Tank of the Month - June 2003

[Skipper]

This month we are featuring Marko Haaga's (haaga) beautiful 110 gallon tank:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/totm/images/Image1.jpg (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/totm/index.htm)

More details can be found here (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/totm/index.htm) or by clicking on the picture above.

Congratulations, Marko!

[wylie713]

congrats haaga! amazing tank!!!

[Rock Anemone]

I agree, BEAUTIFUL tank!:thumbsup:

Truly inspiring! The thing that gives it that extra special look is those awesome Fungia!

Keep up the AWESOME work!

Rock Anemone:D

[rbaker]

Congratulations!!

Beautiful tank and an awesome design...

Ryan

[TippyToeX]

What an amazing inspiring tank. That M. Cap is stunning. :D Geezz, even your refugium is a work or art. Way to go! Keep up the fine work and a well deserved congratulations!

:thumbsup:

[Frisco]

Beautiful Marko!

[JAYDEE]

well done .....congratz!!

[mr294]

Absolutely amazing! :thumbsup:

[Fishiness?]

When it get's to the beginning of the month, does everyone check back more frequently (like I seem to be doing... all the time)... waiting and waiting for the New Tank of the Month... or maybe it's just me. :)

Really awesome looking tank!!! Looks like you might need a 200g soon. Real soon. I would recommend it... and I would definately start over. You can send me all of those corals and fish. My address is... hehe. Congrats!

[Skipper]

Hey Fishiness? The shipping alone would kill ya. Marko lives in Finland. :D From what I gather, it's very difficult to get livestock over there. This is yet another reason that Marko's tank is so awesome.

[Jamesurq]

outstanding!!

However, your article mentions Pepsi twice, skipper's a sales manager for Pepsi....Coinsidence??? You decide...:lol:

[Skipper]

However, your article mentions Pepsi twice, skipper's a sales manager for Pepsi....Coinsidence??? :lol: Now that's a good one! New requirement for tank of the month. :p

No Choke.... PEPSI!

[Fishiness?]

Hey Fishiness? The shipping alone would kill ya. Marko lives in Finland.

Who said anything about ME shipping it? hehe.:D

This is yet another reason that Marko's tank is so awesome.

You're right! Well deserved TOTM! Cheers.

[headtrip]

That is an awesome tank. Keep up the good work.

[Jimbo327]

Very Very Nice! Love the electric green fungias on the sandbed.

Is Marko going to answer questions?

I have several questions on his plankton reactor, I've never seen one before...so I would like to have more details on it. All the good stuff! :D

Jim

[Aged Salt]

Marko, noted in your discussion format that you experienced low Sr, I levels with resultant Acro tissue sloughing. At that time, what type of medium were you using in your CR? Thnx. in advance,Bob Goode

[lunarlanderboy]

Wow, looks great! I love the fungias as well. I wasn't familiar with that species and now I am learning about them. I love how they cover your sand bed like that!

[SteveMH]

I would love more details on the plankton reactor as well. Whatever you can share about it. I was having a little trouble reading the sites. :) The tank is just beautiful, but I have to say the plankton reactor has my interest more than anything.

Congrats, very nice tank of the month!

[got chow]

That is an awesome tank. Especially with the limited availability of things you can get in Finland, that is just awesome! I love the Pepsi reactor and the DIY switch. It's so simple and you're really making use of resources... like styrofoam! lol. Great job on the tank and it looks amazing.

[tatuvaaj]

Marko,

:thumbsup:

Congrats, beautiful tank!

[Nanook]

Beautiful tank and setup Marko!!!!!


Nanook:bum:

[bmcq]

I would be interested in more info on the phyto reactor ...... is it set up to automatically feed the tank?

[Skipper]

Is Marko going to answer questions? I'm sure he will when he gets a chance.

[Mantis]

I am also interested in more info on the phyto reactor.

[BSAJim]

Yep, I think there will be great interest in the phyto reactor.

I went to the website, and I find that my german is too rusty
to accurately translate. However, it seems to work as follows
(please correct any errors).

