Simone’s reef from Italy aka. gigireefproject

[Giglio]

Hello from Italy,
I recently registered a reef2reef account, but I am reading you since few years! What a great source of knowledge!

Introducing here my reef tank.
It is a 670 liters (177 gallons…) mainly sps tank, started 3 October 2021 after roughly one year of study and project preparation.
I come in fact from roughly 30 years of freshwater tanks and this is my first reef.
I tried to build it to minimize the maintenance.

Aquarium
Tank measures are in cm 174x70x55h.
In inches roughly 69x28x22h, slightly less.
Front and left glasses are extra clear, while right and back are float with a white film, so it gives that light blue color. In/out from Ultra Reef.

Cabinet
The cabinet has an aluminum structure and it is covered by the same wood base material used for the rest of living room and kitchen.
On the left side I keep the electrical part, controllers and dosing, on the right side the sump. I embedded both sound-isolating and sound-adsorbing material.

Technic
Lights are 3 ATI Straton
Movement is generated from 4 Vortech, but till January 2024 I had just 2.
Skimmer is RedSea RSK900, again to minimize the maintenance.
Calcium reactor is an Ultra Reef UCS140.
Return pump Hydor Seltz D9000
Chiller is a Teco TK500H
Fluidized bed filter from Bubble Magus
I have a 18W UV from Newa running 12 hours per day.
Utility pumps (UV, Chiller) are from Jebao.
CO2 scrubber ATI CarboEx.
I have a UPS.
Controller is an AquaGo from a company not existing any longer, I use it also for water changes and also ATO is managed by it.

There is a hole in the wall and in a separate laundry room I have the chiller, RODI water production and the tank for preparing saltwater.
All operations for water change excluding adding salt and measuring salinity happen via “pushing buttons”.
With last 15 years of discus fishes I was tired of manual water changes .

In this room I also have a 160L tank (40+gallons) that is supposed to become a refugium, but I still didn’t activate it.

I started with 100% dead rocks from D-D The aquarium solutions, 80kg.
Sand is ATI Fiji White 0.3-1.2mm

I use Tropic Marin Pro salt.

As SPS coral food I mainly use Elos Sience M1, but also dry foods from BEA.
I also use ZeoFood Plus from KZ every now and then, not according to protocol. Same for Coral Vitalizer and Amino Acids from KZ.

As fish foods:
Elos SVM2, Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 and Formula 2, periodically e.g. few days every 2 months Dr Bassler Forte and I am currently trying also New Life Spectrum. Sometime I also use Vitalis and I have in future plans to try BEA foods also for fishes.

As trace elements I am also use ZeoSpur Macroelements from KZ, although I don’t use ZeoSpur. All the rest is coralline in reactor + iodine.
Here I still haven’t found “my home” I would prefer to keep on line only, but I don’t want to do continuous changes.

I use as GFO RowaPhos from D-D and as carbon I use Korallen-Zucht.

Corals
I have a kilos of Acropora nobilis, kilos of Acropora Parilis and kilos of Stylophora pistillata pink, even if this last one I took a big colony from a friend dismounting beginning of 2022 and I never managed to make it thrive and grow, while the previous 2 grows incredibly fast.
I have also Acropora austera (greenish, pink growth, yellow tips), a pink Acropora millepora, a badly colored cherry blossom (Acropora rosaria) an Acropora loisette, and Acropora hoeksemai, a blue tip Acropora that I think is a formosa, but not sure, purple Acropora valida, one Acropora florida, a huge Anacropora (not visible in the uploaded pictures as behind the A.parilis) and some Montiporas.
I have also the tank full of Orange/Blue Rhodactis, a rookie mistake…
Few Ricordea and one small crocea clam since recently (ok it is not a coral) that is not living an easy life in my tank, maybe due to the Angelfish, but I have never seen a single one of them nipping in now over one month.

