Tank of the Month - August 2005

[Skipper]

This month we are featuring Aleksandr Pyndyk's (ealex) beautiful reef aquarium:

http://reefkeeping.com/images/RChomepage.jpg (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-08/totm/index.php)

More details can be found here (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-08/totm/index.php) or by clicking on the picture above.

Congratulations, Alex!<table width="375" height="55" border="2" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1" bordercolor="#006699">
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<center><font color="#FFFFFF" size="-1">If you'd like to nominate a tank
for Tank of the Month, click <a href="http://reefcentral.com/forums/newthread.php?s=&action=newthread&forumid=189" target="_blank"><font color="#FFFFFF">here</font></a>
or use the button to the right.</font></center>
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<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" width="27%"><img src="http://reefkeeping.com/images/nominate1.gif" border="0"> (http://reefcentral.com/forums/newthread.php?s=&action=newthread&forumid=189)
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[AcroSteve]

Simply tunning! Very nice job.

Could you provide any more detail on the automatic phyto reactor / dosing system?

How did you get such a clear shot of the squamosa? It looks to be under the overhanging stag.

Are these fish eggs? From which pair?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-08/totm/images/p5150662_std.jpg

The growth of the corals since 2002 is very cool to see. Looks like some heavy fragging is in your future.

[Skipper]

Hey Steve. Yeah, those are clownfish eggs. :)

[maxpower2112]

Amazing tank, the best I have seen in a very long time. Gonrats.

[Aquaguru]

Great tank and I loved the slide show to show your growth rates. Great job and congrats on such a beautiful aquarium

[TheCoralReef731]

How many gallons is your tank. Sorry, but I am an American, and didn't bother to learn conversions (i probably should have since we are the only ones who are different)

[Skipper]

TheCoralReef: here's an online liter to gallons converter:

http://www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm

[Electrobes]

His is about 214 gallons or so.

Aleksandr - That is really a beautiful reef, and you should be proud of it. I really love the clams, especially the squamosa, they look so happy :) I have to admit that thought your calcium is a bit low for me, your tank's growth is undeniable :eek2: , very well done!

[Ebisan]

Awesome tank. Well deserved.

[reefdadx2]

Slide show made my day. Reach over your shoulder and pat yourself on the back for your great achievement.

[atram]

Simply beautiful! Loved the slide show.

[DAQ]

Tang is bright as *&%#

[JonK]

Gorgeous!!

[NexDog]

Slide show was great. All too often you see tanks rammed with 200kg of rock but as we can see, you don't need that much.

[matt the fiddler]

man, that growth shot is very nice... good work, congrads on the honor...

[SFlogic]

Love the tank! simply Amazing!

[TippyToeX]

Outstanding! :thumbsup: It's like a rainbow in there.

Does the peppermint hog cause any trouble for the inverts in the tank? I've always love that fish, but had been afraid to buy one for fear of it swallowing the shrimp up.

[Cosper]

Just when I thought the TOTM couldent be any better... we get this! Great job!

[GregM779]

Awesome tank and some really awesome growth rates. What do you do to get such amazing growth while keeping the colors?

[eAlex]

Thank you all for kind worlds! :D

My English is not very good, so I would like to thank ReefKeeping staff for editing article and correcting my language, they did huge job to make this article readable. :)

AcroSteve, phyto reactor is a 2-gallon jar with overflow. One peristaltic pump dose aquarium water to the jar through ~ 50 µm sieve, same amount of phytoplankton will go back to aquarium through overflow. Another peristaltic pump dose phyto food needed for fresh added amount of water. I use ~ ¼ of normal phyto food dosage to minimize unused nutrients in phytoplankton.

Photo of T. squamosa is older, now I cannot make shot of whole clam, this is a best shot after harvesting acropora above it: http://ealex.aqua-web.org/kuvat/allas24.07.2005/img_0676.htm

TippyToeX, Peppermint hog does not cause any trouble for invertebrates and seems to be plankton eater from water column. It only may slightly harass fishes with similar eating behavior, like other wrasses or Nemateleotris decora in my case.

[jimcombs9]

Echoing previous posts, the tank is amazing and I really loved the photo timeline.

I was wondering if you could share your general thoughts and inspiration for your homemade Beckett skimmer. I will probably build one myself, and I didn't know if you had a good blue-print or lessons learned.

Thanks, and what a tank!

[tlp]

Great job! I really like the way you've DIY a lot of equipments and particularly admire your attitude of nursing corals and achieve wonderful colours.

So many others would just buy and buy the bright coloured choices from the shops, bidding ridiculous monies for them, and having them turning brown eventually in their own tank!

Congratulations!

