Tank of the month: April 2018

MANUEL BERARDO

This month, for our usual monthly review, we are in Latina at the home of Manuel Berardo.

It is very harmonious, with a fine balance between the many different corals: this, together with the fantastic colours, is what strikes you about this tank. Manuel got here through long experience that he has put to good use.
So many congratulations to Manuel, and let him describe his journey as an aquarist.

"First of all I want to say that I am honoured and flattered that my tank is joining a line-up of some of the most beautiful aquariums.
My innate passion for fishkeeping began when I was little, when I promised my parents to be good if they bought me a famous magazine of the time (I still remember its name almost 30 years later) devoted to the biology and chemistry of water, its microscopic inhabitants, the various habitats such as rivers, streams and lakes and their most varied inhabitants. I remember being enraptured, and every time I read that information and admired those pictures I promised myself that one day I would have a piece of that magical world at home, all to myself. I have always been an unconditional lover of animals and of nature in general, and moving to the countryside with my family only amplified this love, which had always been rooted in me.
My first aquarium was a Mirabello, which I remember as if it were in front of me now: simple, with nothing apparently special about it. But today I can say it did have something special: it made me realise how much I loved fishkeeping!
Unfortunately my experience with that small tank was not the best, and I lived that chapter as a sort of failure, as if proving right my parents, who kept telling me: "forget it, it's not for you... and besides it's an expensive hobby". It did not take me long to recharge my batteries, and I moved on to another tank, 100cm x 30cm, bought at a supermarket with my savings. I remember that, alas, I put all my resources in the hands of shopkeepers who, just to sell, made this umpteenth freshwater adventure expensive, to say the least, and fruitless.
So I decided to read, read and read some more, to inform myself on the various forums and to understand.
Not long afterwards I decided to switch to marine. A necessary leap for anyone who loves this hobby. My first marine tank was a Rio 180 with only soft corals. With this tank I also had to deal with moving an aquarium, as I went to live with the woman who is now my wife. A very tiring experience, that move, but it taught me that if things are planned in the right way nothing is impossible.

So, my first marine aquarium, my first sump, a 150 watt Chinese HQI light unit with 4 T5s, an airstone skimmer and a Knop calcium reactor: these are the blurred images of the first real equipment I bought, with my own sacrifices, to bring a piece of the sea into my home. I carried on with ups and downs for about a year and a half with this tank, and then moved to what is still, for me, the perfect identikit of the marine aquarium: the cube!
For me, a compact cubic tank holds the essence of what the underwater world at home means to me. A mix of colours and animals skilfully blended together to create a small corner of paradise.
I bought an Aquamar 150 online from a private seller in Tuscany, effectively replacing the equipment with a better-performing calcium reactor and a more powerful skimmer. That tank hosted soft corals and LPS and gave me refreshing satisfaction after the failures of the past.

But let's come to the present, to what I consider the tank that has always given me the greatest satisfaction: my 50x50x60 Fantail cube. Set up in September 2015 after a very brief interlude with a 60-litre Dennerle, this tank has also gone through several transformations; at first it had no DSB and was fitted with a skimmer and a light unit that were completely inadequate for that volume. The end of 2016 and the first half of 2017 saw a complete upgrade of the equipment of this small nano reef: here is how it looks now.

A DSB made entirely of carbonate, about 80 kg (despite the inoculations it matured really slowly); 18 kg of Fiji Premium live rock; two flow pumps, a Jebao RW4 and a Jebao RW8, working in alternating flows to give the best possible water movement; an LGM LGS 425 skimmer (certainly the upgrade that has given me the most satisfaction together with the light: after installing this skimmer the tank made a remarkable leap forward in stability and quality); an ATI 8x24 watt light unit fitted with 6 ATI T5 tubes and two E5 Blue Pop LEDs (combination Blue Plus - Aqua Blue Special - E5 - Aqua Blue Special - Blue Plus - E5 - Aqua Blue Special). The photoperiod is 11 hours in total, with half an hour of sunrise and half an hour of sunset. Until 5 days ago this aquarium used Jebao DP4 dosing pumps with the Fauna Marin method, but in the last few days I decided to switch to a calcium reactor, specifically a Bubble Magus C100, which I am still adjusting to put as little stress as possible on the system. The return is handled by an Eheim 1250, the temperature by a Newa Therm Pro 200 W heater, and the top-off by a Hydor Smart Level auto top-off. The sump you see in the photo was made in Forex by my very dear friend Gianluigi Ingrao. A long-distance friend who, from faraway Sicily, has been able to advise me and share with me many important changes to this aquarium, up to the current result. I take this opportunity to thank him publicly and to thank all the BallingMania people who have had the patience to listen to my doubts and always give me the right advice to improve. The sump has a compartment for carbon right after the overflow, and a second constant-level compartment for the skimmer and calcium reactor, at the end of which I have placed the return pump and the heater.

I make regular weekly changes of 10% with my own RO water, in which I dissolve Fauna Marin salt.

The tank houses a pair of Ocellaris that have been with me for over 4 years, 1 Zebrasoma flavescens, 4 Chrysiptera, 3 wurdemanni, 1 Lysmata debelius and 2 Archaster stars.

As for corals there are various green, red and purple foliosa; red and light blue digitate Montipora; purple millepora, green millepora, yellow millepora, sunset millepora, red millepora, pink and green hyacinthus, valida tricolor; my precious garden of Acanthastrea of different colours, a Stylophora milka, a caliendrum, a tenuis, plus various colonies of Discosoma and Zoanthus here and there.

I feed the fish twice a day, alternating Tropical Supervit granules, Artemia, medium and small granules and Italy Marine flake food. I feed the corals every other day with 1 ml of Xaqua Protein and once a week with 1 ml of Dynamic Aqua amino acids: always in the evening, at least half an hour after the lights go off.

Thanks again to everyone; I want to add that my desire to learn and improve is still huge, and I will keep studying and experimenting with the same passion as that child leafing through a magazine".

We thank Manuel again for his kindness and renew our congratulations!