TOTM?!... me?! Really?! Nahhhhhhhh can't be. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for my tank. It's a real honour to be writing this, especially as I've got so much respect for the other tanks that have preceded mine on here.

I'm still something of a newbie at this reef keeping game having only been in the hobby about 2 years. I was officially hooked the minute I stumbled onto a reef forum (could have been UR!) and I saw the beauty of the life beneath the waves - a beauty which still blows me away today. I got my saltwater toes wet with a D&D nano cube which I got as an established setup. It was located in my home office and ran for about 6 months. It did a great job of teaching me the basics but it wasn't long before I was dreaming of a bit more space for corals and some bigger fish.

That's where this tank comes into the picture...

The Seabray tank measures 36"(L) 28"(W) 28"(H) and was designed to fit in one of the alcoves in the lounge. It uses 10mm glass and clear silicone. I considered putting a larger tank in the dining room, but I'm glad I didn't now as I think it gets so much more viewing time in the lounge (more than the TV!). I decided to leave the back glass clear because as chance would have it the wall behind the tank was already quite a nice deep sea colour.

My wife and I built the sump cabinet - well I built the frame and she did the all important cladding to fit in with the decor of the room (design can be seen in the pic though the dimensions changed a bit). The entire front panel is removable and stays in place with the aid of a couple of magnets.

The sump measures 30"(L) 18"(W) 18"(H) and is fed by a 3/4" downpipe from the wier which is set up with the twin stand pipe method to make it silent.

The system volume comes in at around 480L after displacement.

The tank is lit by an 8x39w ATI powermodule. I'm really pleased I went down the T5 route as they're fantastic for pulling the colours out of the corals and I'm getting some good growth all over the tank, even on the SPS in the lower half. That said I do love a bit of a shimmer in the tank so to provide this I added a pair of reef blue aquarays and a dimmable timer.

The daily lighting routine:
9:30am - aquarays start 2 hour ramp from 1 to 100%
10am - 2 actinic tubes on
Midday - Remaining 6 tubes on
8:30pm - Aquarays start 2 hour ramp from 100% to 1% (and remain on all night).
9:00pm - 6 tubes off
10:00pm - 2 actinics tubes off.

T5 Tube configuration (Front-Back).
ATI Aquablue Special > ATI Blue Plus > ATI Pure Actinic > ATI Aquablue Special > KZ Fiji Purple > ATI Pure Actinic > ATI Aquablue Special > ATI Blue Plus

Currently all the movement in the tank comes from a single Vortech MP40W on full blast in Lagoon mode. When I first set the tank up this was ample - a bit excessive if anything. However now everything is growing in and starting to restrict flow more (and adding an anemone required me to use the powerhead's cover), I think I'll need to add another small powerhead soon. I have the Vortech positioned fairly high in the tank and coupled with the outlet from the return pump I get stacks of surface agitation - something I'm a big fan of.

I'm not really doing anything out of the ordinary here. The main filtration comes from the approx 60kg of live rock in the display tank. The sump is split into 3 sections:

Section 1:
Deltec APF600 - run 24/7 and gravity fed from the tank. I've found this to be a great piece of kit.
Carbon - simply placed in a bag near the skimmer outlet so it gets plenty of flow through it.

Section 2:
Miracle Mud (Approx 1.5" deep with an inch of live sand on top)
Cheato - lit by an 11w lamp which is reverse lit to the main tank. Coming on at 9pm and going off at 11am. This is due an upgrade as although the cheato does grow, it only grows very slowly.

Section 3:
Return Pump: Eheim 1260 (2280l/h)
680l/h pump for 55w Aquamedic UV - outlet returns to Section 2 for some added flow in there.
650l/h Pump for RowaPhos reactor (Deltec PF509)

I've not invested very heavily in this area because the tank does a pretty good job of maintaining its temperature. Its in a fairly cool spot in the house and between the heating and cooling setup described below it never fluctuates by more than 1 degree throughout even the hottest days.

Heating
The sump houses 2x300w Rena heaters - both controlled by an ATC-300 controller. ATC is set to keep the tank at 26 degrees celsius which it does a fairly good job of.

Cooling
Only used once the weather warms up, I have a small desk fan over the sump which is configured to turn on and off with the actinic lights.

I keep it all nice and simple here:

The levels are kept in check using the Balling Light method (using Fauna Marin salts & Trace B Elements). I'm currently dosing the following amounts daily:

Mg mix - 66ml
Ca mix - 96ml
Kh/Alk mix - 528ml (half strength mix which most people on UR use I believe)

This keeps the levels around:

Mg: 1320
Ca: 430
Kh: 9

I also dose live phytoplankton - no set amount really, a slosh here and a slosh there, probably about 2L per month.

After about 10 months of adding the balling mixes manually (though it felt longer!) I finally treated myself to a doser last month - a GHL 3 channel independent. So far it's doing a fantastic job and I've noticed a marked increase in the tanks usage of the mixes since they've been on a steady supply (rather than me dosing once a day with my old marmalade jar!)

As mentioned above the heating is controlled by an ATC-300.

I was hoping to add an auto-topup too but as you can see from the sump shot there's not much space left for the RO reservoir to live - so this one has stayed a manual job for the time being. As I have cover glasses I only get around 1-1.5L of evaporation per day, so it doesn't cause much of a swing.