There appears to be a phyto growth tank where a culture of phyto grows out under a light. To export phyto to feed the tank,
a pump draws phtyo water into an elevated chamber that has
a filter on the bottom. This cycles the water back to the phyto
growth tank and traps the phyto for feeding the tank. This keeps
the nutrient rich phyto water out of the display tank to minimize
algae blooms.

The second chamber is for growing zooplankton. The phyto and zoo sides of the reactor are seperated by filters that allow
water to move through, but not phyto nor zoo. Another pump/
lift is on a timer a periodically moves some phyto-rich water to
the zoo side to keep them fed. water level is maintained between
the two sides through the filters. Export of zooplankton is likely
done by passing a filter through the zoo water and capturing
sufficient zooplankton for feeding the tank.

Have I got this right? If so, a few questions:

Can you describe the filter materils used and their mounting
in the reactor?

Do the filters need cleaning or replacement?

What is the production capacity of the reactor?

Thanks for any information that you can pass alon, and
congratulations on being selected for tank of the month.

Jim

California, USA

[photobarry]

That's a wonderful looking tank!
:thumbsup:

[igor]

Beautiful Tank and setup:wave:

[Denzo]

I wonder "when will anything I own look as beautiful?"

Great looking tank.

I also wonder "Has ever having a tank like get you....?"

Just kidding.

Congrats.

[percula99]

Absolutely gorgeous tank. Great job.

Can you tell me a little more about your DIY float switch. I'd like to make my own rather than pay my LFS the $110 they are asking for one.

Thanks in advance.

[Flatlander]

A :thumbsup: from me also. Very nice tank. That large top down shot is a beaut.:D Even the refugium is nice.:D

A well deserved TOTM. :celeb3:

[Soccer]

Wow:eek1:

Simply amazing. All I have to say is very good job my friend!!! Keep up that good work!!

Also I was wondering if you could explain or if you have a webpage about the float switch you made. Or if someone else know's how he made it?

Thanx and good job on the tank ;)

[kozmo02]

awesome tank! great choice for TOTM

im interesting to know how he built his auto top off, i would like to get the plans, hopefully he posts on here and tells me how, looks very easy.

[Micky]

Thats all I can say is WOW!!!!.....:eek: Very nice......

[Jimbo327]

When I look at the phyto-reactor, all I see is a big risk of cross contamination of having zoo's getting over to the phyto side and eating all the phyto. I thought this is the reason why we want to keep everything separated to prevent cross-contamination.

The reactor is basically pumping greenwater over to the zoo side of the chamber, and these two chambers are separated by a filter screen. I still don't fully understand the growth medium used, and how to keep it out of the tank???

Jim

[Patrick G.]

Beautiful Tank! Congrats! :thumbsup:

By the way, are Tank of the Month winners' photos provided by the owners themselves?

[ravenmore]

amazing tank - your refugium looks better than my main tank. :)

I'd personally like to see the diagram for how you made your kalk reactor?

[ravenmore]

doh - actually I meant the diagram for your calcium reactor - If I could figure out how to make one out of a pepsi bottle I'd do it in a heart beat.

Also - what are the red/pinkish macro's in the refugium? And how come the corals hanging on strings?

[Rock Anemone]

ravenmore, I two would like to know what the redish/pinkish stuff is. Almost looks like Capnella or another type of soft coral.

As for the hanging frags, that is actually a great way to grow them, it keeps predators off and they are easy to move around and grow out-wards more.

Rock Anemone:D

[lebowski]

...........................
































..........................a-duh................duh....duh.....awesome.

[MtnDewMan]

Very nice tank Marco .... Well done ... beautiful coral :)

[haaga]

Hey Everybody

Many thanks to each of you for the comments. :)
I try to answer all your questions as soon as I can.

Aged Salt:

Media in my calcium reaktor is a mixture of Aqua Medic Hydrocarbonat and GroTech Magnesium pro (about 10 % of the media, mainly magnesiumcarbonat). The second chamber of the reaktor is filled with crushed corall, but the dissolution of the media in the second chamber is very minimal.

percula99:

diy float switch is very simple in design. When the water level rises in the sump, the arm with styro foam rises and the short thin arm in the other side of shaft presses and shuts the thin silicon tube. Top-off water comes from container which is under pressure ( or you can use gravity fed system) through that thin silicon tube to the kalkwasser reactor and from there to the sump.
The flow of kalkwasser to the sump is very slow, drop by drop. The switch is very reliable, never has failed and keeps the water level in the sump very steady. I think its much reliable and better than those electrical and some machanical systems.

