The aquarium that spawned the SPS coral nano reef generation

For those of us who have been in the hobby for long enough have all seen a good handful of aquariums, some not so good and some that will stay with us forever. Today nano reefing is probably at it’s greatest high in terms of what we keep in these small boxes of water. We’ve all gotten very used to little systems overflowing with colourful SPS, dripping with exotic LPS, and jam packed with crazy polyps of all kinds. The small side of this hobby is most certainly reflecting what the big guys are doing. I’d like to think we have one person to thank for the nano SPS movement, enter Eric Peterson more commonly known as Lunchbucket, and his 20H nano reef.

What makes this system so important?

First, notice the time stamp on the photo. Yes, says 2003 – making this photo of the grown out SPS packed nano reef 7 years old now. When this tank was first setup it was done at a time where ‘big’ tank ideas weren’t applied to the smaller boxes of water.

After a lot of talking to people with nano’s and without I decided that why can’t we use the big tank philosophy ie: aggressive skimming, MH’s, Ca Rx’s, lots of flow (closed loop pumps, wavemakers), etc on a little tank with success? Well turns out you could  It was weird at first to talk to some of the big boys about putting a Ca Rx and MH’s on a 20H but it kept the system more stable.
- Luncbucket on ReefCentral.com

Here is an overview of the system and equipment used:

• 20g Reef Ready tank
• 10g sump fitted with Kent float switch
• Mag 950 return pump
• Closed loop system with SCWD unit powered by Mag 700 pump (35 times turn over)
• Euro-Reef ES5-2 protein skimmer
• 400w Metal halide lamp using a 20k XM bulb plus 9w and 13w actinic lamps for dawn/dusk effect.
• Custom dual chamber MRC calcium reactor
• 100w Ebo Jager heater
• 1/10 HP chiller by Pacific Coast

Even by today’s standard’s it is a very impressive list of gear to run a nano – many would say it’s complete overkill. Either way, it allowed Eric to conquer the SPS nano niche back then.

I always dreamed of an SPS dominate tank and I wanted SPS in a nano….but more nano lighting isn’t appropriate for SPS…thus I started experimenting w/ MH’s, current, skimmers, ca reactors…it just got crazy.
- Luncbucket on nano-reef.com

It’s not just about the equipment

As you know, it’s not just about what equipment you have running that makes your reef a success, it comes down to your own skills, passion and patience. Eric only performed monthly water changes on this system along with the usual routine maintenance we’re all used to doing on our tanks.

• Homemade food fed once a day
• Fill a the top off resevoir daily
• Clean the glass every two to three days
• Clean skimmer cup roughly twice a week
• Check alkalinity about once a week

Moral of the story? Keep it simple.

Watching a tank grow up

Here are a few photos documenting the growth of this amazing SPS nano tank. (Keep an eye on the montipora sp. on the left hand side…)

Getting started

Notice the increase in coraline algae and size of frags

System at 6 months

This nanoreef really starts to come into it's own

Growth and colour. Beautiful.

Lunchbucket's SPS nanoreef in all it's glory before being moved over to a 58g tank

A very big thank you to Eric for pushing the level of nano reef hobby to new heights.
As far as I know Eric is no longer in this hobby but I’m sure what ever he is doing now, he’s breaking new ground on that too.

Credits:
All photos in this article are by Eric “Lunchbucket” Peterson.
This system was featured on nano-reef.com in February 2004 – head over there for more photos and system details.
Information for this post was found on reefcentral.com and nano-reef.com

Inspired?

What do you think of this SPS nano? Do you consider it an important system in the development of modern nano reefing?
What are some of your all time favourite systems? Let’s hear it in the comments.