The CLEANEST Reef Tank I've Ever Seen

I recently came across this beautiful aquarium setup on Facebook. I wrote the owner, Tim, a message and he agreed to shoot us some videos so you can all learn about his work of art. This aquarium measures 39 by 25 by 21 inches and holds about 80 gallons of salt water. With a 10 gallon sump it makes the total system 90 gallons. The tank features a wide range of crawls and fish and what immediately caught my eye when I first saw Tim's tank online is the unique scape. Tim grew up near the west coast of India but legislation banning the trade of marine animals prevented him from getting up close and personal with the fascinating life on coral reefs. His obsession with all things underwater began, as it was for many of us, with an array of freshwater aquariums and the jump to saltwater came after his first dive on the mesmerizing reefs of the Red Sea. I'm sure Tim got a lot of inspiration from his dives in the ocean. For this aquascape Tim used 50 pounds of dry rock which he tied together using cable ties and greased cement. He considered a few factors while building the scape. He wanted enough space to place a variety of corals but also keep the design minimalistic, giving the aquarium a clean and sleek look and ample swim room for your fish. Even though his reef is only 11 months old it looks like it has been set up for years. Tim's daily maintenance routine involves around 30 minutes of glass cleaning, sand scrubbing and rock basting in the mornings and a lot of more time spent visually checking on the health and fatality of the tank inhabitants throughout the day. His fish are fed a variety of foods six to eight times a day and this heavy nutrient import is balanced by heavy nutrient export to an oversized skimmer, cheeto refugium, fleece filter and carbon dosing. Mechanical filtration is complemented by three liters of zipporax media in the inflow area of the sump for biological filtration. This media is never cleaned or disturbed and houses a large population of beneficial microfauna including feather dusters, sponges and a stunning variety of small crustaceans. He feeds a diverse mixture of frozen foods, mainly mices, enriched arthemia and lobster eggs. Besides frozen foods he also offers a variety of pellet and flake foods soaked in vitamins. He also feeds half a sheet of nori per day to keep his algae eaters happy. If there is one principle in reef keeping that Tim prioritized above all others it is that stability is key. Frequent changes even though with good intentions introduce instability and more often than not have negative outcomes. In order to achieve this a delicate balance must be found between diligent maintenance and simply letting the reef evolve on its own. I want to thank Tim for allowing me to share his tank with all of you here on YouTube. If you want to learn more about this setup, like the cost or energy consumption, keep an eye out for the Reef Hobbyist magazine in which his tank will be featured with an in-depth article. Thanks for watching and subscribe for more!