I will answer other questions a bit leter when i get rid of my quests. ;)

[Skipper]

By the way, are Tank of the Month winners' photos provided by the owners themselves? Yes, unless otherwise noted.how come the corals hanging on strings? This is actually a very good way to grow frags which was pioneered by Anthony Calfo. See Anthony's article in Reefkeeping Magazine (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/ac/feature/index.htm).

[ravenmore]

Wow - so many cool ideas. I hadn't heard about the suspending corals idea. I've been interested in doing more aquaculturing, so this is a fascinating idea to me.

I really dig the fungia on the bottom. What an unusual and beautiful coral. The tank would be spectacular without it, but it definitely makes the tank "different" from the standard fare.

Anyone have a link to a DIY calcium reactor? I need to get started. :D

[kozmo02]

check the DIY forum here on RC.

[DMK]

silly:thumbsup:

[Frisco]

Marko what do you have in that small clam feeding/holding tank pictured on your site? Yeast?

[haaga]

The Zinn Plankton Reactor in an excellent product to grown zoo- and phytoplankton at the same time with minimal amount of work. Phyto- and zooplankton compartments are seperated with a wall in which there is four dense circular nets. The hole size in the net is maybe 60 mikron, I first thought it was a 100 micron net, but the holes may be smaller. The net lets the phytoplankton to go through, but Brachionus plicatilis does not pass it.

Two times a day one airpump pumps 15 min and lifts small amount of phyto water to the zoo compartment to feed the rotifers. Same amount of water returns to phytocompartment through the net with nutritients produced by rotifers. The phytoplankon uses those nutritients to grow.

In the phyto compartment another airpump pumps continously and lifts phyto water to filter box in which there is a net of same quality in the bottom of the box. The filter box filters out in ex. any unwanted rotifers that might have got to the phyto compartment. This prevents the unwanted crash of the system.

I harvest rotifers 1-3 times in a week with a little net from the reactor. I then feed them with phytowater about half an hour and then pour them to my tank. Daily I just take a cup of (2 dl) phytowater and add it to my tank. I then add some half strength saltwater to reactor to keep the volume of the reactor the same.

Once a month I take new starters from zoo- and phytoplankton, clean the reactor and start over again. Then I add some phyto fertilizer in the reactor, but not after that anymore. In about 4-6 days you can start harvesting again. In my hands if I let the reactor run much longer than a month the risk of crash of the system rises. If I see that the reactor starts to crash I just quickly take starters from phyto and zoo and then filter the phytowater with filterbox, clean the reactor and start over again.

As I said in the article I am so happy with the reactor that I will never go back to the bottle mess again. :cool:

[lucymonster]

I WANT TO KNOW HOW MANY TIME OF LIGHT NEEDS THE REFUGIUM AND WHICH TYPE IN MARKO'S TANK?

[haaga]

Rock Anemone:

Yes, the stuff in the refugium is mainly capnella, the caulerpa was thinned out heavily before the photo was taken.

Frisco:

The photos in my web site are really clams in the doximycin (antibiotic) treatment bath. About three months ago I noticed a disease which was slowly progressing in my clams. It began in crocea which was bought some time before I noticed the disease. Edges of the mantle became to wrinkle more and more and some slime was prodused from the wrinkles. The disease progressed slowly over weeks and it spreaded to first squamosa which was next to it. Then it spread to derasa which was in a short distanse. Squamosa was in a quite bad condition when I decided to do something. I had readed from Reef Central forums of the same kind of disease and that you can treat it with freshwater dip, but I decided to try doximycin (100 mg/20l every day, 50% water change every day, 7 days) treatment. In two days the squamosa was much better, and in 5 days no signs of illness any more. After that I tried freshwater dip in derasa and crocea, but it did not help them. Then I treated them also with doximycin, and they were cured. But in a month the disease renewed. I should have treated them at the same time, but I did not. This time I did that with doximycin and after that no signs of illness any more.

