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THIRD QUARTER 2008 | Volume 2
THE MAROON CLOWNFISH PREMNAS BIACULEATUS
BEAT THE HEAT DBTC Resource Center Info Inside JUNKITU’S
M U S H RO OM H O U S E
CONFESSIONS pt.
2
BLASTOMUSSA WELLSI
reef-a-palooza oct 11-12 orange county, ca
Sponsored by RHM! Details inside
RHM SPONSORED EVENTS Find complete listings on our events forum (www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com)
Marine Aquarium Expo 2008 Highlights If you weren’t at the Expo this year, you missed out on one of North America’s largest and most exciting marine hobbyist shows ever! Sponsored by Reef Hobbyist Magazine, the Marine Aquarium Expo spanned two entire days at the Orange County Fair and Event Center in southern California. With over 100 manufacturers, retailers, and clubs exhibiting this year, and a bevy of fascinating speakers, aquarium hobbyists did not have any problems staying entertained. Marine Aquarium Expo even offered a petting pool of hermit crabs and starfish for the little ones! Hobbyists were introduced to the newest technology from the most reputable manufacturers in the industry. With almost 3000 in attendance, all the important manufacturers wanting to showcase their new products were present in full force. The notables included Brightwell Aquatics, TAAM & Commodity Axis, Hikari USA, Eco System Aquarium, Blue Life USA, Reef Nutrition and Jelliquarium.
Coral hunters were also treated to a huge variety of rare and common corals. Some booths displayed aquariums holding dozens of rare Acanthastrea morphs while others showed off super rare zoanthid colonies and frags. No matter what you were looking for, you were probably able to find it in several places at the expo. Please look out for the next RHM sponsored event – Reef-A-Palooza, taking place October 11-12. See details below!
IMAGE BY SUNSET PROMOTIONAL SERVICES
Upcoming Event: North Western Coral Farmers Market August 2, 2008 in Portland, Oregon. For more info, go to www.nw-cfm.com.
NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
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Features
THIRD QUARTER 2008 | Volume 2
RHM Staff President
Harry Tung
Executive Editor
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Junkitu’s Mushroom House:
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Tony Espiritu (a.k.a. Junkitu) is an avid reef aquarium hobbyist and a member of the Northern California Nano Reef Society. In this article, he shares his own experiences with nano reefing in the hope that they may help and inspire others who are considering taking the plunge into the world of miniature reef aquariums.
Confessions Of A Coral Addict pt. 2 – Blastomussa Wellsi: Jim Adelberg
is an advanced hobbyist and industry professional from the SF Bay Area. In this series, Jim shares his infatuation with different species and highlights their specific care requirements. Image above by World Wide Corals.
Jim Adelberg
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Tamara Sue
Graphics
David Tran
Beat The Heat:
Advertising The A-Team
Richard Ross is a nationally known coral farmer and cuttlefish breeder. In this article, Richard gives you valuable tips on how to beat the heat this summer. Learn how to keep your animals safe and your electricity bills lower.
Special Thanks Greg Rothschild gregrothschild.com
Richard Ross Gresham Hendee
Tell us what you think: comments@rhmag.com
Image above by author.
Copyright© 2008 Reef Hobbyist Magazine. All rights reserved.
Image above by author.
On The Cover
Art Director
Come visit us online at www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com And see what we have to offer you! • • • • •
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PREMNAS BIACULEATUS The Maroon Clownfish
Robin Bittner is a professional clownfish breeder in Northern California. Robin profiles and highlights the characteristics of the beautiful Maroon Clownfish. Cover and image above by Greg Rothschild.
Join Us! RHM WANTS YOU!
We’re constantly looking for the best writers and photographers to contribute to our free magazine. We believe that free quality information is the key to helping our hobby advance. If you’d like to join us in our mission, please contact our editor Jim Adelberg via email: jim@rhmag.com.
Read or download PDFs of RHM. Check out our DTBC resource center. NEW! Watch reef related videos in our video library. Enter RHM photo contests to win awesome prizes! Find full access to RHM archives.
Local Fish Stores • Find out in advance what products will be advertised in the upcoming issue so you can be stocked up and ready. • Receive specials and rebates from our advertisers. • Drive more traffic to your store by listing in our national online store directory of RHM partners. Email your store information to retailer@rhmag.com to take advantage of these services now.