[newmoon]

Amazing Reef! And some people say you can't keep colorful/healthy SPS with a sand bed, huh? Riiiiiiiiiight. :rolleyes:

Beautifull, colorfull and very natural looking reef tank, congratulations! :thumbsup:

[TippyToeX]

Originally posted by eAlex
TippyToeX, Peppermint hog does not cause any trouble for invertebrates and seems to be plankton eater from water column. It only may slightly harass fishes with similar eating behavior, like other wrasses or Nemateleotris decora in my case. [/B]

Very good to hear! Thanks for the info, and again you have an amazing tank. :)

[Erik]

Very beautiful tank Aleksandr! Congrats to the TOTM - you really deserve it. Keep up the good work.

Is the DIY wavemaker you made still working? I did not finish mine unfortunately...

[bugsy714]

WooooW!!! I love how it looks so natural. Great job!:)

[o2bnh20]

What a great job! Got to be one of the prettiest I've seen in the forum. The pictures are perfect. Slideshow is unbelievable

[mopecula]

Awesome!! Well deserved honor! Thanks for sharing.

[bennerkla]

That is the fattest, healthiest Powder Blue Tang I have ever seen.

[Du]

Great job, Great tank! Congrats, Alexander!
You staghorn awesome!

[FastUno]

Awesome looking tank!

Just curious about one of your statements. Do you mean they don't dose or replenish alkalinity or Calcium? Just what are their levels at, do you know? Do they perform water changes often?

"In some of my friends' aquariums, which run without any additions other than food, I see much more natural coral growth and formation than in typical aquariums."

[eAlex]

Thank you all! :wave:

Originally posted by jimcombs9
I was wondering if you could share your general thoughts and inspiration for your homemade Beckett skimmer. I will probably build one myself, and I didn't know if you had a good blue-print or lessons learned.
I consider my skimmer very efficient, it produces 2 gallon of wet foam over water level and “normal” size commercial skimmer will produce much anything from aquarium water when my skimmer is on. :cool: I do have some thoughts about DIY ”beckett” skimmer:
- Pipe from pump to injector should be thick enough to minimize backpressure, I use 1” inner diameter
- Pipe from injector should be thick enough to pass foam without pressure, I use 2”
- Pump for each “beckett”-injector should be powerful enough, other way quality of bubbles will be insufficient, one can easily get high amount of air sucking with smaller pump too, but amount of foam will be much lower and skimmer will be very sensitive to feeding or putting hands into aquarium water, because insufficient bubble quality. I use two pumps in serial – OceanRunner 6500 and 3500.
- Air flow should be reduced to make bubble quality better
- With this amount of foam, you have very large rising pipe (in my skimmer from box to the collecting cup), which quickly become dirty and should be kept cleaned if you want skimmer to work efficiently. So if I make another skimmer I will make rising pipe easily detachable for cleaning, I thing Tunze way, when rising pipe simply stand inside thicker pipe by own weight, will work best.
- If I make another skimmer, I will make thicker rising pipe (160mm, 6.3”) longer and thinner rising pipe (110mm, 4.3”) shorter.


Originally posted by FastUno
Just curious about one of your statements. Do you mean they don't dose or replenish alkalinity or Calcium? Just what are their levels at, do you know? Do they perform water changes often?

"In some of my friends' aquariums, which run without any additions other than food, I see much more natural coral growth and formation than in typical aquariums."
Sorry, I was inexact in two places. I do add a lot of calcium and alkalinity, besides food in my aquarium, it must be added if one have anything growing in own tank. Moreover, my friends do add calcium and alkalinity in aquariums with more natural coral grows pattern, but do use only pure calcium carbonate in reactor and kalkwasser, so there is no other intake of other elements, besides calcium, than food.

Originally posted by Erik
Is the DIY wavemaker you made still working? I did not finish mine unfortunately...
Yes, it is still working, now there is DIY waveboxes all around the world, hopefully you finish yours too. ;)

[10810]

WOW!! What a stunning reef. The slide show is amazing. Can hardly believe that there are just two smallish rock piles under all the coral:eek1:

[onefin]

Just beautiful.

[Holyreefer]

ealex,
is that a total of 30Plus fish i counted in your tank?

[eAlex]

Originally posted by Qmonroe
ealex,
is that a total of 30Plus fish i counted in your tank?
Yes, there is about 30 fish right now.

[Holyreefer]

Great Job!
Do you also mix up the sand every so often, and how deep is you DSB?

[eAlex]

Originally posted by Qmonroe
Great Job!
Do you also mix up the sand every so often, and how deep is you DSB?
Thanks! :)

I do not mix sand bed intentionally, DSB is ~ 4” in main tank and refugium.

[Holyreefer]

would you happen to have any pictures of the rest of the fish you have?

