Tank of the month: October 2019

LUCA CORCETTI

The tank of the month is back! Today we are the guests of Luca Corcetti, who has built a splendid nano reef that is "nano" only in its external dimensions... In fact, those of you who regularly follow our group may already have admired photos of this little gem, which today we decided to reward with this showcase, choosing it from a tough shortlist. Over to Luca Corcetti.
"Hello everyone, my name is Luca Corcetti and, like many of you, I am passionate about the tropical marine aquarium. Born in my university days, this passion has gone through many and varied transformations, becoming ever more structured and complex. After several experiences, almost all satisfying, I decided to downsize and move to the well-known nano reef. I chose an AQPET 50x50x50 tank complete with cabinet, sump and fittings, which I am fully satisfied with for its build quality and price. At first I wanted an undemanding little tank where I could perhaps grow some Zoanthus and a pair of little clownfish but, as we all know, appetite comes with eating.
The tank was born on 4 January 2019; having chosen equipment aimed at keeping undemanding animals, I had to revise it because I raised the bar and started keeping only, or almost only, SPS.
Let's start from the beginning... It was 4 January, as I said; after preparing the water and selecting about 20 kg of live rock, I set everything up in the same day. The tank had a Cetus2, soon replaced by a better-performing Radion G4 Pro XR30; water flow comes from a 12,000 l/h Coral Box, to which I added a Vortech MP10 a few months later, while in the sump there is a Bubble Magus C7 Curve, a Nyos Torq filter loaded with carbon and zeolite, a Syncra 2.0 as return, a standard commercial auto top-off with a classic float, the heater properly controlled by an AQUAMEDIC controller, and a 100 micron filter sock I use as pre-filtration on the drain. I run the tank with the AquaForest +1+2+3 Balling method via AQUAMEDIC dosing pumps, alongside Zeovit husbandry with bacterial cultures and some micro elements from the same brand, KZ. I regularly change 10 l every week using AquaForest synthetic salt. A good 95% of the animals are SPS, the rest Zoanthus and 4 LPS, which I usually feed with Sicce H&O + Calanus. There are also: a pair of Black Ice Amphiprion ocellaris, a pair of fridmani, a Gramma loreto, a Nemateleotris decora, 3 Chromis viridis, a Paracanthurus hepatus, an Acanthurus pyroferus mimic, a pair of wurdemanni, a Lysmata debelius and 2 Mespilia urchins. The fish are fed twice a day with Ocean Nutrition products.
The temperature is kept stable by a controller that manages the heater and the TECO TC10 chiller, keeping it at 24.5 degrees all year round. I do not want to go on too long; these are the basic husbandry routines of my little tank, but they often change according to the animals' health and the various problems that come up during the life of a reef aquarium. So I would say that, despite practical routines, you need a certain knack to run any kind of biotope at its best. That comes largely from experience and from constantly comparing notes with people who already have that experience.
I thank Marco Mura for giving me the pleasure of being October's tank of the month on BallingMania... and thanks to the whole staff too!!!!"