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My name is Lasse Forsberg and I live in Bohus, a small town outside Gothenburg, Sweden.
I grew up spending my summers in my parents' summer cottage outside Skövde. This was next to a small lake full of perch – it's safe to say that up until the age of sixteen I more or less lived on a jetty and constantly fished in the lake and surrounding waterways. Here the foundation was laid for my interest in fish, and I got my first aquarium in 1962 when I was 12 years old.
Late adolescence came and interest shifted more to dry land and other prey. In 1973, I moved in with my girlfriend in her student dormitory in Gothenburg. I got a job as a shipyard worker and in the fall of 1974, I bought my first aquarium. She still says she should have realized what was coming and ran for her life already at that time. It should be mentioned that we test drove for four years before we got married in 1977. The family had grown from a 37-liter aquarium and a cat to 1 child, a bird and a total of 2000 L of water divided into 4 aquariums with cichlids from the Malawi and Tanganyika lakes and a small salt water of 30 L. From an apartment of 20 square meters via one of 54 to finally 90 square meters.
An apartment, an aquarium premises, an academic education and two more children later, it was time to leave Gothenburg in 1986 for work with various fish farms around Southern Sweden. Now there weren't so many home aquariums - if you've stood in the middle of a tank and caught 2 tons of eel during the day, you don't long to look at other fish in a glass jar.
1 more child, several jobs and a move later, it was time to move back to the Göteborg area again in 2002 to work at a public aquarium. I was still working with fish, and it was aquarium-free at home but around 2006 I had switched to working with the technology at the public aquarium and someone happened to say that it is not possible to run a saltwater aquarium of 27 L with corals, so a small nano came in in my apartment. A few years earlier I had started helping an old friend with his import business (of saltwater fish/coral) and his LFS.
A surprised wife (the former girlfriend who, according to her own statement, should have ran away already in 1974) suddenly saw how the aquariums multiplied, still small but…..
Anyone who has been on this saltwater journey knows where its end up sooner or later - in my case a 450L aquarium was carried up the stairs in late 2008 and in January 2009 my wife and I went on a trip to Thailand as a 60th birthday gift to her. I deny any connection. Incidentally, we went the next year to the same country - but now as my 60th birthday gift to me... It is an excellent snorkeling in Thailand!
I had this aquarium in 7 years and after a crash the summer of 15 – I sold it 2016
Current Aquarium history
With all my former experiences – I decide to construct my own aquarium I come up with a complicated display tank and an uncomplicated sump
The sump+ drawing
IRL
The glass aquarium incl sump and a welded stand covered with Melamine veneered chipboard was custom ordered from an aquarium manufacturer in Poland. The display is 50*50*120 cm, the integrated refugium (incl the overflow chamber) is 15*50*120 cm. The stand is 650*900*1200 cm, The chipboard covers the outside of the stand and goes up approx. 3 cm above the lower part of the glass panes. The upper edge is 15 cm and goes down about 5 cm on the upper part of the glass windows.
I have an integrated refugium in the back and the overflow from the DT is a coast to coast along the whole refugium- In the left side of the refugium apartment – there is an integrated overflow chamber with a modified Ben Animal construction. It´s one overflow/emergency pipe (in the middle) and one siphon pipe (to the right). The siphon is regulated by a diaphragm valve seen in the sump picture above. The left pipe is from the return pump.
Theoretical – the DT will be around 300 L, the refugium and overflow 90 L and the sump 100 L. However – in reality – the DT have around 200 L, the refugium + overflow chamber 45 L and the sump 50 L – I normally calculate with 300 L water on the whole. Below a drawing of the aquarium
IRL
Construction and start
The refugium have a construction that is a crossover between a reversed under gravel filter and a Deep Sand Bed
I use normal under gravel filter with 4 risers – one for a pH probe, one for combined water and organic carbon dose, one for redox and one as a backup. I filled the chamber with around 30 cm of gravel. From the beginning – the bottom layer was siporax but I had to take away that after a year. The reason was that the Siporax released a lot of silicon depending on the oxygen-free conditions in the bed.
When I planned the display part – one of my goals was that I should not see anything of the technical installations in my tank – it should look natural. Since I had worked with artificial decor/backgrounds in many of my freshwater aquariums, the choice fell on a type that is probably only available in Europe. Back to Nature's backgrounds.
