Child's dream come true

[ostiato]

Hi all,

My name is Luca and I write from Italy.
Since I was young my dream was to have a SPS reef tank, but sometime the dreams need time and patience.
Three years ago I built my new home and finally I had the necessary space to start my new adventure.
The tank is 150 x 100 x x 100 cm, totally acrylic and covered with two sheets 1 cm thick.
The light is full led, a mix of 6500°K and blue, to obtain a color of about 10000°K (I don't like too much blue or violet, I prefer the sunlight appearance)
The filtration system is skimmerless and sumpless, I have a single pump with a flux of 35 mc/hr and a small Y filter, a 1.5 kW stainless steel heater, an ozone generator and two sensors, one for dissolved oxygen and one for redox potential.
At the bottom of the tank there are the suction and the discharge port of the pump: my idea is to build a scaffold with tubes and curves (to distribute in the right way the water flux all around the tank) and hyding this structure with poyurethane foam and cement.
I enclose some pics....

 

[johnike]

Good morning, and welcome!

 

[Usernam Invalid]

Look good following along

 

[jgonz_1979]

Have you ever keep sps's corals?

How are you going to maintain the alk, and what about the evaporation. a sumpless and skimmerless sps tank looks risky and dificult, i mean i hope end well but it´s complety different from the actual standar sps tank.

 

[reefmutt]

very neat set up. following.
so, the piping will act as a closed loop as well as the place for corals?
will you hide the pipes with rock?

 

[ostiato]

Thanks for the wellcome guys.
I came from freshwater aquariums, with which I have many years of experience.
I think that is useful to combine the know how of different disciplines, so, after a lot of study, I have developed a method of conduction of my freshwater tank very similar to a DSB, dosing sucrose and hydrogen peroxyde (in absence of an ozone generator).
This is my first experience with a reef tank, but I wanna try to enter in the marine world.
My objective is to have a system as simpler as possible and as stable as possible.

jgonz_1979, I know that this is not a standard sps tank, but no risks no money . Evaporation is not a problem, the tank has two covers of acrylic, I think to reintegrate the small amount of water lost when needed.
About the elements (calcium, magnesium, etc) I will probably use the balling method.

Matt..right, the pipes act as a closed loop for the water system and as scaffold for the corals.
No rocks, only polyurethane foam to fill the holes and cement arranged in artistic fashion to cover the structure...a sort of peninsula..

Luca

 

[ostiato]

This is how I try to figure out the peninsula

 

[reefmutt]

Interesting. Looking forward to your experiment!

 

[pinnatus]

Hi, Ostiato!

SPS are pretty difficult corals to keep. People have been doing it successfully for a while.

Not that I am against experimentation, but I think it may be better for you to emulate some of the tried and true methods rather than experiment on your first saltwater aquarium, especially if you are starting off with sps and wish to be successful. While there are definitely a lot of similarities, salt water aquariums are different than fresh, and corals are very different than anything in fresh water.

Sps require pristine water, moreso than anything else out there, and a skimmer is an extremely useful device to have in this regard. Why do you think there are infinite threads on the merits and drawbacks of various skimmers? So to not plan on a skimmer is a mistake in my opinion.

I have kept saltwater tanks for 38 years, and I have not been very successful with sps. I decided to go with fish-only because the amount of effort and expense to keep sps was high, and I prefer fish which often eat sps. So even if you have a lot of experience, it is still difficult to be successful even following tried and true methods.

I would start out following tried and true methods, then when you are happy and successful, try some more unorthodox methods.

Anyway, this is not to flame you in any way, just a note in case you may want to re-think your strategy. Either way, I hope you are successful and welcome to Reef Central! Ciao!

 

[ostiato]

Hi pinnatus,

I expected a message like your )
I understand perfectly your opinion and if I should be another one I should be in accord with you.
Some people had the same doubts when I spoke about the conduction method of my freshwater tank, telling me that this is impossible...but it works, so don't tell me that but ask me how (this was my answer).
I know that marine aquarium has some differences but I am pretty sure about the results.
Anyway, thank you for your warning, I am stubborn and I hope to make change your mind.

Luca

 

[joshky]

I agree with Ken.

I'm one year into keeping SPS (four years in saltwater), and I feel like I still have a great deal to learn. The moment you think you know what you're doing, there'll be something else pop up. In my opinion freshwater is child's play when you compare it to a SPS reef, and I've kept ADA style planted tanks in the past. SPS are very fragile, it only takes one mistake to kill them, but months to bring them back (should some make it, that is).

