Tank of the month: April 2020

ALAN BIELLA

Hello to all the group members, I am Alan, I am 33 and I live in the province of Sondrio. First of all, thanks to the BallingMania staff for this completely unexpected recognition, as the tank has improved a lot lately, but it is still far from the results I hope to achieve, and I will be happy to share updates in the group.

My reef is still fairly "young" and should have been filling up right about now but, unfortunately, the situation has stopped me, because this cursed virus is keeping us locked at home.

I take this opportunity to express my closeness to the hardest-hit areas, to those for whom the aquarium may be the least of their problems, to those who in this difficult situation are struggling to keep up our passion, and also to those, I hope as many as possible, who are enjoying their tank at home. I also thank the sponsor Davide Fanciullini of Coral Jewelry for the prize offered precisely in this delicate moment we are living through... I hope to show you beautiful photos of the gem in question!

Now to us! My passion for aquariums came about almost by chance: a colleague was selling a discus aquarium and I threw myself into this world knowing absolutely nothing but, wanting to learn and researching a lot, freshwater soon felt too small: I dreamed of owning a marine tank, a magnificent habitat I had rarely seen up close. Fate gave me a big hand, because shortly afterwards, in the second-hand ads, I found a complete tank, still running, just a few km from home... but a marine tank in Valtellina?!? Science fiction!! I did not let the chance slip and moved the aquarium into my new home, or rather, into what was going to become my home... because I can say I put in the marine aquarium even before the tiles and before finishing the works, which meant moving the tank again within the same house! We are talking about 7 years ago; I knew nothing back then, and if I am still in this world today I owe it to the information available online, to forums, to Facebook groups and to a couple of trusted shops. The tank was a 100x70x60, which I soon filled with SPS. Over time my passion had some ups and downs, as our hobby takes a lot of time, dedication and money... and after hitting rock bottom it came back stronger than before, and I set up my current tank, again acrylic, but a bit bigger (the limit was the load capacity of the floor): it was June 2017 when my 160x70x60 started. The tank has changed a lot over time; given my previous experience, I had decided to set up an undemanding Berlin system, with many fish and a few soft corals or LPS. But the "disease" calls, and at the beginning of 2019 I started changing the equipment and husbandry to make the leap back to SPS: I installed a 50x50x50 refugium with DSB + Chaetomorpha and started a mild bacterial culture (which I later dropped), a mix that allowed me to reach pollutant levels suitable for the most demanding corals, which was not easy given the many fish.

The tank currently holds:

Hepatus, Imperator, Pygoplites, Leucosternon, Flavescens, Desjardinii, Strigosus, Loriculus, 2 Chromis, 5 squamipinnis, 2 Chrysiptera parasema, 3 Ocellaris, 2 clarkii, 2 marmoratus, 2 Halichoeres, Hexataenia... quite a few, given the volume of less than 700 l.

In May 2019, so less than a year ago, I started adding the first Indonesian frags and some wild Australians, which I still have not finished! But never be in too much of a hurry: the beauty of our hobby is always making some small change, even just a new coral, and we rarely sit on our hands.

The tank, previously lit by 4 Radion G4 Pro, has for the past couple of months been under an ATI Powermodule 10x54 W and 2 Silvermoon Actinic 1450 bars, a change that has really given the animals a huge leap in quality and so, given the short time, we are only at the beginning.

Water flow, after trying really everything or almost, is handled by 2 Gyre XF350s which, set at maximum, move 40,000 l/h, about 50 times the total volume of the tank.

In the sump, besides the refugium already mentioned, I have nothing but an UltraReef UKS200. Supplements are handled by Triton Core 7 Balling, which I dose with a D-D H2Ocean Pro. Following the complete Triton method I do not need water changes, but I do them, around 90/100 litres, so 10/15%, about every 2 months, with Two Little Fishies AccuraSea salt, to lower aluminium values that are still a bit high and that I have been carrying around since, at the start, I used resins to lower PO4.

Husbandry is "very simple", in the sense that I do not follow any protocol now; I regularly dose nitrifying or denitrifying bacteria as needed, and I have recently started adding sodium nitrate to keep NO3 detectable by test kits and to lower PO4, which always stays a touch higher. In future I would like to try dosing carbon sources while ensuring stable nitrate doses, to lighten the organic load and improve colours. Values: KH 6.7, Ca 420, Mg 1260 (Salifert tests), NO3 2 (Nyos test), PO4 0.02 (Hanna phosphorus test). KH was deliberately kept slightly low because, with LEDs and NO3 always at 0, I did not want to push growth, to avoid the tissue recession that occasionally happened. Sometimes I dose a little Oceanlife SPS Evo Food.

Currently 95% of the corals are SPS, except for some of the nicest soft corals and LPS left over from the previous setup. In the tank there are Stylophora, tortuosa, aculeus, nobilis, florida, divaricata, microclados, secale, hystrix, subseriata, microphthalma, Pocillopora, caroliniana, echinata, turaki, hoeksemai, millepora, hyacinthus, nasuta, insignis etc. etc.; some are also special, sought-after signature corals.

Happy reefing to all, hoping we get out of this bad time soon!"

Saying goodbye to Alan, we can only compliment him on the clean layout, the essential and functional look of the cabinet, and the really commendable tidiness of the equipment area. A tank with many SPS, with a play of colours that will make Matteo De Benedictis happy and a simplicity of husbandry that will win the approval of our Ciro!

I leave you with the photos of Alan's aquarium: