REEF OF THE MONTH - July 2022: Maroun.C's 1250-gallon SPS Dominant Reef System

[Blackened]

I cant believe how much those corals have grown!

I admire your perseverance and dedication Maroun.

 

[dwest]

Wow! Amazing tank and enjoyed reading your story.

 

[Reeffraff]

I can't believe how nice everything looks based on how much you travel!!!!
My family enjoys the hobby as well but when I go away for a week, I'm just crossing my fingers that most things are still alive when I get back

 

[Khalilkaram]

Wow amazing tank corals and fish well done Maroun great job

 

[Hassaan]

STUNNING .... greetings from Egypt

 

[Susan Edwards]

Wow and wow! Stunning and such beautiful photos! Amazing setup

 

[SunnyX]

Well deserved and a long time coming. Always a pleasure speaking with you and following along with your progress over the years. One day soon I will make it over to see it in person.

From one Lebanese reefer to another, congrats and welcome to the club!

 

[maroun.c]

Well deserved and a long time coming. Always a pleasure speaking with you and following along with your progress over the years. One day soon I will make it over to see it in person.

From one Lebanese reefer to another, congrats and welcome to the club!

Pleasure all mine Sunny.
You need to plan that visit!

 

[Francesca]

R2R Username: @maroun.c
Build Thread: Maroun.c 400G Build Thread

Introduction:

Hello All,

It's a pleasure and an honor to have my tank featured as Reef of the Month! It is very rewarding and humbling to see my tank finally at that level after more than 20 years of reef keeping.

Some info about me, my name is Maroun Chahine. I’m from Beirut-Lebanon, and I have been keeping saltwater tanks since the year 2000. Reefkeeping in Lebanon or the middle east picked up much later than it did in US or Europe, and in the early days and while few aquarium stores started moving into saltwater, we were a handful of early reefers who started placing orders for corals with LFS that had no tanks to store them for us. Waiting for months for the shipment to arrive and picking up the corals on arrival in shipping bags was the start for us and how we loaded our tanks back then. Fast forward 20 yrs plus, and here I am with my 3rd official display tank. I started with an 80-gallon in 2000, then upgraded to a 150-gallon in 2007, which was upgraded to a 400-gallon tank when we moved to our final place. The plan for the tank was to fit as an integral part of the home as well as to have a bigger connected setup in the basement with multiple grow out tanks, display tanks, species tanks, etc….

The tank when it was first installed.

The basement fishroom

Over the last 12 years I have gradually added 6 tanks in the basement all connected to the same sump of the 400g upstairs at home. This cuts down on filtering, chilling, heating, testing and dosing multiple systems and provides a much needed stability. Also, this allows me to experiment with the same coral in multiple tanks sharing the same water where over the years I have toyed with multiple lighting systems as well as different light settings to check what works best for different corals. Moving corals from and to the frag tanks, display tanks in basement, and the 400g is much easier as they are used to the same water, and eventually all the tanks switched to the lighting schedule and program that I believe works best for me. 400 gallons might seem like a large tank yet it was quickly filled with corals, and I had to be very selective with the corals I added. The basement setups allow me to add any coral that won’t fit anymore in the display tank and also to have multiple clown pairs, tangs, and other fish that I wouldn’t be able to add in the 400g. Furthermore, the basement houses fish QTs and a coral QT which has played a big role in having a disease/pest free setup so far.

The total system volume is around 1250 gallons (4500 litres) and, although I’m tight on space, I always change the setup to be able to squeeze in one more tank as each growout tank fills up.

The tank has been running since 2010 but unfortunately had a seam fail in 2014 and although we were able to save all fish and corals, the glass was replaced and tank was restarted that year. So basically this 400g tank has been running since 2010 and restarted in 2014.

I’m blessed to have a family that is supportive of my hobbies and has helped me keep my tanks going, even when I relocated to Dubai 2 times in the last 15 years for 3-4 years every time. This also helps when I’m away as I typically travel for 10-15 days normally every month.

