Ramon Parellada's (devil sea) Reef Aquarium

Introduction:

My name is Ramón Parellada. "Devil Sea" is my nickname on the majority of the aquarium forums where I participate. I'm a Moderator on www.TodoMarino.com and collaborate with the online magazine www.arrecifevivo.com. I'd like to start by saying I'm very proud that mine is the first Spanish aquarium to become Tank of the Month in this grand community. It is, without a doubt, a recognition of all the efforts we make as aquarists to stay current in this hobby.

I've been in this marvelous hobby since 1980, when I had my first marine aquarium: a 350 liter. Those were difficult years; we had nothing but undergravel filters, dead corals for decoration, canister filters and no skimmers or reactors. We're probably better off not even mentioning the lighting used in those days!

Fortunately, we have overcome these problems today, thanks largely to the marvelous invention of the Internet, which has revolutionized the dissemination of reefkeeping knowledge and techniques while allowing us to discover and have access to the best equipment and the latest technologies to arrive on the market. Once again, thank you for allowing my humble aquarium to be featured here.

System Description:

The aquarium is located in the living room of my home as an in-wall corner installation viewable from three sides. A side door provides access to the "equipment room" where all the technology that supports this small reef is located. From this room we can also see the back of the aquarium, where we may view some peculiar specimens not normally visible from the front and sides. This room's back wall is painted blue, giving a fabulous sensation of depth when viewing the aquarium from the front.

System Profile:

Tank: Glass, 18 mm thick 210 x 70 x 75 cm=1100 liters Overflow: 25 x 60 x 75 cm = 110 liters Sump: 90 x 60 x 40 cm = 100 liters (50%) Refugium: 80 x 40 x 58 cm = 185 liters

The system's total water capacity is approximately 1500 liters.

Aquarium substrate: 200 kg of Nature's Ocean sand with an average depth of 8-10 cm (DSB). Dissolution recently reduced this amount, so I added 9 kg of Nature's Ocean sand to replace the sand that had dissolved.

Sump substrate: 20 kg of Nature's Ocean sand at a depth of approximately 10 cm, forming a DSB with a surface area of only 60 x 30 cm.

Refugium substrate: 27 kg of Nature's Ocean sand at a depth of 5 cm (SSB).

Live rock: 200 kg of excellent "polyp rock" from Indonesia, which is very lightweight, porous and contains good coralline algae growth. This is the best I could find available in my country.

Aquascaping:

When I designed this aquarium's decoration my idea was to create something different. I was tired of the typical pile of rocks full of corals lumped together. This led me to build an aquascape based on three elements: a reef on the left, an island in the center and a bar on the far right. The latter was to camouflage a side wall while leaving enough space between each element so that the equipment room's blue rear wall would provide a grand illusion of depth. The center island would also provide an ample natural area for the fish to swim around. Today, the growth and addition of corals have practically united the reefscape but still allows fish to circumnavigate it, thereby fulfilling its original mission.

The system is continuously evolving. Although it is six years old, I have completely dismantled it three times and I've made many other changes to the distribution of pipes, pumps, and lighting. Nonetheless, the current setup has been in place since April 2004. Above you can see some photos of the initial installation and the aquascaping upon setup.

Equipment:

Lighting:

• Three Lumenarc-3 reflectors equipped with 250-watt 14,000K Aquaconnect bulbs driven by three SFILIGOI ACLS that reproduce the solar cycle's sunrise and sunset.

• One Lumimaster fixture equipped with one 80-watt T5 Deltec Aquablue Plus bulb

• Three 1-watt Aquaconnect blue moonlights

Photoperiod:

• Metal halides - from 2:00PM to 2:00AM

• T5 - from 3:00PM to 11:00PM

• Moonlights - from 2:00AM to 6:00AM

The tank's photoperiod is adapted to my work schedule so I can enjoy the tank in its entire splendor when I'm home.

Filtration:

• Skimmer: DELTEC AP702 (a marvelous skimmer)

• Activated carbon reactor: filled with 1000cc of ZEO-carbon, maintained as a permanent inline fluidized filter. The carbon is replaced every four weeks.

• ZEOlith reactor: filled with 2.5 kg of ZEOvit, which I've been using for about four months. The ZEOlith media is changed every six weeks.

I would like to include a small detail that may be forgotten if I don't mention it. Recently on our forum, www.todomarino.com, there was an interesting discussion, "taller de skimmers (skimmer workshop)," based on information found on a thread at Reef Central about skimmer optimization. I have to admit that because of the members' kind contributions I obtained the best operation possible from my skimmer, thereby reducing my system's nitrate levels. Like me, many of my companions also have improved the operation of their skimmers using these techniques.