[eAlex]

Not really, photographing fishes is yet too difficult for me and is much more difficult to make individual photo of the fish (usually it looks same like millions other photos on internet), than of corals. :rolleyes:

[Holyreefer]

Ok are most of your fish smaller fish?
And if so would you happen to have the common names for your fish. I don't seem to be bothersome but i also have a 220 gallon and i would like to have the high number of fish in my tank as well.

[eAlex]

Originally posted by Qmonroe
Ok are most of your fish smaller fish?
And if so would you happen to have the common names for your fish. I don't seem to be bothersome but i also have a 220 gallon and i would like to have the high number of fish in my tank as well.
They are different sizes, but many are smaller. :)

English names are taken from http://www.fishbase.org/

Acanthurus leucostermon 1 Powderblue surgeonfish
Siganus vilpinus 1 Foxface
Ctenochaetus strigosus 1 Spotted surgeonfish
Centropyge bispinosa 1 Twospined angelfish
Genicanthus semifasciatus 1 Japanese swallow
Pseudanthias squamipinnis 3 Sea goldie
Bodianus sp. Peppermint Hog 1
Apogon cyanosoma 1 Yellowstriped cardinalfish
Sphaeramia nematoptera 2 Pajama cardinalfish
Amphiprion ocellaris 2 Clown anemonefish
Synchiropus splendidus 2 Mandarinfish
Chromis retrofasciata 4 Black-bar chromis
Nemateleotris decora 1 Elegant firefish
Amblyeleotris guttata 1 Spotted prawn-goby
Gobiodon okinawae 6 Okinawa goby
Gobiodon rivulatus 1 Rippled coralgoby
Gobiodon quinquestrigatus 1 Five-lined coral goby

[Holyreefer]

Thanks for the info, i too have a 220 and like the higher fish bioload, even some say its bad for nitrates etc..
But then again your tank shows its possible with excellence

Grreat Job Man!

[sharkboy]

awesome tank, it looks really natural, like a real ocean reef... ihope one day mine will look as good. Keep up the good work:)

[grigsy]

Wow. What a nice looking tank.

[Gisho]

Beautiful. Congratulations! Well deserved.
Keep up the great work!

[aquaticroom]

Very nice setup, congrats!!!

[bawla47]

wheres the slideshow at? i went to his site. along wit the TOTM, but i couldnt find it. BBBB-utiful tank tho. looks great!

Jay D

[Skipper]

The slideshow is located under the General Info tab in the article.

[bawla47]

well duhhh, should have noticed it. thanks skipper :)

[therazorsedge]

Amazing!!!!

[aaronc]

Awesome tank. Great Job. Would you happen to have the design plans for your current skimmer? Diameter, lengths of pipe, etc.

I find the work you have done with your tank very encouraging.

Thank you,

Aaron

[rjwilson37]

Very Nice, you have done an excellent job and your tank is top notch.

[NeilPearson]

Awesome tank!

Point for the sandbed guys!

[eAlex]

Thank you all! :D

Aaron, I do not have plans for this skimmer, because I think it is better to build it differently: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=5467569#post5467569

You can estimate sizes of my skimmer from photos:
http://ealex.aqua-web.org/hardware/p8011945.htm
http://ealex.aqua-web.org/kuvat/skimmer1.jpg

Lower rising pipe is 160mm (6.3”) and upper rising pipe is 110mm (4.3”). Pipe from injector is 50mm (2”). Overall height with bigger collection cap is 1120mm (441”).

[KAZEKY]

HI, I REALLY LIKE YOUR TANK. I BEGAN THIS HOBBY LIKE A YEAR AGO. I HAVE A 55 GALLON TANK AND I WAS WONDERING IF YOU CAN SHARE WITH ME THE "DIY" CALCIUM REACTOR THAT YOU MADE FOR YOUR TANK, SO THAT I CAN TRY TO CREATE MY OWN. THANK YOU :D

[ReefWaters]

Originally posted by eAlex
Overall height with bigger collection cap is 1120mm (441”).

I think you converted from cm to inches. It should be 44.1" overall.

I thought a 36.75 foot tall skimmer was a little excessive for that tank. :lol: :D :lol:

[VWD]

very nice Tank.

[CPT. MURPHY]

Congrats on TOTM!!

CPT.

[kan]

What amazing !!

I love the color of SPS

[eAlex]

Thanks all!

ReefWaters, thank you for correction! :)

KAZEKY, I do not have exact plans for DIY calcium reactor, but it is very simple and you can see its construction from photos:
http://ealex.aqua-web.org/hardware/p8011929.htm
http://ealex.aqua-web.org/hardware/p8011931.htm
It has water/CO2 intake in between pump intake and valve, there is low pressure and reactor will suck water automatically, without need of feeding pump. Water with possible gas, which can accumulate inside the reactor, exits from top.

