more info on Japanese reef tanks

[Mark]

A few folks might remember this thread about Japanese reef tanks:

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=9798

Being quite bored at work today, I decided to delve into a lot of japanese pages for some pics on how these things are set up. One particularly neat thing I found was that they place acrylic pieces in the sand to keep the rock of the sand bed. Here are some links to pics. These are pics of a tank being set up, start to finish:

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/GAZOU/010117/sokoage.jpg

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/GAZOU/010117/sunahiki.jpg

http://www.os.xaxon.ne.jp/~akirin/akita26.jpg


http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/GAZOU/010117/kansei.jpg

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/GAZOU/010117/kansei2.jpg

Here is a url to a step by step page of another Japanese tank being set up:

page 1: http://www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/kb3/t-hidaka/reef/berlin/Sec1200/Sec1200.htm
http://www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/kb3/t-hidaka/reef/berlin/Sec1200/chapter01.htm

Index: http://www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/kb3/t-hidaka/reef/berlin/Sec1200/Sec1200.htm
http://www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/kb3/t-hidaka/reef/berlin/Sec1200/chapter01.htm

Another example of the acrylic stems: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/akuriru.jpg

Other things that I found interesting was their lighting. They seem to use fixtures that resemble the high tech german lights. But more notably, they use a lot of spotlights, which almost look like incandescent light bulbs. Anyone have any ideas on what kind of lights those are? Any Japapnese reefers here that can contribute?

I'm just trying to learn more about what folks in other countries are doing.

Ok, if I haven't bored you yet, here are some other cool pix I found while surfing away, including tank pics, crazy fish and corals that I never see in our pet shops:

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/akuriru.jpg

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/GAZOU/001120/sinsuisou1.JPG

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/GAZOU/001120/sinsuisou2.JPG

http://www.venus.dti.ne.jp/~kojim/jpgimgs/natural/fview.jpg

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/GAZOU/000708/000708suisou1.jpg

http://village.infoweb.ne.jp/~ki/tank/a_s.jpg

http://www.seki-ph.co.jp/mang02.jpg

http://www.seki-ph.co.jp/kusabira.jpg

http://www.seki-ph.co.jp/suisou.jpg

http://www.zephyr.dti.ne.jp/~reef/kikuchi_9b.jpg

Ok, I'm done.;) So if you're having a slow day, check out these links. :)

[fishpoo]

they all look like new setups with no coraline. the Japanese are famous for bonsai tree pruning, so they probably have alot to offer in their methods. i'd like to know also what type of lighting they use and what long term result. thanks for sharing the info and pics.

[dendronepthya]

Thanks for posting those pics, they were very interesting. The acrylic supports to keep the rocks off of the substrate was talked about in TRAv1, but that is the first time I have seen pictures of it. I have no idea what those spotlights are, but the long strips are definately german HQI setups. Those reefers have some stunningly beautiful tanks don't they?

[marinelife]

very nice pictures, my only question is what are the small lights that they have on the tanks.

[Mark]

The question whether these were new tanks was brought up in the last thread. Many of the sites I visited, had pic of the newly set up tank, and yearly update pics. They also had growth sequence pictures for many acroporas over a several year period. So no, these are not new tanks. It is pretty amazing how meticulously clean they keep them.

Marinelife and dendronepthya, I am trying to find out what those lights are as well.

Other than the acrylic "stilts" and the peculiar spotlights, their setups are much the same as ours. I saw a lot of DIY downdraft skimmers on their pages, as well as some euroreef look-alikes. Chemicals used were often Kent, or other well known brands. I hope you guys enjoyed my finds as much as I did digging through a bunch of japanese that I couldn't read. I'm sure I missed a lot. I just went to the various sites and clicked on various hyperlinks, not knowing what page it was linking to.:D

I know, I know. I was really bored though.

[neoaqua]

Thanks for sharing those pictures. Absolutely stunning. I wonder myself what those lights are (the one looking spot light). I also noticed for the size of the tanks they do not have any kind of center brace/support. Amazing pic, imagine how much would somthing like this cost in Japan.
Sean

[Ag NSX]

Did you notice all the powerheads were Maxi-jets!

[slojmn]

I notice most tanks do not have fish in them, just corals. Also noticed no canopies, lights suspended above with no tank cover, although they may have taken of a cover for the pictures. I loved the orange plate coral, very cool.

[Canadian]

I've noticed that the majority of the Asian reef tanks I've seen seem to employ very similar aquascaping patterns. They typically have a "mound" (the word "mound" doesn't do the beauty of the structures justice but it was the most descriptive word I could think of) of rock on either side of the tank tapering towards a sandy area in the middle. They then affix the corals on the top of the structure (in a similar manner to North Americans) but then they also affix corals to the "bank" of the mound. This seems to be an underutilized (is that even a word?:D) portion of the rock work in North American reef tanks.

