Aquarium Portrait: Dieter Rossig

By Dieter Rossig,
Rinteln, Germany

Like the majority of aquarists, even as a child I was interested in anything that lived in water. It wasn’t long before I became the proud owner of a freshwater aquarium. But when, in 1970, I first saw my brother-in-law’s marine aquarium, that was it, and I became determined to own such a splendid biotope myself. My first experiences with the salty element were, however, with a crude cement-framed tank, which was far from attractive and whose glued-in front glass leaked, which I found immensely annoying. In addition, like so many others, I had a lot to learn—the hard way. Gaps in my knowledge of the maintenance requirements of marine creatures and the lack of equipment in those days led to both major and minor set-backs.

Mediterranean experiences
Originally my declared objective was the keeping of tropical marine creatures. But back then I got a lot of pleasure chiefly from a second aquarium populated with invertebrates from the Mediterranean. Sea anemones, tubeworms, hermit crabs, and shrimps proved both fascinating and rewarding to keep—and from them I learned a lot about the practical side of the aquarium hobby.

New technology
Following my success with the maintenance of Mediterranean invertebrates in my marine aquarium, I next wanted to try keeping inverts and fishes together and to provide them with environmental conditions under which both groups would thrive. In my opinion, the immense amount of innovative equipment that has come onto the market in recent years has made an appreciable contribution to making success much easier to achieve than in the past.

From where I sit, the breakthroughs in the maintenance of stony corals have come about as a result of the introduction of more powerful protein-skimmer systems, the use of calcium reactors, and the development of better lighting equipment such as metal halides and more recently T5.

I myself switched from HQI metal halides to T5 technology in 2002 and have the feeling that a more favorable light spectrum can be achieved by the combination of different types of tubes—quite apart from the fact that fluorescent lighting far better guarantees the illumination of peripheral areas of the aquarium. Since the change in lighting, the color intensity of my stony corals has increased considerably—living proof of the quality of this technology (though part of the success is undoubtedly also due to the deliberate reduction in trace element dosage to only 25% of that recommended by the manufacturer).

Fabulous stony corals
In the past, it was considered an immense accomplishment to keep stony corals alive in the aquarium at all. Today, by contrast, we are mainly concerned with optimizing growth and color. Initially I regarded it as a great forward step if a previously plain brown Acropora suddenly developed colored tips as the result of intensive efforts.  This vivid blue Acropora sp. colony resides at the top of the reef in the brightest light.

I have now been keeping and propagating stony corals (SPS and LPS) for more than ten years, and I have also gotten the matter of color well in hand—the key here is probably the careful addition of trace elements, at dosages tailored to their needs. I am particularly proud of my various Goniopora species, which have been in my aquarium for more than six years and have provided numerous cuttings to pass on to other aquarists. I attribute my success with these corals, generally regarded as tricky, mainly to the feeding of phyto- and zooplankton from my home-grown cultures.

Breeding marine creatures
Following my achievements in the maintenance and propagation of stony corals I needed a new challenge, and so for the past three years I have dedicated myself mainly to the ambitious project of breeding coral fishes and shrimps in the aquarium. Encouraged by other breeders and breeding reports in the relevant literature—above all the wide-ranging articles by Wolfgang Mai in CORAL and his German-language books in the “Art für Art” series—I have been able to rear Pterapogon kauderni, Pseudochromis fridmani, and Thor amboinensis with good survival rates. I will be writing about the (sometimes unconventional) methods used during these breeding projects in this magazine at a later date.
 

SIZE, VOLUME, TIME IN OPERATION:
63 x 25.5 x 24 inches (160 x 65 x 60 cm) (L x W x D), 164 gallons (620 L); subsidiary tank 51 x 18 x 18 inches (130 x 45 x 45 cm) (L x W x D), around 69 gallons (260 L); established September 2005.

CORALS: Acropora carduus, A. echinata, A. granulosa, A. humilis, A. insignis, A. valida, Montipora digitata, Pocillopora damicornis, P. elegans, Seriatopora caliendrum, S. hystrix, Stylophora pistillata, S. subseriata, Goniopora stokesi, G. lobata, G. fructiosa, Alveopora catalai, Euphyllia divisa, Clavularia spp., Xenia spp., Fungia sp., Sarcophyton sp., blue disc anemones.
FISHES: Zebrasoma flavescens, Z. xanthurum, 7 x Pseudanthias tuka, Pygoplites diacanthus, 7 x Zoramia leptacantha, 4 x Pseudochromis fridmani, 2 x Synchiropus splendidus, Amphiprion ocellaris, 2 x Nemateleotris magnifica, 2 x Amblygobius guttata.

NON-SESSILE INVERTEBRATES: 5 x Lysmata debelius, 4 x L. wurdemanni, 2 x Stenopus hispidus.

LIGHTING: 8 x 54-watt T5 (fluorescent tubes: 1 x Osram 880, 2 x Osram 67, 1 x Aqua Blue Spezial, 2 x Coral Light New Generation, 2 x Fiji Purple); 6 x 54-watt T5 (subsidiary tank linked to the circulation of the main tank).

WATER MOVEMENT: 3 x controllable Tunze Stream (turnover around 4220 gallons/16,000 L per hour by day, around 3165 gallons/12,000 L per hour at night).

WATER MANAGEMENT: Schuran Jetskim 150 protein skimmer. Control: IKS Aqua-Midi Computer controlling timers, CO2 for the kalk reactor, 4-channel dosing pump, temperature, cooling (only in summer).

MINERALS, MAINTENANCE: Weekly water change of 6.6 gallons (25 L) (using Tropic Marin “Pro Reef” and “Bio Actif” alternately); Schuran Jetstream 1 kalk reactor in use during the day, with the addition of Balling salts*; daily addition of trace elements after the Balling (no iron) at 25% of the recommended dose; additional iron and iodine daily.

WATER parameters: Temperature: 77-79°F (25–16°C); nitrate: not measurable; phosphate: not measurable (Merck); carbonate hardness: 7–8°dKH; calcium: 420 mg/l; magnesium: 1,300 mg/l; pH: 7.8–7.95; salinity: 1.023 (77°F/25°C).

FEEDING: Corals: zooplankton (Brachionus, copepods, Moina salina), ¼ gallon (1 L) phytoplankton daily; fishes: frozen and dry food alternately, twice daily; Tropic Marin Lipovit once per week in addition.

OWNER: Dieter Rössig, Rinteln, Germany.

* Fauna Marin Balling Salts:

1. Calcium chloride-dihydrate
2. Magnesium chloride-hexahydrate
3. Magnesium sulfate-heptahydrate
4. Sodium bicarbonate