Tank of the month: October 2017

MARCO TIRONI

This month we are in Curno, in the province of Bergamo, at the home of Marco Tironi to admire his wonderful tank.

Marco begins the description of his reef by saying:

"the tank was set up about three years ago, with the first fish and corals added: mostly SPS and LPS.
About a year after the start I had a serious and, alas, invisible problem... the fish died one by one, and so did most of the corals! I say invisible because, even though I sent the tank water to Triton for analysis every twenty days, I could not understand what the problem was, as the values were all normal. I did notice, however, that the more water changes I made, the worse things got. So I tried replacing the membrane of the reverse osmosis unit and little by little I solved the problem: the membrane had been hit by a bacterial infection!
Once this nerve-racking problem was solved, I patiently started adding fish and corals again, mostly SPS. Since then, for about a year and a half, the tank has been running well and giving me great satisfaction".

He then goes on to describe the technical side:

"the tank is acrylic, 160x60x60, and together with the sump it holds about 600 litres in total.
I light it with eight 80 watt T5s.
For filtration I use the Zeovit system: Zeobak + Zeostart + zeolite + carbon, which I change every month. The skimmer is a Nyos Quantum 220, while the zeolite reactor is a Korallenzucht.
For the triad and trace elements I use the Triton Core 7 Base Elements Balling.
Water returns from the sump to the tank through two return pumps of 3,000 litres each.
There are three flow pumps in the tank; in summer the temperature is kept at optimal values by a Teco TK 1000 chiller.

As for the corals, they are mostly digitate Montipora; there are also various Acropora, Stylophora and Seriatopora. There is also a Goniopora, an Alveopora, a Euphyllia and several purple Callyspongia sponges.

There are 14 fish in all, of various sizes; the largest are a Naso lituratus, a Hepatus, a Leucosternon, a Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis and a Zebrasoma flavescens. Then there are two Pterapogon kauderni, a Tomentosus and some clownfish.

I would like to thank the whole BallingMania staff, and Ciro Murino in particular, for choosing my tank as one of the most beautiful in the group.