A little drop of the Aegean Sea
 

Hi, everyone !!!!

I'm member of this forum for almost 3 years and it's an inspiration for me.

My project started about 3 years ago. I wanted to create a little rocky to sand deep coral corner of the Aegean sea (as all the Mediterranean coasts) under 20 -30 meters depth.
It's a coldwater NPS reef tank.

My tank is a Rio-400, 450 lt.

DIY Sump about 162 lt.

Illumination
After a lot of experimentation in use 1 x ATI Blue plus 39 W, for 7 hours per day.

Chiller is the Hailea HC-300A.

For circulation pumps i use :
1 x Eheim pump compact+ 2000 to pump the water from sump to main tank.
1 x Eheim pump compact+ 3000 to pump the water from sump to the chiller and back to the sump.
Both of them all day around.
1 x Hydor Koralia Evolution 2800 (for 16 hours) and
1 x Hydor Koralia Evolution 2800 (for 6,5 hours in the noon)
1 x Hydor Koralia Nano 1600 all day around to circulate the water into the main tank.

Skimmer TMC V2 1500

2 fluidized reactors with carbon and antiphos.
In the sump i use ATS with 1x14W led lamp and 1x20W floodlight (both of them 3.000k) for 18 hours.

For aquascaping i have DSB about 10 cm and a lot of mediterranean live rock.
Some live rock are also in the sump

The total volume of the system is about 450 lt. Of course i use Natural Sea Water. About 33% twice a month.

Measurements:
PH : 7,5 - 7,9
Alkalinity : 8,9 - 9,9.
Calcium : 460 - 470.
Magnesium : 1470 - 1500.
ΝΟ3 : 10 - 15.
ΡΟ4 : 0
Salinity : 1028 - 1030.
Temperature : 16 - 23 oC.


I'll be back with pictures and the animals i have...

Have a nice watch !!!!


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...pstmhvlghf.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...psjglipnsn.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps4v33koai.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1yespgds.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdky6khb1.jpg

This is very cool, thanks for posting. Do you get any condensation on your aquarium glass? Waiting to see your fish and invertebrates list!

Very nice. Do you actually collect water from the ocean? Is that what you mean by natural sea water?

Love habitat themed tanks. Good work.
Are those tubastraea's (sun corals) on the right?

Allready a favorite tank from the sea of Poseidon! :thumbsup:

Awesome tank! I'm just getting established as an NPS reefer so it's great encouragement to see tanks that other people are doing. Also, I second wanting to see the list of inhabitants!

Thanks a lot.
There are only few days in the year when the aquarium looks like wet, because of the humidity in the atmosphere.
I will post later, photos of the aquarium inhabitants.



Thanks man !!!
Yes I collect Natural Sea Water (NSW) every 15 – 20 days, from 2 – 3 places that I have spotted and depending of the weather of course.



Thanks man !!!
The yellow corals are Leptopsammia pruvoti (Sunset cup coral), which they naturally live in Mediterranean.


Thanks a lot, patrida !!!!!!


Many thanks !!!!!
I will post later, list and photos of the aquarium inhabitants.

Maintance day
Testing water
ΚΗ : 9,9
ΝΟ3 : 10
ΡΟ4 : 0

Cleaning ATS, skimmer etc
After that visiting with car, one of the 3 beaches i've spotted, for NSW collecting.
Sunshine but very cold.

Attachment 341230

Atmosphere temperature 3,5 - 7,5 oC.
Water temperature 16 oC.

Attachment 341231

Collected 145 lt of NSW. Hot coffee, chill out music and a few seashells collected for ultra fresh fish food.

Attachment 341232 Attachment 341233

From Samos? I've not been there, but I have been to Crete. Beautiful, beautiful water. Thank you for the pictures. I wanted so much to see what was down below the surface.

To Reef Central

Very nice. Does Greece let you collect corals for personal aquaria uses?

Thanks so much. Crete is also very beautifull.
Visiting my thread from time to time you'ill see how is below the surface of the Aegean Sea.
:fun2::fun2:



Most of my corals are unwanted products of commercial fishing.
I have also a fishing license for amateur fishing, because i spearfishing from time to time.
All of my fish were fished by me with non lethal methods (net traps).

They are Sunset cup corals (Leptopsammia pruvoti)


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...pscba9a267.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps65606697.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...pse1475c1d.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps66e182b2.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps90d0caa8.jpg

Those cup corals are stunning! Amazing biotope!

Very nice tank !
What are the orange sponge with epizoanthus ? Thank you

Very beautiful. Are you on Facebook? There's a coldwater marine aquarists' group on there.

Thanx a lot ...man !!!!


Thanx a lot ...!!!!

The orange sponge are Axinella polypoides. The corals on them are Parazoanthus axinellae.
Both of them are native in Mediterranean.


Thanx...
I'm on Facebook. You mean Coldwater Marine Aquarium Owners or something else ?
Please me pass the Profile name of it.

That is a badass tank, looks great!

Thanx a lot ...man !!!!:love2:

This is a beautiful tank Samian! Great work and please keep us updated with many pictures!!

That is an excellent Little theme tank.

Some update ....

http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps24hvo96h.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...pslnnragxa.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...pswdoxbh6t.jpg


http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...psbesd8pb6.jpg


And a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6sSBhZYLog

To be continued......

Thank you for the update, your tank looks great !

This is my feather duster worm Bispira volutacornis


RYYmeMMvwSo

Sorry for the above post...
This is the correct.

This is a video of my feather duster worm Bispira volutacornis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYYmeMMvwSo