January '11 - Rene Rocha's 525 L Reef Aquarium. (Brazil)
Here's a nice reef aquarium put together by an avid coral species collector.
| Owner: | Rene Rocha, 30, from Curitiba (Brazil), 12 years of fishkeeping. |
| Setup: | October 2005. |
| Dimensions: | 150x50x70 cm. |
| Volume: | 525 L tank + 100 L sump (nominal). |
| Filtration: | DIY skimmer made of PVC using 3x 2000 L/h pumps. |
| Lighting: | 2x150 W HQI 10000 K, 1x250 W HQI 14000 K, on for 12 h/day; 2x40 W actinics, on for 14 h/day. |
| Heating: | 300 W Atman. |
| Substrate: | 75 kg of ground Halimeda (7 cm), 50 kg of Aragonite SS, and 25 kg of Aragonite from Praia de Bombinhas. |
| Decoration: | Only live rock. |
| Others: | 5 internal circulation pumps 2300 L/h each; 3500 L/h inline pump; timer for the lighting; calcium reactor for 2000 L; 36 W UV filter. |
| Įgua: | Temp 27°C, pH 8.3, KH 9, NO3 0, PO4 0. |
| Maintenance: | Partial water changes 30% monthly, addition of iodine 5 drops daily, deionized water refill with level sensor. |
| Fauna: |
1 powder blue tang, 1 yellow tang, 1 scopas tang, 1 ocellaris couple, 1 sebae couple, 1 male mandarin, 1 neon goby couple, 1 Stenopus couple, hermit crabs, 50 turbos snails.
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| Corals: |
Soft Corals: leather yellow tonga, leather umbrella, leather yellow, green, white, toadstool, hairy, several zoanthus, ricordia yuma, ricordia pink, ricordia orange-mouth red, xenia pulsing, xenia giant, cloves, elephant green.
LPS: fine grape green metallic, frog green, frog green pink tip, blastomussa green and red, galaxea green, galaxea brown, sun coral, Duncanopsamia axifuga.
SPS: prostata blue, prostata yellow, milepora yellow, milepora purple, table blue-tip red, humilis yellow, seriatophora green, turbinaria yellow, somoensis purple, montipora cup orange, montipora cup purple, montipora green metallic, echinopora, echinata blue, montipora digitata green, brown e pink, stylophora, pocilophora pink, pocilophora purple, seriatopora orange, seriatopora hot pink, valida purple, aculeus blue among others.
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| Comments: | In the beginning I took quite a beating but the will power and interest overcame all the problems. When setting up a marine aquarium we must know that we may face many difficulties in the beginning: algae, parasites, etc. One piece of advice for all: PATIENCE is at the heart of this wonderful hobby, have a lot of it and you'll be great aquarists. |
If you'd like to submit an aquarium for Tank of the Month, just contact me.
Photos taken by Rene Rocha and displayed here with his permission.
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