Tank of the month: April 2019

ALEX CAMINATI

For our monthly feature dedicated to the tank of one of our members, we dived into Alex Caminati's coral reef. Like many of us, Alex has seen a lot of water under the bridge, mostly freshwater, and at the end of his journey as an aquarist he was captivated by the tropical sea. But let's leave him the pleasure of introducing himself and opening his blue treasure chest to us.

"I am Alex, and I am very happy and honoured that my tank was chosen to be featured in this column.

My passion for water began when I was very little, when my grandfather took me fishing with him on a splendid summer day when I was only 3. That is where it all started, and it has been a steady growth ever since. In fact, after various goldfish bowls looked after with my mother, at the age of 12 I started with my first guppy aquarium.

The passion grew, and even more so with carp fishing. At 18 I decided to take the koi pond route: I ran 3 of them, up to 40,000 litres, with the most advanced techniques and equipment, winning lots of recognition and prizes for the koi I raised.

In the meantime, though, the house was empty, so I decided to try my first marine experience, which until then had consisted only of fish-only tanks and soft corals, at least until December 2017, when I decided to close my koi pond and focus completely on the new project. After talking it over with my wife, we decided together on the position and size of our future aquarium, and I started work.

The setup consists of a tank with extra-clear front and sides, 12 mm thick, 120x50x50, a white lacquered wooden cabinet with a 70x40 sump in 5 mm glass, and two 40 mm drains. I started with good, but not outstanding, equipment: an ATI 6x39, 2 Jebao RW8s and an Akula 160 as skimmer, with manual triad dosing, intending to keep only fish, soft corals and a few LPS. That idea did not last long, though, because at the end of cycling, driven partly by curiosity and partly by friends (Enrico above all) who gave me frags, I added SPS. Things got more complex. At first I made lots of mistakes, risking the collapse of the tank, and lost several animals, until I discovered this fantastic group, which allowed me to meet wonderful people, in particular Ciro Murino and Michele Bianchelli, who made a huge contribution and enriched my experience but, at the same time, I was "infected" by the SPS "disease".

At this point the equipment was no longer enough and, to run the current tank, 95% SPS, I moved to an ATI 8x54 W T5 light unit with 4 white and 4 blue tubes, which I replace every 5 months. Water flow is driven by 2 MP40s facing each other on the short sides: one in Reef Crest mode and the other in Lagoon. For the skimmer I stayed faithful to the excellent UltraReef Akula 160 and, to keep the triad stable, I use a Jebao dosing pump with the Oceanlife Balling method. Exchange between sump and tank is handled by a Syncra 3.0.

Husbandry is very simple: daily I dose live phytoplankton and nothing else except ½ dose of Easy SPS, once a week together with amino acids. Every Sunday I make a 10% water change and manually replace iodine, fluoride and strontium.

The fish population is medium: 4 damselfish, 1 Flavescens, 1 Leucosternon, 2 Anthias, 1 clownfish, 10 Turbo fluctuosus, 5 Turbo, 2 debelius, 1 amboinensis, some wurdemanni and a small starfish.

As for the Acropora, there are really starting to be a lot. Among them I want to mention: Pikachu, Strawberry, aculeus, tenuis, coraliniana, valida, Joker, Thor and many others.

There are some LPS and Zoanthus that give harmony to the bottom of the tank.

I have written far too much, and I leave you to the photos of my modest puddle, with the motto of my dear friend Michele, who saved me from many disasters and brought me to this level.... KEEP YOUR HANDS IN YOUR POCKETS!!!!