I started with these backgrounds and both dry and live rocks. I start my aquariums with help of a fish as I have described in my article 15 steps. In this method – I do an early introduction of corals. In the pictures below – you can see my aquariums development during the first month
The tank is over 8 years old and for sure – it is not the same tank today as it was in the start.
After a year or so I decided to take the leap to a not WC system using Triton Core 7 and purchase an RO system. My tap water was good, but if you skip WC – an evaporation of about 4 L per day - even a small amount of copper (as an example) could cause a rise in the copper content in the water. Si was of no concern for me because my system had after a year rise to around 20 000 µg/L Si by silicon leaking Siporax in my DSB without any harm. After the removal of the siporax, the Si concentrations have dropped 100-fold to the current approx. 200 µg/L Si. I use a 25 L container for top of and it is done by a GHL Maxi doser today. I have tested many options but this is still the best I have used.
Automation
My old aquarium was controlled by a GHL Profilux 3.1 ex and in addition to that I had some older power bars and 2 units of GHL Doser 1. I planned to measure temp, salinity, pH and redox in the sump. Below my DSB – I wanted to measure pH and redox. I started with this setup. I was dosing the three big ones plus some – IMO – important traces as strontium, iodine and iron. I measured pH in sump and below DSB, Redox in sump and below DSB, salinity and temp.
At this time (2016) ICP analyses was available and one of the reasons (IMO) that my old aquarium gone through a crash was that I was dosing mixes of trace elements without really know what I was doing. Even if I had not started a full Triton system at that time – my goal was to dose single trace elements after ICP analyses.
I let my P3 manage heat and chill , top off and monitoring of pH, redox, salinity and temperature
Already at this stage – I had 10 different PSU in my sump apartment. It was more a snake pit than a working system. In early 2017 – I bought one of the first P4 as my main tool in automation. In May 2018 – I got 2 new (at that time) Doser 2.1
With growing amount of equipments and a decision to change light into GHL Mitras Led Bars in the middle of 2019 – I decide to change my set up rather drastically. I had bough a lot of GHL power hubs from a fish farm that had shut down. My goal was to have a lot of managed relays, as few PSU as possible (at the moment I had around 20!) and a possibility to do troubleshooting
With this setup – I got 24 Independent on/off switches – 12 V DC, 24 DC and 240 V AC. I also got power supply for both 24 and 12 V DC. The system can use 150 W 12V DC and 360 W 24 V DC. The 12 V supply is today a little short but I can replace one of the 12 V PSU:s with one with higher wattage. No more loose PSU:s drooling around a bit here and there – everything is in the cabinet,
I was also able to clean up a little in the sump cabinet
Today – after adding one more power hub that - using a PLM-ADIN card - can act as an automated digital input device. One more Doser 2.1 was added and also a Doser Maxi.
The evaporation is around 5 L per day so my Top Off pump needs to work hard. I have tried many solutions before but when I got my Maxi - the problem was largely solved
Today – it looks like this
Skimmer
I started with a small Deltec Skimmer but rather fast upgrade to a Coral Box 500 +. For me – the skimmer is not a primary export tool normally – its role in my system is rather to act as an efficient gas exchanger – at least till now.
As you will see later on – I run rather high in phosphate. I have try many methods to bring it down but my whole system is probably loaded with high storage of phosphate. It will take time. I have tested with Salifert phosphate stop that is a liquid, probably containing iron. Since I started with that – things has gone better but I still read PO4 around 1.5. I have constructed a new inlet to my skimmer that allow me to drop the precipitation chemical directly into the skimmer pump. The idea is that the air in the skimmer will then take care of the precipitates and transport them up into the skimmer cup. I hesitate to use lanthanum chloride but if this not work with the Salifert chemical – I will probably test that later on
I take the air to the skimmer from outside my apartment and filter it through a bed of calcium hydroxide in order to get as low CO2 content in the skimmer as possible.