The photos in my web site are from maybe day 6 of the treatment. You can see the water is very red from the breakdown products of doximycin. The clams looked like very odd in that red water, did not seem to harm them any way, fully open and good looking. I was very happy I had managed to cure them. :)

[Jimbo327]

Haaga,

Thanks for the explanation of the phyto-reactor! Very interesting and a good concept. Do you know if they have a US supplier?

Once again, contragulations on being TOTM. :D

Jim

[melev]

By my waiting a couple of days, it looks like almost every question I had in mind was answered by Haaga or others. :D

I'd never seen the SPS-on-a-string method, but I sure like it!

Back to the Pepsi talk (Sorry Skipper, I know you're off duty and thinking Reef-Talk now....), how did you hook up your Kalk reactor to the Pepsi bottle? Is there a connection near the base, so the kalk goes through the CC and ejects from the tubing at the top?

Your corals are absolutely stunning, and there were several shots I really liked. Great photography skills as well, Marco.

I knew that Phyto tank would get a zillion questions, as I read your description of your set up. You've explained it very well, but what do you do while your cultures restart from scratch for those 6 days? Do you save some before you tear it down? What are those chips at the base of the clear section of the phtyo-station? Your culture restarts very quickly, compared to what I've come to know here. When we start it up (in those dreaded bottles :lol: ), we have to wait 14 days before we can split and harvest.

[tarheel4life]

wonderful tank. I am impressed:D

[SteveMH]

Thanks for the info on the phyto reactor. Very interesting. Now to figure out how to get one. :)

[bluereefs]

SteveMH, if you really wont to buy plancton reactor here is the link to german online shop who sell internationaly,price is about 80 $http://www.aquapro2000.de/Indexm.htm ,go to on line shop then to -neuheiten-and scrool down to the midlle of page(direct link dont work)
Beautifull reef aquarium Marko:)

[haaga]

melev:

Yes, there is only a thin hose connected to the Pepsi bottle near base, and the water goes out of the bottle from a connection in the top.
When I restart the plankton reactor I can take nearly 10 liters of phytowater and put it in the frigde and put to tank as needed. I the reactor crashes then I have nearly 10 liters of water full of rotifers :D
Chips in the base of the zoo chamber are sintered glass biological filtersubstrat. I noticed that they significantly stabilized the system. Rotifers swim and eat more and multiply more quickle. Maybe the produced ammonium is converted to nitrite which disturp less rotifers, I think.


As bluereefs wrote AquoPro2000 is an excellent source to get your reactor. It is also sold in many German aquarium netshops which deliver goods internationaly, I have not heard if anyone is importing it to USA.

[peterlin98]

Thanks bluereefs. I really want to buy this reactor. I tried the bottles but they are very inconvenient. My rotifers died after a week because I could not feed them on daily basis.

Anyway, I wrote AquaPro2000 to see if they will ship to US. Anyone else who can read German to help us to a group purchase? Thanks,

Peter

[melev]

Peter, I sent them an email, and hopefully we can figure out if it is worth it.

Group buy??!! What did this TOTM start? ;)

[Jimbo327]

Shoot me a PM if you guys get a group buy together or find anything out.

I've never heard of sintered glass biological filter substrate. What is it? This TOTM is showing me so many new things, it's great that we get an european TOTM to see what is going on the other side of the pond. We should look for a japanese TOTM in the future to see what crazy systems they are running.

:D

Jim

[Skipper]

We should look for a japanese TOTM in the future I'm way ahead of ya, Jim. :D

[SteveMH]

I definitely want one of those plankton reactors. Count me in for sure, and feel free to contact me if I can help out in anyway to get some shipped over. I have no idea what I'm reading on that web site, who knows what will show up at my door if I was to place an order on my own. :lol:

Once again, beautiful TOTM, and thanks for the info!

[melev]

haaga,

What is the source of your new cultures? That may be an issue here, perhaps.

