the magnificent large colonies survive the next Stalingrad of the move.

Other comments: Would be most interested to hear comments and thoughts on this extreme long term ZEROmethod ;-)

Tank Status: Tank shut down in Jan 2009 . Upgraded to 6 by 30 by 30

Update: The tank ran for around 2.5 years before shut down. The tank was shut down due to a cracked base which was caused but the stand warping.

Upgrade changes: Halides changed from Lumenarcs to Giesemann Spectra two by 250 with 4x 80 watt T5. Corner weir and steel stand to hopefully prevent future problems with stands warping

Problems / Issues encountered: Last tank suffered major problem with Acro eating flatworm and over dose of Pottasium chloride due to faulty test kit which killed many corals.

Any major stocking reconfigurations: Same corals stocking but more LPS, fish stocking remains pretty much the same.

Future Plans: Keep the new tank running as long as possible!

Other comments: Don't fiddle too much with chemistry. Less can be more.

Tank Status: In the process of shutting down!

Tank running since: April 2006, currently still has liverock and fish but only for about another 2 weeks. Most corals now rehomed. The reason for shutting down is down to the lack of time to look after it. I have 2 jobs and a family and throughout the spring to Autumn we go away most weekends, so the tank was too much of a burden.

Problems / Issues encountered:No huge changes from when it was TOTM, I changed the skimmer for a larger one and introduced ULNS at about the time it was TOTM, at that time NO3 was around 50ppm but over teh coming months it dropped to undetectable levels.

All corals grew like mad and many tanks around the country now have frags from my colonies, so my tank may be gone but my corals live on.

Future Plans:None at present or for the forseeable future. I expect I will set another tank up one day, but just when and what I have no idea. Iv'e kept fish for 18 years and it's in my blood, so I will be back one day I'm sure.

But any tank I set up in future will be run on minimal equipment keeping power useage to an absolote minimum, the days of running 1000 watts of lighting and loads of powerful pumps are coming to an end for obvious reasons.

Tank Status: Still running

Tank running since: My tank was set up on the 24th Dec 2006 and this is how it looks at the moment a whole two years after it was so kindly voted TOTM.

Problems / Issues encountered: My main problem has been the speed at which the corals have grown, The plating corals especially the Echinopora just kept growing and growing even though I kept fragging it, this caused the corals at the bottom of the tank to become shaded and so I had to remove it. The blue tip acro also just grew and grew and the more I fragged it the more dense it grew so I also removed that, lucky I have my coral farm to put them in so that when a coral becomes too large for the nano tank I can put it in the coral farm and grow a frag on to put back into the nano.

Any major stocking reconfigurations: For the past few months I have been using some of the zeovit products, Zeobak, Coral vitaliser, Cora l snow, sponge power and pohls xtra. Getting used to using such small amounts of the products has been tricky and I've had a few problems with algae blooms which are now getting under control, Dad tends to think that might have been due to Nitrates being released from the live rock.

Future Plans: The tank doesn't look to great at the moment due to the fact that last month many of the corals were moved to the coral farm and replaced with small frags, but hopefully it won't be too long before they have filled out and the plus side is that I have plenty of frags to sell.

Tank Status: Upgraded 4x2x2 ecosystem was shut down in June 2008. New tank was installed April/May 2008 and contents moved over gradually over the course of a month.

Tank running since: 4x2x2 was originally set up in March 2003. It was shut down due to problems with the stand and corals getting too big. Upgrade doubled the size of the tank from c. 500l to 1000l. New tank is 78”x25”x30” (lxhxw). Still an ecosystem tank upgraded to 400w metal halides run at 2/3rds using electronic ballast. New tank was based on original tank, had no major issues running the system in 5 years so if it aint broke...

Problems / Issues encountered: Change over to the new system was one problem after another. Many of the colonies were too large to move in one go. Many of the big colonies were broken on purpose, some just fell to bits. Not sure why this happened, probably low alk as the sand bed was new. Many big colonies started to recede in the middle and drastic action was required to save frags. Only the acropora seemed to be affected as the LPS, hysterix and montiporas remained fine.

Found out later that both our brand new vortechs had started to rust really badly and also that the lights were kicking out too much UV. New lamps and replacement plastic coated magnets seemed to solve these problems.

