Hello AquaNerds!

It’s time for our March Tank of the Month contest. We will be accepting any number of aquariums, but your entry is due no later than Sunday, February 21 by midnight (Central Standard Time). Once all of the entries are in, you’ll have a little over a week to vote. The winner of the contest will be named the first week of December.

Please see our Tank of the Month Contest Guidelines for more details.

I’m feeling a big generous this time around, so the winner of this month’s contest will receive a $75 gift card from ReefExotic.net. That’s right, a $100 gift card!

180 Gallon In-Wall Reef Aquarium

This is the writeup for the AquaNerd January Tank of the Month contest winner. This month’s winner is Will  from Pearland, Texas. He will be receiving a full line of aquavitro products from Seachem. Below is a little information about Will’s aquarium along with lots of pictures of his gorgeous reef aquarium.

Purple Firefish

The Tank:

• Start Date: Late May 2008
• Tank Size: 180 gallons
• Sump Size: 75 gallons capacity/ 45 gallon actual
• Total system: 225 gallons

Livestock:

Fishes & Inverts:

Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

• Blue Hippo Tang
• Desjardini Tang
• Bristletooth Tang
• Percula Clownfish
• Sixline Wrasse
• Green chromis
• 2 Purple firefish
  

  180 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium

• 2 Pajama Cardinals
• Squareback Anthias

• Maxima clam
• 2 Derasa clams
• Crocea clam
• Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Favorite fish and why:

My blue hippo has been with me through the tough times. Before starting my current tank he was the only survivor of an ich outbreak. During that time he contracted and fought off ich 4 times. Since he has been in the 180 I have dealt with ich once from a sohal tang and the hippo caught it. But we were not worried in the least because its obvious he is a strong fish and is able to fight off infections. In addition to being tough as nails, he is the friendliest fish ever! New comers are always greeted in a friendly manner. It’s almost like he’s the kid at school who befriends the new guy just because he is a good person and wants the newcomer to feel welcome.

Coral:

Plating Montipora Capricornis

SPS:

• Orange Monti
• Purple Monti
• Green slimer
• about 7 different Acros
• Forest fire Montipora digitata
• 2 species of Pocillipora
• Blue tip Milli
• Purple/red birdnest
  

  Mixed Reef Aquarium

• Some others I can’t name

Favorite SPS and why:

Forest Fire Digi, it’s just beautiful…

LPS:

• 2 Softball size Frogspawn and one smaller
• Large hammer colony
• 20 head candy cane
• 10 head Duncan
  

  Green and Pink Frogspawn Colony

• Softball size Galaxea
• Purple and green lobo

Favorite LPS and why:

Frogspawn. The two large ones are next to each other and are massive! Their movement always catches an eye.

Softies:

• Carnation Coral
• Chili Coral
  

  Pulsing Xenia

• Lots xenia
• Blue anthelia (everywhere)
• Elephant Ear Mushroom

Favorite Softy and why:

Blue anthelia. For its shag carpet effect.

Maintenance and Feeding:

I used to perform water changes once a week religiously and still ran into algae problems about 8 months in. I decided to take a more hands off approach and get rid of some livestock. Since then I have performed an 18% water change every month, maybe 3 weeks. This seems to let the system balance itself and not cause any major disruptions in chemistry. After laying off on the water changes and livestock I have had zero algae.

Squarespot Anthias Closeup

I usually feed 2 cubes of a combination of spirulina brine, brine, blood worms, and veggie mix. Some days I will feed one cube and a quarter sheet of a veggie treat. I feel like this is the right amount for my fish currently without a build-up of nutrients. Currently I add no supplements manually.

Filtration methods:

• Pre-filter socks (2)
• ASM-G4x Protein Skimmer
• Phosban reactor with carbon

Precision Marine Calcium Reactor Setup

Other Equipment:

Lighting:

• 624 watts of T-5’s
• Lighting Schedule: Two secondary lights come on at 1:30 P.M. and go off at 11:15 P.M. Main lighting comes on at 2:00 P.M. and goes off at 11:00 P.M. Refugium light comes on at Midnight until 8:00 A.M.

Rear View of 180 Gallon Reef Tank

Circulation:

• Return Pump: Mag 12

Cooling:

One small box fan blowing across the top of the display. As well as two exhaust fans pulling hot air from above out to the world.

Tridacna clams Next to Each Other

Calcium Dosing:

• Precision Marine Ca Rx with additional DIY 2nd chamber

Top Off:

• Gravity fed by a 30-gallon reservoir supplied directly from RO/DI unit.