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• Sea Dwelling Creatures – www.seadwelling.com • Pacific Aqua Farms – www.pacificaquafarms.com • Aquatic Specialties and Pets – 510-477-9683 • Sea Logic International Inc. – 510-780-0876
NANO REEFING Junkitu’s
Mushroom House proof positive that even a newbie can successfully keep a nano By Tony Espiritu Images By Author
O
ver the last several years, there has been an explosion of interest in the aquarium industry around very small salt water reef tanks, a.k.a. nano reefs. Online forums focused on nano reef keeping have begun to proliferate as more and more hobbyists try their hand at keeping nanos. Not to be left out, equipment manufacturers have embraced this trend and have come to market with a new generation of all-inone tanks, skimmers, pumps, chillers, and other goodies made specifically for the nano market. It’s never been easier or cheaper to set up a saltwater reef aquarium and this has resulted in an influx of first time salt water tank owners. But can these newbie nano owners be successful or will traditional reef keeping maxims doom them to failure? Below is a tank profile of my 2 year old nano. A version of this write-up was published last January on one of the more popular online nano forums: http://www.Nano-Reef.com. I certainly do not claim to be a reef keeping expert. In fact, I wouldn’t have submitted this article if it wasn’t for the support and urging of members of the Northern California Nano Reef Society (http:// www.NCNRS.org). My hope is that my office nano that has given me so much personal satisfaction can inspire others to pursue this fun and rewarding hobby.
My inspiration - How it all started
I’ve had freshwater tanks throughout my life but I never thought I would be able to keep a saltwater tank until a friend at work offered to help me get started in 2006. He was redoing his 80G reef tank at home and offered to give me enough live rock to help me set up a nano reef in my office. Excited by the opportunity, I read everything I could find online about nano reefing. I eventually found Nano-Reef.com member Icenine’s Aquapod 24 tank thread and became truly inspired. I was amazed by the rainbow of colors, the variety of textures, and the diversity of life that could be kept in a nano tank. I was hooked and Mushroom House was born! “Who would think a box of water could be so much fun?” – quote taken from the sig of fellow N-R.com member Icenine. What I found most amazing about Icenine’s Aquapod was that he was able to create such a beautiful and natural looking tank under stock PC (Power Compact) lighting. Initially, my goal with Mushroom House was to use a variety of colors and textures to create a PC-lit tank that was just as beautiful as a larger reef
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TOP SHELF SHOT OF MUSHROOM HOUSE
tank. I started with the green mushrooms that covered the live rock from my friend’s tank and began to add other colorful coral. My first addition was a bright yellow Fiji leather and I continued to add mushrooms, ricordeas, zoanthids, palythoas, and other low to medium light species to build my color palette. Along the way there were definitely some challenges. The first of which was keeping temperatures under control because my office would shut off the climate control system after business hours and over the weekend. In fact, I almost lost the entire tank to overheating temperatures during a series of hot days in July 2006. Thankfully, softies are incredibly resilient coral and although there were losses, many of my favorite pieces like the yellow Fiji leather survived. Ironically, my struggle to control the temperature eventually led me to remove the hood on my Aquapod in April of 2007 in order to add a chiller. With heat no longer an issue, I took the opportunity to upgrade to a 20” Sunpod metal halide light fixture, which further intensified the colors of my coral and opened up a whole new world of livestock to keep. After the upgrade, I found new inspiration from another N-R.com member, ezcompany. I have admired the striking beauty of ez’s SPS and tridacnid clam dominated tank since I first started frequenting Nano-Reef.com and I decided to try to incorporate some high-light livestock into Mushroom House. Over the last year, I’ve added a few choice SPS frags and a couple of clams to my tank. My hope is that as they grow, they will help create a well-balanced, mixed reef with even more intense colors and richer textures. I’m not sure what the future holds for my little office nano. My corals continue to grow, which creates a myriad of mini turf battles for me to manage. I suppose I will either need to start learning how to frag or plan an upgrade to another, maybe larger, tank later this year. In the meantime, I’m trying to enjoy watching my tank mature and fighting the urge to add any new pieces...even though there always seems to be room for “just one more cool frag”.
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A few words of advice for the uninitiated
I was a complete newbie to saltwater reefing when I started this tank 2 years ago. Nano-Reef.com has been an excellent resource to help guide me in my tank’s journey and its members have been an inspiration. I still consider myself a newbie and hardly feel qualified to give advice on this hobby but here are a couple thoughts that I hope can help others in their own journeys.
