Congratulations to Sahin for being selected as Canreef's Spring 2016 Tank of the Quarter! Here's Sahin's beautiful SPS reef tank!

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I started reefkeeping more than 15 years ago. Prior to that I kept various freshwater aquariums. I studied Conservation Ecology at degree level at university and so my academic learning and reefkeeping are connected. Within a year of keeping soft corals and various LPS corals I was hooked on SPS corals; particularly the genus Acropora. My current tank is all about honing my skills at keeping acropora and creating conditions in my tank which result in vibrant colours in the corals. I am not there yet, but I aim to reach the best I can get with this tank before I venture onto my dream tank which will be a larger tank in the future.


The System
47G (US) Optiwhite (on 3 sides) 30L x 20D x 18H Custom built with Oceanlife Overflow
25G Sump and Eheim 1250 return pump
Deltec SC 1351 Skimmer
ATI Doser for Balling Lite
1 x Ecotech Marine MP40
1 x Ecotech Marine MP10
Tunze Osmolator
Fortex TC10 Temp Controller
Eheim Autofeeder


Fauna Marine Balling Lite for Ca, Alk and Mg
Redsea Pro Reef Salt


Giesemann Spectra 400w modified to:
1 x 400w Radium powered by Lumatek Selectable Ballast run at 400w setting
2 x ATI T5 - ATI CoralPlus Tubes using ATI Ballast & Reflectors from ATI and custom Active cooling
SemiLED LED strips using 16x445nm Diodes and 8x415nm Diodes @ 350mA
MH: 1:30 - 6:00 pm
LED: 12:00 - 9:00 pm
T5: 1 pm - 8:00 pm


Ca: 420ppm - Salifert - Once a month
Alk: 7.5dKH - Salifert - 2x weekly tested
Mg: 1300ppm - Salifert - Once a month
PO4: 0.03ppm - Elos High Resolution PO4 Kit - 2-3 Months
NO3: 0.2ppm - Salifert - 3 months
S.G.: 1.026 - Deltec Refractometer calibrated with Salifert 35ppt Ref solution - Weekly
Temp: 77-80F


Methodology
My main methodology is to keep things simple. That means a selection of Liverock/Siporax and a good Protein SKimmer. Occasionally I may utilize Carbon dosing if nutrients are on the rise. I recently started to dose AquaForest -NP Pro (2xdrops daily) and ProBio S (2xdrops daily) to tackle a rise in nutrients due to my Anthias dying. In the first 8-10 months of a tank being setup I've run Prodibio BiOptim and BioDigest; I've found it gentle and helps reduce nutrients; its no way as aggressive as other carbon dosed systems.

I do not use GFO. I do have some algae present in ; however that is a result of fish dying a while ago and a resultant appearance of Dinoflagellates. 95% of my snails died after the appearance of Dinoflagellates. However I let things run their courses and the Dinoflagellates disappeared. I will boost up the clean up crew at some point if required. I dont like to run my tank at very low nutrient levels and so some algae present in the system is ok with me.

I change out min 10% water every week. I only use GAC (Fluval brand) occasionally to reduce yellowing. I clean the skimmer cup each week and every now and then I will utilise a water change to completely clean out one of the 3 sections of my sump to remove any detritus.


Livestock
1 x Female Feminus Wrasse
1 x Target Madarin
1 x Yellow Eye Kole Tang
4 x Blue/Green Chromis
1 x Orchid Dottyback
1 x Red/Flame Firefish
1 x Exquisite Wrasse
1 x Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse
1 x Blood Shrimp

All the fish I keep are easy to keep apart from the Feminus and the Target Mandarin. However, both eat lots of mysis. I squirt half of the mysis with a turkey baster into the water column, but the rest I aim at the sandbed in the left back corner of the tank. Here the Feminus and Mandarin feed without bother from the other fish.

I leave the Vortechs in feed mode for 1 hour to give them time to feed. I also feed the Feminus lobster eggs. I am trying to get her to start eating flakes and pellets as well, but it will take time. Two of my reefing buddies have 5 Feminus wrasses between them and they've been successful at getting theirs to eat all types of foods. All the fish are generally fed 1 or 2 cubes of mysis a day along with some flakes and pellets via the auto feeder.


What's the secret to your success?
I believe my success comes from keeping things simple and ensuring high nutrient input and high nutrient output is maintained. A good protein skimmer is essential, along with regular water changes and occasional use of GAC. Additionally, being able to spot the small changes and signals given by the corals is something I believe I've picked up over 15 years of keeping SPS corals. I have a fair number of frags, but some of my colonies were grown from tiny frags more than 5 years ago. They've gone through a tank crash some years ago and then Acro eating flatworms. However, I still have those corals.


What do think hinders people from success?
A lack of patience. Following the latest trend. In my experience, issues with coral health and colouration is 90% of the time due to water issues...however many tend to blame their lights.


-What's the biggest mistake you ever made, or learning experience?
Relying on dipping only when introducing Acropora into my tank. I lost the battle with AEFW (Acropora Eating Flatworms) two times before I learned how to deal with this pest. The third time was almost 2 years ago. I managed to save every single Acropora. My system has now been now free of this pest for nearly 2 years.


-Do you dive? Which reefs have you seen?
I love diving and snorkeling. As part of my university degree I studied the coastal life around the Algarve, Portugal. I've also spent two weeks in Egypt diving in the Red Sea and snorkeling for many hours at a time.


-When you think of the ultimate reef tank or particularly inspiring, which one(s) would that be?
Krzysztof Tryc, Steve Weast, Darryl Vanacker, Dave (250G) and of course Andrew (Biggles from ReefCentral).


Many thanks to CanReef for selecting my tank and awarding me this great recognition. I follow many Canadian tank threads and believe my tank doesn't even come close to some of the amazing Canadian Reef tanks.

Sahin's Tank Journal

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Originally Posted by Myka (Post 990880) GAC = Granular Activated Carbon