Control System:

Purple and Green Lobophyllia

• AquaController Jr. w/ DC8

Water Parameters

• pH: 8.0-8.12
• Specific Gravity: 1.024-1.025
• Calcium: 400-420 ppm
• Alkalinity: 8-10 dKH
• Magnesium: not tested regularly (1200 usually)
• Temperature: 80-82 F
  

  Neon Green Seriatopora

• Nitrates: Undetectable
• Phosphates: Undetectable

Growth Rate:

All LPS have grown quite a bit in the past 1 and couple months. Candycane grew from 3 heads to 20 in 18 months. Duncan grew from 3 heads to 10 or more in 12 months. Blue anthelia, well, just read below. Some SPS such as my montis and pocillipora grow about 1 inch a month. No exaggeration there, I have to prune then often. Acros grow at about ¼ inch in 1-2 months. I suppose if I paid more attention to the Mg in my water they could grow a little faster, but I am happy with the current rate.

Fuzzy Acropora millepora

Special Characteristics:

If you look closely in my tank you will see that the purple tint to all of the rocks is not from coralline algae. Blue anthelia is everywhere in my tank! And I don’t mind. It’s pretty neat to see it everywhere and have people that know no better ask if the rock is alive. Every couple of months the anthelia will spawn and the tank will have eggs floating everywhere for about 2 days.

Fire and Ice Digitata with Blue Clove Polyps in the Background

Aptasia – I have it everywhere. I have fought that battle before and its never ending. But in my system (can’t speak for everyone) the aptasia do no harm. They are in constant contact with the blue anthelia in particular with no adverse effects. They touch other corals as well with no problems. I do not believe they are harmful to a system. But that is my opinion from my experience.

Acropora Coral in Mixed Reef

Acknowledgments:

It would be impossible to have my tank in its current state without help from fellow hobbyist and internet forums; absolutely impossible. Thank you very much and I’m glad we can share interest in such a rewarding, yet expensive hobby.

Seachem Sea the Difference

Seachem is our sponsor for January’s Tank of the Month contest, and they have generously donated a full set of their aquavitro product line.

The votes are in and our January Tank of the Month is…

Tank #1, submitted by Will

Tank #1

Will will receive the entire lineup of aquavitro products from Seachem. And stay tuned for the January TOTM writeup. Will has tons of pictures of his beautiful in-wall aquarium.

Voting for the January Tank of the Month contest ends tomorrow night at midnight! Be sure to vote on the AquaNerd forums and HERE on the blog. The winner will be announced January 1st and the writeup will soon follow.

The winner of this month’s contest will receive a full line of aquavitro products from Seachem!

Here are the entries for the January Tank of the Month Contest. These entries will be posted here, and on our AquaNerd Forums. To vote, simply post a comment (below) for the tank you would like to vote for and visit the forum to vote on our poll. All tanks are listed in the order in which they were received. Voting will end on December 31st at midnight.

Tank #1

Tank #2

Tank #3

Tank #4

Tank #5

There are only a few days left to submit a full tank shot of your aquarium to the January Tank of the Month Contest. Entries are due on Sunday, December 20 by midnight (Central Standard Time).

Seachem Sea the Difference

Seachem is our sponsor for January’s Tank of the Month contest, and they have generously donated a full set of their aquavitro product line.

Please send all submissions to admin@aquanerd.com

Hello AquaNerds!

It’s time for another Tank of the Month contest. We will be accepting any number of aquariums, but your entry is due no later than Sunday, December 20th by midnight (Central Standard Time). Once all of the entries are in, you’ll have a eleven to vote. The winner of the contest will be named the first week of January.

Please see our Tank of the Month Contest Guidelines for more details.

Seachem Sea the Difference

Seachem is our sponsor for January’s Tank of the Month contest, and they have generously donated a full set of their aquavitro product line.

This January’s winner of the TOTM contest will receive the following products from Seachem Laboratories (please click on each product below to be taken to a description):

• alpha
• balance
• calcification
• eight.four
• ions
• fuel
• vibrance

48 Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium

This is the writeup for the AquaNerd December Tank of the Month contest winner. This month’s winner is Alex  from Houston, Texas. He will be receiving a $100 gift certificate to ReefExotic.net. Below is a little information about Alex’s aquarium along with lots of pictures of his gorgeous reef aquarium.

Australian Chalice Coral

Background:

The reason I got into this hobby was because of my older cousin that had a 220-gallon reef system when I was about 14, and I could spend hours in front of that thing and fall asleep in front of it many of times too. I promised myself I would have one as soon as I felt comfortable keeping one.

Blue and Gold Tridacna crocea Clam

Bleeding Apple Scolymia

The Tank:

The tank is a 48-gallon rimless reef ready aquarium by ADA that was set up in October 2008. This tank was supposed to be the perfect size, but of course I will upgrade sooner than later.

