Lionel’s Reef from France, might not have a comprehensible aquascape or deliberate artistic statement but it does have thing going for it, massive character. There is just something very charming about this 430 gallon slice of of reef. The placement of corals is quite chaotic, but as a whole the tank is the opposite, quite serene and peaceful (as any reef should be). Why, we’re not entirely sure how to pinpoint but it works great.
The system measures 98 inches by 40 by 26 inches (250 x 100 x 65 cm), which comes down to around an quite impressive 430 gallons (1625 liters) not counting the sump and filtration. For filtration a single DIY Bubble King 300 skimmer is used, which appears to do its job quite effectively. Lighting the whole display is an array of 3 HQI 400-650 watt dimmable Metal Halide bulbs with no supplemental lighting.
Even the dosing side of things is quite bare with a Delctec PF1001 taking care of all the load. No trace elements are added and water changes are rarely done leaving it up to the system itself to figure things out. That said the tank is very reasonably stocked, and the bare bottom prevents any real nasty gunk from building up explaining the liberty to “slack” a little of maintenance. Still it is impressive such minimal maintenance yields such impressive results. Check out the pictures below and of course view the video in it’s entirety.