System Profile:

• Display tank: Custom made 1500 L or 400G tank 88”x34”x32” or 220cmx85cmx81cm
• Glass or Acrylic: Low-iron glass on front and sides.
• Stand: Steel epoxy-coated stand and has held up fine for the last 13 years.
• Sump: 72”x28”x16” 180cmx70cmx40cm
• Grow out tank: 6 grow-out and display tanks in the basement ranging from 60-150-gallon tanks
• Protein skimmer: SRO XP8000E
• Carbon/phosphate filtration: 2 carbon reactors and 2 phosphate reactors
• Return pump: Abyzz A400 With Hayward Super pump as backup
• Water circulation: Net return of 12000 LPH or 3000 GPH divided over 2 SeaSwirls and Mocean for redundancy. 2 Vortechs MP60 and 2 Maxspect Gyre 280
• Lighting (display): 3 MH 250 DE in Lumenbright pendants powered by Dimmable Lumatek electronic ballasts. Mostly using Phoenix 14K or Ushio Bulbs. I supplement the halides with 4 Radions G4 pro
• Lighting (grow out): 6 grow out/display tanks in the basement fishroom and each had multiple lights across the years where I experimented with different brands and lighting programs till I settled on Radion lights and all tanks now are on Radion G4 pro
• Lighting (refugium): Kessil H80 Refugium light
• Calcium/alkalinity/magnesium/dosing equipment: Started with 2-part dosing but when consumption grew up to half a gallon (2 litres) per day, I shifted to a Dastaco Ca reactor which was rated for 400G. Consumption continued to grow very fast with added corals and tanks in basement so I maxed out the reactor after about 2 years. I upgraded the chambers which allowed me to run the reactor for around 2 more years before I maxed it out again. On my last upgrade, I went with an oversized Dastaco reactor A9 which is rated for 2650 gallons (10000 litres) which has been supporting the system for the last couple of years. I got it with the new Digitera (digital controller) which like the previous analogue controller makes controlling the reactor very easy when parameters change as well as sends alarms when any error happens. Magnesium is added manually as it drops typically dosing it through the Apex DOS or sometimes just dripping it in the sump.
• Auto top-off: Float switch controlled by Apex for redundancy.
• Heating/cooling: 3600 watts of heaters (Deltec, Grotech, titanium heaters) as well as 1 HP Commercial chiller and another 1 HP Resun Chiller for backup. Recently shifted to extending home central heating to basement as well as installing an AC in the basement. This proved more cost efficient as it handles all the display tanks, Frag tanks, fish and coral QTs as well as freshwater tanks down in the basement. This also helps managing the humidity in the basement without having to vent it out which usually ends up introducing cold or hot air that adds to the toll on heating or cooling.
• System control: 2 Apex controllers one for control and one for monitoring. Added manual switches to bypass controllers when needed.
• Any other details: Although the setup has been running for 12 years, it's still being modified mostly adding frag tanks and other display tanks in the basement, so plumbing and electrical keeps changing. My main challenge is in heating and chilling as water volume gets bigger. My next steps will include controlling the basement temperature by apex for more precise control.

Water Circulation and Flow Summary and Objectives:

Water Circulation has been a challenge with the sump being in basement and requiring pressure pumps to push the water up. We run on 220V 50Hz which made it a challenge to find a quality pump to push the water up at the flow rate I desired. Multiple pumps were used and mechanically failed... I believe this occurred as manufacturers modified them for me to run on 220V and 50HZ which caused issues later on. I recently upgraded to an Abyzz A400 and it has provided the flow my old pressure pumps were giving and some more at less than half the electrical consumption. I aim for a bit more Turnover than usual at 3000 GPH or 12000 LPH effective return which is around 8 times tank volume. I run my return on 2 split lines with 1 seaswirl and 1 Mocean to convert the continuous strong flow into a redundant still powerful flow that swipes from left to right and flushes corals and dead areas better than wavemakers would. 2 Vortech MP60s and 2 Maxspect Gyres 280 complement the flow for a more redundant flow throughout the tank. Vortechs switch between different modes during the day for more redundancy as well. This might seem like over thought but as colonies get larger flow gets even more choked and colonies do show signs of reduced flow as they grow.

