Daniella3d's Tank

Congratulations to Daniella3d for being selected as Canreef Featured Tank for Summer 2013! ([i]Merci beaucoup[/i], Daniella3d for sharing your system details with us!) Please click on the thumbnails to view the pictures larger.

Background

I started in the aquarium hobby about 20 years ago with American chiclids. I was raising them and also breeding many species then. In 1999 I moved to California and had to sell my aquariums and for the 8 years I lived in California and did not have the time to have an aquarium, although I was living right beside the ocean. When I returned to Canada I wanted to get another aquarium and got a nice 120 gallons aquarium with a rounded end meant as a wall separator unit.

I started with discus and got a fair share of problems with them. I had lots of issues with gill flukes that were nearly impossible to eradicate. I had to do a permanganate potassium treatments twice per month just to control that pest. I also had a batch of discus with the infamous discus plague which I also treated with permanganate and it worked well and I did not lose any fish but that really took a toll on me. After that I decided to sell my discus and go with some more resistant fish, thus African chiclids. I rescued a few large frontosas and got a few other types of chiclids but it was very hard to keep them happy without fighting unless I was ready to overstock my tank.

This is what really brought me to the saltwater realm. I am very happy I made the switch as it is so much more interesting to me.

History in the hobby

I started in 2009 with a nano 20 gallons tank and a few corals. I learned a hard lesson which was not to trust what the salesperson at the pet store as I was sold a blueberry gorgonian and a very nice orange sponge that were supposed to be not hard to keep but were impossible to keep long term in my system and after 3 months there were gone. On the other end I kept my flame scallop for a year and half.

My first saltwater tank, a 20 gallons rimless:

It went so well that I decided to go larger and in 2010 I bought my Osaka 75 gallons tank and started it on April 1st 2010 (yes April fool's day).

Osaka tank history

I started my Osaka tank on April 1st 2010. At the beginning I had more LPS and soft corals and as time went on I got more and more SPS. I never had much problem with SPS and with time I acquired more and more of this type of corals. Now my tank is around 75% SPS and 25% LPS and soft corals.

The Osaka tank at the beginning:

One year later, I had many more SPS as they grew very well in my system. I started with little 1" SPS frags.

As time went by my SPS grew quite large and I found other species that I liked better so I replaced many of them. The little blue tip acropora frag grew so large that it was growing outside the water and was growing 1" per month. I had to frag it very often. I also learned my lesson with non-photosynthetic sponges and decided to go with artificial sponges instead.

After a while I was looking for more rare and exquisite species so I replaced most of the original SPS. The first 2 years were all about learning on all my corals, their biology and their needs.

Major disaster

On February 2012 I was out of my regular carbon (Seachem Matrix) and so I bought some Kent carbon and rinsed the carbon well and put the new carbon in. Few hours later I knew something was wrong as my SPS were starting to bleach. I removed the carbon because that was the only thing I had put new in the tank so I knew something was wrong with it. Removing the carbon however did not stop the process that was started as I had introduced carbon that was contaminated with copper and nickel. I did water changes each day for 2 weeks to get the copper level back to a normal level and lost many corals. All my blue haliclona synthetic sponges turned white and died. I also lost many large colonies of acropora millepora and all my gorgonians. My SPS became very fragile and broke at the slightest touch for many months after that and it took about 8 months for things to start improving and growing again. Please note that Kent was responsible and compensated me for my loss in this sad event.

Many of my SPS died, but some of the SPS managed to heal from the poisoning and are now doing very well today as in these pictures taken from a frag of millepora in February 2012 right after the poisoning and now, one year later that same little bleached frag:

Equipment

Tank: 75g Osaka tank 42L X 18W X 24T
Skimmer: Reef Octopus BH100F "hang on tank" (no sump possible in this system)
Lighting: Coralife 250 watt (Phoenix 14K) metal halide fixture with power compact and moonlights
Flow: 2X Hydro Koralia evo 1400GPH
Controller: Reef Angel with wifi module
Dosing pump: Marine Magic with 3 pumps

Parameters

Calcium: 440 to 460 ppm (75ml per day with dosing pump)
Alkalinity: 7 to 8 dKh (100ml per day with dosing pump)
Magnesium: 1350ppm
Salinity: 1.025
Temperature: 76.5°F (very stable and controlled with a fan)
Nitrate: 10 ppm
Phosphate: 0.1 ppm
Water change: Once per month with Reef Crystal salt (IO Reef crystal for 2 years now)

Supplementation and food

Zeovit Amino Acid, Coral Vitalizer, Sponge Power, and I use Zeovit Coral Snow and Zeobac once or twice per week.

Fauna Marin Ultra Clam, Ultra Seafan, Ultra Min, Coral Frenzy and Reef Roid 2 to 3 times per week as well as live photoplankton. I feel that using live phytoplankton really help the copepod population thrive.

I add 2 cap full of Seachem Reef strontium, Coral Vita (10 drops) and two drops of Lugol once a week.

I feed my fish, long tentacle plate coral, dendros and anemones once a day with PE Mysis. I also feed the fish with live white worms and fish roe.

Maintenance and routine

My daily routine includes a good checkup of the tank and corals, sometimes with a magnifying glass to see if there is no parasites or damage. A few times per week I clean the glass, depending on condition.

My new skimmer (Reef Octopus BH100F) is pulling a lot more skimmate so I must clean the cup every day or every other day at most. I have put a drain now on it so if I leave for a few days the cup will drain into a container.

I don't do a lot of water change, only 15 gallons once per month with IO Reef Crystal. When I do the water change I syphon out the sand to remove trapped detritus.

I test for calcium and alkalinity once per week and clean the skimmer once a month. I trim my corals once a month if needed. I use GFO which I replace once per month on average. I used to have a canister filter that I would use for carbon and GFO but since I got my new skimmer which has a compartment for filter media I use this instead and removed the canister filter.

Corals

(10+) Different species of Acropora, Palmer's Blue and Red Planet milleporas, lokani, carduus, speciosa, echinata
Green pocillopora (now sprouting babies all over the tank!)
Orange digitata and a true pink digitata
Fluorescent green hydnophora
Many zoanthids and palythoas
Long tentacles plate coral
Montipora setosa
3 photosynthetic gorgonias
3 aussi acans
2 Dendrophyllium
2 Duncan corals
1 large turbinaria coral
Many ricordeas and mushroom species