Reef Aquariums that INSPIRE! What tank is your inspiration?

Do you get inspired by other peoples reef aquariums?

  • YES (tell us which ones in the thread)

    Votes: 196 87.5%
  • NO

    Votes: 22 9.8%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 6 2.7%

  • Total voters
    224

design.maddie

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I don't think I am inspired by other's tanks. Looking at someone's tank photos doesn't do much for me. If I can chat with the owner about what they did to cause an effect on the tank then I will gain knowledge.
 

Petcrazyson

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I have to give thx to my uncle for my inspiration. He is the reason I know about reef tanks and the joy you get from having one. Here’s his reef before he passed. Some OG’s may recognize his reef.
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Looking back on the tank it’s a constant wonder to me how he got enough flow for all those sticks positioned in those tricky areas with only 3 power heads!
 

Reefer911

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Not a tank, but earlier this year and after being in the hobby just a few months, I watched Lou Ekus’ video on water chemistry from a previous MACNA conference. That inspired me to dig deeper into the hobby. Right then and there I booked MACNA 2022 tickets.
I ended up meeting Lou at the conference and he gave me the back story on that video which was a little surprising. I’m sure others know this but he said that there were only about 15 people in the audience when he have that presentation and at the time we met, the video on YouTube had about 65,000 views. Legendary status! Lol
 

Court_Appointed_Hypeman

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I was inspired by the microbiome and chemistry.

I was never going to do it due to the complaints of temperment and effort over fresh.

We got into fresh soley due to my wife, i never cared for it, but I do all of the tank maintenence, i found out I rather like testing parameters and logging. One night while going through water changes we had youtube autoplaying aquarium videos, and Ryan's speech form BRS on micro biomes that came out that day popped up, happened to be the first marine video i ever paid attention to.

I was immediately inspired with the idea of how creating a balance of organisms and taking advantage of the ugly phases to build that diversity over time. That might going to bed I watched more BRS videos on the chemistry of alkalinity and chemistry of carbonic acid. Two weeks later my wife found me a 75 gal. And here I am

I loved corals as a kid, but gave up on the idea of keeping them pretty quick.

This is by far the best hobby for me. I love the chemistry, the microbiology, the tech, fluid dynamics, my kids love the fish, my wife loves the lovingroom set piece.
 

littlebigreef

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Peter's fish tank (nineball) was a great one. Aquarium suffered a catastrophic failure and I think he's since called it. The webpage is down but the FB page and youtube videos are still up:

The scale, scope and coral density were something else. Possibly a top 5 reef before Andrew S (poloreef) came along and redefined top end home aquaria.

The 'South Korean Floating Reef' is another. Don't believe I've seen any updated pics in years but its another great one.

What really inspires me is when the initial impression is so overwhelming you can't see for the forest for the trees... but, after time you can begin to take in each individual space, fish, coral, misc aspects that make the aquarium come together and be more than just its individual components.
 

LPS Bum

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There's a Gallery Aquatica maintained aquarium called "Magic Mountains" that is really, really cool. If you don't know what I'm referring to, you can see a few videos of it on their YouTube channel. What an amazing and inspirational tank.
 

Fishkins88

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If you are talking about this.
20211103_132812.jpg

It's actually several varieties of hammer coral placed closely together. I have heard them called hammer bouquets before.

Here is a lights on and off comparison of mine so you can kinda see what I did.

20220605_143910.jpg
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I love seeing this. I am new and my lights on and off has such a stark contrast. Great to see experienced reefers being genuine.
 

Reefer_kano

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This a screenshot of a video i saw on youtube last yr but now i can't find the video again smh
After i saw this video is when i said ok im going with saltwater now lol

I know it is not everyones cup of tea but its mine.
The colors, aquascape, and just the sheer volume of coral in this tank is what originally inspire me to finally get into a saltwater aquarium.
 

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Ashish Patel

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Nando"s tank from the good old days (metal Halide/T5)
Still feel he grew acros better than anyone! Really fat and great growth pattern... I bet not having any LPS or softies helped him crank the flow and light to epic levels!
 

Ashish Patel

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I have been keeping saltwater fish since 97 but never was never really impressed with any of the coral tanks at the time, I remember seeing tanks filled with bubble coral and really nothing colorful. That all changed in 2008 after college and seeing how far the hobby has come online. Seeing Sanjays growth and David Saxby 1500 gallon - Truly breathtaking for a young hobbyist to see and definitely inspired me.
 

ScubaShane

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When I first started planing my tank in the 90's Reef Centrals Tank of the Month was a huge influence to me.

Ching Chai's Reef.
Screenshot_20221022-213728_Chrome.jpg

Steve Weast's Reef.
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Glenn Fong's Reef.
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Dave Playfair's Reef.
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