Grow-out/display tanks in the fish room also share a similar higher flow achieved by Vortech MP40s and multiple Tunze pumps. These two brands stood out from many other brands I tried, and slowly all my tanks ended up having them. Again having multiple tanks in the basement allowed me to have tanks with varied flow and I could experiment with many frags of the same corals in multiple tanks or designate tanks to be more softies/LPS dominated and some to be more for SPS with more intense flow.

Water Parameters:

• Temp: 77-78 F or 25-25.5 Celsius
• PH: 7.8-8.0 this is a bit lower than I like and I will be working to raise it to 8-8.2
• Specific gravity: 1.026
• NO3: 3-5
• Ca: 440
• Alk: 9
• Mg: 1300-1500
• PO4: 0.03-0.05
• Ammonia and nitrites: undetectable

​

What salt mix do you use?

Had good results with Reef Crystals, DD, and currently using Tropic Marin due to limited availability of other salts. I also believe it's one of the best salts available.

What kind of rock did you start with (live, dry, combination)?

I started with ceramics shipped from Riff System from Germany and few pieces of dried LR, along with 400 pounds or 200 KG of live rock in the sump to seed the system and those were gradually removed over 2-3 years as the system matured.

What is your substrate?

Coral Sand

Calcium/Alkalinity/Magnesium Summary and Objectives:

With the fish load and heavy daily feeding, my nutrient levels are on the high side. So, I couple that with higher alk and stronger lighting. While an ULNS would give a bit nicer colors, I prefer the darker rich colors of a heavy nutrient tank and of course the decreased hassle of additional testing and dosing.

What and how do you dose for the big 3 (alk/cal/mag)?

Dastaco Calcium reactor for Alk and Ca with a Dos for 2 part dosing as backup

Apex DOS for dosing Magnesium and sometimes I just drip it in the sump when it drops.

Are you dosing anything else for your reef health (carbon dosing, aminos, etc.)?

Other than Alk, CA, and Mag, I dose Strontium, Potassium, Iodine, on a daily basis as these continue to drop per the ICP tests I do every 2-3 months. I took a few ICP tests at 1-2 months time frame to adjust my daily dosing to get them right, and I adjust it every 3-4 months now if levels on ICP shift. Not really chasing numbers just trying to avoid being far off. I do dose aminos sometimes or a few coral foods but that is maybe once or twice a month and I could go for months without dosing.

Lighting Photoperiod

• Display tank: 11:00-12:00 LED blues ramp up to 100% and they stay on till 10:00 pm then ramp down till 11m. LED Whites ramp up from 12:00 till 1:00 where they reach 100% for 3 hours then run till 8:00 pm at 40% and ramp down to 0 at 9:00 pm. Greens and Reds at 20% from 12:00 till 9:00. Halides on from 1:00 till 8:00 pm.

I believe this schedule gives the corals enough light and also allows me to get the actinic phases and phosphorescence everyone loves, as well as the crisp white photoperiod any old time reefer still loves compared to the very blue tanks we mostly see nowadays.​

​

My new cube tank in the basement follows the same LED photoperiod without halides and will make for an interesting coral growth and colors comparison as its connected to the 400 and the only difference is the lighting. It did take a careful and slow light acclimation to get the corals to take the 100% all light channels on plus halides on, as it’s a lot of light on most corals. One interesting factor is the PH spike I get when halides go on.​

​

• Grow-out tank: LED-only with the same LED light schedule throughout the day but on different time to help with PH control. Running the same lights and intensity allows me to move coals in between 400g, Cube, and grow-out tanks without much need for light acclimation.
• Refugium: 18 hours a day Reverse photoperiod to help with PH drop

Filtration and Water Quality Summary and Objectives:

While the sump looks overengineered, I follow a rather simple process.

