Introduction:
Hello, Reef2Reef! I've been in the hobby for around 28 years. It all started when my mother decided to get her children some pets. As some family members suffered from asthma, we couldn't keep any animals with hair or fur, so she decided to buy a freshwater tank. Each family member took care of a seperate fish species. After a few years of success, we had 10 different fish and water plant breeding tanks in the cellar. I started my first reef tank at the age of 14 after catching some animals on our holiday trip to the west coast of Ireland. Even in my high school years, I was the person responsible for the school's reef tank, spending hours of discussion about that topic with the biology and chemistry teachers as well as the local reef aquarium store manager. With that knowledge base, after all these years, it was always my personal goal to keep an acropora-dominated reef tank like the one that I have right now. The help of Claude Schuhmacher, CEO of Fauna Marin, who has shared his vast knowledge provided for the rest of the foundation of this reef.
System Profile:
Water Circulation and Flow Summary and Objectives: For flow, I'm using two Maxspect Gyre 350s, alternately 20 seconds 100% / 0%. This produces a turbulent wave like flow going from one side to the other of the tank, moving through the scape from top down.
Water Parameters:
What salt mix do you use?
I use Fauna Marin Professional Sea Salt because it provides the best and consistent salt quality.
What kind of rock did you start with?
I started with Fiji Pukani Rocks, but changed to 100% Indonesian Live rocks after 2 years.
What is your substrate? CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade
Calcium/Alkalinity/Magnesium Summary and Objectives: I try to keep every element at a low range, but day and night stability is more important to me than chasing a specific number.
What and how do you dose for the big 3 (alk/cal/mag)? Fauna Marin Balling Light - mag dosing weekly or after I get the ICP results, alk 24 times a day, ¾ during light period, calcium dosing 12 times during light period.
Are you dosing anything else for your reef health (carbon dosing, aminos, etc.)? I'm also dosing Fauna Marin Bacto Energy, Min S, Coral Vitality.
Lighting Photoperiod
What is your export strategy? I do a weekly water change, exchange of the sandbed once a year, and carbon dosing. The strategy also is to feed a high quality fish food source that doesn't accumulate nutrients in the tank at the end.
What is your maintenance routine?
Tank Inhabitants—Fish:
Other Invertebrates:
Tank Inhabitants— Corals:
Fish and Coral Feeding: The fish are fed 4 times a day by the automatic feeder filled with a mix of high quality dry food pellets from Fauna Marin. In the evening they get a Fauna Marin Green seaweed flake as well as frozen Mysis and Fish Eggs from Ocean Nutrition.
How did you decide what to keep in your tank?
After 28 years of experience in the hobby, I always wanted to keep an Acropora dominated reef tank. Most fish I chose do a job, only the clown fish were bought for their color and behavior.
Any stocking regrets? None
Any fish, invert, or coral you will NEVER keep? Sharks
What do you love most about the hobby? I love the aspect of learning a lot in chemistry, biology, food quality, IT, electricity, effects of color combinations etc.
How long have you been doing this? 28 years
Who was responsible for getting you into the hobby? My mother got me into the hobby.
Who or what in the hobby most influences/inspires you? The research and publications of the company Fauna Marin as well as the endless knowledge and wisdom of everything in that hobby shared by the FM manager Claude Schuhmacher.
If you could have any tank, what size would it be and why? That’s hard to imagine, as I would always end up not having enough space.
Favorite fish? Naso elegans
Favorite coral? Acropora Cytherea (yellow color varieties)
Favorite invert? Neopetrolisthes maculatus
How do you typically get over setbacks? The thought of having the possibility to probably get some space free for new animals that I couldn’t buy yet is one positive motivator.
Have you faced any major challenges with this particular tank, and if so, how did you overcome?
The rescape a few years ago, changing 100% of the rocks to live rock, was challenging. This was especially true regarding the turbulence in water quality, especially stability. I overcame that only by measuring, adjusting, and more frequent ICP testings.
What's the best thing you ever bought for your tank? The Fauna Marin Balling Light System
Any special tips for success or advice you'd like to share with other reefers?