Fishes and other inverts

Let’s start by saying I have 4 tangs and 4 Angelfish.
Acanthurus leucosternon (PBT)
Acanthurus olivaceus (orange shoulder T)
Naso elegans (blonde Naso)
Zebrsoma flavescens (yellow tang)
Pomacanthus imperator (Emperor angelfish) that started to change to adult colors with the tank change, a lot earlier than it should
A small captive bred Regal that I took from a person in my town in need to dismantle the tank, with already present a vitamin related issue that I still didn’t manage to solve in one year (so far using nori and Lipovit from Tropic Marin), I will open a dedicated thread to ask guidance.
A multibar angelfish captive bred
A Colin’s angelfish.
Then I have
7 Pseudanthias squamipinnis
25+ green chromis
A couple of Royal gramma
3 Pterapogon kauderni
1 Psudochromis fridmani
1 Amblygobius phalaena that keeps sand white, but water dirty
1 cleaner wrasse (L. dimidiatus)
1 Trimma

I have few skull shrimp, hermit crabs and snails, one pon pon anemone crab that I see every few months. 2 Archaster, 2 urchin: one gratilla and one Mespilia globulus.

If you are curious to see also videos, my IG account “gigireefproject” is there for you.

Here few pictures

A. parilis

A. austera

Giovanni the Naso & friends

Apollo

Apollo photobombing Amara the Regal

Augusto

Mirage

Sideview

Oceano & Apollo showing off

Kona

The newly introduced clam

Tang gang

Hope you enjoyed the intro!
Cheers

Giglio

 

[Devaji]

wow so clean, love it.
how's reefing in Italy? is there a big scene there? I love seeing tanks for other parts of the word.
how big in the emp. angel? all your fish and corals look amazing. thanks for showing us.
cheers

 

[Giglio]

wow so clean, love it.
how's reefing in Italy? is there a big scene there? I love seeing tanks for other parts of the word.
how big in the emp. angel? all your fish and corals look amazing. thanks for showing us.
cheers

Hello and thank you!
Scene in Italy: not as big as in US, but good and with some very nice tanks! Slowed down a bit with the post-pandemic energy crisis here in Europe, but right now there seems to be some positive signals.
Emperor is like 5 inches or slightly more, so definitely too small for the colour change, and it started as soon as I put him in tank a bit more than one year ago when he was even smaller. I heard in some cases they might trigger change when changing tank/after capture. No idea if can be true or not, but he is growing nicely, he has a favourite spot but use 100% of the tank, eat like a pig, so it seems all good!
Thank you for the kind words!

 

[1112-425XL]

Nice setup, beautiful tank!

 

[stefano18]

from italy, awesome tank!!

 

[Dom]

Hello from Italy,
I recently registered a reef2reef account, but I am reading you since few years! What a great source of knowledge!

Introducing here my reef tank.
It is a 670 liters (177 gallons…) mainly sps tank, started 3 October 2021 after roughly one year of study and project preparation.
I come in fact from roughly 30 years of freshwater tanks and this is my first reef.
I tried to build it to minimize the maintenance.

Aquarium
Tank measures are in cm 174x70x55h.
In inches roughly 69x28x22h, slightly less.
Front and left glasses are extra clear, while right and back are float with a white film, so it gives that light blue color. In/out from Ultra Reef.

Cabinet
The cabinet has an aluminum structure and it is covered by the same wood base material used for the rest of living room and kitchen.
On the left side I keep the electrical part, controllers and dosing, on the right side the sump. I embedded both sound-isolating and sound-adsorbing material.

Technic
Lights are 3 ATI Straton
Movement is generated from 4 Vortech, but till January 2024 I had just 2.
Skimmer is RedSea RSK900, again to minimize the maintenance.
Calcium reactor is an Ultra Reef UCS140.
Return pump Hydor Seltz D9000
Chiller is a Teco TK500H
Fluidized bed filter from Bubble Magus
I have a 18W UV from Newa running 12 hours per day.
Utility pumps (UV, Chiller) are from Jebao.
CO2 scrubber ATI CarboEx.
I have a UPS.
Controller is an AquaGo from a company not existing any longer, I use it also for water changes and also ATO is managed by it.

There is a hole in the wall and in a separate laundry room I have the chiller, RODI water production and the tank for preparing saltwater.
All operations for water change excluding adding salt and measuring salinity happen via “pushing buttons”.
With last 15 years of discus fishes I was tired of manual water changes .

In this room I also have a 160L tank (40+gallons) that is supposed to become a refugium, but I still didn’t activate it.

I started with 100% dead rocks from D-D The aquarium solutions, 80kg.
Sand is ATI Fiji White 0.3-1.2mm

I use Tropic Marin Pro salt.