Water drains from the tank to the left side of the sump where I have a biopellets Reactor, I only run about a couple of pounds of BP in it which is way underrated for the volume and fish load of the tank, yet still provides a noticeable impact on skimmer performance. The end partition is the fuge which gets a ton of flow (around 4500 GPH or 35000 LPH). However, with it being so wide and loaded with chaeto and caulerpa, it's barely enough flow for the algae, and I get detritus settling in it still which helps removing it from system via a siphon every few months. Then water flows to another partition where I have dual carbon and GFO reactors. The reason for the dual reactors is that I travel for long times, and so I can load 2 reactors and run one and, if I’m away when it's time to refill, I just ask the wife to plug in the 2nd reactor.

What is your export strategy?

total system volume is around 1250 gallons (4500 litres) so a 20% monthly water change was cost prohibitive. I’m able to get away with a monthly 10% water change which isn’t bad for larger systems I believe. Fuge growth is explosive and I remove 50 percent of it monthly. The large skimmer also plays a good part in removing waste. With the tank being heavily loaded with corals, I’m sure they also contribute in consuming some of the nutrients as well. For years, I did a large 40-50% water change once per year to offset any accumulation of any contaminant or additive but I have been too lazy to do it these last 3-4 years.

What is your maintenance routine?

Daily: Feed the fish 5-6 times daily, and clean tank glass maybe once every 3-4 days.
Weekly: Clean basement tanks glass and check on pumps, wavemakers, lights. Water change biweekly or monthly.
Other: Dose elements, biweekly testing, frag corals that are touching….

Tank Inhabitants—Fish:

• 1 Achilles tang (Acanthurus achilles)
• 1 Mauritius Zebra tang (Acanthurus polyzona)
• 2 yellow tangs (Zebrasoma flavescens)
• 1 purple tang (Zebrasoma Xanthurum)
• 1 Chocolate tang (Acanthurus Pyroferus)
• 1 Japanese swallowtail (Genicanthus Semifasciatus)
• 1 Mustard tang (Acanthurus guttatus)
• 1 Mauritius flasher wrasse (Paracheilinus piscilineatus)
• 1 Magma fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus Shutmani)
• 1 Pintail fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus Isosceles)
• 1 black leopard wrasse (Macropharyngodon Negrosensis Wrasse)
• 1 Red Head solon fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus Solorensis)
• 1 Orange back fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus Aurantidorsalis )
• 1 Blue star leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon Bipartitus)
• 1 Exquisite fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus Exquisitus)
• 3 Pyramid Butterflyfish (Hemitaurichthys polylepis)
• 3 Orchid dottyback (Pseudochromis Fridmani)
• 1 Gramma loreto
• 1 Red Mandarin (Synchiropus Splendidus)

Other Invertebrates:

• 1 Maxima Clam
• 6 cleaner shrimps
• 4 Fire shrimps
• 2 urchins

Tank Inhabitants— Corals:

• Blue Oregon tort
• ORA Red planet
• JF flame
• Strawberry shortcake
• Miyagi tort
• Tierra Del Fuego
• JF barney acro
• ORA pink lemonade
• Sarmentosa
• FC blue matrix
• FC dinosaur eggs
• JF Milka
• WWC terra red
• Blueberry acro
• Tricolor valida
• Purple Horrida
• Frogskin
• Blue stag
• ORA green birdsnest
• Yellow tip fiji pink birdsnest
• Slimeball anacropora
• BC Bohemia
• Montipora Setosa
• Grafted montipora setosa
• Red, green, purple monti cap
• Grafted monti cap
• JF Grafted sun Monti
• Chilli Pepper monti
• Sunset monti
• Rainbow Monti
• Season’s greetings monti
• Montipora Hirsuta
• Orange digitata
• Mystic monti
• Tyree undata monti
• Jedi mind trick monti
• Montipora palawanensis
• Avatar Chalice
• Golden eye chalice
• Rainbow chalice
• WWC space invader pectinia
• JF Jack-O-Lantern
• Orange pavona
• Green pavona
• Euphyllia Hammers and Torches
• Grinch porites
• Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
• Branching Meteor Shower
• Plesiastrea
• Christmas Favia
• Red Goniopora
• Darth Maul Porites
• Yellow Turbinaria
• Acans
• Zoas
• Mushrooms
• Bouncing Mushrooms
• Ricordea Yumas and florida

Fish and Coral Feeding:

Fish are fed 4-6 times daily with a mix of pellets, flakes, soaked with vitamins as well as frozen food based on what I can get locally as well as LRS.


