December 2011 Tank of the Month

[Genetics]

This month we are featuring the beautiful Reef Aquarium of Thorly Tan (Crazy4Acros).



More details can be found here.

Congratulations, Thorly!

Also check out the Reefkeeping Blog!

If you'd like to nominate a tank for Tank of the Month, click here or use the button to the right.

[IridescentLily]

Congratulations Thor!

[ridetheducati]

Very nice.

[Misled]

Well deserved!! Congrats!!!

[psteeleb]

Beautiful
and congrats on a great tank and TOTM

[jporter]

Beautiful!

[Telaverus]

Inspiring. Zen.

[tqpolo]

This can't be his first time as TOTM is it? This tank is legendary.

[sweet ride]

Congratulations on TOTM!!!! well deserved!!!!

I can't believe it took this long for you receive the well deserved recognition!!!! this is one of my favorite tank and an inspiration in my own build!!!!

[PokerReefer]

I have also always enjoyed looking at this tank. Do you target feed your corals at all or broadcast feed them? If so how, what, when? What do you feed your fish? Tia.

[caliking]

CONGRATS!! Less is more and simplicity is abundance.

I did want to ask you what the name of the yellow fish with the black tail was called (species). Thank you.

[caliking]

Questions:

• What salt do you use?
• How often do u perform Water changes?
• What do you feed your coral?

Thanks...

[jsdancer]

Congrats for TOTM Crazy4acros! I am currently choosing the no sand bed as well. Star board to be exact. Your tank is beautiful and have some very interesting coral specimens.
I love the goldflake angle fish. Has he not been a problem?

May you continue and enjoy your success!!!

[n0rk]

Damn, it's about time man. Congratulations

[crazy4acros]

A big thank you to YOU ALL! Your support is what made this possible. I will answer any questions as best as i can and really this is what keeps my tank and motivation going!

@ PokerReefer, My corals don’t get fed honestly I don’t know what they are feeding on in my tank other than fish poo and leftovers. My fish only get fed Dainichi pellets (tiny). When I introduce a new fish to the system, I feed Hikari frozen Mysis to entice it but eventually start to feed on the pellets.

@ cali king, The yellow fish is a juvenile Gold Flake Angel. As for salt I use Reef Crystals, I order buy bulk because they are already pre packaged in 50g bags. I have a 50g Poly barrel and make RODI water overnight pour the mix first thing in the morning and by noon ready to go in the tank. This gets done once a month.

@ jsdancer, The Gold Flake has not been a problem at all. When i first introduced it to my system, it did nip at certain corals but not enough to do any damage. This is the reason why i choose a juvenile, It is now eating nothing but Dainichi pellets.

Thor

[tamarindthai]

beautiful tank,,congratulation

[GPB]

Great job. I noticed in your first picture your tank had a sand bed. By the time that it became TOTM, it is barebottom. Why and how did you transtion. Are you glad that you did?

[crazy4acros]

Originally Posted by GPB

Great job. I noticed in your first picture your tank had a sand bed. By the time that it became TOTM, it is barebottom. Why and how did you transtion. Are you glad that you did?

The tank started out with sand but I am a bit of a perfectionist and if there is one part of the sand that is not white I’d get irritated. I started thinking I would need some way of accessing the sand as I knew it will not stay clean in the long run, my plan was to have a shallow sand bed and I would siphon detritus out of it during water changes and turn over the sand to keep it white. I also wanted to change the sand bed with new sand annually.

With the small footprint of the rock work it allowed me to freely move around the structure and siphon the sand during water changes I would also change out the old sand with live sand annually. However as the years past the structure grown and took on a shape of its own making it hard to siphon without breaking pieces of coral. Currently I decided to remove the sand to avoid breaking corals and to eliminate the need to siphon sand all together. The tank is now bare bottom and has drastically lower my maintenance tasks.

The sand was slowly siphoned out during water changes. i think it took about 2 water changes.

[tmc1313]

Great Tank, absolutely one of my favorites. Since stopping the VSV and Microbacter, have you noticed if it's any harder keeping your Phosphates and Nitrates to a minimum? I see you said you're not using any GFO or other media for nutrient export other than a 50 gallon a month water change. The reason I ask is that I have been considering stopping GFO myself. I don't overfeed and I also change about 50% of my water once a month, while continuing to use GFO. I too, strive to keep things as simple as possible, but still maintain the best environment for the inhabitants. Once again, great tank, an inspiration that proves you don't have to have all the bells and whistles, just a keen eye, observation, and some solid reef knowledge.

[crazy4acros]

Originally Posted by tmc1313

Great Tank, absolutely one of my favorites. Since stopping the VSV and Microbacter, have you noticed if it's any harder keeping your Phosphates and Nitrates to a minimum? I see you said you're not using any GFO or other media for nutrient export other than a 50 gallon a month water change. The reason I ask is that I have been considering stopping GFO myself. I don't overfeed and I also change about 50% of my water once a month, while continuing to use GFO. I too, strive to keep things as simple as possible, but still maintain the best environment for the inhabitants. Once again, great tank, an inspiration that proves you don't have to have all the bells and whistles, just a keen eye, observation, and some solid reef knowledge.

Well i had used VSV/Mb7 when i had sand in the system, in hopes that it would help keep the sand white. When i decided to remove the sand i stop the dosage all together. Dosing or no dosing or no GFO, i feel its the discipline of not overfeeding and the strict 50g water changes that really helps my phosphate and nitrates manageable. You should be fine without GFO and besides you can always resort back to it if you see a spike in your parameters.

[tmc1313]

Thanks for the reply. One more question, I know you said what you feed your fish, but did not mention how often. Is it everday? Thanks, again.

[crazy4acros]

Originally Posted by tmc1313

Thanks for the reply. One more question, I know you said what you feed your fish, but did not mention how often. Is it everday? Thanks, again.

Yes once a day, pellets only.

[sahin]

This is one of my top favorite tank on RC, and I am not surprised that your tank is Dec TOTM. I love the look of this tank, I love the placement of the corals and everything just looks like a chunk of the reef.

I just have two questions; what rock did you start out with and what method did you emply in the first 6 months of the tanks life as it were to manage nitrates and phosphates?

Many thanks.

[jdarr]

Stunning! Nice job. I have been using halides for a long time, but this pics really make me consider a change!

[crazy4acros]

Originally Posted by sahin

This is one of my top favorite tank on RC, and I am not surprised that your tank is Dec TOTM. I love the look of this tank, I love the placement of the corals and everything just looks like a chunk of the reef.

I just have two questions; what rock did you start out with and what method did you emply in the first 6 months of the tanks life as it were to manage nitrates and phosphates?

Many thanks.

Thank you! This tank started with Fiji Pukani Rock hand picked from my LSF stock tub. The first six months during start up i did water changes 2x a month and used GFO but really the system heavily relied on the beckett style skimmer that was powered with a sequence barracuda external pump. After about a year i replaced the GFO with a Ozone generator then a year after i tried VSV/MB7 dosing.