Tank of the month: May 2021

DAMIANO DOMENICO
VALENTE

Can it happen that a local police forest ranger, passionate about forests and wonderful tangles of green leaves, sets his mind on recreating forests underwater, where the protagonists are not trees but colourful corals? Of course it can, and Damiano Domenico Valente, owner of May's "tank of the month", is living proof. "For work I protect our woods, but at the same time I am a scuba diving instructor: let's say that fishkeeping is a passion that fits beautifully with both these roles of mine", says Damiano Domenico, 37, who in his home in the province of Vicenza, where he lives with his partner, has set up the marvellous tank you see in these photos. "Ever since I was a boy I had a special interest in all aquatic creatures; at seven I persuaded my parents to buy me a small freshwater aquarium", he says. "At first I kept goldfish, then the classic guppies; later I changed tanks but stayed with freshwater for many years".

And when did you "dive" into marine?

"For me it really was a dive. After getting my diving licence, and after seeing the wonders of the Red Sea with my own eyes, I decided I would bring a little piece of those wonders home. So about fifteen years ago I bought my first marine aquarium: sixty litres net with rocks, a couple of soft corals and two little clownfish. That's all. Then I moved to a two-hundred-litre tank and a four-hundred-litre one, which however did not fit in the new house I moved into in January last year".

And so you moved to your current tank, about three hundred litres. Can you describe it a bit?
"It measures 120 by 50 by 55 centimetres, Berlin method. In the sump, besides the Elos NS 500 skimmer, I have an algae reactor with Chaetomorpha and a fluidised bed filter with carbon and zeolite".

Balling or reactor?

"Am I a Ballingmaniac or not? Jokes aside, I use Red Sea Balling, "piloted" by a Jebao dosing pump".

What can you tell me about lighting and water flow?

"Water flow is handled by Jebao CP-40 pumps, while for lighting I have three Noopsyche K7 Pro II units".

Let's come to the large population of your magnificent aquarium, starting with the fish.

"Bearing in mind that most of the inhabitants of this tank come from the previous one, I have various species, including a hepatus, a navarchus, a Centropyge bicolor, some Chromis, a flavescens, some clarkii and, as detritivores, I keep three Lysmata shrimps, Turbo snails and a starfish. As for corals, I have a bit of everything, from digitate and foliose Montipora to Hydnophora, from milka to loisetteae, by way of various LPS and lots of Zoanthus. And some evenings, when I sit and look at all these riches, it feels like I have the Red Sea right here, in front of the sofa".