introducing my 870gal tank (pics ahead)
- Thread starter RalfP
- Start date
Mrs. Music
New member
Thank you for sharing the awsome video. Beautiful tank.
Northside Reef
Premium Member
Awesome tank!! Well done.
stone.david
New member
wow just stunning, those are some of the healthiest corals i have ever seen, that brain is amazing
Thank you all very much for your friendly judgement.
The colors match the reality quite close.
The dark blue colors are more present in reality.
Baros,
thanks a lot. The rose-pink colored large flat Acropora near the surface
is 120cm (47") in its longest dimension.
The green slimmer (heavily pruned) is about 90cm (35") wide.
The brain is about 40cm (16") in diameter, it's definitely the largest one(brain) in this house.
Bob1,
you're so right...
unfortunately you hit were it hurts ;-). Energy consumption is really the downside of keeping SPS. Well, my energy provider only sells renewable energy electricity, not the certificate stuff... really investing in renewable energy.
I am in the process of selecting LED lamps to replace some of the T5-bulbs, that should also bring a little less energy consumption.
In the moment I am confused about LED types... some saying "do not buy cree etc., they have the wrong wavelength, too narrow banded blue and much to much green", others saying "coral will adapt, that is no problem" etc.etc..
But thats only a gradually step.
I have no solution for reducing energy consumption, than stop keeping SPS.
But I am in all this way too deep to do that.
Again, thank you very much for your kind words,
that was worth grabbing the cam from my wife and taking/cutting the video.
Best,
Ralf
The colors match the reality quite close.
The dark blue colors are more present in reality.
Baros,
thanks a lot. The rose-pink colored large flat Acropora near the surface
is 120cm (47") in its longest dimension.
The green slimmer (heavily pruned) is about 90cm (35") wide.
The brain is about 40cm (16") in diameter, it's definitely the largest one(brain) in this house.
Bob1,
you're so right...
unfortunately you hit were it hurts ;-). Energy consumption is really the downside of keeping SPS. Well, my energy provider only sells renewable energy electricity, not the certificate stuff... really investing in renewable energy.
I am in the process of selecting LED lamps to replace some of the T5-bulbs, that should also bring a little less energy consumption.
In the moment I am confused about LED types... some saying "do not buy cree etc., they have the wrong wavelength, too narrow banded blue and much to much green", others saying "coral will adapt, that is no problem" etc.etc..
But thats only a gradually step.
I have no solution for reducing energy consumption, than stop keeping SPS.
But I am in all this way too deep to do that.
Again, thank you very much for your kind words,
that was worth grabbing the cam from my wife and taking/cutting the video.
Best,
Ralf
trinidiver
New member
All i can say is .........DAMNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
Thank you very much for your support!
Mark,
hopefully I understood, what you're talking about... My bad english...
Unfortunately, I cannot answer what I understood in one sentence
I think that in SPS coral reef keeping there is not the one design, "Hardscape" or whatever Takashi Amano related Freshwater designs call it.
Here, also the Hardscape is growing ;-)
IMHO it is not possible to prune all Coral types as heavy as you can do it with most plants.
My approach is to cut back fast growing coral and raise some cuttings in a different system in the basement. When coral gets ugly from the pruning, I take out a "larger then buyable" colony from the basement system and replace it with the old one. Maybe more than one.
Not so easy cut back coral like LPS or different table-like Acropora or flat growing,
"overcrusting"? ones, demand other reactions, like trying to reassemble them with other colonies to a new element.
All the "Takashi Amano", or better japanese gardening placing rules and tricks apply here ;-).
Interesting studies possible, different coral fighting each other or not,
growing speed, overgrowing capabilities, etc..
Smaller or nearly shadowed coral are moved into the basement system to grow and maybe get a new place in the main tank in the next years.
Btw. the more I change my garden into something japanese garden compatible,
the more I tend to remove rock structures again, achieving something like a reef near the center of the tank. Standing free with air.. aeh water to breathe around. This "negative space" thing etc.. I will for sure further reduce the structures left and right in size.
The left one will be smaller but quite high, the main reef the biggest and a little back and the small right pole will be about half its actual height.
Hope to gain depth with that. Getting more depth is imho quite important.
Looking at a larger element, with having 3 coral species in 3 different sizes, larges in front, smallest far away, fakes a deeper view, over accenting the "vanishing point projection"? etc. etc.
Overall, there have been more smaller pillars with smaller coral in the past, changing to one large, supported one in the center with larger coral on it.
Some pillars are removed, some grown into each other for that.
The biggest fish (Siganus magnificus), as it gets older and bigger, tends to live near/in the big cave, formed under the coral between the former pillars.
I always wanted to keep a Naso Lituratus, but haven't got one, because of the scale thoughts. Really big or too many fish would destroy the overall effect imho.
Sorry, got carried away by this ;-)
Ralf
Mark,
hopefully I understood, what you're talking about... My bad english...
Unfortunately, I cannot answer what I understood in one sentence
I think that in SPS coral reef keeping there is not the one design, "Hardscape" or whatever Takashi Amano related Freshwater designs call it.
Here, also the Hardscape is growing ;-)
IMHO it is not possible to prune all Coral types as heavy as you can do it with most plants.
My approach is to cut back fast growing coral and raise some cuttings in a different system in the basement. When coral gets ugly from the pruning, I take out a "larger then buyable" colony from the basement system and replace it with the old one. Maybe more than one.
Not so easy cut back coral like LPS or different table-like Acropora or flat growing,
"overcrusting"? ones, demand other reactions, like trying to reassemble them with other colonies to a new element.
