Why are all Tanks of the month SPS dominant?

[doubleshot00]

I would <love> to see variation in the totm. It really feels like basically the same thing over and over.

This. Like look at my jam packed tank thats all sps and looks like a giant wall and the fish have no room to swim around now.

Half of them give me anxiety

 

[JoJosReef]

Ya, I was trying to think how to make a FOWLR worthy... I see people put some hardier more bad tasting corals in sometimes... maybe blue kenyas could server as a tree grove

How about a well thought out scape with real ocean rocks a la TBS/GLR/KP/Aussie LR, hitchhikers and all? Some of the natural sponges and tunicates look great. The rocks themselves look great and just can't be replicated with dry/painted rocks. Maybe add macros to add movement and some color? Might be pushing it with the Fish-Only concept though. And the macros wouldn't last long with tangs and such.

 

[maroun.c]

To clarify a few points:
TOTM is not limited to sps dominant tanks.
We have had many soft coral/LPS dominated TOTM. Last one was few months back in May.
Choice of tanks for TOTM is basically by nomination.
Any member can nominate a tank for TOTM by indicating it to the mods as well as on the TOTM nomination thread.
Nominated tanks should have a build thread on reef2reef and need to have been running for sometime.
To get your tank noticed for TOTM having a build thread and keeping it busy with updates is the best way.
Also posting pics of the tank on the photography forum or referring to specific posts on your build thread when you answer related questions on the forum, can add activity to the build thread.
Again nothing against softies tank and any deserving tank, ie a tank that is nicely scaped, has healthy and colorful inhabitants is a candidate.

 

[maroun.c]

Ya, I was trying to think how to make a FOWLR worthy... I see people put some hardier more bad tasting corals in sometimes... maybe blue kenyas could server as a tree grove

I'd say having a nice scape, colorful healthy and maybe uncommon fish selection.... can help getting tank noticed and chosen.

 

[i cant think]

I believe it’s chosen by the majority vote for the main part and then I believe mods vote for the tanks they prefer then the one with the most votes is the TOTM.
Also, to the OP. I totally agree, I would love to see more variation in TOTM tanks. I myself have a larger Softie/LPS heavy tank. My smaller tank is SPS heavy (With a few none SPS coral), I love SPS tanks I won’t lie however seeing so many SPS only tanks is a shame.
Here’s my 4’ tank for example. I wish we saw more tanks that went this route as I personally believe for them to be 10 times more natural and you don’t aim for the fake colours, instead you aim for the natural colours and maybe some of the duller coloured coral (I plan to have some less fluorescent coloured SPS and more of the natural/muted coloured SPS such as Pink Birdsnest). It just makes the tank look nicer and it’s fun to have a tank that doesn’t have to have you panic about it 24/7.

And yes, you do still get those beautiful colours you see in SPS if you choose rightly!

I will just add to this quickly;
In all honesty, it comes down to do you want a natural tank or a tank full of iridescent sticks?
Listen, someone had to say it and nobody else was

 

[exnisstech]

I think I mixed up POTM with TOTM. I don’t really know as I don’t focus on the tanks of the month and instead focus on tanks that hide in the build threads.

I like to look but the TOTM is ussualy so high end I don't even drool anymore. I did stumble accross This TOTM doing a search which has given me something to strive toward in the cube I am currently stocking. Also has a pretty nice mixture of corals.

 

[JoJosReef]

Given the size of this community, I imagine large tanks will always wear the crown.

Still, might be cool to have a sort of "weekly spotlight" that shows other types of tanks and sizes, with a bit less pomp and circumstance than TOTM.

Shorter write-up, less "my advice is", more like "Honored to show my nano or fowlr or macro or softie or nem or invert tank, etc. Here's what's in it". There are enough of us, for sure!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I like to look but the TOTM is ussualy so high end I don't even drool anymore. I did stumble accross This TOTM doing a search which has given me something to strive toward in the cube I am currently stocking. Also has a pretty nice mixture of corals.

That's real life legit. Many of the other systems I see are literally money pits of sps. Which good for them, it's just not reflective of many reefers wallets or abilities.