I manually test Mg, Ca and Kh weekly (more often recently while the doser has been settling in). I'll also occasionally test No3 & Po4 mostly just to check the tank is coping with the Moorish Idols appetite!

Tank is fed on a mix of:

Frozen (Mysis, Brine, Krill, Cyclops, Rotifers and Cockle in shell). I've also tried ON Angel Formula since getting the angels but it doesn't seem too popular in my tank.
New Era Flake & Pellet.
Red & Green Seaweed.
... and I've recently started D&D reef paste.

Also have angelixr and liposome spray which go on the frozen occasionally.

The Moorish Idol would happily eat all day so it's a bit of a balancing act trying to keep him happy and keep the nutrients in the tank under control.

I perform a 60L water change weekly - a quantity defined more by the size of my bucket than any science - that works out at about 12% of the system volume. Glass/Skimmer/Pumps/Powerheads get a good clean as and when they need it.

Carbon (200g) is changed every 2 weeks and the RowaPhos (500g) approx every 2 months.

T5 Bulbs are changed every 10-12 months and the UV bulb every six months.

The tank got off to the worst possible start when a couple of months in I got a bout of the dreaded white spot (Cryptocaryon irritans - likely brought over from my nano) which I initially treated with Ozone and UV - it was strange as it never got particularly bad with the worst affected fish (of the 3 infected) only ever having maybe 20-30 spots.

Anyway it persisted and I sadly ended up losing 1 of my tangs - I believe more down to my stupidity stressing it out trying to quarantine it rather than the infection itself. Soon afterwards it cleared up completely in the tank and I'm glad to say I've seen no signs of it since - even when adding new fish etc.

I've had a few other losses along the way (which are mentioned in my thread) but for the most part its been plain sailing I'm glad to say.

I do love my fish! The behaviors and characters of the various fish are what interests me the most in this hobby - I've spent countless hours watching them. I think its fair to say that I've pushed the limits a little with the stocking level in the tank - but everything is happy and the nutrient levels are under control.

The star of the show is my Moorish Idol - he's a fantastic fish and a real character. He's now been in the tank just shy of 18 months. I must admit though, that if I had read all the horror stories before getting mine then I probably would have avoided one. I've been very lucky with mine at the end of the day.

I've recently moved a couple of fish on to new homes to free up some space for a couple of new angels; a Regal and a Bellus.

Moorish Idol	Regal Angel	Bellus Angel
Coral Beauty Dwarf Angel	Red Faced Wrasse	Cleaner Wrasse
Sixline Wrasse	Royal Gramma	Lawnmower Blenny
Breeding Pair of Maroon Clownfish	Lyretail Anthias x3	Talbot's Damsels x4
Spotted Mandarin	Scooter Blenny	Randals Goby
Rainfords Goby	Yellow Clown Goby

I seem to read everywhere that the key to a successful reef is to specialise (i.e. SPS or LPS or softies). Well, I ballsed that up didn't I!? I've got a pretty even mix of each of the 3 families. I think this has come about the same way as it does with many peoples first tanks in that you start with softies and LPS then try your hand and SPS once you've got a better understanding. I'm really pleased with the look the mixed reef gives though and I love the movement that comes from the softies and LPS mixed in with the vibrant colours and shapes of the SPS. Touch wood everything remains healthy and continues to grow at the rate it is at the moment.

LPS: Catalaphyllia, 2 Lobo's, Frogspawn, Green Maze, Scoly, Candycane, Duncans, Goniopora, Cynarina, Blasto Welsi, Acan, Black Sun

SPS: Bit useless with names I'm afraid - Hysterix, lots of different Acropora, lots of red Plating Montipora

Softies: Large Gorgonian, Pulsing Xenia, Kenya Tree, Zoas, Mushrooms, Green and Brown Star Polyps

The Anemone is a Green Bubble Tip (GBTA). I love watching the relationship the clowns have with their home, but I've had a number of "what was I thinking" days over the past 18 months as these things can be quite hard work! It's split twice and spawned once since its been in the tank - I assume because its happy as it certainly seems healthy.

Flame Scallop (bit of an early days impulse buy, that said its still going strong after 18 months)	Hermit Crabs (mostly halloween, but a few red and blue legs too)	Pistol Shrimp (paired with the Randalls Goby)
Sandsifting Starfish	Serpent Starfish	Banded Boxing Shrimp
Maxi Mini Anemone	Conch	Green Bubble Tip Anemone
Snails	2 Maxima Clams (around 6" and 1.5")

I'm really pleased with the way this tank is panning out. I've learned so much along the way and still feel like there's so much more to learn (but thats half the fun!). Size/Volume wise I think its worked out great as it's given me the opportunity to keep some interesting fish without breaking the bank quite as badly as a larger tank would have. Something tells me I'm going to be in this hobby for a long long time to come so watch this space!

Well my wife Katy comes top of the list here. She has been so supportive and patient through the good times and bad with the tank. Thank you hon, I hope you know how lucky I feel to have you.

Next up Matt at Southwest Marines deserves a massive thank you - especially for the bargain Scoly! :) Joking aside, the tank's success is thanks in no small part to his advice and guidance when I was getting started. 95% of what you see in the tank is from SWM and the service and advice offered by Matt, Claire and the gang has been top notch from my first visit.

Finally a general thank you to all those who have given me support and encouragement on Ultimate Reef. I consider it a great source of knowledge and inspiration for the hobby but most of all a great group of people as mad about reef keeping as me!