Any major stocking reconfigurations: No major changes to stock. Transferred all original fish and bought a few more (silk shot gobies, sailfin tang, iridis wrasse, sand sifting goby and a falco's hawkfish. Lost our 8 year old rusty angel in Feb 2010.

Future Plans: We've never been great fish buyers but need to replace a few fish that have passed on. Think ing about adding a shoal of Geniatus angels. Letting the corals and clams grow...The clams are HUGE.

Other comments: Still happy with the ecosystem (skimmerless) system. Really like the colours that the 400w halides help produce and are very happy that the big tank is no more work than the original 4x2x2.

Tank Status: Still running

Tank running since: The the tank has now been running for approximately 12 years and is more or less in the format it was when it was last reviewed by Ultimate Reef (October 2008) , however, we all strive to improve our system, and therefore there have been some subtle changes.

Driven by the need to further reduce noise, even after great efforts to remove, motor ‘humm’, I ditched the sequence pump and installed two Deltec HLPs, now these are really quiet and didn’t need the sound attenuators I had previously utilised. Worthy of note, is these are connected in a parallel configurations, so if anything happens to one, I still have the other (sevisability, service continuity and contingency planning is critical to long term success).

Again largely driven by an attempt to reduce noise, I have changed the skimmer from a 1004 to one of the Deltec’s (split internal chambers), these run on two smaller pump, as opposed to four, they reduce the energy consumption and are much quieter, without performance compromise.

I’ve changed media in the Calcium reactor, now using large coral gravel distributed by WAVE.

I've been using D&D H2O for ages now and I don’t need to mess about adding additional magnesium, it’s spot on.

Problems / Issues encountered: The perpetual battle, against purple encrusting alga eating asteria star fish has been solved, the solution is Harlequin shrimps (everybody knows that), but I held back from adding one, due to having a Harlequin tusk, with teeth the size of a warus, but amazingly, they were compatible and within a few months good bye Asterias.

And now for the bad news, bizzarly, I I still don’t know why, both of the deepwater anthias, died within a month of each other, they just stopped eating (they were over a year in the tank and doubled in size), the male boxfish, has strangely changed back into female marking.

And the really bad stuff, a month ago, I bought a fantastic, aberrant Regal Angel and after trying squid, cockle, cockle, cockle in a shell, clam, cockle, cockle in a shell, muscle, muscle in shell, oysters, scollops, brine, mysis, every colour of algae you can imagine, the only thing it will eat is zooanthid polyps. I doesn’t look promising.

Future Plans: Moving forward, something I would really like to see, is for us to find a natural predatory or consumer for the encrusting blue sponge we have in our tanks. I suspect if we can find which parts of the world (reefs) it comes from, we will find the answer.

Lastly, thanks to UR, in particular Chris, for contacting me to find out how the reef is progressing.

Tank Status: Original tank closed down due to upgrade

Tank running since: 05.03.08 – 20.11.09

Since my TOTM feature I have upgraded from the 56”long x 27”deep x 24”wide tank. Converting the garage that is attached to the side of my house into a ‘reef lounge’. To house a 72”long x 38”wide x 25”deep tank. With a separate 46”long x 20”wide x 18”deep refugium, (the original sump) a 100 gallon laguna ‘pond’ as a sump, and soon to be added 56”long x 24”wide x 12” deep frag tank, using the original tank stand and cabinet, with a separate quarantine system. Giving a net system volume in the region of 400 gallons or so.
I worked out I could use all my existing equipment bar a change to a laguna 7500 return pump, and lose 2 x eheim pumps. Which means I’ve more than doubled the volume, and it actually uses less electricity!
I’ve kept to the same basic layout in terms of equipment and filtration, live rock gravity fed skimmer and cheato, though the new tanks refugium doesn’t have a DSB.

Problems / Issues encountered: The original tanks corals were heavily fragged to give some space due to them growing into, and attacking each other. also I discovered some binding issues in the DSB during the strip down of the original tank. And decided not to add one to the new system at present. The main problems were due to sheer over crowding, it’s amazing how quickly corals can fill out a tank and start competing for space.

