March 2009 Tank Of The Month Winner: Ace25

[Reefscape]

The winner of the March 2009 Tank of the Month is Ace25


Specifics of the Photograph

Photo Specs:
- Date Picture Taken: February 27th, 2009
- Camera: Nikon Coolpix 5700, Macro setting, timer and tri-pod. Auto settings for focus/aperture/white balance.

Tank Specs:
- Date First Setup: June 15th, 2008 - Sept 15th, 2008 (Tore down due to leak)
- Date Re-Setup December 4th, 2008
- 30"x24"x24" (75G) - Starphire front - No trim/Euro Bracing

Flow:
- 2x Koralia3 Powerheads
- Gen-X PCX-40 (1170GPH) Closed loop pump attached to a "floating reef"
- Eheim 1262 (950GPH) Return pump
- Both Return pump and closed loop pump are routed through a SCWD to alternate flow

Filtration:
- 6" Deep Sand Bed in display
- 100Lbs live rock in display
- 15G Sump/Refugium
- 4" Filter sock
- Remora HOB skimmer
- TLF Media Reactor w/ Rowaphos Media
- 2 10oz bags of Chemi-Pure
- 10lbs live rock rubble + cheato macro algae

Lighting:
- 250w PFO HQI Ballast + XM10K SE MH bulb
- Icecap660 Ballast + 4x 22" Giesemann Actinic T5HO bulbs
- 12x 3mm blue LEDs for moonlights
- 26w Coralife mini PC "Freshwater" light on Refugium

Other Equipment:
- JBJ ATO for top offs
- Reefkeeper 2 controller for pH/temperature monitoring, timers, and heater control
- 2x 150w Heaters
- Grounding Probe

Fish: 15 total
- Potters angel (Centropyge potteri)
- Potters wrasse (Macropharyngodon geoffroyi)
- African Leopard wrasse (Macropharyngodon bipartitus)
- Argus wrasse (Halichoeres argus)
- Yellow wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus)
- Cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus)
- Fusi goby (Fusigobius sp.)
- White tiger goby (Priolepis nocturna)
- Pink spot goby (Cryptocentrus leptocephal)
- Blue spot goby (Cryptocentrus pavoninoides)
- Yellow watchman goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus)
- Engineer goby (Pholidichthys Leucotaenia)
- Zebra dartfish (Ptereleotris zebra)
- Lawnmower blenny (Salarias fasciatus)
- Midas blenny (Ecsenius midas)

Corals: Too many to list, around 40 different softy, LPS, and SPS corals

Maintanence Schedule:
Weekly 50% water changes with RO/DI water and OceanPure Pro salt mix. Weekly Nitrate, Calcium,
Alkalinity, Magnesium, and Phosphate tests. Daily skimmer cleanings. Bi-Weekly filter sock changes,
Kalkwasser top off water refill, and glass cleaning. Monthly Chemi-pure/rowaphos media replacement.

[Reefscape]

Congratulations Ace, its about time dude....Well done !!!

Please PM me your full name, postal address and registered email...Thanks..Also, please PM me a small write up about the tank, setup and inhabitants and will add it to the thread..

[snoopy65]

congrats! beautiful tank!

[Mokomon]

Yay!!

Deservedly so!!
Congrats!

[Bubbles2112]

Congrats!! Your tank is really spectacular!! :thm:

[rsanz]

Congrats, man. You put up a really stiff competition, and you deserve the win. Fantastic tank. Hard to compete with that.

[rich311k]

Congrats!! Excellent tank!

[mel_20_20]

Really beautiful tank!! You've done a fabulous job with that tank, and work hard to keep it healthy and beautiful!!!

Congrats!!!

[Ace25]

Thanks all! That sure was a close race. Great entries this month! Hard to believe a salty beat out so many great planted tanks.

Hope this is ok, just wanted to share a few of my fav pics for this thread. ;)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/3320751671_6b2d30fb49_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3513/3310237337_4aa358cdd0_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3603/3313062178_d7298329b0_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/3162505384_d6bf67e300_o.jpg

[irishspy]

That truly is a gorgeous reef, almost a fairyland. Well done! :clap:

Edit: I've read Potter's Angels can be hard to get eating. Did yours eat right away, and does he pick at the corals?

[Ace25]

I've read Potter's Angels can be hard to get eating. Did yours eat right away, and does he pick at the corals?

Personally, never had any problems with Potter's angels. Always hardy, eat like pigs, and never a problem around corals from my experience. It is my favorite Angel and has been for many years. I have personal experience with about 20 or so Potter's Angels from working at a LFS and being in a local reef club, and I can't think of one bad experience with them. I think they got a bad rap from some old internet postings. Maybe early on in the SW/Reef hobby bad collection methods of those fish or incorrect tank requirements made them have a higher mortality rate, but in the last few years they seem like a very healthy and reef safe angel.

[wesleydnunder]

Congratulations Ace, on a much-deserved win. If I ever decide to spend the cash to do a reef, I want it to look like yours. My tank was entry #1, and I knew from day 1 it wasn't the best-lookin' tank...I almost voted for yours. lol

Awesome reef, man.

Mark

[noodles62]

Congratulations! What a beautiful tank. The colors are amazing. :thumbsup:

[Rbishop]

Congrats! Great tank!

[ChrisK]

well deserved congrats

[sue711]

Absolutely a super tank, congratulations! :)

[jameshilljr]

I'm glad you finally won-you deserved it the last time you had entered your tank...Amazing colors/setup-good job:thm:

[Kashta]

Beautiful reef, Ace. Congrats!

[june2000]

Awesome!! Congratulation!!!

[jpappy789]

Nice pics!!! Congrats!!!

[VivaLaVics]

Congrats! That is one brilliant tank! Not much more one can say than that! :)

[evelyn80]

congratz! absolutely stunning!

[BreezeRuehls]

WOW

[madfox]

Good job! Congrats!

[kreesdqban]

WOW, absolutely beautiful!

[Riiz]

Congrats, even though I'm a planted tank nut, I'm glad to sea a marine tank win the prize this time.

[rich747]

very beautifull. very nice

[marko]

Hi. just out of couriosity, what is the purpose of the pipework under the rock.

Regards
marko

[Ace25]

PVC under the rocks = "Floating Reef". You do this to hold the rocks up above the sand. One of my favorite fish species is the goby, and they are known to dig. I did not want to have to worry about any rockslides in my tank because of those fish, so I built a support frame to hold the rocks.

I then incorporated the PVC frame as my return for my closed loop setup. I have a 1100GPH external pump that sucks in water towards the top of the tank and then shoots it out of holes I drilled all around the PVC so I get a nice gentle updraft of current.

[Turbosaurus]

That tank takes my breath away. Its absolutely enchanting, the kind of thing that if I ever sat down in front of it I could get stuck there forever.

[Guillo1]

very nice tank Jeremy. I can't wait to see it in about an year with all those colonies thriving.

[invisy]

Stunning!!!!!!!

[bigcols]

Congrats dude, very nice setup ;)

[marinemad]

great tank!!