Visiting Eli’s beautiful Israeli 30,000 liter reef aquarium.
Orphek Team has been very lucky over these years to be able to visit its clients in many different countries.
This year we have visited Masahiro Kamiya in Japan and Eli F. in Israel.
Eli’s passion for the hobby and warm welcome into his stunning home brings us such a happiness every time we meet with him, not to mention that one can simply spend long hours in front of his amazing marine aquarium.
Eli started to rebuild this 30,000l reef aquarium in 2012* and till today it is considered the biggest private aquarium in Israel and probably one of the largest home aquarium of the world.
*Eli’s fist tank was built in 2004.
The aquarium is located in his TV room/home office where he spends today most of his time these days.
Eli has retired from a successful lifetime career in high-tech, so today when he is not giving consulting to start-ups he is devoting his time for his passion for the hobby.
Using his skills to deal with high technology Eli has developed by himself many of the support systems of his aquarium.
Also breaking a record, his youtube video showing the filtration and life support system of his tank has already reached more than a million views.
Watching the video you will get full detailed descriptions of the water filtration and cleaning systems (all developed by Eli himself).
Besides the aquarium, Eli has a big back room where the systems are located and right beside a small “laboratory/dispenser”, where he keeps all the products used for perfect water specifications. All neatly organized and clean.
Food is provided by an automatic system that ejects food into the tank at pre-determined hours. Since he has fish of many sizes, different food sizes are also given so all the species are fed accordingly.
We were lucky to be there at feeding time when we were able to make a small video.
Besides LPS and SPS corals, the fish living in this reef aquarium are:
Zebrazoma, Flavescens, Zebrazoma Xanthurus, Zebrazoma Desjardinii, Paracanthurus hepatus, Centropyge Bispinosus, Centropyge Ioriculus, Naso Lituratus, Naso Vlamingi, Acanthurus Xanthopterus, Acanthurus Sohal, Amphiprion ocellaris, Pseudochromis fridmani, Labroides dimidiatus, Zebrazoma Rostratum, Naso Unicornis, Amphiprion clarkii, Acanthurus Leucosternon, Naso Brevirostris, Acanthurus Dussumieri, Pseudanthias squamipinnis, Scarus quoyi, Chromis viridis, Pterapogon kauderni, Lo magnifica, Acanthurus tennenti, Halichoeres chrysus, Ctenochaetus tominiensis, Pseudocheilinus hexataenia, Midas Blenny, Acanthurus pyroferus, Acanthurus nigricans, Ctenochaetus strigosus, Acanthurus coeruleus, Pomacentrus coelestis, Acanthurus achilles, Acanthurus chirurgus, Halichoeres iridis, Acanthurus fowleri, Acanthurus Lineatus, Zebrazoma Scopas, Acanthurus Japonicus, Acanthurus Maculiceps, and Gramma Loreto.
Eli has 2 very precious fish:
- The Acanthurus Achilles (most known as Acanthurus tang) is a marine fish from the Pacific Ocean and has poor survival rate when kept in captivity – really not for the inexperienced aquarist, but Eli’s is looking healthy and BEAUTIFUL.
The Zebrasoma rostratum (most known as Black tang) is a marine fish found in the South Pacific. This rare fish is really expensive, ranging from USD600 to 1,500 depending on the size – also very rare to find among hobbyists due to the challenges of keeping it in captive enviroments. Needless to say, Eli is a pro, so his is looking simply GORGEOUS!
As per the lighting system Eli has mixed natural sun daylight and Orphek LED lighting.
Back in 2012 Orphek was selling the DIF 100 LED series.
Eli has 5 of them running non stop since and despite the high humidity, the lights are running perfectly.
Besides his videos on youtube Eli’s tank has also a facebook page with many photos and videos of his tank:
https://www.facebook.com/ElisReefAquarium/
There you will not only see update photos, but also see how the previous tank of 2004 looked like, the construction of the new tank and much more!