Tank of the month: August 2017

ALESSANDRO TOMASELLI

The BallingMania group's tank of the month for August is that of Alessandro Tomaselli, better known to group members as Ale Tommy.

Given the not exactly "ordinary" dimensions of his aquarium (100 x 40 x 35 h), it can be called a true shallow reef.
Like nearly everyone who comes to this hobby, Alessandro started about ten years ago with a freshwater aquarium, specifically for keeping discus. Two years ago he decided to switch to marine, setting up a cube (50 x 50 x 65 h) with a DSB, and about three months ago he finally set up his current tank. As we said, it is a "low" tank that runs lengthwise, allowing a low, almost lagoon-like rockscape. For the layout Alessandro used about 30 kg of live rock, 10 kg of live sand plus 2 kg of "dead" coral sand. Lighting comes from two EcoTech Radion G2 Pro, currently set at 50% of total power and placed about 55 cm above the water surface, which he plans to gradually lower to 35 cm. Water flow in the tank is provided by two Jebao MP 25 pumps. As for the sump, it is an 80 x 30 x 40 h cm tank, part of which, with a base of about 10 cm, is used for top-off, managed by an automatic Tunze device.

Skimming is done by a Bubble Magus 150 Pro, while the return is handled by an Eheim pump. There is also a 300 W heater, while fans mounted on the main tank bring the temperature down to acceptable values in the hot months. Filtration, besides the skimmer, the live rock and the sand, is provided by a RuWal zeolite reactor and a very efficient home-made algae filter.

As for the animals in the tank, the corals are mainly Acropora, including a beautiful valida tricolor, plus a loisetteae, two tenuis, a jacquelineae, a milka and various other frags; then there are a Euphyllia paraancora and a Pachyclavularia viridis.

Three Amphiprion ocellaris, a Zebrasoma flavescens, a Hexataenia, a Centropyge acanthops, two Archaster typicus stars and about ten Turbo snails complete the marine fauna.

The fish are fed granules twice a day, while for the corals he adds 1.5 ml of Sicce H&O amino acids twice a week. As for maintenance, Alessandro makes a weekly change of 15 litres of water prepared with Fauna Marin salt and RO water from a five-stage unit; he doses Nyos live bacteria twice a week, feeding them twice a day with 0.2 ml of Nutrobact. The triad is maintained by a Jebao dosing pump with the Fauna Marin protocol; he tells me, however, that he plans to switch to Triton products soon. Alessandro lets me know that he is currently very satisfied with the result, not forgetting to thank a few people in particular for it: one is the founder of the BallingMania group, Ciro Murino, for his invaluable technical advice on husbandry and setup; another is his dear friend Orazio, always ready to help him solve on the spot the small and big problems that come up; and last but not least, Daniele, for supporting his construction ideas and helping to build them.