May nTOTM Top 5 Thread

[InLimbo87]

Was a tough choice, but here are the five I picked.

Vote for your favorite:


sjfishguy

Maeda

jackson6745

NanoReefWanabe

brandon7491

Top 5 finalists can post up more info/specs on their tank, along with five photos of their choice.

Voting is open for 10 days (closes 4/25).

After the voting the winner will have to get their nTOTM thread posted and start the next months contest on April 1st. (Questions about this can be PM'd to me).

Good Luck to the Top 5!

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

Wow, i cant believe i was actually selected...there are some seriously nice tank this month...congrats to all the finalists...here are a couple more pics of my tank... for your viewing enjoyment..

first some more specs..
20h with 10gallon sump/ with built in fuge, nice big ball of cheato, and 11 mangroves, about 5 pounds of live rock rubble buried down there too..
display has 30-40 pounds of lr, and about 15-20 pounds of sand, that sound be fairly live now as the tank is 1.5 years old...

fish: found in my piece of ocean are, 2 false percs, 1 green chromis and 1 6line wrasse.

inverts: creeping about and not so much are. 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 6" black brittle star, 5 blue leg hermits, 2 mini carpet anemones, piles of different snails, cerith, trochus, margarite, nassarius, astrea, strawberry conch, Hawaiian feather duster, 1 crocea clam

coral: tan and blue cap, orange and pink cap, green cap, pink birdnest, green birdnest, 3 different acropora spp., yellow scroll, green digi, orange digi, yellow digi, lime green digi, purple digi, green elkhorn monti, green fungia, orange rics, orange yumas, gsp, kenya tree, peach hammer, green millie, piles upon piles of different zoas (orange, green, blue, red, yellow, purple, pink, and a mix of every colour too...)

flow is achieved by a koralia 1, a koralia 2, an aquaclear70 (return), maxi jet 400
water is changed about 5 gallons once a month, phosban runs 24/7 teed off the return, kalk is dripped daily with 1.5ml of vodka in gravity feed top off...

150 w MH with ARO ballast,14oook aqua connect bulb, 56 w Pc actinics

parameters are checked once a week:
amm, nitrate, nitrite - 0, phosphate - 0 ( or so the kit says), mag 1400, alk 9.8, cal 440, ph 8.0, sg 1.026

top down:

top down:

right end view:

close up of mini carpet:

Sadly how it all began o1.5 years ago:

thanx for looking and nominating me..

 

[Brent Thomann]

what about lighting?

 

[jackson6745]

I appreciate making the final 5 but I voted for sjfishguy

My tank specs
24 gal AP (2 1/2 months old)
MJ 900 return
50w heater
150w Phoenix 14k
Deltec MCE 600
2x Tunze Nano 6025's
B-ionic additives (Calcium, Alk, MG, strontium, bromide fluoride, potassium iodide.

Growth Sequence of Oregon tort
Day 1

9 days later

27 days total growth

 

[InLimbo87]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12339300#post12339300 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NanoReefWanabe
150 w MH with ARO ballast,14oook aqua connect bulb, 56 w Pc actinics

 

[sjfishguy]

Specs at the bottom

Thanks for picking my tank! You already got the front on full tank shot above, so I figured I would give a few more angles.

This is what the tank looks like in the living room of my apartment

This is a pic as if you were standing on the left looking to the right side

This is a pic as if you were standing on the right looking to the left side

In the spirit of the actual TOTM, who often show all there equipment and gizmos, I thought I would show the unique way I setup my skimmer. The skimmer design and placement is so that none of the pumps, intakes or outflows are in the very precious space (all of us nano guys can appreciate this) of the main tank. Its a Coralife Super Skimmer 65 that is mounted sideways to sit in an Aquaclear 500 (110 now?). The outflow of the skimmer flows out onto the aquaclear outflow so there is no mixing of unskimmed and skimmed water. Thought you guys might find the setup interesting, I know others in my area have copied it and had good success so I thought I would share!

Here are some tank specs:

SPS dominated Oceanic 30 cube
150W 14k Phoenix
1 SureFlo maxijet mod
no sump or fuge
Coralife Super Skimmer 65

Corals:
Acropora lovelli (Mike Paletta Turquoise)
Acropora millipora (ORA blue)
Acropora millipora (Nathan's green)
Acropora sp
Acropora sp (Chip's)
Acropora sp (GARF bonsai)
Acropora tenius (blue tip)
Acropora tortusa (ORA Blue)
Acropora valida
Acropora youngei (green slimer)
Blastomussa merletti
Blastomussa wellsi
Caulastrea curvata
Duncanopsamia axifuga
Fungia repanda (green)
Fungia repanda (purple)
Fungia sp (orange)
Green Star Polyps
Hydnopora rigata (baby blue)
Montipora capricornis (green)
Montipora capricornis (orange)
Montipora danae (superman)
Montipora digitata (ORA blue polyp)
Montipora digitata (green)
Montipora digitata (orange)
Montipora monestariata
Montipora sp (pokerstar)
Muricea elongata (orange gorgonia)
Muriceopsis flavida (purple gorgonia)
Palythoa sp (x3 morphs)
Pocillopora damicoris
Seriatapora guttatus
Seriatapora hystrix
Trachyphillia geoffroi (green)
Trachyphillia geoffroi (red)
Turbineria peltata
Turbineria reniformis
Zoanthus sp (10 morphs)

Inverts:
Scarlet cleaner shrimp
Coral Banded shrimp
red serpent star
harlequin sepent star
orange coneshell hermit (hawaii)
typical snails and hermits for cleanup crew

Coral Beauty, Maroon Clown (that hosts in a one of my two maxima clams!), Royal Gramma, Sixline wrasse

 

[sjfishguy]

oh yeah, and the top down shot from the original thread....

