Tank of the month: November 2020

SANDRA ANGELINI

This month marine fishkeeping turns pink: as November's tank we have chosen, hear ye hear ye, that of a representative of the fairer sex.
For once, then, the roles are reversed: instead of the reef fanatic fiddling with the sump while his wife or partner curses the drops of water on the floor, here is the professional who sets up a stunning cube and holds forth on SPS while her husband simply admires that little piece of reef in the living room.

For the record, the owner of the "tank of the month" is Sandra Angelini; she is forty-eight and works as an educator in a school in Chieti, in Abruzzo. How did she come to the aquarium? "It all started with the classic goldfish bowl I bought for my son three years ago", she tells me. "Thanks to an uncle who kept aquariums and a fair passion for animals, the bowl soon turned into a 120-litre tank. The
next step, after reading up properly online and getting in touch with
an Abruzzo aquarists' association, was a South-East Asian biotope aquarium, with a male Betta splendens and his "brides"".
I bet you then could not resist the charm of marine.

"Well yes, that's exactly how it went. What's more, I had an aquarist friend with a beautiful tank, so I
wanted to try setting up a small cube. Nothing special, an undemanding 40 litres, Berlin method, with a Tunze
9001 as skimmer. But after a few months I realised it was not enough for me, so in June
2019 I jumped at an opportunity and moved to my current tank".

Can you describe it for us?

"It is 60 centimetres long, 50 wide and 60 high, with an Xaqua overflow and return and a Newa Jet 1700
return pump. When it goes down to the sump, the water passes through a refugium with macroalgae and is
treated by a Tunze 9004 skimmer. I know, it is a bit undersized for a 150-litre tank, but since I had been very happy with the 9001 in my previous little aquarium I wanted to try it. It is meant to be kept
inside the tank, but I put it in the sump, and I must say it does its job well. Of course, it is mainly the refugium and the DSB that take care of removing nutrients, since I chose this kind of husbandry".

How are you set up for lighting and water flow?

"I have two AI Prime units, which I am very happy with, while as flow pumps I use two
"simple" Jebao RW4s".
Balling or reactor?
"I am a Ballingmaniac, of course. I have a 4-channel Dupla dosing pump, with the Fauna Marin system. For the
rest, twice a week I dose Zeobak bacteria with their "foods" Zeostart and Zeofood. Plus amino acids, also twice a week and also by Korallen-Zucht".

How do you feed the corals?

"Here I am a bit unusual: instead of feeding only in the evening, I do it twice a day. In the morning I dose
KZ Coral Vitalizer, in the evening Xaqua Koral Bull. And I must say that, despite this abundant "feeding"
and the small water changes (5 per cent a week), my nutrients are always even too low".

Good, let's come to the population of this beautiful nano reef.

"As you can see from the photos, I keep a bit of everything; when choosing, I pay attention above all to colours. I have
soft corals, Zoanthus, LPS and SPS, although among the latter I tend to choose the easier ones and I am not a big fan
of Acropora. Then I have various small fish, including two Amphiprion ocellaris, an Ecsenius midas, an
Ecsenius stigmatura, a Centropyge loriculus and a Pseudochromis fridmani. Completing the population are
a Lysmata amboinensis shrimp, four Turbo and other assorted snails, and a pistol shrimp or small
slipper lobster, I don't know, I have never identified it, but I hear its typical "snaps" every night".

Quite a lot of inhabitants for a 150-litre tank. I bet you are planning to go bigger.
"You read my mind, I am already thinking about it. I'll let you know; meanwhile I enjoy the colours of my small
home coral reef, which I have just photographed for my BallingMania friends. Enjoy!"