Tank of the month: August 2019

ANDREA DONATI

Here we are again with our appointment dedicated to the tank of the month for August, this time featuring the aquarium of Andrea Donati.
I am personally very happy with this choice, because Andrea is a very active member of our group, where he often steps in to help others too, exactly in the spirit of BallingMania.
Another important point: Andrea's equipment is rational, with no frills but with everything needed, and a clever upgrade of the system that simplified husbandry and brought some improvements in lighting and water flow, showing that even without spending a Constitutional Court judge's yearly salary you can achieve good results, by planning non-essential expenses over a long period. All this, of course, provided you know where you cannot compromise. Andrea also spent a lot of time finding the perfect light mix, showing curiosity and a desire to experiment, without upsetting the balance the tank had reached.
Now let's give him the floor.
"Hello BIG GROUP, let me introduce myself: my name is Andrea, I am from Rome and I am 42. My immense passion for this hobby was born back in (not so long ago) 2005 when, thanks to (or because of, depending on your point of view hehehe) a relative of mine who was trying his hand at this adventure, I was invited to see his "creation"; back then there was not all this technology and techniques were much more spartan, but still valid; I was amazed by what I saw, even though it was just a simple tank with soft corals and very few LPS, but that was more than enough to spark the passion that led me into this adventure, which has now lasted about 14 years. After this short introduction, here is the tank I am currently running; it is a 100x52x60 tank, visible on 3 sides (1 short, 2 long), in extra-clear glass, full SPS with a few LPS and soft corals, started about a year and a half ago from a move out of a smaller tank; contrary to what the manufacturer itself recommends, it was initially run entirely with the pure Zeovit method but with one substantial difference, namely the DSB (10 cm of sugar-size sand), which Korallen-Zucht absolutely does not recommend (but I have always run my previous tanks this way with excellent results); a method I consider really very valid, even though not easy for beginners; later I decided to take another approach, let's say a more "natural" one, dropping all the products the method required, including the zeolite reactor (removing the zeolite slowly, little by little, of course), in order to raise nutrients and bring them to ideal values; luckily this change of approach did not give me big problems, perhaps precisely because it was done over a long period; so for the first 8 months the tank had the following equipment:

Lighting: Easy LED bars (3 Deep, 2 Marine, 1 Reef)

Skimmer: UltraReef Akula 160 (excellent in my opinion)

Water flow: 3 Jebao pumps (I do not remember the model)

Return: Jebao 6000

Triad: Balling run by a Coral Box dosing pump with solutions prepared from MATUTA salts.

Today

The more "natural" approach is simply food for the fish twice a day, food for the corals 3 times a week (Xaqua Koral Bull), zooplankton (rotifers and copepods) every evening with the lights off, and phyto every day with the lights on. The equipment has changed, specifically the lighting, the flow pumps and a modification to the dosing pump, because I decided to change Balling brand: as the tank grew, and so did consumption, I was having to prepare solutions all the time, so I switched to ATI Essentials Pro.

Lighting: LED + T5 (2 Easy LED Deep, 1 Easy LED Marine, 2 ATI Coral Plus T5s, 1 ATI Aqua Blue T5, 1 KZ Fiji T5, 1 GNC Silvermoon), in short a light "minestrone" that, after various trials and combinations, has found its balance

Water flow: 2 AI Nero 5.

Triad: Coral Box heads replaced with Kamoer ones, and ATI Essentials Pro.

The problems in these almost 2 years have been the classic ones, cyano, Aiptasia, Valonia, triad sometimes out of balance, but the problem that cost me the most time was discovering by chance, through an ICP test, a considerable concentration of heavy metals in the tank, including aluminium, tin and manganese; after dosing Triton Detox I checked with a second test that the metals came from my RO unit which, although 6-stage, could not cope with the fact that the building's water pipes were old and made of those 3 elements. I found the solution by replacing both the classic carbon cartridge with one specific for metals and the classic resins with ion-exchange ones; now, after doing ICP tests, the problem has luckily been solved.
Another battle was raising the nutrients, and so getting the right Redfield ratio (nitrogen-phosphorus-carbon); I must admit it was harder to raise NO3 and PO4 to the right amounts than to bring them to 0 with Zeovit; in fact, after trying in vain both by feeding the fish more and by adding more fish, nutrients stayed permanently at 0; so I tried another product, ATI Nutrition; well, I must say that in my opinion they can be considered a turning point in nutrient management in the marine aquarium; being able to manage, control and raise or lower NO3 and PO4 at will, according to the tank's needs, is really fantastic; of course I always recommend reading up a lot before adding new products to the tank, especially products that can create more problems than benefits if overdosed; but if you start moderately, better still below the recommended doses, in my opinion they are a really valid product.

Now, after stressing you out enough, I leave you to some photos, but first I would like to thank the whole BallingMania staff, which I now consider my BIG reference GROUP, for choosing me for this article and for giving me the chance to make myself known.

Enjoy