I was most suprised being approached by Chris with the good news of the feature, there has certainly been some cracking systems on UltimateReef and to be part of the acclaimed is a real pleasure .
I have kept fish now for probably a touch over 20 years, firstly starting with a small tropical tank and then moving on to dutch planted aquariums which is another passion of mine. Then onto marine around 5-6 years ago, firstly with a small fish only, moving onto mainly a soft coral reef. I then decided a wanted a challenge again and that challenge come with the mostly sps dominated system I have now.

Due to having stone fireplaces interupting most possible locations, in order to maximise the use of space I therefore went for a made to measure setup with a bespoke tank measuring 43"x24"x27" made by AC Aquatics. I made the stand myself from welded 1" box section which was then powder coated to protect from the elements. This frame was then clad in sections from kitchen units that match our kitchen to keep the misses happy! I varnished the internal wood work with marine varnish to seal it. This has been execellent from day one showing no signs of errosion.

I have always been a fan of experimenting with lighting and have used many different approaches to light a tank. This particular system started of with a 6x39 watt fauna marin ultra solaris unit that I bought from Steve at Cambridge Coral Tech.

I was so impressed with it that it wasnt long that I bought another to improve the light in the front half of the tank. I then swapped the 39s for 54s as I added more and more SPS to the system. Eventually I then bought what I am currently using now which is a 6x54 ati powermodule. This is a fantastic unit and gives out huge par when tested.

I really value the fact of mixing the different colour tubes to create an overall lighting effect. I am currently using a mix of ati and kz tubes in the front unit. The rear of the tank is lit by a DIY'd 4 x 39 unit which houses 1x 4k non branded tube ,2x ati blues and 1x kz coral light. The non branded 4k gives a great natural hue and is very powerful indeed. The green sps seem to have reacted very positively colour wise to it.

Overall I think personally that SPS can be grown under a very wide range of lighting as long as you place then correctly and have the correct strengths.

Overall the total turnover is around the 40-45 times the volume per hour. As important as the volume of flow, in my opinion, it is nature. I use a Vortech MP40 pump with the potential output of around 11,250 litres - this is set to produce a random, reef crest type of flow and has been supplemented with a tunze nano 6045 stream.

The vortech has particuarly impressed me - and with the external motor you don't get extra heat build up being absorbed into the water. I think these pumps can be a great source of flow in every reef tank and are massively adaptable. The return pump is an old trusty Aqua M edic 3500 which has been excellent for many years.

I have always liked the old fashioned simple approach to filtration so I opted for the berlin style live rock and algea bed filter. This has worked wonders with this system and from day one I havent had to worry about nitrates or any serious algea disasters. I maybe put this down to the fact that I had a large holding tank in the garage for around 4 months fully filtered along with 100 kgs of figi rock . This was only run whilst I planned the tank and got the decorating done. Those were very impatient times indeed!

The heating is dealt with using a single 300 watt glass heater via the aquatronica control which I have found very stable and effective indeed, cooling is controlled using a single 8 inch desktop fan controlled with a habistat cool control. The temperature does creep up during the hotter days but not enough to worry about.

Routine calcium and alkalinity demands are met using a grotech calcium reactor being fed by 2 aqua medic sp3000 dosers. I found I had to step up the feed rate to the reactor as the corals grew and demands just got ever higher. Without the Reactor running the alkalinity drops 2 whole numbers in 24 hours so the importance of keeping the reactor running is paramount.

I initilly tried the balling method (named after the german Hans Balling) and I really liked it but I simply could not meet the system demands and didn't have the capacity to store larger amounts of solutions. Over time the system does require spot checks and corrections which I do with balling salts and the kent aqua dose which has up to now been very reliable and simple.

The tank is monitored using the Aquatronica system which includes Ph in tank and reactor monitoring, lighting and temperature. I have been very impressed by this and have had no issues at all.

I try not to stint on feeding and I think its very important for long term fish health and I am confident my filtration can cope with the consequences of this. I feed a large mixture of different feeds including mysis, krill, marine mix and I occasionally treat them with the reef-aquatics golden pearls which is a novel granular feed that suspends in the water column mimicking the movement of planktons which the fish are very fond of.

My approach towards maintenance has always been very simple. I do a weekly 25 litre water change, regular tests and clean the glass once a day, along with emptying the skimmer cup when required.

The only problem I have had is the very persistant manjanos - I may only have a few but they are so resilliant! Apart from that I have been overall very lucky as I have been able to avoid the horror stories that you do read about.

I have a real weekness for wrasses and I keep the following species;

Yellow Tail Tamrim	Lightning Wrasse	Radiant Wrasse
Mystery Wrasse	Aussie Percular Clowns (pair)	Yellow Tang
Chevoron Tang	Lemark Angel	3 large chromis
Aurura Goby	Long Nosed Hawkfish

The mystery wrasse is most definitely my favourite but I've had my wild pair of aussie percular clowns since day one and although my stocking is fairly high I have never had any trouble touch wood and they have all grown to be very happy specimens.

The live rock provides the structure for the corals to grow, I have various species of sps including, acropora, montipora, stlyophora, milliapora, seriatapora, pavona, porites and maybe a few more! Towards the bottom resides the LPS, soft,and colonial polyp corals, with a large cataphillia to the left and euphillia caulastrea, sinulara and variuos colourful zoanthids to the right hand side.

I think this hobby has a huge following and many enthusiasts taking such a different approach to how and why there tank should and is setup the way it is. This for me is the most intreging aspect of the hobby. Although i am very happy with my tank, I and millions of other reefers out there would agree that in our minds lie the what ifs, maybes and if one days I will have it . With these thoughts it certainly seals myself in the future commitment to this wonderful hobby that we all share.

I would like to thank UltimateReef for some great ideas and inspiration, My friend Keith Jackson for his support and always accurate guidance, all my friends from essex reef club including Ian Phillips Mclaren for his awesome photographs. Steve K and Steve from CCT for being top blokes and lastly everybody that voted on my behalf for this honour.