1) “Pay it forward”
I encourage people new to the hobby to embrace the spirit of the community on this site. I got my start from an experienced reefer sharing his knowledge as well as elements of his tank with me for nothing in return. I’ve tried to do the same with other local reefers that I’ve met and I hope they will do the same, as they are able.
2) Avoid the impulse
Everything is magnified in a nano tank so do your homework before making a move. It can be very enticing to buy that nonphotosynthetic sun coral or cute baby tang for your nano at the LFS but you need to know what you’re getting yourself into before you make the purchase. Similarly, take your time and find the specimen that makes you say, “Wow, I’ve got to have that!!!”. Don’t settle for something similar or ordinary that will just end up taking precious real estate in your tank.
3) Don’t make the same mistake twice
You are going to make mistakes along the way. We all have in this hobby. If something doesn’t work out the first time and you decide to try it again, make sure you make the appropriate adjustments.
4) Lastly, don’t let people tell you that “it can’t be done”
It may take more time and/or cost more money but most obstacles in this hobby can be overcome if you do your research and plan ahead. There are still people out there that believe that keeping saltwater tanks is too hard for newbies and that you need at least a 55G tank to start. I’m so glad that I was finally convinced to challenge this conventional wisdom and take the plunge into nano reefing.
FULL SYSTEM SHOT
If I had 10 things to do over again... • I would have gone topless earlier • I would have upgraded to MH earlier • I would have bought the more expensive controller • I would have acclimated longer • I would have bought a stronger pump • I would have bought a chiller earlier • I would have paid less for the Australian duncans • I would have stopped at 3 fish • I would have moved my tank where it could get natural sunlight earlier • I would have tried nano reefing earlier!!!
RHODACTIS MUSHROOMS
SUNBURST ZOANTHIDS
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Tank specs
2 year old 24G Current USA Aquapod started in April 2006 Dimensions: 16.5”L X 13”W X 17.5”H Lighting: 20” Sunpod 150w MH fixture w/ 20K Giesemann Megachrome Blue lamp
Equipment
Sapphire Aquatics protein skimmer Current USA Prime chiller - 1/15hp Hydor Selz L35 external pump (chiller/return) MaxiJet 900 (w/Hydor Flo) MiniJet 404
Livestock
ORA B&W Ocellaris Clown Flame Angel Yasha Goby Skunk Cleaner Shrimp Orange Lace Purple Feather Duster Coco Worm Yellow Japanese Feather Duster Purple Ponape Maxima Clam Turquoise ORA Ultra Maxima Clam
Coral
GARF purple bonsai with green polyps Orange montipora Barney purple montipora digitata Neon green Bali slimer Reverse pokerstar montipora Devil’s hand with neon green polyps Green polyped toadstool 5 varieties of Florida ricordea (yellow, neon green, army green, orange and blue) Tangerine yuma Green apple yuma Blue rhodactis mushrooms Pink Hairy mushrooms Purple, brown, and blue rhodactis mushrooms Mint rhodactis mushrooms Red mushrooms Green mushrooms Hambali pulsing xenias Neon green candy canes Green Australian duncans Red/green open brain Assorted zoos and palys (Devil’s Armor, Tub’s Blue, RPE, Dragon Eye, Coco’s Pink, Purple Dream, Terminator, Yellow Ultimate, Nuclear Green, Rainbow, Sunburst)
Tank Parameters
Ph: 8.0-8.5 Temp: 77 - 79 degrees Fahrenheit Ca: 450 S.G.: 1.025 Nitrates: 0 Nitrites: 0 Ammonia: 0
Controller CLAM DISPLAY W/ SUPERMAN MONTI
A Premium Aquatics Lighthouse controller manages my chiller, skimmer, and my lights. It also monitors my Ph and temperature.
Filtration
A Sapphire Aquatics skimmer that runs in the right rear chamber. Live rock and live sand perform the only other filtration in my system. It’s simple but effective.
