The Marine Aquarium and his philosophy
“The tank was been built from the italian AQEngineering Company and it measures 100x65x55(h) for about 350 liters, with glass thickness of 12 mm and all extraclear glass but the rear glass.”
“The aquarium, as you seen in the pictures, was born the 20 of may 2013. And I have chosen to start by following the Berlin Method, with almost 50 kg of live rocks, with a ratio of one kilo of rocks for every 7 liters of water, as the guidelines, and in this way I have had a very few problems with nitrates and nitrites. So I advise you all to follow this simple rule, 1 kilo for every 7 liters. Easy and guaranteed!”
“After one month from the start, I realized I didn’t like the empty bottom glass, so I put inside 2 cm of aragonite sands from Carib Sea. Now it started to have the layout I thought.
In the beginning I started to use the Korallen Zucht products, following their protocol very close, so I administered Zeostart, Zeoofood and Zeoback, but the things evolve, my knowing in aquariology was growing, and I have choosen one more simple path, by watching my aquarium with great attention, following my intuitions, more biology after all. In any case I remained faithful to Korallen Zucht products I like so much, and now I administer the oligoelements only when I think the tank need them. No more protocol to use now.”
“I make water exchange every 15 to 20 days with 10-15% of the volume of the tank.
I change the zeolite every 45-60 days and the activated carbon every month, as the Berlin method guidelines suggest.
Usually I prefer to use many brands, like Korallen Zucht, Equo and others.”
“In the last two months I’m using the Tropic Marine brand above the others, as for the sea salt, and the trace elements A and K and, periodically, I use products like Reef Active and Bacto Balanced. I’ve noticed that this configuration will boost the aquarium, triad and trace elements, so I’ve widened the integrations and maybe sometimes I voluntarily omit some of them between the water change, with no problem at all.
Weekly I perform a complete analysis with test kits, with particular attention to calcium, magnesium and carbonates, and trying to maintain their equilibrium more than every other thing.”
“Every day I feed fishes with artemya and granular food, also here, I prefer to change often the brands I use.
For corals, almost only SPS as you can see, I use the Korallen Zucht products with so much satisfaction, like PCV, Sponge and Amino Acid. In this last period I’m trying to give them H&O Coral from Sicce, but it’s too early to say if it’s good or not.”
The Technical
“The aquarium has two overflows, with 50 mm and 25 mm holes, and I use two different return pumps, one Askoll professional 3000 and one NewJet 2300.
When I installed the aquarium, I chosen one skimmer from AQengineering, the AQ150SK, but during the first time I felt it was not enough for my tank so I preferred to change it with a new Vertex Alpha 170.
The AQengineering could be been enough for a simple tank, but my aquarium had a big number of fishes and only SPS corals, so I have had to change it to perform a better oxigenation and to better disposal of organic load, and, until now, I have to say the Vertex Skimmer is truly fantastic.”
“Inside my sump I’ve installed a zeolite reactor from AQengineering and a calcium reactor from Skimz filled with coral media from Korallen Zucht. The pH is electronic controlled by Milwaukee sms 122 pH meter and is set to 6.3. Near the sump I’ve a 70 liters osmosis water tank ready for topping up.”
“When I think there is a necessity in my aquarium, I use Ozone by a diffuser connected to aerator.
I have chosen a domotic system to monitor and control the temperature, the heater and chiller, by Gewiss, cheaper if confronted with aquarium computers”
The recirculating
“The water recirculation is left to four pumps. In the short side I’ve placed one Ecotech Marine Vortech MP40w using short pulse mode and one Tunze Turbelle Nanostream 6095. On the other side I’ve placed one Tunze Turbelle Nanostream 6085, and a smaller 6045 behind the rocks. In this configuration the recirculating is homogeneous and well satisfying by watching through the glass.”
Yes, almost too much if we look at the suspension in the water, as you can see in the pictures.