Circulation:

Water circulation is provided by two TUNZE 6100 pumps (12,000 liters each) controlled by a TUNZE 7095 Multicontroller, that is responsible for reproducing the effect of flows and tides. The return from the sump is handled by two Deltec HLP 5250 pumps.

Refrigeration and Top-off:

Cooling is provided by an ICEcube chiller (photo right) that will soon be replaced by a more powerful and more efficient SFILIGOI unit. Evaporated water is topped-off from a ROWA® reverse osmosis unit to which I've added an anti-silicate membrane to improve water quality. The water is automatically topped-off by a level sensor located in the sump. Fresh saltwater for water changes is prepared in a 500 liter reservoir located in the basement, alongside the chiller. This avoids unnecessarily heating the equipment room. Routine water changes are facilitated by a pump which raises water directly to the sump at the flick of a switch.

Additives:

As mentioned, I've been using ZEOvit for over four months so additives are limited to just this brand and system. They are:

Photo courtesy of Anthony Calfo.

- ZEOvit (zeolith)
- ZEObac (bacteria)
- ZEOfood-7 (bacterial food)
- ZEOstart-2 (antinitrate and antiphosphate bacterias)
- ZEOcarbon (activated carbon)
- AAHC (amino acids)
- PIF (to improve coral coloration)
- PCV (coral food)

These doses are complemented by a new Deltec PF601 calcium reactor loaded with 6 kg of ROWA^®-lith C+ and 500 grams of ZEOmag. This setup allows me to maintain optimum water parameters. Prior to adopting the ZEOvit method my aquarium was basically maintained with products from ROWA^® such as ROWA^®phos, ROWA^®carbon and all the ROWA^®life-elements additives (Calcium, Magnesium, KH+, Trace Elements, Iodine, and Strontium).

Water Parameters:

ORP controller (left) and pH controller (right).

- pH: ~8.04
- Specific Gravity: 1.025
- Temperature: ~25.3°C
- NO₂: undetectable
- NO₃: 10 mg/l
- PO₄: undetectable
- SiO₂: .07
- Alkalinity: 6 dKH
- Ca: 400 mg/l
- Mg: 1300 mg/l
- Redox: 452 mv

Maintenance and Feeding:

Each week I change 50 liters of water. I use water prepared with Oceanic salt. I've found that it dissolves instantly and doesn't cloud the water.

Feeding is reduced to two daily additions by an automatic feeder loaded with Ocean Nutrition Formula Two and a nightly mixture of frozen food and freeze-dried algae from this same brand. I vary the frozen mix and the algae on a daily basis to ensure the fish receive a variety of vitamins and complete nutrition. Occasionally I supplement this daily diet with amino acids or vitamins, but never on a regular basis. Instead, it's usually to confront bouts of Ich or viral ailments.

On a weekly basis I perform a complete analysis of the aquarium's water parameters, which are duly recorded in a log that allows me to exhaustively track the aquarium's evolution.

Livestock:

My aquarium is characterized by a wide variety of animals. Although the small polyped corals are in the majority I also keep some other stony corals, soft corals, Tridacnids and other invertebrates and of course, fish… plenty of fish. Below is a list of all (or nearly all) of the aquarium's inhabitants.

I would like to clarify that in my country it's not easy to acquire "wild" corals. For this reason the majority of the pieces are aquacultured with the exception of a few specimens I've been fortunate enough to find. I've observed that the aquacultured SPS are slower growers. They practically stay in a lethargic state for several months. On the other hand, the wild pieces are faster growers and their coloration is maintained more exactly after their arrival. The coloration of aquacultured corals changes fairly quickly, acquiring beautiful colors but different from their original coloration at the time of purchase.

For this reason, with only a few exceptions, my corals are not very large. When purchased they are barely 5 or 10 cm and, given that my tank is still young, it's difficult to see extraordinarily large pieces.

Acknowledgements:

This entire project would not have been possible without the help of some of the best shops and importers in my country that in one way or another have helped me acquire some very special pieces. Many thanks go out to Oscar of Coral-Reef, Emilio of Waterline, Neus of Pisciber and, of course, Pedro of Acuapasion, who provided many of my first pieces. Thank you all.

Additionally, I can't forget my friends. I'd like to extend my sincere gratitude to my friends at TodoMarino.com (especially Enrique who was kind enough to translate this article). Without their support and advice I could never have gotten this far. Many thanks to that grand character known as Anthony (Calfo, that is). Thank you, too.

Feel free to comment or ask questions about my tank in the Tank of the Month thread on Reef Central.

If you'd like to nominate a tank for Tank of the Month, click here or use the button to the right.