As SPS coral food I mainly use Elos Sience M1, but also dry foods from BEA.
I also use ZeoFood Plus from KZ every now and then, not according to protocol. Same for Coral Vitalizer and Amino Acids from KZ.

As fish foods:
Elos SVM2, Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 and Formula 2, periodically e.g. few days every 2 months Dr Bassler Forte and I am currently trying also New Life Spectrum. Sometime I also use Vitalis and I have in future plans to try BEA foods also for fishes.

As trace elements I am also use ZeoSpur Macroelements from KZ, although I don’t use ZeoSpur. All the rest is coralline in reactor + iodine.
Here I still haven’t found “my home” I would prefer to keep on line only, but I don’t want to do continuous changes.

I use as GFO RowaPhos from D-D and as carbon I use Korallen-Zucht.

Corals
I have a kilos of Acropora nobilis, kilos of Acropora Parilis and kilos of Stylophora pistillata pink, even if this last one I took a big colony from a friend dismounting beginning of 2022 and I never managed to make it thrive and grow, while the previous 2 grows incredibly fast.
I have also Acropora austera (greenish, pink growth, yellow tips), a pink Acropora millepora, a badly colored cherry blossom (Acropora rosaria) an Acropora loisette, and Acropora hoeksemai, a blue tip Acropora that I think is a formosa, but not sure, purple Acropora valida, one Acropora florida, a huge Anacropora (not visible in the uploaded pictures as behind the A.parilis) and some Montiporas.
I have also the tank full of Orange/Blue Rhodactis, a rookie mistake…
Few Ricordea and one small crocea clam since recently (ok it is not a coral) that is not living an easy life in my tank, maybe due to the Angelfish, but I have never seen a single one of them nipping in now over one month.

Fishes and other inverts

Let’s start by saying I have 4 tangs and 4 Angelfish.
Acanthurus leucosternon (PBT)
Acanthurus olivaceus (orange shoulder T)
Naso elegans (blonde Naso)
Zebrsoma flavescens (yellow tang)
Pomacanthus imperator (Emperor angelfish) that started to change to adult colors with the tank change, a lot earlier than it should
A small captive bred Regal that I took from a person in my town in need to dismantle the tank, with already present a vitamin related issue that I still didn’t manage to solve in one year (so far using nori and Lipovit from Tropic Marin), I will open a dedicated thread to ask guidance.
A multibar angelfish captive bred
A Colin’s angelfish.
Then I have
7 Pseudanthias squamipinnis
25+ green chromis
A couple of Royal gramma
3 Pterapogon kauderni
1 Psudochromis fridmani
1 Amblygobius phalaena that keeps sand white, but water dirty
1 cleaner wrasse (L. dimidiatus)
1 Trimma

I have few skull shrimp, hermit crabs and snails, one pon pon anemone crab that I see every few months. 2 Archaster, 2 urchin: one gratilla and one Mespilia globulus.

If you are curious to see also videos, my IG account “gigireefproject” is there for you.


Hope you enjoyed the intro!
Cheers

Giglio

Wow; this is a nice looking tank!

I also noticed the tank on the adjacent wall... it looks like it will be a natural lighting tank. Very nice.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

Good luck!
Dom

 

[Giglio]

Wow; this is a nice looking tank!

I also noticed the tank on the adjacent wall... it looks like it will be a natural lighting tank. Very nice.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

Good luck!
Dom

Thank you!
Yes there is a solar tube from the roof and it is supposed to become a refugium, but still I haven’t connected it to the main system.

 

[Dom]

Thank you!
Yes there is a solar tube from the roof and it is supposed to become a refugium, but still I haven’t connected it to the main system.

Okay... so that tank with the solar tube will be a refugium to the tank on the other side of the wall. I like it!

I try to make my refugium nice to look at. It never occurred to me that it could be a whole separate tank.

 

[tommys78]

Hello from Italy,
I recently registered a reef2reef account, but I am reading you since few years! What a great source of knowledge!

Introducing here my reef tank.
It is a 670 liters (177 gallons…) mainly sps tank, started 3 October 2021 after roughly one year of study and project preparation.
I come in fact from roughly 30 years of freshwater tanks and this is my first reef.
I tried to build it to minimize the maintenance.

