2010 Tank Of The Year!!! sponsored by Bashsea!

[jimsflies]

Tank of the Year

CR has a new trophy, in fact the new trophy is the holy grail of trophy's here on CR...Tank of the Year. There are only a select few CR members that can even be considered for this trophy...Only the previous year Tank of the Month recipients have a shot at getting it. It is in fact the best of the best!

This contest serves as a showcase (see Post #2 of this thread) to honor the dedication and hard work our previous year's Tank of the Month (TOTMs) recipient. It hopefully will inspire us all to be better reefers...to do those water changes...to sacrifice other life's essentials and get the sweet coral or rare fish...to take clearer photos...and to share our tanks with each other on CaptiveReefs.

Unlike TOTM which is selected by staff members and previous TOTM winners, the crowning of the best tank for 2010 rides solely on CR members. So please help by voting for your favorite tank. Our list includes 2 tanks from 2009. I've included a summary and a link to each TOTM.

Besides the hard work and dedication it takes to achieve a TOTM, putting together the TOTM article takes a lot of work on behalf of the honoree. These dedicated reefers have to provide a writeup, great photos, and make sure that their CR profiles and showcases are well polished. As a special thank you for their hard work, we thought it was appropriate to reward them with a chance to win a great prize. So, the TOTY winner will *have to make a choice between prizes...2 years unlimited use of a 2011 Toyota Prius or 7 days, 6 nights all expenses paid dive trip in Cancun Mexico...including air fare*. OK, just kidding we can all dream, right....

However, we do have a real sweet prize for the Tank of the Year Winner! Bashsea has donated a $200 gift certificate which can be used at any authorized Bashsea dealer to purchase that equipment upgrade they've always wanted.



The TOTY poll will close on January 9, 2011 so please take a few minutes and review our previous winners and vote for the one that you think best deserves the title of Captive Reefs "Tank Of The Year". In the event of a tie, we will have a 3 day re-vote for to determine the winner.

[jimsflies]

Here are the summaries of each of our TOTM winners from 2010:

October 2009 - TimmyB770's 120 gallon SPS Reef

The tank is a standard 120 gallon 48" by 24" by 24" Allglass aquarium fitted with Eshoppes overflow. Water is returned from the 50 gallon sump via aDanner Magdrive 1200. Flow in the display is provided by 2 Vortech MP40s. The substantial demand for calcium and Alkalinity is handled by a GEO 624. (read more)

December 2009- Werdlone's 150 Starphire SPS Dominated Reef

Werdlone's tank is a 150-gallon, 72"x 24"x 20" starphire glass tank by Great Lakes Aquariums. It has a middle 1.5" overflow that runs through a filter sock at the sump. Water is returned from the 100 gallon Rubbermaid sump by a Gen-X pcx 40 pump through two penductors on loc-line. In tank flow is supplied by two Vortech mp40's. The sand bed is 2-inches of carib sea special grade sand. He runs a MSX 250 skimmer, GEO 418 calcium reactor, Tunze osmolator top off, and carbon through a Two Little Fishes reactor and GFO through another. Lighting consists of three DE 250 watt Phoenix bulbs in Lumen Max reflectors driven by blue wave HQI ballasts. He also uses two 60" VHO super actinic bulbs for actinic supplementation. (read more)

January 2010 - divecj5's SPS Dominated Nano Reef

Display: 20 Gallon High - 24"x12"x16" AGA Lighting: Aquatinics TX5 5-bulb T5 Fixture Filtration: Aqua-C Remora HOB skimmer Circulation: VorTech MP20W Heater: Stealth Heater 100w Top off: JBJ ATO Controller: Aquatics ReefKeeper Lite (read more)

February 2010 - Bella127's Cube

Display: 60 Gallon 25"x25"x25" Great Lakes Aquarium Lighting: 250w Blue Wave 3 ballast w/Lumenarc reflector powering a Radium 20 k bulb Ice Cap 430 over driving 2 x 24 w ATI Blue plus bulbs Current Powerbrite Blue L.E.D Module Refugium Lighting: 1 x Home Depot "fuge light" with 6500k bulb Skimmer: Bubble King mini 160 Water Movement: VorTech MP40W x 2 and Quiet One 4000 return pump Heater: Titanium heater by Finnex 300w Auto Top Off: Tunze Osmolator pumping out of an 8 gallon reservoir Controller: Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Lite w/ 2 PC-4's, One SL-2 module, and Net module Sump/Fuge: 20 gallon tank houses skimmer, grape culerpa, return pump, ato sensing unit and fuge light. Supplemental power supply: American DJ PC-100/a 8 port power center Water source: BRS 4 stage rodi filling a 32 gal brute conatiner w/ auto float shut-off. (read more)

March 2010 - Tom@HassletMI's Mixed Reef

Display: 50 Gallon 36"x18"x18" "Breeder" Lighting: 3 - 39watt T5HO w/ TEK II reflectors (blue+, aquablue special, blue+) 1 - Current USA PowerBrite LED (white) Sump/fuge: 20-gallon "Long" Skimmer: EuroReef ES5-2 Refugium Lighting: DIY 4 watt cold cathode fluorescent Return pump: Mag18 (partially routed back to fuge section of sump) Circulation: 1 - Tunze Nanostream 6045 1 - Koralia 2 Heating/cooling: 100 watt Tronic heater and a 3-inch canopy fan Top Off: Tunze Osmolator w/ a 6 gallon reservoir (read more)