Flow and wavemakers
Original I started with a Jebao DCS 4000 pump as return but after a few years I switch over to the Coral Box version of the same pump - DCA 4000. I was not unhappy with the DCS – not at all – but Coral Box version come with a controller prepared for internal 1-10 V speed management. Skimmer from start was a Deltec but was replaced with a Coral Box D 300 plus, later changed to the present D 500 plus incl a 2000 DCA pump with 1-10 V speed management.
When I started this aquarium in 2016 – the amount of 12 and 24 V DC wavemakers was not as many as today. There was also a huge price difference between – as an example tunze and Chinese pumps. In my old aquarium – I used Tunze Nanostream 6055 but did not feel that the quality was 4 times better than a cheap Jebao streamer. My chose fell on Jebao RW 8 and I construct my hiding places to fit that pump. Because I use a very short pulse in order to get some type of standing wave (0.72 sec) I expected them to last for a year or so. It has been better than that – during the last 7 years – I have bought 7 RW pumps – my pumps (I have 2 in the aquarium) last for around 2 years. However last year I replace the RW8 with the smaller SW8 that says to have no electronic in the pump and hence last longer. We will see – they have run without problem for a year now, but I have ordered 2 new pumps – just in case.
The first years – the return pump with around a hourly flow of 1600 L and the two RW 8 that create a great wave (max 8000 l/H per pump) was enough. but corals – especially hard corals have an ability to grow and create new rocks that change the current environment completely.
When GHL launch their Versia streamers in January 2023 I purchase 2 of them. In this case I was not able to hide one of them. A year ago, I also purchased a Jebao ECP 50 M – a small crossflow pump to help with circulation along the backside. Today I have a possible circulation of around 50 000L/H in a 300 L aquarium
Filter and other water treatment equipment (other than skimmers)
I run a foam filter in the return chamber, now and then a GFO filter and my reverse flow DSB in the refugium serve as a denitrification filter (I inject ethanol in the bottom layer of the DSB).
The foam filter works mainly as a nitrification filter
The reversed flow Deep Sand Bed works well limiting NO3 concentrations. Its unsure if it works because of classic denitrification or if it is a rather new discovered process (anammox) that is responsible for the total NO3 control
Since start – I have run a Söchting oxydator A. it’s a genius construction in order to dose both oxygen and hydrogen peroxide into the water.
The theory behind this is that it will supply the aquarium with extra oxygen - especially during the night when photosynthesis is not active. In addition, if you use a stronger solution and several catalysts, some hydrogen peroxide will come out in the water column and slowly decompose into water, oxygen and various oxygen radicals. Above all, the various oxygen radicals will chemically oxidize organic substances including organisms that may be pathogens. You will not completely eliminate any pathogens, but reduce their number and thus give your animals better conditions to fight pathogens themselves. IMO it works very well and if I introduce new organism – I normally run 12 % H2O2 and 3 catalyst. Daily dose will be around 25 ml in these cases.- Also different yellow substances will be broken down. After seven years of no regular WC my water is only slight yellow. I have done one emergency water change of about 70% once a couple of years ago
Light
The first year I used Coral Box Moon LED. I had prepared to do my own fixture – I had done that before in my old aquarium – based on the Dream Chip - an idea that some of us came up with around 2011-2012. However – I didn't manage to retire - which was the plan - the intended time disappeared, and it had to be a not too expensive emergency solution. In addition, it was one of the few at this time that had full spectra and that´s important in my world
It was perfect in the beginning but after a year or so I managed to buy an used Pacific Sun fixture – it was a full spectra with no white LED at all – it use the RGB effect in order to get a whitish light.
I loved that fixture but – it had fans, and they would break down – no standard fans, hence expensive and difficult to change. The software was terrible and when one module crashed in 2018 – it was time for something else.
No fans – RGB LEDs and full spectra was on my wish list and I found GHL:s Mitras LED 2 Bars. I was already used to GHL:s software and their products – I got 4.
I use all LEDs ramping up to full effect around 16:00 in the evening. My light intensity is following the light at Sulawesi according to intensity and length.
PAR levels its rather high during 100 % - this is a PAR reading I took with a professional instrument back in the days I started the Mitras - I use a Li-Cor LI 250-A with underwater sensor. The PAR:s was rather good
Above my DSB – it’s a place for a refugium. It works verry well the first years but nowadays – its working but not great. In the beginning I use mostly red light but change to white a couple of years ago. Now – I have order new red grow lights and will change back again. I can see two reasons why red light works well for a refugium – first many macroalgae has mostly chlorophyll a – and it has its absorption top around 660 nm and secondary – red light may penetrate living tissues (read other algae) hence not only be able for the top layer of algae – some radiation will penetrate deeper. So will green photons too.
