Tank of the month: June 2020

SIMONE BULGARELLI

Hello everyone! I am Simone Bulgarelli from Cervia. I have been an aquarist since I was a child, starting with freshwater aquariums of various kinds, in both volume and theme. From there I moved on to marine, at least 10-12 years ago now. At the moment this can be called my third tank (first a 200 l aquarium, then 1,000 l and now about 500 l), although in the meantime I have connected a secondary tank to the main one to try out various techniques (DSB, Berlin, frag tanks, cryptic zones and culturing various kinds of algae) or to keep animals that could not live together.

Here is my current tank, about 500 l:

Tank 165 * 60 * 50 high

it has two returns and two 40 mm drains.

Berlin method with a 2 cm sprinkling of sand

Equipment:

Main tank return pumps: 2 Sicce Syncra 3.0

Frag tank return pump:

Sicce Syncra 1.5

Water flow: 2 MP40 QD, and an MP10 in the frag tank

Ocean Life skimmer fed by a Sicce 2.0 and 2 PSK 1000

Vertex zeolite reactor loaded with fine zeolite

Carbon in a sock when needed

About 4 months ago I removed the calcium reactor and added a Balling system run by 4 D-D dosing pumps: for Balling I use the Ocean Life system and dose 160 ml of KH, 55 ml of Ca and 3 ml of Mg respectively

I add other minor elements based on ICP tests, which I do about every 30/40 days.

Lighting: 4 Radion G4 Pro

Overall power 80%, blue 100%, light blue 95%, violet 85%, UV 75%, cool white 45%, warm white 60%, green and red 10%
and 2 x 80 W T5s, while the frag tank has a G2 Pro.

The temperature is mainly managed by a Teco TK 2000.

Husbandry:

I feed the fish twice a day with a very varied diet of SHG Premium, nori seaweed and fresh shrimp.

For the corals I dose every evening zooplankton I culture myself, such as copepods and rotifers, and a couple of times a week I use freeze-dried products with amino acids!

About every 15 days I change 10% of the water with Ocean Life Supreme Liquid Salt.

Tank population:

Leucosternon, 2 flavescens, xanthurum, Calloplesiops altivelis, Labroides dimidiatus, Hexataenia, a pair of Synchiropus splendidus, a pair of Ocellaris, a pair of Snowflake clownfish, two Lysmata amboinensis, four fridmani

Values:

KH 7.5/8.0

Ca 430

Mg 1350

NO3 0.5

PO4 0.009

T 24-26

Salinity 35‰

I thank many members of this group who have helped me and discussed so many topics with me. For me this is a truly extraordinary hobby and I will hardly be able to do without it. I am also a scuba diver and have visited many coral reefs around the world; I have seen fantastic places where these animals grow, or rather used to grow, as far as the eye can see. Let us be the first to respect this world, unknown to many, and to spread our knowledge of and love for it, trying in every way to protect and respect it! 🙏 thank you!"

We obviously agree with Simone, and we leave you to the photos of this well-deserved tank of the month.