How did you decide what to keep in your tank?

Plan was always to try to replicate a wild environment (i.e. not to keep a meticulously “manicured” setup) and to have the full variety of fish and corals the setup can house. The tank is SPS-dominated, but there is a good variety of LPS and soft corals. I was always more into corals than fish in a tank, and my tanks from 2000-2012 always had a maximum of 5-8 fish whereas this tank has had more than 50 fish at certain periods. So the plan is for as much variety as possible in growing shapes and color for the corals...and the same for the fish where the plan is to add many colors and shapes while keeping in mind compatibility issues.

Any stocking regrets?

Luckily not, and I believe I got lucky with no aggression issues in my tangs collection. I only had one aggressive Borbonius or blotchy anthia that had to be removed years ago and a Cherub Angelfish (Centropyge argi) that went crazy on my clams and had to be removed.

Any fish, invert, or coral you will NEVER keep?

Non-reef-safe fish, even with caution ones, as I don’t think they are worth not being able to have shrimps, crabs, or smaller fish. Corals... I would avoid the ones known to spread to pest proportions like GSP, Xenia (doesn’t make it in my tank anyway).

What do you love most about the hobby?

The multiple challenges it offers, and having to learn about various topics (fish, corals, chemistry, electrical, plumbing…) makes for a very interesting hobby. The fact that it’s a very unforgiving hobby makes success even more rewarding. And most importantly, interacting with the ever growing local and international community of reefers. Years back, forums were nearly the only way to interact with other reefers, especially in a country or region with few reefers. With time and social media, this interaction grew even more. Personally, I have been lucky to travel frequently over the last 20 years and have connected with, visited, and met countless reefers from the US, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Finland, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar…. Traveling to the US for MACNA was a major boost to people I connected with and it is something I enjoy every year for the last few years.

How long have you been doing this?

I switched to marine in 2000 so 22 years already.

Who was responsible for getting you into the hobby?

I always liked animals and aquariums and started with freshwater, then switched to marine in 2000. Since then, I blame it on all the reefers, forums, social media to have fed the addiction.

Who or what in the hobby most influences/inspires you?

Too many to list. I got lucky to meet some reefing legends during my travel as well as in Dubai where they came for a few frag parties and meetings we setup. Since then, I interact with them on a regular basis. Many local reefers and reefers from the region where everyone seems to have something or a strong area to add to the hobby in. Most importantly, a group of local reefers who became best friends, and with whom we share a lot on a daily basis which adds a lot of interest to the hobby.

If you could have any tank, what size would it be and why?

1000g would be a nice upgrade from current size tank.

Favorite fish?

Achilles tang

Favorite coral?

Blue Oregon Tort

Favorite invert?

Clams

How do you typically get over setbacks?

Setbacks are always sad in this hobby, especially if they include fish or corals we cannot replace. It's best to accept them as a sad fact of this hobby and try to make up the cause and make it a learning for how to optimize one's setup. It's key to avoid rush reactions as they typically cause more damage.

​

Have you faced any major challenges with this particular tank, and if so, how did you overcome?

Many challenges with this tank, mostly with a very slow start up where I had issues with LPS for the first few years. Since then, it's been ok, but I get the occasional mishap that causes a few losses or causes corals to brownout and stagnate for weeks or months which is always annoying. Trying to pinpoint the cause is key to having a direct solution. When a clear cause isn’t identified, it's best to have a slow and steady approach to bring the tank back.

What's the best thing you ever bought for your tank?