Aquarium
Tank measures are in cm 174x70x55h.
In inches roughly 69x28x22h, slightly less.
Front and left glasses are extra clear, while right and back are float with a white film, so it gives that light blue color. In/out from Ultra Reef.

Cabinet
The cabinet has an aluminum structure and it is covered by the same wood base material used for the rest of living room and kitchen.
On the left side I keep the electrical part, controllers and dosing, on the right side the sump. I embedded both sound-isolating and sound-adsorbing material.

Technic
Lights are 3 ATI Straton
Movement is generated from 4 Vortech, but till January 2024 I had just 2.
Skimmer is RedSea RSK900, again to minimize the maintenance.
Calcium reactor is an Ultra Reef UCS140.
Return pump Hydor Seltz D9000
Chiller is a Teco TK500H
Fluidized bed filter from Bubble Magus
I have a 18W UV from Newa running 12 hours per day.
Utility pumps (UV, Chiller) are from Jebao.
CO2 scrubber ATI CarboEx.
I have a UPS.
Controller is an AquaGo from a company not existing any longer, I use it also for water changes and also ATO is managed by it.

There is a hole in the wall and in a separate laundry room I have the chiller, RODI water production and the tank for preparing saltwater.
All operations for water change excluding adding salt and measuring salinity happen via “pushing buttons”.
With last 15 years of discus fishes I was tired of manual water changes :Freddo:.

In this room I also have a 160L tank (40+gallons) that is supposed to become a refugium, but I still didn’t activate it.

I started with 100% dead rocks from D-D The aquarium solutions, 80kg.
Sand is ATI Fiji White 0.3-1.2mm

I use Tropic Marin Pro salt.

As SPS coral food I mainly use Elos Sience M1, but also dry foods from BEA.
I also use ZeoFood Plus from KZ every now and then, not according to protocol. Same for Coral Vitalizer and Amino Acids from KZ.

As fish foods:
Elos SVM2, Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 and Formula 2, periodically e.g. few days every 2 months Dr Bassler Forte and I am currently trying also New Life Spectrum. Sometime I also use Vitalis and I have in future plans to try BEA foods also for fishes.

As trace elements I am also use ZeoSpur Macroelements from KZ, although I don’t use ZeoSpur. All the rest is coralline in reactor + iodine.
Here I still haven’t found “my home” I would prefer to keep on line only, but I don’t want to do continuous changes.

I use as GFO RowaPhos from D-D and as carbon I use Korallen-Zucht.

Corals
Ho un chilo di Acropora nobilis, chili di Acropora Parilis e chili di Stylophora pistillata pink, anche se di quest'ultima ho preso una grossa colonia da un amico smontante all'inizio del 2022 e non sono mai riuscito a farla prosperare e crescere, mentre la precedente 2 cresce incredibilmente velocemente.
Ho anche Acropora austera (verdastra, crescita rosa, punte gialle), un'Acropora millepora rosa, un fiore di ciliegio mal colorato (Acropora rosaria) un'Acropora loisette, e Acropora hoeksemai, un'Acropora a punta blu che penso sia una formosa, ma non certo, un'Acropora valida viola, un'Acropora florida, un'enorme Anacropora (non visibile nelle foto caricate perché dietro l'A.parilis) e alcune Montipora.
Ho anche la vasca piena di Orange/Blue Rhodactis, un errore da principiante…:confuso:
Qualche Ricordea e una piccola vongola crocea ultimamente (ok, non è un corallo) che non vive una vita facile nella mia vasca, forse a causa dei pesci angelo, ma non ne ho mai vista una che pizzica da ormai più di un mese .

Pesci e altri invertiti

Cominciamo col dire che ho 4 tang e 4 Angelfish.
Acanthurus leucosternon (PBT)
Acanthurus olivaceus (spalla arancione T)
Naso elegans (Naso bionda)
Zebrsoma flavescens (codolo giallo)
Pomacanthus imperator (Pesce angelo imperatore) che ha iniziato a cambiare colore da adulto con il cambio vasca, molto prima del dovuto
Un piccolo Regal allevato in cattività che ho preso da una persona della mia città che aveva bisogno di smantellare la vasca, con già presente un problema legato alle vitamine che non sono riuscito a risolvere in un anno (per ora utilizzando nori e Lipovit della Tropic Marin ), aprirò un thread dedicato per chiedere indicazioni.
Un pesce angelo multibar allevato in cattività
Un pesce angelo di Colin.
Dopo io ho
7 Pseudanthias squamipinnis
25+ cromo verde
Un paio di Royal Gramma
3 Pterapogon kauderni
1 Psudochromis fridmani
1 Amblygobius phalaena che mantiene la sabbia bianca, ma l'acqua sporca
1 labro pulitore (L. dimidiatus)
1 Trimma

