Firstly, I’m incredibly flattered for having my tank selected as TOTM. My name is Tony Koen and I have been keeping aquariums for five years. I am a chef by preofession and have been cooking for over twenty years.

I started with freshwater tanks about five years ago keeping discus, malawis and communal tanks. I started keeping a marine tank about three years ago where I had in in the restaurant I owned. I moved it home when I sold the tank.  My tank has migrated from its original four foot home, to a narrow six footer and to its present home.

My display tank is 1800L X 700H X 600D and made with 12 mm glass with braces along the length of the tank for support. It rests on a 50mm square tube base. I have a 3 foot sump consisting of baffles and rests under the tank. The tank was built by a long standing friend of mine Derick who has made countless tanks for me in the past. The cabinet is made from marine plywood with an oak stain and treated with Woodoc to prevent swelling.

Like I previously said, I depend solely on the 200kg’s Fijian and Kenyan live rock for biological filtration.

I use a Reef Octopus Xtreme skimmer rated for 1500 litres. I feel this is plenty as I don’t have a high bioload and rely on the corals to beautify the tank.

I run about 200g of The Waterboy’s coconut husk carbon which I change once a month and Phosban for keeping the phosphates in check.

I also use lanthanum chloride for phosphate reduction. I don’t use a UV filter or ozone to reduce DOC’s.

My big secret to keeping nutrients down is Prodibio which I add every two weeks. I have a small bag of Seachem’s Purigen.  I Use filter floss a few days a week to help polish the water and remove solids from the system.

I also use potassium permangeanate to help reduce DOC’s and improve Redox.

I use a combination of metal halides for my intense lighting and T5 actinics for aesthetics and the sunrise sunset effect. I use a pendant with 3 X 250W 1000K metal halides spaced and every sixty centimeters for even light distribution. I have 4 X 39 W actinic which help with my corals colour. The light is mounted 30cm above the waters surface. In my sump I just keep a 39W fluorescent just so I can see what I’m doing while working on the tank. I don’t need big lighting there as I am not culturing macroalgae.

My photoperiod is a total of twelve hours. The actinic will come on at 09H00 in the morning followed by the halides at 10H00. The halides remain on till 18H30 and the actinic will go off at 21H00.

• A have a strange selection of corals in my tank which include some softies, LPS’s and the majority are SPS’s. My corals are as follows;

  Sarcophyton spp AKA pincushion
  Pectinia
  Sea Mats
  Branching Hammer
  Orange Montipora Digitata
  Acropora species
  Montipora capricornis Orange and green
  Stylopora spp
  Seriatopora caliendrum
  Seriatopora hystrix
  Pocillipora
  Acropora Millepora
  Acropora Cerealis
  Acropora Monticulosa
  Protopalythoa spp Green Zoanthids
  Montipora Danae
  Favia spp
  Trachyphyllia AKA open brain coral
  Turbinaria – Pagoda corals
  Physogyra Lichtensteini – Pearl or Grape Coral
  Xenia spp
  Alcyonium spp Finger coral

I try to keep a low bioload when it comes to fish and only have a few fish in the tank. I also like to give fish space to swim.

• Siganus unimaculatus – Onespot Foxface
• Paracanthus hepatus – Regal Tang
• Gobiodon Okinawae – Yellow clown goby
• Chromis viridis – Blue green chromis
• Amphiphirion ocellaris – Ocellaris anemonefish
• Centrophyge bispinosa – Coral beauty
• Pseudanthias squamipinnis – Lyretail anthias

My inverts consist of the following:

• Lysmata ambionensis – Pacific cleaner shrimp
• Clibanarius Tricolour – Blue leg hermit crab
• Ophiocoma – black brittle star

Tank Specifications

    Tank Dimensions: 1800 X 600D X 700H
    Tank Volume: About  580 litres with displacement
    System Volume: About 700 litres with the sump

Water Parameters

    Temperature: 27-28 degrees
    pH: 8.2-8.4
    Salinity: 1.025
    Ammonia: Not detectable
    Nitrite: Not detectable
    Nitrate: 1ppm
    Phosphate: 0.1ppm
    Calcium: 450ppm
    KH: Between 7 and 8 DKH
    Magnesium: 1300ppm
    Iodine: Not tested
    Redox: Not tested

All in all the tank has been a work in progress where each change and upgrade has been something I wanted done differently. The only thing I would change on my current display is the overflow where I would put a coast to coast overflow for better surface skimming and more space in the display even though it would be a little more. I haven’t really had much bad luck with fish except for yellow tangs which I cannot keep. I want to try one again but am scared. The trick for SPS’s is just give them what they want, low nutrients, a mature system, decent flow and light. You can see that I have kept these corals without a lot of equipment. My parting words would be to always buy a decent skimmer. It is the most important piece of filtration equipment in the tank. I would like to thank the administration staff of MASA for giving me the priveledge and honour of featuring my system on the forum.

Regards