You’ve probably seen the progress shots of people’s reef tanks over a few months, maybe a couple of years. But YouTuber Viking V has a sequence of his reef tank stretching all the way back to the bony, rocky beginnings of his tank in 2011.
Right from the start you can see and appreciate this reefers measured approach to stocking his tank, and without even knowing very much about the filtration you can tell that this is one solid reef aquarium. From Day 1 you can see he used very clean, and very sparse live rock – many reefers would think that twice this much rock wouldn’t be enough to ‘fill the reef’ but Viking V knew that space would be taken up by his corals.
And sure enough, within just a couple of years you can appreciate the negative, open space between his reefscape and all the unencumbered water flow it provides. The fish population is equally sensible, with a modest amount of medium and large fish which are appropriate for a tank of this size.
After six years Viking’s Reef is completely on-point – you can barely see any rock left and there’s clearly more volume taken up by corals than anything else. What’s equally impressive is how little the reefscape has changed over that time period, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to tweak to rock placement over half a decade.
VIking’s Reef is a great example of how reef tanks are more rewarding if you’re patient, and have the dedication to keep the environment stable over the long term. Nano reef tanks can look great in a matter of a few months, appealing to our current culture of instant gratification. But if you want to build a real masterpiece, take a page from Viking V’s playbook as it’s resulted in a truly spectacular reef tank.
Mr. Viking if you’re reading this, drop us a note and tell us more about your reef tank, I’m sure after this our readers will be dying to know more about your corals, equipment and general reefing philosophy.
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