Ho pochi gamberetti teschio, paguri e lumache, un granchio anemone pon pon che vedo ogni pochi mesi. 2 Archaster, 2 ricci: una gratilla e una Mespilia globulus.

Se sei curioso di vedere anche i video, il mio account IG “gigireefproject” è a tua disposizione.

Qui alcune immagini

A.parilis

A. austera

Giovanni il Naso & amici

Apollo

Apollo fotografa Amara la Regale

Augusto

Miraggio

Vista laterale

Oceano e Apollo in mostra

Kona

La vongola appena introdotta

Banda Tang

Spero che l'introduzione vi sia piaciuta!
Saluti

Giglio

Davvero una vasca bellissima....che impostazioni usi sulle ATI STRATON? e percentuali?

 

[tommys78]

Davvero una vasca bellissima....che impostazioni usi sulle ATI STRATON? e percentuale?

e come ti trovi come colori coralli?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Absolutely STUNNING!! I love this reef!! #goals

 

[19Mateo83]

Beautiful tank! You can tell a lot of thought went into this system and it definitely shows!

 

[Giglio]

Beautiful tank! You can tell a lot of thought went into this system and it definitely shows!

Thank you and... yes, a lot of thought. First reef tank, so I studied a lot and I worked a lot on paper and with support from more experienced aquarists before pushing the button to switch on!

 

[Giglio]

Absolutely STUNNING!! I love this reef!! #goals

Thank you Daniel!!

 

[Giglio]

e come ti trovi come colori coralli?

Ciao, ti rispondo sia in Italiano che in Inglese dato il forum.
ITA
Straton 100% (800+ PAR sopra la parilis al centro, 300-400 PAR sulla sabbia).
Custom setup simile a SPS Plakativ ma con più rossi e più UV. Front-mid-rear sono leggermente diversi.
Crescite ottime, colori scarsi. Al momento ho nutrienti alti, ma avevo colori scarsi anche con nutrienti a 0.
ENG
Straton 100% (800+ PAR above the Parilis in the center, 300-400 PAR on the sand)
Custom setup similar to SPS Plakativ but with more Red and more UV. Front-Mid-rear section are slightly different.
Great growths, colors merdiocre/poor. At the moment I have high nutrients, but I had poor colors even with nutrients at 0.

 

[tommys78]

Ciao, ti rispondo sia in Italiano che in Inglese dato il forum.
ITA
Straton 100% (800+ PAR sopra la parilis al centro, 300-400 PAR sulla sabbia).
Configurazione personalizzata simile a SPS Plakativ ma con più rossi e più UV. Anteriori-medio-posteriori sono leggermente diversi.
Crescite ottime, colori scarsi. Al momento ho nutrienti alti, ma avevo colori scarsi anche con nutrienti a 0.
ITA
Straton 100% (800+ PAR sopra il Parilis al centro, 300-400 PAR sulla sabbia)
Configurazione personalizzata simile a SPS Plakativ ma con più rosso e più UV. Le sezioni anteriore-centrale-posteriore sono leggermente diverse.
Grandi escrescenze, colori mediocri/poveri. Al momento ho nutrienti alti, ma avevo colori scarsi anche con nutrienti a 0.

Grazie...anche io noto questo non ho colori brillanti e non so se dipenda dalle lampade che abbiamo....a sto punto....

 

[kaspy]

Beautiful tank. Congratulations. May I ask how do you feed your calcium reactor?

 

[Giglio]

Beautiful tank. Congratulations. May I ask how do you feed your calcium reactor?

Coralline and some Triton CaRX (a minimal part)

 

[kaspy]

Coralline and some Triton CaRX (a minimal part)

Thanks. What about the pump? Are you using a peristaltic pump or splitting the output of the return pump? If the latter, how do you control the rate of flow?