I also run moonlight in advanced mode – it means that peak time for the moonlight vary in time too.
Measurements
During this aquarium whole lifetime I have done ICP analysis around 3 – 4 times a year. Mostly by Triton. Around 2020 I start to use OCEAMO in Austria because they did very good NO3 analyses as well. I use the ICP test as a check up on my own measurements and for checking up the traces. I do not use it as absolute numbers – I try to see trends instead. For my own measurements I use Hanna Marin Master. I run Salifert for alkalinity, Ca and Mg as a backup.
My guidelines for most substances dissolved in the water are - the "natural" level - whatever it is. Obviously, it varies around the world – however the list below highlights the most important compounds – IMO
Ca (calcium) 400-440 mg/L, Mg (magnesium) 1260 -1350 mg/L, alkalinity 7.5-8.6 dKH, pH 7.9 -8.5, salinity 34-35 psu, NO2 (nitrite)< 0.1mg/L, NH3/NH4 (total ammonia) < 0.5 mg/L, NO3 (nitrate) 4-10 mg/L, K (potassium) < 410 mg/L, I (iodine) 60-90 µg/L, Sr (strontium) 6-8 mg/L, Fe (iron) 0.1-3 µg/L and Si -around 200 µg/L
What about PO4? – no guidelines? I would love to have around 0.1 mg/L but it seems to be rather difficult with my system that relying mostly on biological principles. The processes in my sand bed produce a lot of PO4, NH3/NH4 and carbon dioxide. The total ammonia (NH3/NH4) will be proceeded either through anammox or nitrification/denitrification, CO2 partially separated via carbon dioxide poor air in the skimmer. At the moment – I have not an effective and safe method to decrease PO4 in my system.
I know that I probably can go down to low PO4 concentrations (0.1 mg/L) with help of Lanthanum chloride. However - my system is mainly a fish/invert aquarium – the corals just supply natural living conditions for my other animals. I´m not sure I will go on the path with Lanthanum because of the risk of precipitation of Lanthanum phosphate on the gills of gill breathing animals. For the moment – I have no possibility to filter away formed LaPO4. Filter socks and/or belt filtration is out from the discussion because I want to have organic particles in my system of other reasons. For the moment – I´m testing with slowly injecting Salifert Phosphate Eliminator (probably iron based) into the skimmer intake. Work in progress. By the way – latest PO4 concentration was around 1.6 mg/L
I have done some NH3/NH4 measurement below my DSB (with injecting ethanol) and compared them with NH3/NH4 concentrations in the Display Tank. Its clearly that the sand bed produce NH3/NH4 when bacteria break down organic matter
Inhabitants
Inverts that´ are not corals
Around 20 – 30 snails of different families – mostly algae eaters – however – lately some Nassarius snails had shown up. Last time I introduce them was back in 2016. There is also some In the beginning I had a lot of propagation of some snails going on but have not seen that in a while.
I normally introduce 10 every half a year – some die and some survive. I love to have different species because there are often different preferences for different types of food among different families and species. Scutus showing up now and then and as an example, Scutus are known to eat a lot of sponges and that seems to be true. It is very rare that I see my scutus out in the illuminated part of my display - where algae grow.
Its the same with hermits – I have around 20 – 30 of different families and species. Both groups is very important as clean up staff.
There are also some tiger tail sea cucumbers that I see now and then.
Some Asterina sea stars and from the beginning a sand shifting sea star. Have not seen that for some years but today my sand probably has more organic detritus that could be its food source.
I have rather much of sponges of different types – that´s the reason why I want a Si concentration around 200 200 µg/L
Some shrimps and crabs are also inhabitants to my aquarium as a part of the clean up crew.