 

[Rmckoy]

Rather than wondering how they are chosen .
perhaps learning from this to achieve a system to be nominated for .
fwiw , I know my system is not even close to qualifying and I still drool over the work done to achieve such natural looking pieces of the oven .
That being said. I believe it would be nice to see a slice from a different part of the ocean .
lps , soft corals ,
Even a reef specific to one geographic location for example : a reef setup with everything inside from Aussie , Red Sea , indo etc ( I’ve always wanted to do a setup for each location

 

[maroun.c]

Given the size of this community, I imagine large tanks will always wear the crown.

Still, might be cool to have a sort of "weekly spotlight" that shows other types of tanks and sizes, with a bit less pomp and circumstance than TOTM.

Shorter write-up, less "my advice is", more like "Honored to show my nano or fowlr or macro or softie or nem or invert tank, etc. Here's what's in it". There are enough of us, for sure!

We dis have reefspotlight competition which ran for some time where deserving tanks meeting your description were featured monthly.
And many small tanks have been chosen for TOTM.

 

[maroun.c]

Reef Tank Spotlight

Here we feature beautiful reefs from our members at Reef2Reef.

www.reef2reef.com

You can check the winners of previous tank of the month here and you will see that smaller tanks and softies tanks have been chosen. May 2021 and maybe 2022 are couple of such examples. Indeed maybe more sps dominated tanks are there, but that also reflects the percentages of tanks: SPS vs softies only.

Again if you know of deserving tanks, regardless if softies only or sps dominant, be it nano cubes or larger tanks.... do nominate them.

 

[JoJosReef]

We dis have reefspotlight competition which ran for some time where deserving tanks meeting your description were featured monthly.
And many small tanks have been chosen for TOTM.

Yes, but my point was more that this community is near 170,000 members. There are 12 TOTM per year. A smaller scale weekly spotlight would add an additional 52 tanks and could feature more eccentric ideas. Just brainstorming based on OP's topic. Not suggesting any rabbit holes though, eg where do you stop? Daily reef? Hourly reef? Etc.

 

[i cant think]

We dis have reefspotlight competition which ran for some time where deserving tanks meeting your description were featured monthly.
And many small tanks have been chosen for TOTM.

Would love for the Reef spotlight to come back, any ideas if it will in the future?

 

[Nano sapiens]

This is my biggest regret! My aquascape proves hard to adjust flow around and i kust started throwing frags in there. I mean where theyd do well but it looks terrible

I will just add to this quickly;
In all honesty, it comes down to do you want a natural tank or a tank full of iridescent sticks?
Listen, someone had to say it and nobody else was

In a roundabout way, I kind of did

I can appreciate both 'styles', so to speak, and I think that most reefers do a half/half kind of thing (I did on my nano).

Best of both worlds approach

 

[maroun.c]

Would love for the Reef spotlight to come back, any ideas if it will in the future?

It ran for some time, then there was a request on the forum for ROTM to be there for more wow effect.... these articles require a considerable amount of work so at the time it wasn't possible to run reef spotlight and ROTM together.

 

[Perry]

I believe sps dominant/ acro dominant tanks require lots of planning, and patience to have the vision come alive. Many people lack the type of dedication this takes. My reboot started in late January this year, and while things are moving nicely, getting show size colonies takes lots of time. I believe this is heavily considered in the decision making process. Sadly, until the acros become colonies, tank looks like a colorful rock pile. Little movement doesn't help either. Here's my rock pile, maybe something worth looking at in a year or 2, lol That said, I love softy and lps dominant tanks, they totally deserve way more love

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Hi everyone, I spearhead the effort to select Reef of the Month features. So let me try and answer some of the questions/criticisms raised in this thread.

First, how are tanks selected? Well, we rely primarily on you guys for nominations, so...if you see a tank you want featured, please do us the favor of nominating that tank HERE: Official REEF OF THE MONTH Nomination Thread!

We really do try to have diversity reflected in the reef of the month (both in the aspect of tank sizes as well as the type of livestock kept), and while I agree that the majority of the tanks featured are SPS dominant, I do think we do a fairly good job of keeping a fairly diverse group featured.

Now, why are most of the tanks we have featured SPS dominant and/or large systems? Frankly, because most of the ones nominated by you guys in the community fall into that category. You want more diverse tanks? Help us find the great ones to feature! I'm always on the lookout for awesome tanks that don't fit the "stereotypical ROTM" reef profile. By the way, October's ROTM is going to be something you guys will enjoy a lot I think!