48-Gallon Mixed Reef Aquarium

Livestock:

Fishes & Inverts:

Acanthastrea Lordhowensis Closeup

• Purple Tang
• Yellow Tang
• Blue Tang
• Mystery Wrasse
• ORA Platinum Clowns (Pair)
• Mandarin Goby
• Blue Devin Damsel
• Fathead Sunburst Anthias
• Sand Sifter Starfish
• 10 Nasarius snails
• 3 Turbo Snails
• 15 Margarita Snails
• 10 Astrea snails
• 1 Cocoa Worm
• Green Feather Duster
  

  Red Cynaria Doughnut Coral

• Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Corals:

• ORA Borealis Acropora
• ORA Frogskin Acropora
• ORA Hawkins Echinata
• ORA Purple Plasma
• ORA Plum Crazy
• ORA Purple Tip Valida
• ORA Roscoe’s Acropora
• Bali Green Slimer
• Blue Millepora
• Peach Digitata
• Strawberry Staghorn
• 30,000 Leagues Lokani
  

  Neon Green Starburst Polyps and Acan

• Orange Scrolling Cap
• 2 Bleeding Apple Scolymias
• Red Cynarina
• Dendrophyllia coccinea
• Blastomussa wellsi
• 3 Rainbow Acans
• Duncanopsammia axifuga
• Frogspawn
• 2 Australian Chalices
• 2 Rhizotrochus typus
• Pink Goniopora
• Pink & Orange Yuma  Ricordia
• Green Star Polyps
• Various Zoanthus sp.

Maintenance and Feeding:

As for maintaining my tank, I perform weekly 10-gallon water changes, then I test it the day after, and dose if needed. A 5 gallon ATO is built into my sump that does  the topping off in my tank. Also I have a 1/6 HP Oceanic chiller that keeps my water temp steady. When I am doing a water change I add Seachem Fuel, Vibrance and Fuel. If needed I add Seachem Reef Builder, Reef Ad Calcium and Seagel that I change out every month.

ORA Platinum Picasso Clownfish

I feed the fish 2 times a day, Dainichi Marine and Reef veggie mix in the morning and a frozen mix in the afternoon of Rod’s Food for reefs and PE freshwater mysis. The Corals get feed by a variety of things, Reef Nutrition Phyto feast, Oyster feast, Roti feast twice a week, and REEF BUGS once a week. I target feed the rhyzo, dendros, duncans, and acans once a week also.

Green Duncanopsammia axifuga

Bleeding Apple Scoly and Fathead Sunburst Anthias

Filtration methods:

Under my tank I have 15-gallon refugium with Ehiem 1260 submersible pump. In the fuge I have Caulerpa racemosa and Chaeto. As for the skimmer I have had a PM Redline 150 in sump, but this week I got a Bubble King Mini 160, and it is doing work.

Green Chalice Behind Mystey Wrasse

Other Equipment:

Lighting:

I have a Current USA Outer Orbit light fixture with 2×150 watt XM 20k HQI with 4×39 watt T5 mix of 1 UVL super actinic, 1 Korallen Coral Light and 1 Korallen Fiji Purple and also a Aqua Science Duo bulb. 9 blue LED and 9 white LED. The lighting schedule is T5s come on at 12:30pm until 10:30pm, then halides cut on at 2pm and are on until 8pm while the LEDS act as sunrise and sunset.

Acan and Rose Bubble Tip Anemone

Circulation:
For circulation I have 2 votechs, 1 mp40w and also mp10, the mp40 is on short pulse mode (blue), which is a wave that I created, and mp10 is on reef crest mode (yellow). Truthfully that was the best money I ever spent.

PM Redline Skimmer and EcoTech Vortech Pumps

Water Parameters:
Calcium: 400
PH: 8.1-8.3
dKH: 8
Salinity: 1.024
Nitrate/ Phosphate: 0
Temp: 77-79

Special Thanks:

I’d like to thank Marsh for all the topics it covers, also all the local fish stores that have shared info, Donny, David, Andy, and my friends that put up with me dragging them to the fish store, but I have gotten a lot of people to appreciate the hobby and have encouraged people to get their own tank.

Mandarin Dragonet

Green and Orange Scolymia

Green Frogspawn with Purple Tips

Fuzzy Mushroom Coral

After tallying up all of the votes (which there was a ton of), we have a winner for our Tank of the Month Contest for December.

This month’s winner is tank #5…

Tank #5

Alex will provide us with a Tank of the Month writeup, so stay tuned to get even more pictures and information on this system.

Here are the entries for the December Tank of the Month Contest. These entries will be posted here, and on our AquaNerd Forums. To vote, simply post a comment (below) for the tank you would like to vote for and visit the forum to vote on our poll. All tanks are listed in the order in which they were received. Voting will end on November 3oth.

Tank #1

Tank #2

Tank #3

Tank #4

Tank #5

Tank #6

Tank #7