Considering I just set up my other tank the other day, I'm gonna go change my rock work in an attempt to mimic one of these tanks ("mimic" sounds so much nicer than blatantly copy doesn't it?!:))

[Edited by Canadian on 02-03-2001 at 02:07 PM]

[JohnB]

Those square tanks are really cool. Where do they get them? Are they custom made? I want one!

[Mark]

I think these tanks demonstrate how much more creative one can be with a wide tank. I wish we had more tanks like that here. Heck these pics are making me think of redoing my rockwork. My corals would hate me though.

[moviegeek]

So, what are those small spotlight lamps? I don't think anyone has answered that question yet.

[Mark]

Originally posted by moviegeek
So, what are those small spotlight lamps? I don't think anyone has answered that question yet.

Working on it.;) Any Japanese reefkeepers please chime in.

Planoi, do they have these lights in your country as well?

[mhucasey]

You gotta love those open top tanks! All glass without bracing looks like you are slicing a chunk right out of the ocean. Check these out from a pet shop in France:

http://camelreef.free.fr/new/20001204/Aquario/images/swimmingpool1.jpg
http://camelreef.free.fr/new/20001204/Equinoxe/images/swimmingpool1.jpg

[CAT]

Are those Nautilus in an empty tank???

http://www.os.xaxon.ne.jp/~akirin/akita26.jpg

CAT

[neoaqua]

Ah! I found their secret ingedient :D
Any idea what this is?
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hagiyan/nissi/Maku.jpg

[Skipper]

Those are very beautiful and interesting tanks! IMO, they could benefit greatly with the use of VHO actinics and canopies, as well as painting their back walls. Anyone figure out yet how they are getting away with no bracing or frames around the top edges of their tanks?

[GOOD (G)REEF]

As far as I am concerned those tanks couldn't get any more beautiful. I think they know something we don't. I know I have said this before, but if you compare the majority of tanks over here with the majority of tanks over there, I would much rather own a tank over there :D And what is that gooey stuff? There has to be a secret that no one has told us. Anyone know a Japanese guy that could help us out?

BTW- I though thtose nautilus were just nifty powerhead covers, but now that I look more closely I am not sur. I think they could be real.....who can read Japanese!?!!?! That little download doesn't work for me.

[Edited by GOOD (G)REEF on 02-03-2001 at 10:07 AM]

[Mark]

Those are indeed Nautilus. What I admire about it, is that the owner understood the animals needs and set up a proper tank for it. I have seen Nautilus for sale from time to time, but they were often kept in reef displays at stores here. Nautilus come from much deeper waters. They require a dimly lit tank, with a chiller. The depths that they occur in are much much cooler than the temps we keep a reef tank at. This owner has both dim lighting and a chiller on the right.

Good (G)Reef,
I don't think there is any secret as to why their tanks are so beautiful. When it comes to lighting, they get their ideas from the German reefkeepers(which seem to make pretty hight tech lights), and also make sweet namebrand lights of their own. When it comes to filtration, they seem to get their ideas from the USA(judging from the numerous ETS look-alike DIY skimmers I saw), and of course the berlin/natural filtration methodology. When it comes to decoration/aquascaping, well, the Japanese have always had an eye for that. When it comes planted aquariums, koi ponds, and even bonsai trees, they are very creative and meticulous. I'm willing to bet that they scrape all four sides of the tank daily.:)

Combine these aspects all together, and you'll end up with a very beautiful tank. I only saw a couple of tanks with refugiums, but I think that will change soon too. It's funny, I never even bought a plane ticket. But from those pics, I think I have a pretty decent grasp of what reefkeeping is like over there. Ya gotta luv the Internet.

[CAT]

Mark, just watched a news piece about the cold-water reefs we have off the Nova Scotia shore. I was amazed that we even had any in the north atlantic - soft and hard corals, lots of color (almost like a tropical reef) and fish. Some fishermen were starting to holler about the destructive fishing practices in these waters (draggers) and the feds are finally taking notice and doing a little research.

Sounds like a great biotope tank for the Nautilus :)

CAT

[valid]

mhucasey -
any idea how to contact these french lfss with the glass tanks you posted pics of? where did you get these pics? do you know anything about them - like what city, etc?

[mhucasey]

I got the pics off the "a reefer in Dubai" website. Here is the address: http://camelreef.free.fr/ Look in the pictures section. You might also want to check with the guy who runs the site.

[Aaron Shelley]

Never mind the square shape; Where is the center brace and top frame? Why do I need to HUGE top supports braces on my 240 and a top frame?

Those tanks look so good, in part, because of the clean lines. WOW!!