You can check out all of our previous Reef of the Month features HERE: Reef of the Month Spotlights

Here are some examples of some of our Reef of the Month Spotlights that either aren't in the "large tank" category or aren't in the SPS dominant category (and sometimes not in either category):

From this year:

REEF OF THE MONTH - March 2022: Roberto Denadai's Beautiful 80-gallon SPS Reef

REEF OF THE MONTH - May 2022: Inland Reef's Amazing Coastal Lagoon

REEF OF THE MONTH - June 2022: Reefer_punk's Beautiful DSR Reef! No Water Changes in 4+ Years!

From previous years:

REEF OF THE MONTH - March 2021: Florida_Reef_Keeper Brandon McHenry's Amazing AIO SPS Reef!

REEF OF THE MONTH - April 2021: Jack Ravensbergen's Awesome Cube Reef!

REEF OF THE MONTH - May 2021: Tigahboy's Macroalgae Paradise!

Reef of the Month, April 2019, @alexandrfeist

January 2019 Reef of the Month: Michael J. Cuttone

R2R Reef Spotlight: PongPit's Amazing SPS Nano Reef

R2R Reef of the Month: Elder1945 - An Innovative Reefer's Spotlight - July 2018

 

[Rmckoy]

Hi everyone, I spearhead the effort to select Reef of the Month features. So let me try and answer some of the questions/criticisms raised in this thread.

First, how are tanks selected? Well, we rely primarily on you guys for nominations, so...if you see a tank you want featured, please do us the favor of nominating that tank HERE: Official REEF OF THE MONTH Nomination Thread!

We really do try to have diversity reflected in the reef of the month (both in the aspect of tank sizes as well as the type of livestock kept), and while I agree that the majority of the tanks featured are SPS dominant, I do think we do a fairly good job of keeping a fairly diverse group featured.

Now, why are most of the tanks we have featured SPS dominant and/or large systems? Frankly, because most of the ones nominated by you guys in the community fall into that category. You want more diverse tanks? Help us find the great ones to feature! I'm always on the lookout for awesome tanks that don't fit the "stereotypical ROTM" reef profile. By the way, October's ROTM is going to be something you guys will enjoy a lot I think!

You can check out all of our previous Reef of the Month features HERE: Reef of the Month Spotlights

Here are some examples of some of our Reef of the Month Spotlights that either aren't in the "large tank" category or aren't in the SPS dominant category (and sometimes not in either category):

From this year:

REEF OF THE MONTH - March 2022: Roberto Denadai's Beautiful 80-gallon SPS Reef

REEF OF THE MONTH - May 2022: Inland Reef's Amazing Coastal Lagoon

REEF OF THE MONTH - June 2022: Reefer_punk's Beautiful DSR Reef! No Water Changes in 4+ Years!

From previous years:

REEF OF THE MONTH - March 2021: Florida_Reef_Keeper Brandon McHenry's Amazing AIO SPS Reef!

REEF OF THE MONTH - April 2021: Jack Ravensbergen's Awesome Cube Reef!

REEF OF THE MONTH - May 2021: Tigahboy's Macroalgae Paradise!

Reef of the Month, April 2019, @alexandrfeist

January 2019 Reef of the Month: Michael J. Cuttone

R2R Reef Spotlight: PongPit's Amazing SPS Nano Reef

R2R Reef of the Month: Elder1945 - An Innovative Reefer's Spotlight - July 2018

Thank you Daniel

 

[i cant think]

I believe sps dominant/ acro dominant tanks require lots of planning, and patience to have the vision come alive. Many people lack the type of dedication this takes. My reboot started in late January this year, and while things are moving nicely, getting show size colonies takes lots of time. I believe this is heavily considered in the decision making process. Sadly, until the acros become colonies, tank looks like a colorful rock pile. Little movement doesn't help either. Here's my rock pile, maybe something worth looking at in a year or 2, lol That said, I love softy and lps dominant tanks, they totally deserve way more love

Atleast you have a pile of colour! In my SPS tank I have a pile of green.

 

[Nano sapiens]

@i cant think well put! As much as I like looking at clean, well planned out, and colorful SPS tanks I find the natural look and movement of softie tanks is far more appealing and relaxing for me!

That is one heck of well grown-in system