Any major stocking reconfigurations: Stock wise I’m pretty much the same as I was in the original tank. Basically the same fish and corals, though with the extra volume I have added a group of 8 green chromis, as I missed the ones I had in a previous tank. I did lose a coral during the changeover, that had suffered in the old tank due to over crowding. And another that is still recovering due to the same.

Future Plans: Well I’m more than halfway there, I’ve a new much larger display tank, with separate refugium tank, a new quarantine tank. And a large frag tank soon to be ordered. So things are progressing well.

Tank Status: Shut down and upgraded

Tank running since: Well the tank was shut down on Tuesday 18th August 2009. It was a very hard decision as it was starting to really fill out with god coral growth. In the end I had to close it as I had just upgraded to a larger system and running 2 tanks just wasn’t an option. I transferred all my corals, fish, inverts and CUC to the new system over 1 day, it was pretty hectic task running back and forth from the Trigon in the living room to the new system in the dining room. In the end the tank was started in January 2008 and closed in August 2009 so was running for just 19 months although it was a great tank to start with and all the corals and fish appreciated their new and larger home

We did add a few more fish to the system after April last year, my favourites were the Iridis Wrasse and the Orange Spot Filefish, both are happy in their new home and they all transferred over very well. We did also set up a small frag tank that we used around this time until I got and SMS from my wife to say that the frag tank had split and it’s entire contents were on the laundry room floor… just glad it was empty !

Future Plans: Well everything is concentrated on the Deltec Panorama now and hopefully that should keep me happy for some few years at least. I plan a new frag tank this March with a size of 120 x 60 x 30cm, this will be run independently so I have a genetic back-up in case of major failures and also it’s an extension to a part of this hobby that I start to enjoy more and more.

Final Thoughts: Yes running a bigger tank is more time and more cost and sometimes I do miss the Trigon. It was a great set up and it ran so well, don’t just think bigger is better! I think the key to success is having things balanced in all aspects ie not just the chemical part of your tank but also what you’re ready to put into it, some times you just need to be able to forget all the maintainance and sit back and enjoy it.

Tank Status: Still running

Tank running since: February 09

Problems / Issues encountered: Majanos before rock change but sorted now

Any major stocking reconfigurations: Added 12 diamond head anthias

Future Plans: Some BIG changes and whopping upgrage so watch this space!!!

Tank Status: Still running

Tank running since: The tank has now been running for just over 4 years now and is pretty much the same as back in august. The growth on the corals can be seen from back then to now, especially the centre orange plating monti that just keep growing.

Problems / Issues encountered: I have upgraded the skimmer that was a Deltec AP851 (which in itself was an awsome skimmer) to one of the new Deltec TC2560 which have to say am well pleased with.

I have changed the colour of the back of the tank from blue too black but the jury is still out which I prefer.

Any major stocking reconfigurations: No! Still a great love for those LPS corals especially Aussie Scolly's at the moment.

Future Plans: To enjoy the tank!

Tank Status: Still running

Tank running since: Our reef is still running alongside our other five footer which was only fowlr but is now accommodating some corals as well for stocking purposes for our new build this year "three sided room divider". Coral warfare is at it's worse in the reef tank, everything is growing quite rapidly a few corals getting real close to the front glass. I also have added two small racks to grow some frags for the new build. At the moment

Problems / Issues encountered: At the moment We are struggling to keep up with calcium and alkalinity and having to change kalk on a weekly basis now instead of fortnightly. I expect shortly we will be moving into balling lite which appears to be far more beneficial going by what i have seen and read. Apart from ca/alk problems we had to replace the peri pump for the kalk stirrer just after Christmas,

Future Plans: We are hoping nothing else fails and we get the time to fund equipment etc for our new build which was to be started in the spring but looks like it could be summer now.

A huge thank you to all those who've contributed to this 'Where are they now?' feature, and also to everyone who has been featured as Tank Of The Month over the years.

We hope you enjoy the TOTM features that make it into the UltimateReef.com TOTM series. If anyone has any ideas or comments about it that could help make this even better then please contact me via PM.

And don't forget... in order for TOTM to run - we need your votes! If you see a tank you like then please send me a PM with a link and I'll do the rest!