Leonardo's Formosa Forest

[Leonardo_]

Flint&Eric, It isn't a Tunze, but A Sicce Multi 5800. Very powerfull pump, good quality and fair priced.

stony_corals, I don't use Pappone that much anymore to be honest. I do add a small amount of sugar and Vodka every day, and feed my fish a lot with many different quality foods.

piercho, the green one is an Acropora Formosa, the blue-tipped an Acropora Microphthalma.
The fish love to hide and sleep between the corals, I think fish hide a lot in corals in their natural habitat also. Especially the Apogons.
To let the corals make the aquascape was the original plan behind this tank. I wanted to let the Staghorns to form a "forest", while using a minimum of rock.
I think it's a compliment that you mention me as TOTM candidate. I'm not sure if I can fit in that category, but of course I would be honoured.

Leonardo

 

[Kinetic]

What a beautiful setup! I like your fish selection too!

 

[Kinetic]

What I've just realized is so amazing about your tank is not only the configuration of rock and coral, but the fact that you let your corals grow with all that room.

In a lot of tanks I see, people are constantly "grooming" their corals, such that they don't fight each other. This is almost like stunting their true intent to grow, and making them bonzai like.

What you've done is allow colonies to mature and grow to very large sizes, but then again you don't have many corals compared to some.

I think it makes your tank look very mature, larger, and that much more appealing!

I may try this as well on the tank I'm setting up. Not too much rock, and only a few SPS rather than sticking a ton of frags all over... which means I'll just spend big bucks on the REALLY nice corals, rather than getting anything and everything I could. =)

 

[Leonardo_]

Thanks Kinetic, I also like the look of grown out, large colonies more. Japanese tanks were a big inspiration to set up this tank. Some of their tanks also have fewer, larger colonies.

Can't wait for this one to grow out. I just bought it and will be attached to the central rock soon. I actually want a bit more diversity in colour, so I'll add about 2 different staghorns.

Leonardo

 

[fishdoc11]

One of my favorite tanks

Thanks for sharing the specs.

Chris

 

[FUA]

your fish look ridiculously healthy, what do you feed?

 

[invincible569]

I love this tank too! Great setup

 

[Fishfreak218]

I am also wondering what you feed your fish and your coral and how often you feed them...

 

[Leonardo_]

fishdoc11, invincible569; thank you very much!

FUA, Fishfreak218; I feed twice/three times a day. One of two times dryfood and one time frozen food.
I also feed cyclop-eeze every night after the lights are off.

Dryfood I use; Spectrum Thera+a, O.S.I Spirulina, Ocean Nutrition Prime-Reef

Frozen food; Mysis, Artemia.

Leonardo

 

[BRISK495]

Awesome tank, I definitely think TOTM. Can you talk a little bit about your vodka dosing? When how much...DO's and Dont's. I'[ve heard different opinions on this, but when you see a tan klike yours, you have to ask!

 

[ezcompany]

do you plan on letting some pieces encrust to the bottom of your tank?
i think if you added a black background it will be even more stunning. definitely one of my idol tanks

 

[Leonardo_]

BRISK495, I dose one ML of Vodka every day. Together with that I add 0.25 mg of sugar. I know, it's not much but enough to keep my Nitrates and (more important) Phosphates down.
Make sure you add another small piece of LiveRock one in a while (in you sump etc.) to keep the bacterial cononies diverse.

I don't want to bring my tank in danger so adding more is not safe, and in my case not even necessary.

ezcompany, I have had a blue and black background, but I like the clear one the most. Looks different IRL the on the pictures. I think it gives the tank a bit more of a Japanese look.

Leonardo

 

[adddo]

Its absolutely stunning Leo. Dont change a thing!

I also use Vodka. No sugar tho. Why do you dose both? Its essentially the same?

 

[Leonardo_]

Thanks

The effect is the same, but vodka and sugar stimulates the growth of different bacteria-colonies. If you dose it both you prevent one bacteria to "overgrow" the other species.

So basically, by dosing it both you keep a greater variaty in bacteria.

Some also dose Vinegar for another extra Carbonsource, but I don't do that because of the risk of acetate forming.

Leonardo

 

[trueblackpercula]

Ok one must also be aware that if your tank is BB it tends to be more nutrient poor than normal. So be very carefull with the suger as i read somewhere that it will cuase STN/RTN I can't remeber were it was posted but I did read something about it. remeber read read read before looking for theat magic bullet
Michael

 

[kysard1]

best looking tank on the internet.

Honestly makes the typical kalidescope TOTM look like a bad psychedelic carnival trip.

This is what a reef looks like folks.

I hope this is a start of a trend back to normalcy.

Keep up the great work.

 

[drouner]

I noticed that you mentioned you use Reefers Best Premium salt. Since I'm not sure about what salt mixes are available The Netherlands, can you comment on it vs. other available salt mixes. Or why you choose this brand. How often do you do water changes?

Here in the US the price is $90 US for 20kg bucket of Reefers Best Premium salt. That is very expensive.

Great tank. TOTM for sure.

 

[dvanacker]

So how many lbs total of rock do you have in this system??

I love the openess with large colonies.....amazing look.

 

[King-Kong]

Woo, go Leo!

One of my favorite tanks ever... always a pleasure looking at those photos... you've done so well!

 

[Leonardo_]

kysard1, thanks for that huge compliment!

Drouner, the price over here is about the same. Many of the salts that you use in the US are also available here in The Netherlands.
I used Tropic Marin before this salt, the costs are the same as Reefers Best over here.
I like Reefers Best much more. The corals show more PE, and the parameters of freshly made water are much better then TM. I don't know why, but in my nutrient poor tank Montipora never do very well untill I started to use this salt. TOTM? Don't know, but thanks for saying it!

dvanacker, thanks. I only use one big rock, and a small one behind it. About 15 pound.

Thank you King-Kong! Good to hear from you. How's your tank doing now?

Leonardo