[coralite]

Great Tank Haaga, I am envious of your reproducing fungia. Such a colorful one at that. Would you have the url for some of these international netshops? Thanks

[Entropy]

Beatiful tank! I would be proud to own just your refugium, never mind the main tank. I don't suppose the refuge can be voted tank of the month for July?

[Stix]

I want in on the phyto reactor group buy!

[melev]

Originally posted by Stix
I want in on the phyto reactor group buy!

This is not a group buy at this point. I'm merely trying to get information, which I'll be happy to share. Haaga will also add his input as well. I'm personally concerned about the starter culture, as it seems to be two bags of liquid (according to the picture and description on the site). I doubt people will want to order more bags of liquid from overseas.

Perhaps they could start a new batch with a bottle of DTs. Perhaps the instructions included come in English as well. Perhaps Florida Aqua Farms will have what we need.

We need more information, but this is very interesting even if only European Reefers enjoy this particular piece of equipment.

;) Maybe we can get Jeff's Exotic Fish to create a knock-off? :lol:

[matt_rogers]

Fanastic tank! :)
And I LOVE your DIY switch.

So many people shy away from those because they hear they fail, but my old Kent float never did at all after several years of use. And there is less flux than with many of the electric ones.

Just wanted to back you up. ;)

What a tank.


:cool:

[bluereefs]

Perhaps Florida Aqua Farms will have what we need.
Last time when I order from them they have everything you need, from rotifiers to algae cultures,ready to ship.:D

[haaga]

Jimbo327:

Sintered glass is a glass or a ceramic medium which is heated to very high temperature to make very small holes in the surface and in to the media. Its surface area is very high, good for biological filtration some even claim denitrification bacteria can live inside it and convert nitrate to nitrogen.

melev:

With the reactor there is starters for culture, but I did not get them to start, maybe they vere overaged. I ordered new starters from Cellfarm UK http://www.cellpharm.co.uk/ but I think there is many places in US where you can get the starters.

aquafresh:

In the Zinn homepage http://www.zinn-aquarientechnik.de/index.html there is a link (Händler) to shops which sell plankton reactor.

[Stix]

Haaga, firt of all, great tank man! Second, I have been researching about getting one of the plankton reactors this week. I am almost there, except I need to know a couple of things. How much did the unit cost you and how heavy was the package (for shipping calculations)?
Thanks so much,
Nick

[haaga]

Stix:

It was about 80 euros, which is about the same in US dollars. Postage to Finland was about 25 euros. It bas packed in the box with about 5-10 cm of styrofoam around it. Tha tank is made of glass. I don't remember how heavy it was, maybe 5-7 kg. You can check with same size glas aquarium, and put a bit more for packege. Glass is 4 mm.

[bluereefs]

Marko,sorry for jumping in your thread ,hope that is not problem for you.
Zinn plancton reactor cost in www.aquapro2000.de 75 euro and shiping 20 pounds package to USA is 40 euro(from their web pages).

[rogers259]

Haaga,

Great tank!! would love to have it for myself

[peterlin98]

Thanks bluereefs.

I visisted www.aquapro2000.de again, but I could not figure out a way to specify shipping to US.

Intermediate total EUR 76.60
Cash on delivery EUR 3.60
Forwarding expenses EUR 4.40
Sum total EUR 84.60

There is no reply yet to my e-mail inquiry if they will ship to US and what procedure to use. Their online shopping cart did not offer this option. Maybe we should just submit it as a regular order - and hope that whoever process the order will figure it out and recalculate the total.

It would be really nice to have this reactor. Gosh, imagine once a month maintenance vs daily feeding of rotifers.

[ccsc3400]

Congrats.....Beautiful Tank!

[Stix]

I think I know where we can get a phytoplankton reaktor. www.aquapro2000.de If you go to http://www.aquapro2000.de/shop.htm and click "Versandkosten" (shipping charges) you will see the countries they ship to. Haaga said it cost him about 25 euro to ship to finland so accroding to the chart it's about 10kg package. 10kg to USA says 41 euro. So 80 euro plus 45 to be safe, we can have this reactor for 125 euro. the euro right now is .86 to US$1 so that would be US$145. I'm going to find out how to say "I speak English" in German and call them up today and hopefully speak to someone in English about it. I'll let you all know.
-Nick

[melev]

German: "Ich spreche English".

I know this is a cool reactor, but man $145 seems high compared to my current $20 start-up cost. Of course, I'm only doing phytoplankton.

HTH

Btw, I've never seen a TOTM thread take a turn like this.... it sounds like the For Sale area. :lol: Haaga, great tank! I love the colors, and your amazing fungia propagation is really unusual.

[Jimbo327]

Hehe. Yeah, sorry Haaga. We are like little kids with at a candy store with this new plankton reactor. I'm sure you understand our excitement. :D

Stix/Peter/all: Please PM me when you guys are getting ready to order. Perhaps we can work out a groupbuy. Anyone here speak German who wants to help us???

Jim

[melev]

Please, let's not take away from Haaga's TOTM thread any longer. I've started a new thread right here, so discuss, arrange, question and more:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=200519

I hope this is alright with the moderators, since I'm not one. ;)

[simonh]

Congratulations! A great tank Marko.

I noticed you like to add various Amino Acids (Salifert, Grotech, H&S). What sort of quantity of them are you adding per week? Also, what difference to the corals do you see them make?

[haaga]

melev:

I was expecting that this plankton reactor would raise a lot of conversation, but it really earns it. It really is a very good product. It can also be a good diy project, not so hard to do from a little glass tank. Only need pvc plastic and 60 micron net and you could try to build one.

simonh:

I use them at their recommended doses. I think that they help with better coloration of the corals and overall well-being of fishes, Grotech aminoacid is added to food sometimes.

[triggercrazy]

I give props when props are due. That is the most well kept tank i have seen in a long time except for mine:lol: but really that tank is awsome the moderators made a great choice for the tank of the month!!!!


GREAT JOB BRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[peterlin98]

Yes haaga,

You have an excellent tank. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Aqua_expert19]

Nice tank skipper

[Skipper]

Nice tank skipper :D Send all praise to haaga...

:)

[BobCReef]

another killer tank. great job

[DukeDog]

Looks great !! .:beer:
Jeff

[Big_Don]

Beautiful tank! Great job haaga!

:thumbsup: Lara

[FishhyRen]

Amazing Tank, maybe some day I'll get a big tank and have a great setup like that!

What exactly is that fungia? Where would one find that stuff? I've thought about making my bottom covered in Ricordia, but that's spectactular.
I WANT SOME!!

[J4Life]

Hello Marko,
Beautiful tank I must say. I was hoping you could give me a little more info on your sump and refugium setup. I would like to know how you got it plummed and if you could provide any detailed close up shots of it as well.

I would like to do something very similar for my sump and refugium design.

Thanks,
Bill

[queen_parrotfish_69]

Gorgeous tank!!! :eek2:

[reefskpr]

awesome tank marko!

simply awesome!

it's great to see that you can get such vibrant colors from corals under 250W mh. gives me hope at least for my tank in the future... :D

[haaga]

Hello

I added some new pictures to my home page in Hardware section. There are couple of new pictures of plumbing of the sump and refu. Also there is pictures of the planktonreactor after collapse of the system, rotifers everywhere. Also in the Seeds of disaster, photos of nearly collapse of the hole aquarium. Gladly tha tank survived :eek1:

[haaga]

The web page was: http://www.saunalahti.fi/~haaga/

[melev]

Hi Marco,

Sorry to hear your phyto reactor crashed. Do you have any idea what caused this, because there are a lot of people over here that are pretty excited about that setup.

[haaga]

melev:

The age of cultures were nearly 2 months, so the risk of crash is high. I let it crash fully to take some pictures from it to share. I will clean the reactor today and start it again, so no worry :cool:

[danano]

Beautiful setup. Sorry to hear about your planktonreactor but glad that your tank is A-OK.

[Yano7]

That tank is just breath takeing:D

[Brian O'T.]

Beautifull Tank Marko !

Absolutely Beautifull.

Is that a BLUE ! Seriotopora in your coral shots, down near the tank bottom, roughly in the middle ?



Brian.

[haaga]

Brian O'T: yes it is a seriatopora, but it more blue-green, turqous in color. Yes, it is very beatiful also in live.