Concentrate on the use of products of only a few brands, and when it comes to supplements and food, just one brand. I think the main success of my tank is due to the use of only Fauna Marin products. Only frozen fish food is another brand. Furthermore in my opinion, the quality of fish food that is fed in huge amounts in our tanks is absolutely underestimated. As I know the studies that Fauna Marin did on that subject, I use only their dry and liquid fish food.
Final Thoughts?
Over the last few years I started to join social media platforms like instagram with my account olys_tank especially to help other reefers with knowledge improvement in reef tank biology and chemistry. There seems to be a huge need for ICP interpretation, and in my opinion, a huge amount of misinformation and confusion in online forums and discussion groups. I love to share my experiences and learn day by day from experts. I couldn’t imagine a more fascinating, complex and interesting hobby where there's always more to discover and new challenges to tackle.
Reef2Reef would like to thank @Olys_Tank for the honor of featuring his reef tank. If you would like to follow @Olys_Tank on Instagram, be sure to check his page at Olys_Tank.
Hello, Reef2Reef! I've been in the hobby for around 28 years. It all started when my mother decided to get her children some pets. As some family members suffered from asthma, we couldn't keep any animals with hair or fur, so she decided to buy a freshwater tank. Each family member took care of a seperate fish species. After a few years of success, we had 10 different fish and water plant breeding tanks in the cellar. I started my first reef tank at the age of 14 after catching some animals on our holiday trip to the west coast of Ireland. Even in my high school years, I was the person responsible for the school's reef tank, spending hours of discussion about that topic with the biology and chemistry teachers as well as the local reef aquarium store manager. With that knowledge base, after all these years, it was always my personal goal to keep an acropora-dominated reef tank like the one that I have right now. The help of Claude Schuhmacher, CEO of Fauna Marin, who has shared his vast knowledge provided for the rest of the foundation of this reef.
System Profile:
- Glass or Acrylic: Low iron glass
- Stand: Steel
- Sump: Royal Exclusiv Dreambox
- Grow-out tank: First section of the Dreambox
- Protein skimmer: Royal Exclusiv Bubble King double Cone 200 with external Red Dragon 3 speedy
- Carbon/phosphate filtration: Fauna Marin Multi Filter 1.5 liter
- Return pump: Eheim 5000 compact on
- Water circulation: Dual Maxspect Gyre 350
- Lighting (display): ATI Hybrid 8 x 80w T5 & 4 x 75w LED
- Lighting (grow-out): ATI Hybrid 4 x 24w T5 & 1 x 75w LED
- Calcium/alkalinity/magnesium dosing equipment: Fauna Marin Balling Light dosed by D-D H2Ocean P4 Pro
- Auto top-off: Tunze Osmolator
- Heating/cooling: heating: Schego. cooling: Fan
Water Circulation and Flow Summary and Objectives: For flow, I'm using two Maxspect Gyre 350s, alternately 20 seconds 100% / 0%. This produces a turbulent wave like flow going from one side to the other of the tank, moving through the scape from top down.
Water Parameters:
- Temp: 77 F
- pH: 7.8 - 8.3
- Specific gravity: 1.0235 (35 PSU)
- NO3: 1-3
- Ca: 430
- Alk: 6.8 - 7.3
- Mg: 1250-1350
- PO4: 0.04 - 0-08
What salt mix do you use?
I use Fauna Marin Professional Sea Salt because it provides the best and consistent salt quality.
What kind of rock did you start with?
I started with Fiji Pukani Rocks, but changed to 100% Indonesian Live rocks after 2 years.
What is your substrate? CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade
Calcium/Alkalinity/Magnesium Summary and Objectives: I try to keep every element at a low range, but day and night stability is more important to me than chasing a specific number.
What and how do you dose for the big 3 (alk/cal/mag)? Fauna Marin Balling Light - mag dosing weekly or after I get the ICP results, alk 24 times a day, ¾ during light period, calcium dosing 12 times during light period.
Are you dosing anything else for your reef health (carbon dosing, aminos, etc.)? I'm also dosing Fauna Marin Bacto Energy, Min S, Coral Vitality.
