You can see that all the colonies are large, from the huge blue Acropora loisetteae in the middle of the tank, to the great Styloporas, Pocilliporas, all wonderful to look at.
I can’t help it, big colorful corals are my favorite animals, and this tank is full of them.
Would you like to see more Acroporas?
Or would you rather look at some Pocillopora?
Montipora foliosa?
Aquarium maintenance
Massimiliano tells us the tank was initially managed with the complete Zeovit system, based upon bacterial reproduction. Despite the results this method was later abandoned because of its costs and time necessary.
Massimiliano decided to go for an easier and quicker maintenance by going back to the classic Berlin method. He added zeolite reactor to keep ammonia under control, eliminate excess nutrients and for bacterial growth. He changes the zeolite every 30-40 days.
Coming from a Zeovit management, the corals’ colours are always a worry. Massimiliano uses his powerful lights and an adequate management at the chemistry level to bring the best colours out.
His lighting system is made up of three Ecotech Marine Radion G1, G2 Pro, G3 Pro surrounded by 8 T5 Neons to complete the spectrum. Neons used are two super actinic ATI, two Aquaspezial 12500°K, two Aqua Medic Reef White 15000°K, one Blueplus ATI again, and a Reefblue from Aqua Medic. The total photoperiod is 12 hours long.
To be honest the T5 bulbs light is not at its brightest, a sign that they haven’t been changed in a while.
Water movement is managed by two Tunze Turbelle Stream 6105 with controller.
The system’s core is the protein skimmer ATI Power Cone 250iS together with a calcium reactor Grotech 110 HC loaded with Korallen Zucht coral media and a Ruwal zeolite reactor.
Active carbon is placed at the water output and it is chosen between different brands and replaced every 15 days.
Massimiliano does a 55 liters water change weekly, for a 10% of the total tank volume. He uses different salts every time between Tropic Marine, Red Sea Pro Coral and Crystal Reef.
A great deal of the tank management is related to bacterial dosing. Different brands are used amongst which Korallen Zucht’s Zeobak, Equo’s Bio-Extra or OceanLife’s Bio-Genesi.
Massimiliano firmly believes in the importance of trace elements dosing and he put together his own complex dosing plan. He starts with dosing Korallen Zucht’s iodine and potassium iodide twice per week to bring out pink and blue colorations. He then doses Korallen Zucht’s Sponge Power for the violet tonality. The protocol is completed by adding Equo’s Strontium, Borum and Potassium a couple of times per weeks.
The chemistry is controlled by the Aquatronica Aquarium Controller (Italian review) which reads redox potential, pH and salinity.
The tanks values are kept as follows:
- Salinity = 34,00 ppm
- Redox = 400 mv
- Carbonate KH = 6 – 7° dGH
- Calcium Ca = 420 – 440 mg/l
- Magnesium Mg = 1300 -1400 mg/l
- Potassium K = 400 mg/l
- Phosphates PO4 = 0,03 mg/l
- Nitrate NO3 = 0 mg/l
- Nitrite NO2 = none
Let’s move into the inside of the tank to get an even closer look at the corals.
