Thank you to everyone that has voted for my tank to be TOTM, I have spent the last 15 years reading just about every TOTM thread published, so it is a great honour to finally get to show off my current tank.

This is my 5th tank over the last 15 years, starting out with an undergravel system; I have worked my way through just about every method possible, Plenum sandbeds, mangrove forests to the latest zeo methods. I believe all of these methods have their pro's and con's, but more importantly, it's the experience you gain in trying these methods and the fact it keeps the hobby interesting. I am now settled with a system that works well for me but will always be interested in the next best thing.

The tank is 2500mm x 900 x 900, with several sumps in the filter room, total water volume is around 2500l.

I wanted to construct a tank that would be unique in design and stand out as a modern piece of furniture in our new extension. To achieve this look, I used a piece of 6mm toughened Low iron glass, this measures 3m x 2.2m and is back painted leaving only a viewing screen, this was then mounted directly to the face of the main aquarium, with doors installed above and to the sides of the tank. This leaves a seamless picture frame to view the tank through.

The tank started out with a huge amount of light in the form of 3 x 400w halides, 1 x 250w and 8no T5.

Growth and colour were fantastic, but so was the leccy bill, so 18 months back I decided to change things around and swapped over to two 54w power module units, these comprise of 20 bulbs total, with a fairly even mix of white and blue bulbs, I use a mix of brands and also include a few D-D pink.

I am very pleased with the lights, but if it was not for the bigger bills I would return to the halide setup tomorrow.

I am keen to try a mix of LEDs running with the T5s to see if I can get the extra intensity I feel is missing from the T5s, hopefully these will be installed in the next few weeks, so watch this space for an update.

Circulation is taken care of with a Laguna return pump, passed through a wavy sea, along with this is 3 large Tunze streams on the latest computer programmed multi controller. Wave box's were installed at the initial set up, but were replaced due to failing too many times.

The heart of the filtration system is my ATB supersize deluxe, this skimmer is a beast and has been faultless over the last two years.

I also run an ATB elegance 200 pro on the frag tank, both keep the water quality easy to maintain.
Ozone is run at around 30 mg on a constant basis through the large skimmer.
2 litres of zeo stones are run in a zeomatic reactor, I have run these full blown in the past but was not keen on the pastel colours, so they are now run just as a supplement to good skimming.

Key to a good system is stability of water params, in particular for me is keeping the KH stable, this is done effortlessly with my DaStaCo calcium reactor. They simply do not come better than this and I now regard it as important as a good skimmer.

ROWAphos/ or alternative media is run on a slow flow constantly and levels are checked on a Hana meter every week.

The benefit of having my filter room outside is that temperature is fairly easy to control, the room is very well insulated and stays at a fairly stable ambient room temperature both in the summer and winter months. Summer time will see the use of a large fan, but that is as far as I need to go.

OK hands up, I am a sucker for trying different additives, but I have learnt to use one change at a time and to monitor the tank very closely when doing so, honest truth is if you feed your fish on a regular basis and stick to a water change routine, you should not need to introduce any other supplements.

However I have learnt which products add to the enhanced colours within my tank, and without messing with these additives I would never know.

Just take into consideration every tank is different and it is up to each reef keeper to look closely at his corals to find what works for them.

Less is better and slow changes are a must.

I currently use only a few additives and if ever the tank does not respond well, I will stop everything until things come back stable.

Carbon source: 2 drops of Glacial acetic acid a day (this product is very potent/dangerous and should only be used with extreme caution, vodka or start 2 are a good alternative)

Bacteria: Prodi bio (on start up of system, more recently I will be introducing small amount of fresh live rock to the sump, as bacteria don’t come better than what’s within fresh rock)

Food: Coral Troph Twice a week ( great food source for corals and fish. Fish glow after two weeks of use)

Pif from zeovit: 5 drops a day ( keeps the blues blue)

Mix of B-Balance/sponge power/coral snow. B-balance adds to the reds and pinks but lightens the corals some what, to over come the lightening effect sponge power is added, coral snow just acts as a facilitator. Dosed as and when I think the tank needs a boost, approximately twice a week.

Strontium: 20ml a day by QFI

Water changes are every 1-2 weeks depending on how busy I am at the time and are generally around 125 litres

Feeding the fish is the other important thing for me, with around 12-16 cubes a day going into the system.

An aquatronica is used for the general running of the tank and keeps track of the temperature and PH.

I did not have a great start with this setup, it has been in situ for 3 years and in that time it has been stripped and re-started twice.

The first downfall was whilst having a new timber floor laid, a resin filler was used on the floor and whilst the tank was sealed something managed to find its way into the tank, the activated carbon done it's job and absorbed the substance, but in turn the carbon disintegrated into a fine powder, turning the tank black with soot, 50 % of the corals died and all of the live rock needed replacing.

Second time around I thought it would be a good idea to use TMC fake rock, with live rock in the sump area. This worked well for a few months and looked very good, until I started to experience slow tissue narcosis at the base of the SPS, after months of trying to find the problem, I knew it was time to make a change, so I decided to swap the fake rock for live. It was on removal of the rocks that I found the problem.

All of the corals had been stuck to the fake rock with speed glue, whilst breaking off some of the dying corals, there was a strong smell of hydrogen sulphide; it appears that the speed glue was reacting with the fake rock and this was causing the corals to strip out. I have used both the rock and speed glue separately since and find them both to be very good products. Just don’t mix the two!

The last rebuild was around 8 months ago.

No messing this time good old live rock, that has been drilled dowelled and stuck together with speed glue.

SPS are my first choice of coral, with a mix of clams and unusual softies to compliment them.

It has been a long standing challenge to collect as many colourful and rare varieties of SPS possible.

I have a soft spot for wrasse and am always on the look out for a new addition.

Yellow tangs x5	Emperor Tang	Lipstick Tang
Blue Throat Trigger	Percula Clowns x2	Pyramid Butterfly
Harlequin Tusk	Tassle File fish	Black and White Wrasse
Yellow Breast Wrasse	Anthias x6	Tahition Wrasse x2
Regal Angel	Algae Blenny

Inspiration for my tank has recently come from the Netherlands, I am fortunate to have made some great friends in Belgium & Holland, that I would say have some of the best tanks in the world.

The philosophy is quite different out there, with a data base of unique corals that are shared amongst hobbyists. Most of these corals have come from frags grown on by individuals, and the source and where about of these corals are recorded.

I am lucky enough to have a wide range of these unique corals and my ultimate goal would be to grow them on and start to share them with like minded reefers in the UK.

Please check out this link from our recent visit to Belgium: http://youtu.be/P9xUauDcEg0

Huge thanks to my wife for putting up with the time I spend on this hobby and the intrusion of what we class as fish club most weekends. (Even though she refers to us all as fish nerds, you know who you are!) She has the patience of a saint.

Many thanks to Jeff (Fungia) for taking so many fantastic photos and to all the shop owners (many of whom have become very good friends).

Thanks

Vince