Starting out with SPS is very cool and by no means do I want you to change your mind about keeping them, but perhaps before you innovate you need to emulate others first.

Whatever you choose to do I will be following along, I'm very excited to see how your tank comes together. I love the idea of closed-loop tanks and this one looks like it's been well thought out as far as that's concerned. I wish you the best, and welcome to reefcentral!

 

[ostiato]

Thanks Josh,

I think that people have something to learn every single day of their life.
I love ADA style and Dutch style aquariums, but I am not in accord with you, freshwater tanks are not a child's play and in my opinion there's not so many differences (biologically speaking) with marine tanks.
I want to show you one of my previous aquarium.
More than one year without water change, no fertilization, five discus and all the parameters (nitrogen, phoshorus, iron, etc) at zero.
Opinions?

Luca

 

[joshky]

Thanks Josh,

I think that people have something to learn every single day of their life.
I love ADA style and Dutch style aquariums, but I am not in accord with you, freshwater tanks are not a child's play and in my opinion there's not so many differences (biologically speaking) with marine tanks.
I want to show you one of my previous aquarium.
More than one year without water change, no fertilization, five discus and all the parameters (nitrogen, phoshorus, iron, etc) at zero.
Opinions?

Luca

Sorry, I don't mean that it's child's play necessarily, I just mean that comparing the two it's like comparing a dwarf to a giant. I'm sure you'll catch on very quick with your prior background, moreso than someone new to the hobby entirely.

Beautiful tank by the way.

 

[ostiato]

Thank you Josh,

I'll try to do my best to obtain a tank as close as possible at the standards of this excellent forum

Luca

 

[ClownNut]

Thanks Josh,

I think that people have something to learn every single day of their life.
I love ADA style and Dutch style aquariums, but I am not in accord with you, freshwater tanks are not a child's play and in my opinion there's not so many differences (biologically speaking) with marine tanks.
I want to show you one of my previous aquarium.
More than one year without water change, no fertilization, five discus and all the parameters (nitrogen, phoshorus, iron, etc) at zero.
Opinions?

Luca

you telling me you give your plants the worse condition possible and because they somehow find a way to survive against all odd. and you are proud you treat the plants and the system so badly?!

 

[ostiato]

If I treat a living being badly it die, it didn't grow.

 

[thepotoo]

you telling me you give your plants the worse condition possible and because they somehow find a way to survive against all odd. and you are proud you treat the plants and the system so badly?!

How is that any different than the no water change SPS tanks we see on here all the time?

A planted discus tank - even one with mostly hardy plants - is no easy feat. Keeping those discus alive and it good health without water changes is harder than a reef tank for sure.

I'm interested to see where this goes, although I agree with other comments above expressing concern about how this goes against the "best practices" for SPS keeping.

 

[ostiato]

I don't like to torture animals or else for fun, my first interest is to guarantee the best life conditions for all the living beings.
And more, you know how much money is needed for the tank, the lights, the skimmer, the pumps, etc, I should be dumb to invest so much time and euros if I didn't think in what I am doing.
I respect all the opinions and I understand that without proof is difficult for me to convinct you about what I consider a best practice.
Well, I hope that time will give me reason.

Luca

 

[joshky]

I don't like to torture animals or else for fun, my first interest is to guarantee the best life conditions for all the living beings.
And more, you know how much money is needed for the tank, the lights, the skimmer, the pumps, etc, I should be dumb to invest so much time and euros if I didn't think in what I am doing.
I respect all the opinions and I understand that without proof is difficult for me to convinct you about what I consider a best practice.
Well, I hope that time will give me reason.

Luca

I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I look forward to seeing how your tank turns out. There's no "right" way to do a reef, it can be ran a multitude of ways and be successful. I of course, like many, think you're choosing a harder path to success, but that doesn't mean it won't be successful.

Thanks for posting your tank and ideas, I really do look forward to seeing it come together. :beer:

 

[reefmutt]

Luca, to be honest, I think you are, like Josh said, setting yourself down a very, very difficult path...
A big challenge to be sure.
I'm curious to see your method and I wish you success.
This hobby, like many fields would not have progressed without innovative succes and failure..
We can learn from both..
As I said, I'll be watching closely.