The ones that is in my aquarium for the moment – as I know of – are Coral Banded Shrimp, camelback shrimp, fire shrimp and some pistol shrimps. It may be a peppermint too but my dancing shrimp has been gone for a long time. Now and then I use a sally light foot crab – for the moment not. With crabs – you never know. In my old aquarium I discovered a large teddy bear crab 5 years after introducing living rocks! In this aquarium I discovered a real hitchhiker – hiking along with one of my long spine urchins
All of these creatures above are very important for the ecosystem in my aquarium but my best helpers are my urchins. With their sharp tooths – they clean nearly all surfaces. For the moment – there is 6 different urchins.
My favorite is the different types of long spine urchins – however they have a disadvantage that you have to live with - they can eat corals - especially flat-growing montipora. The one I have now learned that a net is a net. If the net touch the surface of the aquarium he/she flees directly into a cave or similar. Here is two different populations – the left – the urchin have not seen yet – the right have been discovered.
Beside these creatures that I have myself introduced – I have got some through living rocks and when introducing corals. Among these hairy algae, aiptasia, bubble algae, vermetid, snails and other ”pests”. The Internet forums is full of warning for different organisms that are seen as “pests” IMO what pest is or not a pest is lies in the eyes of the beholder (read - the brain of the beholder). IMO there is no single organism that can be seen as a pest but problems can be created if there is a tendency for monoculture. Never forget that an open space in every reef aquarium invites colonization of whatever. Sometimes it will be recommendation for handling that is not logical. One of the backslashes with vermetid snail says that it is a competitor to the corals for food particles. One of the normal advices is that it is possible to limit the growth of vermetids by reducing the availability of suitable food (small organic particles). Instead for vermetids steal the corals food – the aquarist should steel the food for both vermetids and corals! Further on - the vermetids says steal calcium and carbonate from the stony corals but every reefer that want growth for their stony corals knows that you need to have a certain concentration in the water and will compensate the Ca and CO3 the vermetids need for their growth per automatic. Other organism that can be problem if I do not try to restrict their growth by using different types of grazers. Many of my fishes and organisms have other duties than just looking beautiful. I have one Copperband Butterflyfish– its beautiful – but it also eat and control my Aiptasia. A year ago – I notice a growth of Aiptasia in one part of the aquarium – it seem like the Copperband did not do its work. It shows up that it was my very small Okinawa goby that happens to have its territory center in the middle of the Aiptasia colony. Every time the Copperband try to eat Aiptasia there – it was chased away by the 100 times smaller goby. In the moment the goby move to another spot – it was goodbye for the aiptasia. In the start I hade a lot of beatuful small tubeworms – snacks for the Copperband – but the other day I discovered a hidden spot of tubeworms in the background that the Copperband has not reached out to yet (in 4 years). It is a forest there.
Fishes
At the moment there is around 40 fishes in my aquarium
3 or 4 Pajama Cardinal - Sphaeramia nematoptera
1 Yellow-banded possum wrasse Wetmorella nigropinnata
1 Leopard wrasse Macropharyngodon bipartitus Female -> male
4 Upside-down Goby Probably Priolepis semidoliata
2 High Fin Perchlet Plectranthias inermis
1 Copperband Chelmon rostratus
1 Yellow Okinawae goby Gobiodon Okinawae
2 Hasselt´s goby Callogobius hasselti
1 Starry goby Asterropteryx semipunctata
2 Blue devilfish Assessor macneilli
1 Scooter blenny Synchiropus ocellatus
2 Clownfish Amphiprion ocellaris
7 Springers damsel Chrysiptera springeri
4 Yellowtail damsel Chrysiptera parasema
1 sailfin blenny Emblemaria pandionis
2 molly miller blenny Scartella cristata
1 lemon or poison goby gobidon citrinus
1 small Bristle tooth tang - rather like Ctenochaetus truncatus but without the yellow eye – at least without it yet. the dots are there though.
1 yellow watchmen goby Cryptocentrus cinctus
No picture
1 Fathead anthias Serranocirrhitus latus
During the years I have had a lot of other fishes too – My main interest has been small gobies.
Below you can see some of them
Some of them is not suitable for my aquarium but I want to try with pipefishes again. I have had them to survive for more than a year. Most of my fishes are described in my you tube channel https://www.youtube.com/@lasseforsberg.