Lighting Photoperiod
- Display tank: 10:30-21:30
- Grow-out tank: 10:30-21:30
What is your export strategy? I do a weekly water change, exchange of the sandbed once a year, and carbon dosing. The strategy also is to feed a high quality fish food source that doesn't accumulate nutrients in the tank at the end.
What is your maintenance routine?
- Daily: Fish feeding and dose Coral Vitality
- Weekly: Water change, glass cleaning, and skimmer cleaning
- Other: Once a year, I change the sandbed, cook the upper parts of the sandbed to keep it white when needed
Tank Inhabitants—Fish:
- Amphiprion ocellaris
- Zebrasoma flavescens
- Naso elegans
- Chromis viridis
- Pseudocheilinus hexataenia
- Zoramia leptacantha
- Helichoeres chrysus
- Koumansetta hectori
- Acreichthys tomentosus
Other Invertebrates:
- Several species of snails
- Strombus luhuanus
- Tridacna maxima
- Archaster angulatus
- Clypeaster sp.
- Nardoa galatheae
- Neopetrolisthes maculatus
- Several shrimps
- Christmas tree coral with several Spirobranchus giganteus
- SPS : Mainly Acropora, a few Montipora, Anacropora, Seriatopora, Stylophora, Pocillopora
- LPS : Catalaphyllia jardinei, Pavona maldivensis, Duncanopsammia axifuga, several Euphyllia glabrescens, several Acanthastrea and Alveopora sp.
- There are some Discosoma and and a Fiji
Fish and Coral Feeding: The fish are fed 4 times a day by the automatic feeder filled with a mix of high quality dry food pellets from Fauna Marin. In the evening they get a Fauna Marin Green seaweed flake as well as frozen Mysis and Fish Eggs from Ocean Nutrition.
How did you decide what to keep in your tank?
After 28 years of experience in the hobby, I always wanted to keep an Acropora dominated reef tank. Most fish I chose do a job, only the clown fish were bought for their color and behavior.
Any stocking regrets? None
Any fish, invert, or coral you will NEVER keep? Sharks
What do you love most about the hobby? I love the aspect of learning a lot in chemistry, biology, food quality, IT, electricity, effects of color combinations etc.
How long have you been doing this? 28 years
Who was responsible for getting you into the hobby? My mother got me into the hobby.
Who or what in the hobby most influences/inspires you? The research and publications of the company Fauna Marin as well as the endless knowledge and wisdom of everything in that hobby shared by the FM manager Claude Schuhmacher.
If you could have any tank, what size would it be and why? That’s hard to imagine, as I would always end up not having enough space.
Favorite fish? Naso elegans
Favorite coral? Acropora Cytherea (yellow color varieties)
Favorite invert? Neopetrolisthes maculatus
How do you typically get over setbacks? The thought of having the possibility to probably get some space free for new animals that I couldn’t buy yet is one positive motivator.
Have you faced any major challenges with this particular tank, and if so, how did you overcome?
The rescape a few years ago, changing 100% of the rocks to live rock, was challenging. This was especially true regarding the turbulence in water quality, especially stability. I overcame that only by measuring, adjusting, and more frequent ICP testings.
What's the best thing you ever bought for your tank? The Fauna Marin Balling Light System
Any special tips for success or advice you'd like to share with other reefers?
Concentrate on the use of products of only a few brands, and when it comes to supplements and food, just one brand. I think the main success of my tank is due to the use of only Fauna Marin products. Only frozen fish food is another brand. Furthermore in my opinion, the quality of fish food that is fed in huge amounts in our tanks is absolutely underestimated. As I know the studies that Fauna Marin did on that subject, I use only their dry and liquid fish food.
Final Thoughts?
Over the last few years I started to join social media platforms like instagram with my account olys_tank especially to help other reefers with knowledge improvement in reef tank biology and chemistry. There seems to be a huge need for ICP interpretation, and in my opinion, a huge amount of misinformation and confusion in online forums and discussion groups. I love to share my experiences and learn day by day from experts. I couldn’t imagine a more fascinating, complex and interesting hobby where there's always more to discover and new challenges to tackle.
Reef2Reef would like to thank @Olys_Tank for the honor of featuring his reef tank. If you would like to follow @Olys_Tank on Instagram, be sure to check his page at Olys_Tank.
