TOTM April 2012 WINNER !

[Deester]

The winner of the April 2012 TOTM competition is:

Uglyman with his stunning mature LED driven mixed reef tank.

Kindly donated by:

Aquablue Distribution



Uglyman has won:

Ocean Nutrition Foods Prize Pack



You can find out more about the winning tank tank in this Tank Journal

[Deester]

INTRODUCTION
I started keeping freshwater tropical tanks about 20 years ago and kept cichlids, discus and barramundi. I had always wanted to start a marine tank early on but it never happened until 2007 when I purchased a 4 foot tank that I planned to put some archer fish and a saratoga in. I told my girlfriend I had always wanted to setup a marine tank and she said "why not turn this tank into a marine setup" and that was the end of freshwater tanks for me.

CURRENT SETUP
A 4' x 18" x 18" standard braced tank that I drilled and plumbed myself, at the time my budget only allowed this size of tank so I had to make do with what I had. There are some parts of my tank to this day I wish I had the budget to do them differently, like the bracing and some nice bevelled edges hehe.
My tank has been running for 5 years now since I started it back in 2007 and I have to say I have gone through a few skimmers, from an old hang on type that leaked to an old reef devil downdraft and finally the reef octopus. Apart from mechanical skimming I have always wanted to use a more natural filtration system and refugiums have always appealed to me, so one was always going to be a part of this system.
My stand is made from recycled victorian ash and corrugated iron and was built by my girlfriend (recently wife 24th March 2012) who is an awesome cabinet maker. To my amazement she used no screws or nails to build it.



EQUIPMENT LIST
External Reef Octopus Hurricane 500
Tunze 3155 osmolator for topup
Bubble Magus BM-T01 doser for Alk,Cal and Mag
Two Vortech MP40w ES wave pumps
Jager 300watt heater
DIY 4x 10,000k LED fuge light
Aquaone return and skimmer feed pump

LIGHTING
Lighting is provided by two Maxspect G2 160 watt units (recently added 2xred and 2xpink led's to each light to replace the 4xUV led's the unit originally had). They are on a 12 hour schedule 9:30am to 9:30pm.

FILTRATION
My sump is 2.5í X 15î x 15î with 2 compartments and part of it is a small refugium.I have approximately 50kg of live rock and a 4" DSB in my sump with Caulerpa Prolifera.

CURRENT WATER PARAMETERS
SG 1.027
Ph 8.1
Alk 8.5dKh
Mag 1380ppm
Cal 440ppm
P04 0.07ppm
Sr 6ppm
I2 0.04ppm

ADDITIVES
For my dosing regime I use pool calcium and bi-carb for my alkalinity, when it comes to my magnesium addittions I dose epsom salts with food grade mag chloride according to randyís recipe. I currently use three tupperware 3litre tubs for my additives with 300grams of Cal Chloride/3litres, 260grams of bi-carb/3litres and 300grams of randyís mag mix/3lires. I add 5 drops of Brightwell Silica solution/week, approx 8 ml of Seachem Iodide/week, approx 30grams/week of Seachem Strontium.

FEEDING
I feed my corals by broadcast feeding about half a teaspoon of both reef roids and 100% reef safe aminos mixed together and let stand for an hour twice a week. I also spot feed my LPS like acans and scolyís with cyclop-eze and mysis once a week. My fish get fed spectrum sinking pellets 3 times a day and every second day I will substitute one feed with a frozen brine shrimp mix.



FISH
1x Scopas Tang
1x Bi-colour dottyback
1x Bangai cardinal
1x Goldline cardinal
1x Scooter blennie
2x ocellarus clownfish (MASOV Christmas 2011 meeting door prize, thanks to Damer)





CORALS
1x Large Duncanopsammia (duncan)
2x Scolymia australis
1x Acropora tricolor
2x Turbinaria sp (Cup Coral)
1x Montipora supermann
1x Stylophora pistillata
1x Seriatopora hystrix
1x Acropora millepora
1x Carpet morph
2x Green ricordia
1x Blastomussa wellsi
2x Euphyllia (Torch corals)
1x Acanthastrea (Rainbow Acan)
1x Green encrusting montipora
1x Caulastrea (Candy cane coral)
1x Lobophyllia
1x Pocillopora
1x Fungia
1x Echinophyllia
1x Xenia
1x Pachyclavularia violacea (Star polyp)
1x Tubipora
7x unidentified Acropora colonies
Various zoa colonies and mushroom morphs







INVERTEBRATES
1x Maxima clam (Tridacna Maxima)
1x Coral banded shrimp
2x peppermint shrimp (in sump)
1x Stromb snail
3x Trochus snails
4x Hermit crabs
Tons of Turbo snails



MAINTENANCE
Maintenance on my tank involves a 10% water change every week, topping up dosing containers every 3-4 weeks. and I trim the Caulerpa once every 2 weeks.

CURRENT CONCERNS
The tank has had itís problems over the span of itís life, the usual cyano, trouble with phosphates and the occasional pests like a red flatworm which gave me 3 months of grief. But currently I have been dealing with a Coral Beauty that took a liking to pretty much any LPS coral it could get itís teeth into. If you take a look at my tank journal you will notice some corals listed are not in this list as they were destroyed by this lovely fish. So if your ever told by someone ìyeah this fish SHOULD be fine with coralî just remember there is a chance it wonít be.

SHOUTS
I would like to say that without RTAW and all the info that members post on this site I would struggled to get this far with my tank. I would also like to say that since joining MASOV I have found a great bunch of people with vast amounts of reefing knowledge who share the same crazy hobby as me and it is truly worth being a member.

Lastly Thanks to the new PC&S team, all the best guys.

[siddr20]

Beautiful looking tank Well deserved!! Congrats!!

[jamiahpharm]

Great tank. Well done mate!