This playlist show the most of them
There has also been a lot of other unusual fishes
There has also been a lot of other unusual fishes
Corals
As I said before – my main interest is not Corals – the interest is more for the whole ecosystem that a reef creates. I have tested a lot of corals – both hard and soft and my coral community has change during the years. I remember all warning about my wall of green Briareum at my background in the start – it will take over the whole aquarium – it’s a pest. Since a couple of years its gone – my coral community had taken another path. The ones that works very well at the moment is different types of Seriatopora, Pocillopora and Euphyllia. I do not do much with them – just let them be and see what happens. During a couple of years I had 4 large clams that dominate my system – they get too large – two died and two were relocated. One of them still lives and shows off in a public aquarium in Gothenburg. The two that died in my aquarium had shells that weighed about 1.2 kg each. It’s the one to the left and the one to the right. Its around 15 months between the pictures and back in 2021, my aquarium was very good but things change.
But its rather good today too with domination of Euphyllia and Seriatopora but different. In a year it will still be good – but once again different.
Maintenance
With my background as a fish farmer – I’m very familiar with dry food and how fast you can raise fish with the help of suitable dry food. I am not interested in the fast growth of my fishes – I want them to grow like they do in nature. For that reason I decided to feed this aquarium only with frozen natural food. My chose was frozen adult brine shrimps and freshwater cyclops from Ocean Nutrition. I´m on my ninth year of this now. There is many myths and experts that says that this is total insane and can´t work. Artemia or brine shrimps are said to be very poor in nutrients but the ugly truth is, these experts are comparing apples to melons. Let's take proteins as an example - frozen brine shrimp contain around 5 % raw protein – all listed (from Ocean Nutrition) important things are around 7.1 %. Their superior dry food – formula 1 pellets list min 41% protein and important things is around 63 %
Content | Frozen Artemia flatpack | Formula 1 pellets |
| Crude protein min % | 4.9 | 41 |
| Crude fat min % | 0.1 | 12.3 |
| Crude fiber max % | 0.8 | 0.2 |
| Moisture max % | 91.6 | 18.9 |
| Ash max % | 1.2 | 9.7 |
| Phosphorous min % | 0.1 | 0.5 |
If we recalculate this total dry weight – the protein part is similar – around 65-69 %. However for fat – frozen artemia have around 1.4 % crude fat in dry weight basis – Formula 1 pellets around 19 % - with crude fiber – it is the opposite Formula 1 around 0.3 % dry weight and frozen adult artemia – around 11 %. Ash and phosphorous are nearly the same for both when calculated on dry weight. My strategy to only use frozen natural food means that I need to feed 5 – 10 times more (in gram) per day and I have done an automatic food chain for frozen food. I have a glass container that stands on a magnetic stirrer. It is connected to one of my Doser Maxi´s head. One end of the tube is in the bottom of the glass container – the other is situated in the return pumps intake. At 6 in the morning – the dose pump sucks in 600 ml water from the sump (it runs backwards) – when I wake in the morning, I put around 15 gr frozen artemia and cyclops in the container. The stirrer is programmed to run in short periods – the food will be in motion all the time. During day – my Maxi is programmed to dose from the container and the return pump spread it in the DT. After last food have been dosed out two rinse cycles start. In 600 ml – out 600 ml twice. Once a week I change the container to a new cleaned one. It will be bacteria growth – yes - but they will be pumped out as well – food for filtrating animals. The second stirrer that can be seen close the wall is for my precipitation chemical
I do not do any regular WC and I use a special salt when I do them. I put a lot of money into ICP analyses and individual dosing – I do not want to lose the good parameters I have for the moment. The salt I use is OCEAMOs corrector and it is a liquid salt and every batch is tested. All dry salts have one negative backslash – you can´t never be sure that the trace elements are even blended. Some of the trace elements should be in the order 1 gram to 1 metric ton – how do you mix that evenly? Now and then I take out 5 L of water and add % liter new salt. Its also that way that the skimmer take some water – not so much because I skim verry dry – but lately I have started to skim mor wet – maybe 1 cup a day. I´m testing a new method for elimination of PO4.
I normally do not clean either sump or return chamber, neither the refugium. However – the refugium have not run very good lately and I´m planning to restart it. I will clean the upper sand layer and change some water. I have to do it in short pulses because the corals is so high that they will be 1 cm above the water surface if I stop the return pump.