April 2010 - Youngtimothy's Beautiful Reef

[Display: 100-gallon Lighting: six over-driven T5's 3 ATI Blue plus 1 ATI Aqua blue special 2 UVL Super Actinic Sump/fuge: Skimmer: Octopus 150 skimmer Return pump: 700 gph Circulation: Two Vortech MP-40'2 Heating/cooling: 100 watt Tronic heater and a 3-inch canopy fan Top Off: JBJ Tooff w/ a 10 gallon galss aquarium reservoir Dosing Pumps: Controller: Reef Keeper Lite (read more)

May 2010 - PJR's 135g Awesome LED Reef

Display: 135 Gallon 72"x18"x21" All Glass Aquariums Lights: Sunbrite LEDs Filtration: Tunze 9010 Skimmer Circulation: Tunze 6100, Koralia Hydor Retun: Iwaki Top Off: Spectrapure Litermeter III Other Equipment: Reefkeeper 2 (read more)

June 2010 - Vega15's Gorgeous Mixed Reef

Display: 180 Gallon (AGA w/built in overflows) built in wall with 100-gallon sump. Lights: 6' Maristar Light Fixture w/three 150W HQI (Ushio 14K) bulbs and four T-5 actinic. Return PumpL Iwaki 70 Return Pump. Filtration: ASM G-4X Protein Skimmer. Circualation: Tunze 6100 w/Single Controller Topoff: 20-Gallon water tower for top off. Tank has a simple mechanical float for top-off. 40W Aqua UV Sterilizer Bulk Reef Supply reactor concerted into a De-Nitrate Reactor Bulk Reef Supply reactor running GFO and Carbon 7-Gallon Kalkwasser drip system 75 GPD RO/DI unit. 300 Watts of Stealth Heaters on a controller. Reef Crystals salt. (read more)

July 2010 - Schminksbro's SPS Garden

Display: 100 Gallon 48"x26"x18"" Great Lakes Aquariums Lights: two 250-watt halides, 2 54-watt HOT5 actinics Filtration: ASM G3 Skimmer (mesh modded) Return Pump; two Magdrive 7's Circulation: two Vortech MP-40s Top Off: Aqua Lifter (kalkwasser) controlled by Reef Fanatic topoff Other Equipment: GEO 618 Calcium Reactor (read more)

August 2010 - Myteemouse's Blue Room

125 Gallon Display: 60"x 24"x 20" by CFI Lights: (2) 250w MH 14k coralvue w/lumen bright reflectors. (2) 48-watt HO-T5 on Icecap 660 Filtration: SWC 250 Circulation: Closed Loop with two inlets four out on Dart pump (3600gph) Hydor K-4 modded on sea swirl (1200 gph) Return: Posidon 1200 GPH Top off: DIY ATO Other Equipment: Reefkeeper Lite Controller Kalk reactor w/ blueline 10 stirrer, Phosreactor Chiller in the summer 29 Gallon Display: 24"x12"x16" Lights[: (1) 250w MH 14k corlavue W/lumen bright reflector (1) 24-watt HO-T-5 Filtration: Euro reef 100 skimmer Circulation: (1) Hydor K-3 (1) Hydor K-1 Return: Quiet One 400GPH return pump Top off: DIY ATO Other Equipment: Phosreactor (read more)

September 2010 - DBarsotti's SPS Jungle

Main Display:40 gallon - 36x18x16 Lights: 36" Current USA Outter Orbit 2x150watt 14k Phoenix Metal Halide, 4xT5 actinic Flow: three Koralia 2 and one Koralia 3 Frag Tank: 15 gallon - Size 21x18x10 Lighting: 24" Current USA outter Orbit 1x150watt 14k Phoenix Metal Halide, 4xT5 actinic Flow: two Koralia 1 Other Equipment: Skimmer: Aqua-C Ramora CPR External overflow box Mag 6 Return Pump split between the display and frag tank with ball valve to reduce flow to frag tank. Neptune AquaController3 (read more)

November 2010 - Manoj's Mixed Reef

Display: 65 gallon - 36 inches x 18 inches x 24 inches Refugium: 30 inches x 12 inches x 16 inches Overflow system: 700gph glass holes overflow Water Movement: Two 6045 Tunze pumps Skimmer: DNW150 Reef Octopus external recirculating skimmer Lights: 5 High Output T5 bulbs with SLR's run by workhorse ballasts Bulb Configuration: Front to Back: ATI Blue+, ATI aqua blue, ATI blue+, ATI aqua blue, ATI blue+ Auto Top Off : Tunze Osmolator (read more)

[Manoj's Reef]

Thats a real sweet deal!!!!

[tazzy695]

very sweet way to honer the totm winners

also you almost had me with the first two prises you had listed LOL

[Sir Patrick]

This is going to be a close one, for a few people I am betting!!

Voted!

[cephalotus]

This one is gonna be a toughey.

[CrabbyCorals]

Amazing tanks...congrats to all.

[kgood1]

Great job to all TOTM winners!!!!!!! picking one is hard!

[vega15]

I was really happy to of been nominated and then win TOTM this year. Now that I see all of the past winners lined up here I have to say that I am blown away by them all!

I know that we have a great thing going here on Captive Reefs and it is awesome to see the community growing, sharing and working together. I know from personal experience that I would not have the wonderful ocean view in my basement that I do without the support of the many members and friends that I have made here on CR. You guys have been a huge help to me and I really do appreciate it!

So good luck to this years winners! We all have something to be proud of.

[IamSpicy]

Absolutely gorgeous tanks.