I believe moving to MH/LED mix was great as it gave the corals the growing power of MH coupled with the nicer viewing and controllability of LEDs. I’m sure both can keep corals on their own but the combination works out great. Switching to a Calcium Reactor and the Dastaco choice, I believe gave me much needed stability.

What are your future plans for improvement/upgrade of the tank?

I’m still optimizing the electrical setup of all the system as well as apex controllability from a setup side. For the tank itself, it has started to get overgrown by a few corals in some areas, and I believe and there are some areas in it that didn’t grow out the way I wanted or necessarily liked. I believe it is time for a few corals to be heavily trimmed to be able to add a few others and to bring the tank coral growth shape to the shape I had in mind, this will be the plan for the coming period.

Any special tips for success or advice you'd like to share with other reefers?

Don’t overthink things or chase numbers. Water change/no water change wars similar to the halides/LED wars, proved useless overtime, yet people spend the day fighting still. I believe many tanks are the living proofs of each of those methods. They all work. Just find what works best for you based on how much time and effort you are willing to put in. Water changes might be less time and cost involvement than the testing and dosing you need to do to go without water changes! Yet as long as you understand what you’re doing and are willing to invest time, energy, and money into it, just do it and enjoy your tank.

Aim for stability even when parameters go wrong. Go very slow in correcting them as shocking the system with fast changes even in the right direction can kill or affect corals for weeks.

Final Thoughts?

Again, I'm very honored to be part of this community and for my tank to be chosen as ROTM.

I would like to thank my wife and family for bearing with all my hobbies and especially my wife who takes care of the tank when I’m away even when I relocated for 3 years. Especially for having to endure the tank seam failing while I was on travel! A Big thanks also for a group of local reefers who became Best Friends and without which the hobby wouldn’t be as enjoyable.

Lovely looking reef

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Amazing tank, thanks for sharing. For me, it's always good to see what others have to give more ideas about my tank. I hope our new 190-gallon setup will look this good too.

 

[Reefvision]

Beautiful tank and system- I dream of such an amazing tank !!

 

[flyfisher2]

Beautiful and inspiring system.
Very detailed writeup (I’ve read it twice).
Thank you for taking the time to share it with us!

 

[dannyd_]

Wow..... we need to have a forum showing people's tanks and what they do for a living just like with the expensive cars, because I am incredibly curious

 

[maroun.c]

Beautiful and inspiring system.
Very detailed writeup (I’ve read it twice).
Thank you for taking the time to share it with us!

Thank U. Had to reduce it twice to make sure it doesn't become too long and boring.
You can find.much more details in the build thread

Monster Build - Maroun.c 400 G build thread

Hi all. Starting a long planned 390G display tank, in Lebanon a country till recently very limited in Saltwater tanks equipment and livestock. Luckily I'm a frequent traveller and managed to pick up a nice collection from my travel over the years. Big thanks to all reefers I met on travel and...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[EAZi_Coral]

WoW!! Awesome system and write up Maroune!! Such an inspiration in the hobby!! Proud to say that I have frags that came from your system

 

[maroun.c]

WoW!! Awesome system and write up Maroune!! Such an inspiration in the hobby!! Proud to say that I have frags that came from your system

Thanks Omar, hoping more tanks from the region will be showcased!

 

[flyfisher2]

Thank U. Had to reduce it twice to make sure it doesn't become too long and boring.
You can find.much more details in the build thread

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/maroun-c-400-g-build-thread.60956/[/URL

I'm reading it now. Thanks!

 

[FreshCoastReef]

What an inspiration! Bravo @maroun.c

Your dedication and care really shine through in both your writing and the excellent photos. Thank you for sharing your craft!

 

[rusgum]

Beautiful reef. Excellent, high-quality photos that convey a natural look.

 

[Dieing for a Drink]

Holy Cow ,Stunning in every way.Fantastic article,amazing photos of a Jawdropping display of the Hobby.Thank you so much for opening youre doors to show me some wonderful animals that look Happy!Great job conveying youre love for reef keeping.