Azoo cube

[Marcus Nitzsche]

Dear all,

first I want to introduce myself a little bit because I'm not new to the forum but I didn't wrote so much in the past.
I'm from northern Germany and keep azoo corals for more than 4 years now. I started with two different mixed reef tanks but not that much success I wanted. So I started in December 2007 a azoo only tank with much smaller size than my tanks before so that I maintain the tank easier. The setup is as following:
- size 70x70x70 cm
- volume: 300 l (net)
- lightning 4x24 W T5 Fauna Marin Aqua science and aqua blue (50/50)
- flow total: 40.000 l/h
- skimmer: ZC cylone AS 1500 (I think only available in Germany)
- live rock only with some coral gravel
- coral food: 90% Fauna Marine products (I want to hint that this should not be an advertisement for this company - I know the owner from FM but I also try other brands too)
- feeding with modified Eheim Twin rotary screw feeder

Here are some impressions from my tank.

I already posted some sucess of keeping azoo gorgonians in following tread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1545327

I don't want to blur that I also lost some animals but I have also some success with acalycigorgia. I keept it successfully in my old tank and at the moment I recover a animal since November last year (for this I want to open a new tread).

I hope to have here a good possibility to share expiriences (and get new ones) with you all in this board. Especially I want to get more informations about Dendronepthea because I don't have any expirience with it - only gorgonians and stereonepthea.

Best regards
Marcus

By the way: please don't annoy my English because it is not my mother tongue.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Very nice tank!

Do you mind posting details about the Eheim rotary screw feeder along with a picture of it? How did you modify it? Can you show more details about how you feed your tank?

Is it the same as this?

 

[Marcus Nitzsche]

Dear ???,

no, I use another Eheim feeder - it is called Eheim twin.

But I modified as following:
- I disconnect the internal timer and use a external time computer, so it is possible to have much more feeding intervals and also with small food amount (normally the feeder does one full revolution of feeder screw, but with external design it is possible to have only a quarter revolution-or how much ever you want, so I can adjust the food amount very well)
- I add vibration "tool" to the feeder to avoid blocking of fuel

Best regards
Marcus

 

[TheH]

Marcus, can you tell us more about your tank? How much food are you adding every day, and what kind of nitrate/phosphate levels are you observing? What kind of corals have you been able to keep, and which ones have you not been able to keep?

 

[jfw60]

Re: Azoo cube

Im astomished by the growth of your sponges as I have never seen any grow that beautifully in a closed system. How do you get gorgonians and the like to do so well?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14705893#post14705893 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Marcus Nitzsche
Dear all,

first I want to introduce myself a little bit because I'm not new to the forum but I didn't wrote so much in the past.
I'm from northern Germany and keep azoo corals for more than 4 years now. I started with two different mixed reef tanks but not that much success I wanted. So I started in December 2007 a azoo only tank with much smaller size than my tanks before so that I maintain the tank easier. The setup is as following:
- size 70x70x70 cm
- volume: 300 l (net)
- lightning 4x24 W T5 Fauna Marin Aqua science and aqua blue (50/50)
- flow total: 40.000 l/h
- skimmer: ZC cylone AS 1500 (I think only available in Germany)
- live rock only with some coral gravel
- coral food: 90% Fauna Marine products (I want to hint that this should not be an advertisement for this company - I know the owner from FM but I also try other brands too)
- feeding with modified Eheim Twin rotary screw feeder

Here are some impressions from my tank.

I already posted some sucess of keeping azoo gorgonians in following tread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1545327

I don't want to blur that I also lost some animals but I have also some success with acalycigorgia. I keept it successfully in my old tank and at the moment I recover a animal since November last year (for this I want to open a new tread).

I hope to have here a good possibility to share expiriences (and get new ones) with you all in this board. Especially I want to get more informations about Dendronepthea because I don't have any expirience with it - only gorgonians and stereonepthea.

Best regards
Marcus

By the way: please don't annoy my English because it is not my mother tongue.

 

[Marcus Nitzsche]

Dear all,

thanks for interest in my system.

Water parameters (yesterday):
PO4: 0,5-1 mg/l
NO3: 50 - 75 mg/l
pH: 7,7
kH: 8°

You can see it is "very bad" but I keep these conditions since more than 1,5 years in this tank and in my previouse ones also. NO3 and PO4 have not much effect to the animals. You should only check that you do not get "yellow water" - so ozone / activated carbon use is neccesary. Water change is 10% per week with red sea coral pro salt. pH value is quite low so I try to increase by dosing natriumcarbonate. But my biggest problem is that my skimmer is working very bad. Nearly no foam - I think because of the fatty food. I tried many different ones but no affect to foam volume. Sometimes I go crazy with it. Until today nobody could help me.

I feed with my auto feeder several times per day:
3 a.m. - 4 a.m.: 4 times
6 a.m. - 8 a.m.: 6 times
4 p.m.- 5 p.m.: 4 times
7:30 p.m. - 23:00 p.m.: 8 times

So the food amount in water is very less but constant during feeding time. At the moment I use Fauna Marine food only - I tried many but it is the only one that works well.

With that feeding regime I can keep my animals in nearly stable good conditions even when I stay out of Germany for work (nearly every second month I stay one month in Thailand). I think without an automated feeding system the success to keep that conditions acceptable for the animals wouldn't be possible.

Yes - spong growth is very much, some times I need to reduce it (I cut it off and throw out of the tank).


Best regards
Marcus

 

[stunreefer]

Marcus, very beautiful reef, great job :thumbsup:

I agree with PO4 and NO3 levels. It depends on the animals you're keeping, but obviously all of your coral love it!

Do you dose any bacteria/carbon sources, or run phosphate remover, or do you find skimming is sufficient?

If your corals look as beautiful as they do, and no nuiscance algae is present, then they're not bad levels

Thank you for sharing!

Best Regards,

- Austin

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

If you're having trouble getting good skimmate, ozone dosing might be your problem. If you dose a lot of ozone, it can work to break down the proteins and other dissolved organics you're trying to skim. The broken-down organics are less easily skimmed.

 

[QueenOfTheReef]

Your tank is GORGEOUS, and so unusual!

 

[QueenOfTheReef]

Your tank is GORGEOUS, and so unusual!