[valid]

hi -

just starting to check into this. so far dick tracy has a lead on a parisian lfs that goes by "equinoxe".<g>

[JSC]

I tried to do similar to this in my 125 yesterday. 4 hours later I had similar but it did not look good for some reason. It looked very unbalanced. I think I will wait until I upgrade size to do that again. Almost 6 hours straight aquascaping and many coral stings later I joined the two islands back togethor via a large arch cave which looks pretty cool at least.
http://www.venus.dti.ne.jp/~kojim/jpgimgs/natural/fview.jpg



[Edited by JSC on 02-04-2001 at 11:37 AM]

[Mark]

JSC,

LOL:D I am glad I am not alone. After spending a whole day looking through those sites, I have become completely dissatisfied with my rockwork. I did a little re-aquascaping already, but I've been mulling with the idea of doing a major overhaul. My girlfriend is getting annoyed with me walking by my tank, stopping, sighing, and moving on. It's a tough call, shall I torture myself and try to redo my whole tank this weekend, or should I let it be. Decisions, decisions.

[JSC]

Mark, I know I had to try it, it is a huge undertaking. Overall I am glad I did it as I did open it up a little more and made a nice cave arch thing. I ended up moving about 25 #s LR into my basement to open it up more. Wish I had a digital cam so I could have taken some when I had the two big islands. I actually thought it looked OK but my wife thought it looked odd. Not too hard to redo though I would just need take out the big arch and a few other rocks that I joined the two islands togethor with. Man I got stung by alot of bristle worms and corals though. Hopefully the blisters on my arm dont get infected, doh! Good luck if you try it!

[Ninong]

Thanks, Mark. That was very interesting.

Ninong :D

[Mark]

Ninong,:)

I see you are an orchid enthusiast. My girlfriend's mom is into growing orchids, and is trying to find some good websites on them(she just got into the internet). Any good MO places or online magazines or forums that you would recommend?

[Mark]

^;)

[Shan]

I know so little Japanese it doesnt even count, so when I start hitting those sites, I can see the pictures but I have no idea if they are doing things differently that arent in pictures... Anyone willing to translate for us?? :)

Mike C

[san7]

Just go to http://www.teletranslator.com and type in the website address. It will translate all the pages for you.

san7

[Agu]

If you want to rearrange your tank to look like these tanks I'd suggest you look into info about planted tanks and Japanese gardening. There are ratios and proportions that are "pleasing to the eye". By using these mathematical formulas you'll be more likely to come up with an aquascaping that people find attractive. I did this when setting up my 180 and am very pleased with the results.

Mark, Thanks for the links!

Agu

[Mark]

San7,

You rock! Thanks for the translater. The altavista one didn't do Japanese so I thought all hope was lost.:)

[Ninong]

Originally posted by Mark

Ninong,:)

I see you are an orchid enthusiast. My girlfriend's mom is into growing orchids, and is trying to find some good websites on them(she just got into the internet). Any good MO places or online magazines or forums that you would recommend?

Here are a few online vendors:

http://www.cncorchids.com/index.html Located in Kansas. Chinese owned & operated. Phaelaenopsis specialists, importing everything from Taiwan. Takes 4-6 wks to receive order as it will be added to their next shipment. Unusual colors not available in the U.S. Completely satisfied with my orders from them.

http://www.odoms.com/ Located in Florida. My favorite online source. Because they are in Florida, they do not raise any of the cooler varieties. Excellent service, very high quality, very well packed. Have ordered from them several times and been extremely pleased with every shipment.

Rod McLellan Co. located in San Francisco Bay Area: 1-800-4-orchid They will mail you a catalogue. They are not online. Have done business with them for 40 years, especially when I lived in that area.

Ninong :D

[Mark]

Thanks Ninong!!!:D

I've been browsing through the sites with that translator. It looks like those clip on and pendant spotlights are metal halides. They seem to be manufactured by a company called "super cool." At least that's what the translator makes it out to be. The bulbs seem to be around 110-150 watts. Still looking into it more.:)

[Mark]

Below, you will find a link to a translated page, that details the equipment & other info this tank::)

http://www.cpfarm.com/equip/kigu/info.01.jpg

Check out the calcium reactor. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

http://translate.copernic.com:8090/gallery/tank/tank.html/tank1.htm?AlisTargetHost=http://www.cpfarm.com&&AlisTargetLang=en&AlisUILang=en&AlisUI=frames_ex/gen_toolbar#?Ãâ€*–¾?FÆ’iÆ’Vƒ‡ƒiƒ‹ƒXÆ’JÆ’CÆ’r?[ƒ€’â€Â*


[Edited by Mark on 02-05-2001 at 12:12 PM]

[clkohly]

there used to be these lights called Starfire spot lights
they were used in Europe alot

I think they are listed in one of Moes old books

they were popular like 12-13 years ago

[Sashimi]

The article regarding the Calcium Reactor is something about adding mosquito together with the calcium media for self adjustment.

