Tank of the month: July 2021

RICCARDO MOTTA

"Where has Riccardo got to?" "Where do you think? Downstairs, looking at the little fish." Everyday scenes in the Motta household: dad comes home and asks about his son, mum throws up her hands. Riccardo is not there; he is "looking at the little fish" at the neighbour's, an aquarium enthusiast.
We are in Verona, back in the Seventies. Half a century later, here he is, Riccardo Motta, a pharmacy owner and the happy owner of July's "tank of the month".

"Well yes, I owe my passion for aquariums to that neighbour who, even then, when marine was for a select few, had a great passion for tropical fish and passed it on to me", Riccardo tells me, showing me the fruit of that old contagion, his one-metre-sixty tank packed with corals.
I bet that, just to stop you disappearing downstairs every day, mum and dad bought you an aquarium.

"Actually, it was the neighbour himself who gave it to me. I would have liked a marine one, just like his, but he told me: 'Easy, lad, first you need to get experience with freshwater'. So I took home my first small tank, about eighty litres, where I kept the ever-present guppies and later cichlids. It helped me learn the ropes. But after a while I could not resist the charm of marine, and at fifteen, with my savings and the blessing of my mum, a science teacher, I bought my first saltwater aquarium".
What did you keep?

"Just one fish: a Pterois volitans fed on shrimp, which within a couple of years became too big and I had to give it away".

How did your adventure as an aquarist continue?

"After my degree in pharmacy I went to live on my own, then I got married, but there was always an aquarium in my home. For a while, though, I went back to freshwater; marine was really too demanding. I told myself: "Oh well, after all I can be content with this". But it was wishful thinking; the call of the reef was too strong. So in 2018 I set up my current tank: it measures 160 by 55 by 60, with a capacity of about 500 litres, Berlin method with a sprinkling of sand".
The first thing that catches the eye is the type of lamps: I see you use Easy LED, why? They are excellent, but perhaps not up to such a demanding tank.
"I use five Easy LED bars for reasons of space: the aquarium is closed, built into the wall, and even though I modified the lid to ensure oxygen exchange, Hydras or Radions simply would not fit".

Tell me a bit about the equipment; your sump looks like a nuclear power station...

"The water first goes through a pre-filter, then, in order, there is an UltraReef Akula 180 skimmer, a calcium reactor also by UltraReef, and a compartment with three pumps: one sends water to a UV lamp and the chiller, the second to the refugium, which holds sand and Caulerpa. In another compartment is the third, larger pump, which is the return. In a separate compartment there is the control panel and eight dosing pumps, with as many containers, which I use to replace various elements. Finally, there is a UPS unit to cope with any blackouts".

Let's come to the population.

"I have a mix of LPS and SPS; I keep a bit of everything. The lion's share goes to Montipora of various species, then I have Stylophora, Seriatopora and a Pocillopora that has reproduced and scattered "children" everywhere. As for fish, I have about ten in all, including flavescens, hepatus, desjardinii, two Ocellaris, some Synchiropus marmoratus, with a pair that courts every evening".

How do you feed the system?

"I give the fish the classic pellets and now and then salad for the surgeonfish. For the corals I use Seachem phyto and zooplankton and sometimes, when I can find them, live zoo and phyto too. I pay close attention to feeding to prevent disease; after all... I am a pharmacist!".