In the American reef aquarium scene, the name Sanjay Joshi is synonymous with reefing knowledge, experience, and especially brightly lit reef tanks. Also known as ‘Photon Man’ to his inner circle, Sanjay is a down-home reefer just like the rest of us, and he’s got the jaw-dropping reef tank to prove it.
Clocking in at ten years old, seven feet long and 500 gallons, this reef tank isexactlythe kind of reef aquarium display we expect from one of the real gurus of reefing. But as you’ll find out in the video, there’s no magic to Sanjay’s methods, it’s just good sound fundamental reefkeeping at a larger scale and over a long period of time.
Truckloads of light, boatloads of water flow, a powerful downdraft skimmer, jumbo calcium reactor and a dedicated macroalgae scrubber all come together to create this Acropora dominated SPS reef tank. There’s a respectable amount of fish in Sanjay’s reef tank too, many of them very special like the pair of joculators, a bandit angelfish, manymanydifferent species of wrasses, including one stupendous Lennard’s wrasse.
You might have to watch the video twice to catch a glimpse of all the reef life, and there’s some fairly profound pearls of reefkeeping wisdom from Photon Man himself. I put together two videos, a 20 min ‘eye candy’ version which focuses on the optics of the tank, basically all the things you can appreciate and see inside. But if you want to dive deeper into the nuts and bots of Sanjay’s 500 gallon mega reef tank, there’s also an extended ‘Reef Nerd’ edition with an additional 12 minutes of commentary and equipment/filtration talk.