For the moment I run a small PO4 reactor – I clean it twice a week.
I´m also prepared that a part of my Hystrix colony is near the eve of destruction. Every time I clean the windows I´m afraid that it will partly fall down, And if it does that – the coral cutter will be a good tool – cleaning up for a new beginning.
Summation
One year after started I did a type of summary of the first year and compared with my goals. Now its time to do the same after 8 years
Esthetical goals
I want to have a piece of the nature in my living room – technical devices – I have seen at my work for my whole life – I do not need them in sight in my living room
After a year I was rather pleased with the outcome – today I have add 3 more pumps – one is not hidden yet Half - check on this goal.
Biological goals
Filtration systems
The main reasons for having good filtration systems is for me to create a stable system – a system that’s allowing mistakes and based on a good bacterial base. In water, at particles, in the gravel, in the filters and so on.
I try to combine all of my experiences since I started with aquariums back in the early seventies.
I did want as many different system to handle the question of nutrients in so many different ways as possible. First aim was to look at the nutrients (from the food to the fishes) as resources – not as problems. But there must always be some safety with all systems – and sometimes – failsafe.
I have at least 8 different pathways to handle the nutrient input in the system
Production pathways
1. Corals of different types
2. Benthic microalgae as food for different grazers like snails, hermit crabs, fish, crabs and prawns
3. Bacteria – production of bacteria (including both autotrophs and heterotrophs). The autotrophs will be grown automatically because of nitrification – the heterotrophs by adding organic carbon (vodka, sugar and vinegar) the bacteria is food for corals, sponges and other organism that filtrate the water
4. Macro algae for nutrient export
These goals – check apart from the refuge, which functioned poorly in the last year
Export - chemical, biological and technical
1. Take away phosphate through GFO or Al based pathways.
Does not work very well these days – I run it mostly for some metal removment
2. Denitrification through a reversed flow DSB
Works like a charm - check
3. Skimming through a skimmer
Works and I run an experiment in order to see if skimming can remove iron/phosphate precipitation in a good way
4. Oxidation through peroxide dosed by an Oxidator (for take away complexed organic yellowing compounds)
Works like a charm - it’s a little bit yellow but not so much regarding more than 3 years no WC. Photo from 2021
These complexed systems will for sure create one problem with time – lack of nitrogen – especially through the macros and denitrification. Of that reason I have been aware that the whole system will be driven by adding nitrate sooner or later.
After a year I solved this through adding NO3 – today I do it through the amount of ethanol I´m dosing below the sand bed Check
After a year – I had some ideas to convert my sand bed to a calcium reactor – I have skipped these ideas – I have the equipment thought
My goals was also to stop using GFO and things like that and to stop skimming.
Have changed a little in this – GFO can be used for other purposes than PO4 stripping but as I said before, stop skimming is not actual for the minute being
Organisms
1. Goal – plenty of sponges – check
2. Goal – plenty of other filtration organism – check
3. Goal – variation of snails – own production of them – half check – not know continuous own production but I have spot small elephant snails that must have been born in the tank
4. Goal – plenty of different hermits, crabs and shrimps – check
5. Goal – to have sand living sea stars to survive for a prolonged period – not check
6. Goal – To have a production of pods – check
7. Goal – To introduce some dream species of fish – check – the second Sunburst anthias was introduced two weeks ago. The first lived for more than 5 years
8. Goal – to have sea cucumber to survive and grow – check
9. Goal – to have non zooxanthella corals to thrive – checked for at least one species
10. Goal – to have such a interesting system that I feel like I see something new every day – check
11. Goal – to have flatbed growing corals like montipora to thrive – check
12. Goal – at least have some colored pins (my name of some SPS like staghorn) to survive – check and non-check
13. Goal – to have a good mix of corals and let them fight for their places by them self – check
A long answer to a short question – but yes – I´m satisfied with the outcome after more than 8 years
However – the growth of mushrooms and some other corals is still not as good as I want but some corals grow as a pest.
In the beginning I try to explain why I skipped aquariums for 11 years when I was young
Late adolescence came and interest shifted more to dry land and other prey.
Here is the result of that – the catch of my life showing my life’s largest interest.
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