Very interesting piece is very simple bubble/drop counter and gas/water mixer all-in-one: http://ealex.aqua-web.org/hardware/p8011933.htm You can see both reactor adjustments in this counter – drops rate dropping from top and bubbles rate rising from bottom. Gas and water mixture then go to reactors intake.

Reactors pipe is 160mm (6.3”) thick. Pump is AquaBee 2000, 2000l/h (~500gph), in reactor that size it can be more powerful. There is 110mm (4.3”) threaded PVC end cap with gasket on top of the reactor for refilling, used normally in drain systems. :)

[Jonsey]

Beautiful. You must be very happy with your little piece of the ocean!

[shells]

Awsome tank!!!!!
I just love the pic of the blue clam,,,did you'll notice the maderine
fish hanging out in that pic??? too cool, congradulations!!!

[wil611]

What a colorful tank. I especially like the Lobo. Well deserved TOTM.

[Leopardshark]

Congrats Ealex!!!
The color of those sps´s is great!!.
What do you think is the key for such awesome coloration? kelvin temp of your lighting, water flow?
TIA
Marco

[pmemo]

Cool...

[Airman]

I am impressed. You make this hobby look so easy. What changes do you plan for your tank in the future?

[jackson6745]

Excellent reef! The growth shots from year to year on your website are awesome! You give us all something to strive for.

[MeuserReef]

Awesome tank. Your setup is inspiring to say the least. Congrats on TOTM.

[eAlex]

Thanks guys!

Marco, I cannot name one key for good coloration. I think overall corals health is most important. Intense lighting, certainly, must be for corals, that need it (most), some pigments develop better in bluish light (some green), other better in more warm light (some red), so Kelvin temp. of the light is not a key. Many corals adapt to very wide range of water flow, so it is not the key for them, but good water flow is very important for overall reef healthy. Low nutrient water is also important, for this you need healthy, diverse reef system with well working food chains, this means good environment, right salinity, low toxicity, good feeding, not only for fish and corals but more importantly for creatures in live rock and sand bed. So if one, for example, tells me, that I can get rid of certain problem (like flatworms, dinoflagellates, fish disease or similar) with certain medicine, which is not toxic for any of my fishes or corals – I will not take it, because it will be toxic to most important component of my reef – live rock and sand bed diversity. ;)

Airman, I try not think about new plans, but I am afraid that in the near feature, when space in aquarium become too limited, I need to brake the reef apart and rebuild it to smaller size or at least take some corals off. :rolleyes:

[ReefWaters]

Originally posted by eAlex
So if one, for example, tells me, that I can get rid of certain problem (like flatworms, dinoflagellates, fish disease or similar) with certain medicine, which is not toxic for any of my fishes or corals – I will not take it, because it will be toxic to most important component of my reef – live rock and sand bed diversity. ;)

I completely agree. I had red bugs and everyone just said to dose the entire tank with the interceptor. I took the infected acros out of my tank and treated them in a separate tank so as not to kill off all the pods and other stuff you don't even know about in the rock.

I had excellent results doing this. I don't like crazy chemicals either. The ocean doesn't dose itself with crap like that. :D

[mike6021]

Beautiful tank!

[six66]

tank well done !!

congrats
do u mind sharing with us how u DIY 'all' ur hardwares !!
with illustration if possible :)

especially ur pytho reactor, ive always wanted one :(

thanking u in advance

keep it up ealex !!

[eAlex]

Thanks! :) Sorry for late response, I was on trip. Unfortunately I do not have plans for any of my DIY equipment, but I have some pictures: http://ealex.aqua-web.org/hardware/ and will try to explain better if you have any specific questions. Also in this thread are some thoughts about DIY equipments: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=5457477#post5457477 and http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=5467569#post5467569

Here are pictures of plankton reactor with all components shown: http://ealex.aqua-web.org/hardware/p8011938.htm http://ealex.aqua-web.org/hardware/p8011943.htm

[mike89t]

Fantastic tank!

Do you recharge your sand bed periodically with critters? If so what kinds?

[youngster12]

ABSOLUTLY beutiful tank!!! Very very nice!!!

[eAlex]

Thanks! :)

Originally posted by mike89t
Do you recharge your sand bed periodically with critters? If so what kinds?

We do not have here any sand bed critters kit, so I use fresh good quality live rock to update critters community once in a while. I did add only few small live rock to refugium on sand bed in past 3 years. Seems that critters diversity in sand bed keeps up with time better, than in live rocks, so I’ll be happy if I mange to change part of my 3 years old live rock with new one. :)

[zoazoa]

Oh..My God...Your tank is crazy.. AWWWWWsome...

[Gordonious]

I was curious if you still had the Peppermint Hog and if it ever got to be any trouble. Is/was it mostly a cryptic animals, or was it out in the open most of the time.

Thanks,
Jon