7,000 litres Natural reef tank - Thailand

[xiaoxiy]

This thread is pretty awesome. Subscribed.

Hopefully you can sort out those pesky aphids!

[mng777777]

Any updates?

[reefman66]

+1

[griseum]

Hope everything is well Sirichok!!!
That particular mangrove is not a species we see here in the US. Common English name is "tall stilt mangrove".

I would guess it's name comes from its average/max height of roughly 30 meters! The Red Mangrove, which is common throughout the Southern US, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, is what we have access to here, it being endemic. I falls within the same genus as the Rhizophora aciculate, yet the aciculate is only found throughout Asia and Australia. The only ecological factor that may be of concern is that their optimal location is "mid-estuarine" with a salinity of 8-15ppt, which is much lower than reef salinity. They can handle a salinity up to 65ppt, but for what timespan, it is not documented.

Considering it's range and ecological niche, I don't believe it is the care of the Mangroves that could be causing problems, unless as was mentioned, they were osmotically shocked by going straight to 35ppt.

Would love to see some picture updates when you get a chance!!

[jeffdenney]

Wild tank setup. Sub'd

[sirichok]

Latest update:

At the moment the seawater in the tank has been running for 3 months . I just came back from UK after two weeks trip. I have been doing some experiments with the tank , to test the mangrove bacteria out. So while I was away in Uk , the tank was left without any addition of mangrove bacteria or any water change , no addition of other chemicals, to see what will happen . I discovered that the front side of the tank that receive full sunlight exposure is totally covered with algae but the other side with no exposure , the rocks are 70% clean . So I started adding the mangrove bacteria for two days now and the rocks are starting to come clean again . I will post pictures later.
Also I wanted to try to keep difficult fish to test out the natural reef tank. So far I was able to successfully keep one Achilles Tang and a pair ofStriped Shrimpfish (Aeoliscus strigatus) for almost two months now and as of today I just added one Moorish idol to the fleet.
Other fish that are not so difficult to keep which are now members of the tank
1 Powder brown
1 powder blue
1 yellow tang
1 orange shoulder tang
1 Sohal tang
1 Purple tang

And a school of Cardinal fish, some wrasses and a variety of small fish.
Today an owner of a local fish store came and visited me and he commented that all the fish are really colourful and asked me how I got the fish to be so colourful . I guessed it is the combination of sunlight and mangrove mud substrate that really enhanced the colours of these fish. He also asked me whether I feed any special supplement to enhance the colour of the fish. To be honest , I feed them three times a day with only frozen Artemia. But I noticed that most fish are quite fat and happily nibbling all day . So I assumed that the Mangrove mud substrate must act as a sanctuary to produce foods for the occupants of the fish tank but this is not conclusive . I will need to try more experiments.
As for corals , since the coup d'etat, the authority has been very strict and virtually banned all imported corals even the cultured ones so I have not been able to add many SPS and LPS only very few that I can get my hands on. At present I have not turned on the calcium reactor nor kalkwasser reactor for that matter, as the sea water and the filter system in the tank can still cope with the few corals I have .

[griseum]

It's great to hear from you Sirichok! And great to hear the tank is well also.

[dallasg]

great journey, love it...
please let us know more on this mangrove additive

[ace_92101]

I'm glad the tank is still doing well. I was a little worried with no updates. Any chance the ban on corals will get lifted in the future?

[pocci]

Are you not going to add Black Tang to your tank? To complete the tang collection, i guess....

Can you post that mangrove for new pictures?

[sirichok]

Originally Posted by pocci

Are you not going to add Black Tang to your tank? To complete the tang collection, i guess....

Can you post that mangrove for new pictures?

The mangroves are now better and I am looking for the black tang at the moment to complete the collection.

[sirichok]

Some that withered , is now fighting back after terrible episode with aphids.

[sirichok]

It is very hard to get a good picture because of the bright sunlight and the glare . However the latest shot , you can see that the mangrove bacteria after four days of addition, have started clearing up dark patches of algae . This rock , four days ago was covered completely with dark coloured algae!!!

[sirichok]

Originally Posted by ace_92101

I'm glad the tank is still doing well. I was a little worried with no updates. Any chance the ban on corals will get lifted in the future?

Thanks. The chance of lifting ban in the near future is pretty slim.

[sirichok]

[sirichok]

I bought this big elegance coral really cheap from LFS as it was dying but it has now fully recovered to its former glory.

[mng777777]

Originally Posted by sirichok

I bought this big elegance coral really cheap from LFS as it was dying but it has now fully recovered to its former glory.

That's heroic! Good work

[Koh Tao]

Just finished to read your thread. Very instresting experience. Love it. Could you post a global pic of your tank ? really nice. Thanks.

[iwhati88]

Great build. Would like to see more photos.

[kinlayan]

very interested in this mangrove bacteria!

[sirichok]

Day1 ) treatment with mangrove bacteria


Day 2 ) treatment with mangrove bacteria

[discoreefer]

Wow what a project, thanks for sharing.

[sirichok]

The latest photo from my iPhone at around 1700 Bangkok time.

[ace_92101]

A very nice full tank shot. The height of the tank really does help to give it a more natural feel.

[griseum]

Tank looks fantastic! The dimensions of your aquarium make it a very unique display.
Sorry to hear of the Coral ban. Hopefully things resolve quicker than anticipated.