All the "Takashi Amano", or better japanese gardening placing rules and tricks apply here ;-).
Interesting studies possible, different coral fighting each other or not,
growing speed, overgrowing capabilities, etc..
Smaller or nearly shadowed coral are moved into the basement system to grow and maybe get a new place in the main tank in the next years.
Btw. the more I change my garden into something japanese garden compatible,
the more I tend to remove rock structures again, achieving something like a reef near the center of the tank. Standing free with air.. aeh water to breathe around. This "negative space" thing etc.. I will for sure further reduce the structures left and right in size.
The left one will be smaller but quite high, the main reef the biggest and a little back and the small right pole will be about half its actual height.
Hope to gain depth with that. Getting more depth is imho quite important.
Looking at a larger element, with having 3 coral species in 3 different sizes, larges in front, smallest far away, fakes a deeper view, over accenting the "vanishing point projection"? etc. etc.
Overall, there have been more smaller pillars with smaller coral in the past, changing to one large, supported one in the center with larger coral on it.
Some pillars are removed, some grown into each other for that.
The biggest fish (Siganus magnificus), as it gets older and bigger, tends to live near/in the big cave, formed under the coral between the former pillars.
I always wanted to keep a Naso Lituratus, but haven't got one, because of the scale thoughts. Really big or too many fish would destroy the overall effect imho.
Sorry, got carried away by this ;-)
Ralf
dainiusiva
New member
Ralf, i appreciate a look into your thought process 
Danke Ralf,
I too am having a similar issue and I am glad you took the time to share your insight. My corals are growing out of the water. It's time to redo my tank of 12 years. I also am a fan of the Amano philosophy and have found it's more difficult with a reef tank... I was pondering going to a planted reef, but I too like the sps too much to give up my corals, and my tangs.
I would give up all my big fish and just have little fish, but my wife has named the tangs and says NO, to my idea of getting new fish. So, it's a challenge.
Right now I am leaning toward picking 3-5 favorite corals and just having them in the tank, vs. the coral gardens that a lot of people like.
My tank is 200 gallons, 54x30x30 inches peninsula style. Sump and refugium add another 75 or so gallons.
Ciao,
Mark
I too am having a similar issue and I am glad you took the time to share your insight. My corals are growing out of the water. It's time to redo my tank of 12 years. I also am a fan of the Amano philosophy and have found it's more difficult with a reef tank... I was pondering going to a planted reef, but I too like the sps too much to give up my corals, and my tangs.
I would give up all my big fish and just have little fish, but my wife has named the tangs and says NO, to my idea of getting new fish. So, it's a challenge.
Right now I am leaning toward picking 3-5 favorite corals and just having them in the tank, vs. the coral gardens that a lot of people like.
My tank is 200 gallons, 54x30x30 inches peninsula style. Sump and refugium add another 75 or so gallons.
Ciao,
Mark
Again, thank you all very much, couldn't get enough from that ;-).
Thank you, Mark,
in the past, my tank was so overgrown with coral, that the tangs had to wriggle
through their branches, no room to swim in open water anymore.
The busily swimming Powderblue refused to swim into one half of the tank.
Maybe it's the right moment for you and your wife to negotiate again...
"Her" tangs need more swimming room and you'll have to build another
frag/raise tank in the bathroom/basement/garage to achieve that ;-).
I am really happy, having a "not for show" system in the cellar.
Removing a suffering coral from the main system to recover, finding a really
nice frag somewhere, having a place to grow it some months, not loosing it
in the main reef behind some rocks... A place for own frags, or simply keeping
at least one frag of each frag-able coral in a different system ("who knows what will happen").
The more I think about whatever "design" issues, the more I think that a large part of "good (modern?) design" is about removing things.
In the main reef, there are some large Galaxea coral, fighting with long tentacles but doing no harm to my Tridacna clams. Will have to remove the coral in the future.
I could not get rid of the idea to form a small tank, small LED lights, with a Iwagumi style layout, covered totally with Galaxea, only 1 or 3 ultra color Tridacna maxima in between.
Ralf
Thank you, Mark,
in the past, my tank was so overgrown with coral, that the tangs had to wriggle
through their branches, no room to swim in open water anymore.
The busily swimming Powderblue refused to swim into one half of the tank.
Maybe it's the right moment for you and your wife to negotiate again...
"Her" tangs need more swimming room and you'll have to build another
frag/raise tank in the bathroom/basement/garage to achieve that ;-).
I am really happy, having a "not for show" system in the cellar.
Removing a suffering coral from the main system to recover, finding a really
nice frag somewhere, having a place to grow it some months, not loosing it
in the main reef behind some rocks... A place for own frags, or simply keeping
at least one frag of each frag-able coral in a different system ("who knows what will happen").
The more I think about whatever "design" issues, the more I think that a large part of "good (modern?) design" is about removing things.
In the main reef, there are some large Galaxea coral, fighting with long tentacles but doing no harm to my Tridacna clams. Will have to remove the coral in the future.
I could not get rid of the idea to form a small tank, small LED lights, with a Iwagumi style layout, covered totally with Galaxea, only 1 or 3 ultra color Tridacna maxima in between.
Ralf
Ralf, can you stop at 870? We have had some discussion about cutting a hole in the dining room/kitchen wall and building a big tank in between the rooms. This would involve major construction and expense going to such a large tank. I think I would cut a hole in the roof as well and use a skylight to light the tank during the day.
Right now we are working on putting solar power on the roof... trying to cut down on my power bill!
Mark
Right now we are working on putting solar power on the roof... trying to cut down on my power bill!
Mark
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