 

[nanO352]

sjfishguy how much flow do you have threw that Oceanic tank?

 

[sjfishguy]

I would say about 40X turnover. The net flow is the aquaclear 110 and single sureflo maxijet mod. I used standard powerheads for many years and compared to the new things out the standards stink. The new maxijet mods and the big koralias (pretty much the same thing as a modded maxijet) are awesome. If you are anyone that is using standard powerheads or stock flow in kit nanos for anything over 10gals I would say you are really short changing yourself. The flow is important not just for the corals but to eliminate dead spots that become nutrient factories.

 

[brandon7491]

what an honnor to be selected in the top 5 for nano tank of the month and to the other 5 contestants you all have awsome tanks. Being 16yrs old and getting this top 5 nomination almost feels better than any wrestling metal becasue of all the work,research,time,effort that i and we all put in to our tanks. any ways here are some pics of my tank

29gallon standard
aquac remora protien skimmer
hob fillter with modded fuge
running for a year and 5mths
fish are flame angel,purple dotty back,watchman goby,2 true percs.
corals are all to many to name lol and are awsome
flow is by 1 hydrokorilla nano stream and 2 penguin 1140 pumps
lighting is a 150watt ocean aquamedic light with a 14k phoneix bulb.

this is truly an honor and i wish the other top 5 contestents good luck again you all have marvelous reefs

 

[BLKTANG]

Some really nice tanks here.

Rich looks great man.Count me in.

 

[Maeda]

Really great tanks this month! Nice job everybody.

Here are some RECENT pictures.

FTS. Sorry it's so yellow. I don't run any actinics.

Here's a bit of info about my equipment for those who are curious.

Display
24x24x15" Custom Tank w/ DIY trim removal.
DIY Acrylic False-wall + Laser cut overflow

Light
175w Iwasaki
Icecap Electronic Ballast
Lumenarc III Reflector
DIY Ballast box, wiring, misc.

Flow
QuietONE 2200 Sump Return
Panworld 50PX-X Closed Loop

Filtration + etc.
Deltec MC500
DIY Dosing pumps
DIY Foam background (that my urchin ATE in 1 week)
DIY Auto-Topoff
AC Jr.

Fishies
Solar Fairy Wrasse
Whip-Fin Fairy Wrasse
Cherub Pygmy Angel
Mystery Wrasse (now banned to the other tank)


The tank is 1 year old as of March, and I built nearly everything I could myself as I enjoy this hobby much, but have limited funds and often cannot find things the way I'd like them.

The coral collection stems from frags from my previous two tanks, as well as a couple rescue colonies from crashed tanks that need rehab.

Can I update my entry picture?

 

[RumLad]

sjfishguy - nice tank,
now get that picture/frame cleaned up!

 

[decent37]

hey brandon i like the tank alot looks great, i was looking at that plate coral you got there maybe its the pic or whatever but it looks like its dying to me. if you put it down on the sand it would do alot better if its not doing so good.

 

[brandon7491]

thanks alot decent37, yes looks are very decieving but it is getting the proper light nd its showing great orange color. people generally tend to think that plates should be on the sand in order for them to survive but in the wild they are found on rocks and ledges. ill get a better pic of it but when it was at the lfs a month ago it looked so bad but now its regaining its strong deep orange color and displaying feeder tenticles.

 

[hdesai123]

All of the tanks look nice but for me sjfishguy stands above all.

 

[sjfishguy]

RumLad, too funny, haha I thought of that too when I took those pictures the other day, but I was in a rush out the door and didn't get a chance. Its really not as dirty as it looks in that picture and I do clean it like once a month, but it is due for a cleaning.

 

[El Camaron]

sjfishguy, your tank is awesome, great pictures.

 

[decent37]

hey jackson i got some questions for ya. i was thinking about going bare bottom in my tank. i went to my lfs and talked to the guy that ownes the place. he has been in the industry for 20 plus years and really seems to know his stuff. any way how long have that tank going with out sand? have you done it in other tanks before? what are pros and cons you see from not having sand? thx

 

[jackson6745]

Decent, the tank posted above has been setup for about 3 months (24gal Aquapod).
My old 120gal was also BB and the corals did well.
As for pros and cons, I'm really not sure. I just like the look of BB. When I used to run tanks with sandbeds I would have a pile of sand pushed into a corner of the tank because of the flow.

here is my old BB 120. It was taken down because of a move.