There you go Mark! :)

[zochs]

I was looking around that link that Mark posted and came across the company that owns that tank. Check out some of the corals that they have for sale.CPFARM (http://www.teletranslator.com:8090/?AlisUI=frames_ex/gen_toolbar&AlisSourceLang=ja&AlisTargetLang=en&AlisUILang=en&AlisTargetURI=http%3A//www.cpfarm.com/)
what in the world is this?
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1448963&a=10878225&p=40211539
I used a currency converter and it shows that 2000 yen is about 17 dollars. Some cool stuff. Jon

I can never get links t work! cut and paste this
http://www.teletranslator.com:8090/?AlisUI=frames_ex/gen_toolbar&AlisSourceLang=ja&AlisTargetLang=en&AlisUILang=en&AlisTargetURI=http%3A//www.cpfarm.com/

[Adrian]

I hate you, I cant believe you posted that, Im so mad at myself for buying this rectangular tank with this huge center brace that creates this horrible shadow in the middle of the tank, no really that has got to be some of the coolest tanks I have ever seen, thanks for sharing it! And that orange fungia was great. We should see if their willing to trade some frags with us:)

[Playfair]

It's cool to see how another culture sets up their reefs...

This link came from the cpfarm site, and lists all the entries in a recent photo contest (http://translate.copernic.com:8090/new/contest3/oubo3.html?AlisTargetHost=http://www.cpfarm.com&AlisFramesTgtDoc&AlisUI=frames_ex/gen_toolbar&AlisTargetLang=en&AlisUILang=en)

Conversion from cubic centimeters to gallons:
LxWxH in centimetes / 3796= gallons

My personal obs:
-There are Japanese reefers who don't use a toothbrush to scrub everything twice a day.
-Many tanks have DSB, but choose to cover (from the outside) all but the top inch or so. It looks as if the tank sits lower in the cabinet. (This is seen on the first links in this thread)
-It is interesting that most reefs on this link are not even a year old, some as young as a few months.
-Also interesting that the brightest lighting used is 150w.
-Many of the pics have the saturation cranked up, I even spotted some digital "air brushing".

[Edited by Playfair on 02-06-2001 at 09:54 AM]

[Mark]

Zochs,

Those are tunicates.:)

Believe, you haven't seen anything yet. The tanks I saw for sale in Denmark and Holland were beautiful. It makes me wonder how a country as developed and wealthy as ours still makes tanks that have nasty plastic fake wood trim, which are long and skinny.;) And don't even get me started on our lighting equipment. Just compare a Hamilton hood to a Geissman hood. Yikes.:D

[Edited by Mark on 02-06-2001 at 10:00 AM]

[AHAB]

Orchid website:
http://www.krullsmith.com

AHAB

[coralsandbar]

Hi Guys,

Those Japanese tanks I thought were pretty cool! It's neat to see how people around the world do it. They definitely have DSB's!!!


Here's my website http://www.coralsandbar.homestead.com/index.html


thx.

Rob

[Mark]

Thanks Ahab!:)

[volk23]

http://www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/kb3/t-hidaka/reef/berlin/Sec1200/chapter06.htm

is this kosher way to get salt water?

[coralsandbar]

Apparently it works for them... I'd be more worried about pollution. I did notice it's in an area where caulerpa is growing. I imagine the water there might be a little cleaner. I guess it would allow you to setup up a tank in virtually no time.

Just imagine how much money you save on salt! It would be interesting to have one tank with synthetic salt and 1 with natural seawater and see how they turn out.

Food for thought,

Rob

[Kelpie]

I'd love to go frameless. Are those glass tanks? If so, how is it done? Won't the panels come loose under the pressure from the water?

[rbaker]

Holy old threads Batman!!!! :D

Ryan

[Cody Ray]

Kelpie they make robots that get you mail, I don't think a little thing like glass would be a problem for them ;) . My 20-long looks fairly zenful. I will see if I can track down a digital camera.

[eastcoastreefer]

It makes me wonder how a country as developed and wealthy as ours still makes tanks that have nasty plastic fake wood trim, which are long and skinny.;) And don't even get me started on our lighting equipment. Just compare a Hamilton hood to a Geissman hood.

The reason is because you guys are used to buying everything at rediculously low prices so commodities are made to supply that demand, not to fulfill an aesthetic consideration. Not a crticism, just an observation.

[ReefEze]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8334803#post8334803 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by eastcoastreefer

The reason is because you guys are used to buying everything at rediculously low prices so commodities are made to supply that demand, not to fulfill an aesthetic consideration. Not a crticism, just an observation.

Thats a pretty insightful statement. True too.