Jaw Dropping Tanks: What does an incredible reef tank look like to you?

What is your most favorite type of reef tank?

  • SPS dominated

    Votes: 231 21.0%
  • LPS dominated

    Votes: 79 7.2%
  • Soft Coral dominated

    Votes: 43 3.9%
  • Zoa dominated

    Votes: 21 1.9%
  • Mixed Reef

    Votes: 683 62.2%
  • Fish focused

    Votes: 22 2.0%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 19 1.7%

  • Total voters
    1,098

Cell

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Type of coral matters not to me, it's the size and health of what is there. A clean, healthy, mature tank of any type of coral is a site to behold.
 

maxwell

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UK reef
DSC_3676 nightime reef.jpg
 

...

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Our hobby, Reef2Reef is chalked full of amazing saltwater reef aquariums that range from nano to public aquarium sizes and include a huge array of corals, fish and livestock. BUT what one person sees as incredible the other person might see as average. The types of corals and fish may define what you feel make a reef tank amazing. One person may be into acros and a mature sps tank is their cup of tea. Another may love the look of zoanthid covered rocks while someone else may consider them an encroaching pest! Whatever an incredible tank looks like to you, let's talk about it!

What makes a reef tank incredible to you? What really makes your jaw drop? (share a photo of a jaw dropping tank you love)

Here are a few that I really like right here from R2R! There are literally hundreds but I picked 3 I came across quickly!

@Marco A. Martins
img_1557343244948.jpg


@Bacon505
IMG_5363.JPG


@irwin_fletch
DSC_0026 2.jpg
I'm Euphyllia Only
 

Jacked Reefer

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The best looking tank I have seen is @Mr V ’s 45 gallon acro tank. Number two is his one hundred gallon. Not only did the tank look spectacular. All his coral was colored up and large. Not just single color blobs or frags of tiny sticks. I base a lot of what I’m doing with my tank around his methods and hope to achieve that level of tank one day
 

Indytraveler83

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For me it's a mixed lps/softie/nem tank. A few reef setups at public aquariums that had monster nems, hammers and elegance corals really inspired my love of reef tanks.

But it's also a bit more than that. I need to see life in every little crack and crevice. A system with snails and crabs roaming the substrate, shrimp hanging out on rocks trying to clean fish, seastars peeking out from live rock, and even pods hopping around, trying to avoid the wrasse that's hunting them complete a reef to me.
 

ReefLab

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I think any species-only tank looks boring. Large sps colonies and show-stopping LPS. I don’t particularly like softies personally.
 

Shooter6

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I put other, as ive seen awesome reefs of all kinds and can appreciate them all. Personally the type of coral is secondary, i really am swayed by the design of the rockwork and how the corals look with the foundation.
I prefer sps dominant mixed reefs myself but a properly executed reef of any kind i can fully enjoy.
 

uninformed

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For me it's a mixed lps/softie/nem tank. A few reef setups at public aquariums that had monster nems, hammers and elegance corals really inspired my love of reef tanks.

But it's also a bit more than that. I need to see life in every little crack and crevice. A system with snails and crabs roaming the substrate, shrimp hanging out on rocks trying to clean fish, seastars peeking out from live rock, and even pods hopping around, trying to avoid the wrasse that's hunting them complete a reef to me.
Yes, yes, yes! It’s the sum of all the little life that lives all over the reef that makes every square inch interesting to watch and observe.
 

CookieRdReef

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Mixed. Variety of colors, shapes, species is what makes this hobby so fun and what makes tanks so interesting & beautiful.
 

Oldsalt

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I like me an LPS/softie tank personally.

Most everyone has seen this tank. It’s probably one of my all time favorites. It has a great sense of depth and the colors and textures are coordinated well.
I don’t think some of the corals are very realistic to keep long term though. It also applies the most basic of aquascaping techniques.
FFD77E43-5190-40FE-BD66-4B8B9CD0A8FA.png
Stunning tank
I like me an LPS/softie tank personally.

Most everyone has seen this tank. It’s probably one of my all time favorites. It has a great sense of depth and the colors and textures are coordinated well.
I don’t think some of the corals are very realistic to keep long term though. It also applies the most basic of aquascaping techniques.
FFD77E43-5190-40FE-BD66-4B8B9CD0A8FA.png
Stunning tank!! I love the angled cut separating the islands. Makes me want to change my scape that little bit. I have one blue devil damsel (I think it was dropped into the bag of Demoiselles I bought ages ago) that's constantly pulling rubble out from under my rocks for his "exclusive" tunnel hide-aways. He's toppled my scapes twice in 2 years. I've stuck rocks where he is digging, but he just puts his nose against them and fans his tail hard and fast to start another hole. He's so persistently stubborn, it ain't funny! I tried to give him away a while back but nobody wanted him. Now I know why. I doubt I could have caught him anyway. Here he is above the white flowering coral - I have no idea of its name.
Oops - that is not the devil I was talking about. This one is a Demoiselle. He doesn't bother to dig.
Here he is in the 2nd photo just to the right of center. This photo was taken when he was just put in a young reef - just over 2 years ago. Would anyone here get rid of him?

20190916_142240.jpg 20190201_143344.jpg
 
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Seb1987

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The best looking tank I have seen is @Mr V ’s 45 gallon acro tank. Number two is his one hundred gallon. Not only did the tank look spectacular. All his coral was colored up and large. Not just single color blobs or frags of tiny sticks. I base a lot of what I’m doing with my tank around his methods and hope to achieve that level of tank one day
I would love to see that, do you have a link?
 

andrewkw

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For me I don't really care if it's SPS, LPS, Softies or NPS or a mix of any and all. I like them all. Generally I like softies the most but can appreciate nearly every type of corals beauty. While overall I would be more drawn to jaw dropping larger tanks, nanos and even picos do have that potential for me too.

Clean glass is important. This means the back panel too. No coraline on the back. Clean powerheads as well. Closed loops are even better but realize they are not as common or practical. Of course if you want to have a jaw dropping tank perhaps you spent a lot of time planning.

Mature too, corals encrusted to rock. Less visible rock the better, but I don't mean minimalist aquascape. Corals covering the rocks as much as possible. Large and small sized corals mixed in together. Good colour contrast. I would say in most cases even if you have an unlimited budget it's probably 2-3 years before a tank can reach the "jaw drop" level at least in my book. An appropriate number of fish, no frag racks and ideally no frag plugs visible. For the tank to be really nice it needs to be a true display tank, not somewhere you are keeping nice fish or corals.
 
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