Photo Period
150W 20K MH (8am - 5pm) White Moonlights (8am - 6pm) Blue Moonlights (always on)
Feeding
Spectrum and Formula 1 marine pellets (3 days/week) Kent Marine Zoe (3 days/week) Cyclopeeze (2 days/week) DT’s Phytoplankton (2 days/week)
Maintenance OCELLARIS CLOWNFISH AND ZOANTHIDS
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Kent Marine Nano 2-part additive (Tuesday, Thursday) B-Ionic 2-part additive (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) 20% water change (C-Pure seawater) once a week Scrub and scrape algae once a week Top off with RO/DI daily
Got questions about your reef? Come post it and get answers from other hobbyists and staff at www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com.
Are you attached to your corals? You should be, because they’re not only beautiful, they’re precious. That’s why you have to give them a secure attachment too. Two Little Fishies, Inc. has the tools you need to easily secure them, because bonding with corals promotes a long-term relationship. AquaStik™ 2oz Red Coralline and 4oz Stone Grey are underwater epoxy putty sticks that have clay-like consistency for easy attachment of coral “frags,” gorgonians, and other items where there is a mechanical connection that can be filled and secured by it, like concrete around a post. CorAffix™ is an ethyl cyanoacrylate bonding compound with viscosity similar to honey. Use it for attaching stony corals, gorgonians, and other sessile invertebrates in natural positions on live rock. Use in combination with AquaStik™ to attach larger coral heads, or for attaching cultured coral “frags” to bases. 2oz bottle CorAffix™ Gel is an ethyl cyanoacrylate bonding compound with a thick gel consistency. It is very easy to use for attaching frags of stony corals, zoanthids, and some soft corals to plugs or bases. 20 gram tube All work on dry, damp, or wet surfaces, cure underwater, and are non-toxic to fish, plants and invertebrates.
Two Little Fishies Advanced Aquarium Solutions Two Little Fishies, Inc. 1007 Park Centre Blvd. Miami Gardens, FL 33169 U.S.A. Tel (305) 661.7742 www.twolittlefishies.com
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Jim (bookfish) for agreeing to publish my tank write-up, to the gang at NCNRS for their support, and the fellas at Ultimate Aquarium in San Mateo for all their help. Special thanks to Behruz (the guy that got me started in this hobby) and Dan (the guy that keeps me going in this. Last but not least, a big thank you to Ken for keeping an eye on my tank when I’m out of the office. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and write-up of my tank. Here is the link to my tank thread if you’d like to follow along: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=96169
FLORIDA RICORDEA
REVERSE POKERSTAR MONTIPORA
Find a DBTC near you or find the resources to start a DBTC in your area at www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com.
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CORAL
CONFESSIONS
of A Coral Addict pt. 2 Blastomussa wellsi “The Heartbreaker” By Jim Adelberg Images By New Alameda Aquatics
IMAG
E BY
WO R
LD W
IDE C
OR AL
S
I
have always loved Blastomussa wellsi. With its elegantly sculpted polyps, incredible array of colors and patterns, and fairly rapid growth rate, this coral has earned itself many diehard fans. Hailing from a variety of Indo-Pacific locales, B. wellsi has always been available to collectors and hobbyists but due to their tendency to grow in scattered, small colonies, have never been easy to collect in quantity. For this reason, wellsi are always a bit pricey and the most spectacular “watermelon” and “lace” color morphs often command $100 or more per polyp. Like its cousin Blastomussa merletti, B. wellsi is considered a Large Polyp Stony (LPS) coral and in many ways falls into the general care description appropriate to most LPS type corals. Medium to medium low flow will suit this coral well and hand or target feeding of meaty foods such as mysis shrimp will encourage good polyp extension and rapid growth. Another very successful feeding strategy is to place the colony where it can be removed from the display tank and fed suspended zooplankton at a concentration that would be dangerous or impossible if attempted in the display tank. Please place wellsi colonies in feeding vessels underwater first. Then, lift the vessel out of the tank. No LPS really likes exposure to air and will retract in response to being lifted out of water. Water quality should remain high and water parameters should be kept consistent with the standard methodologies of water changes, skimming and supplements. One of the more interesting challenges of keeping B. wellsi as opposed to some other LPS is in regard to lighting and it merits a brief discussion here. Newly imported B. wellsi seem to be extremely prone to light shock and even moderately dim metal halide lighting can send a freshly imported specimen into a quick decline. I suspect this is due to a series of stressors on the corals before, during and after shipping but for whatever reason, newly imported wellsi colonies
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RHM sponsored Reef-A-Palooza takes place Oct. 11-12 in California. Log onto www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com for more info!
should be slowly (re) acclimated to full reef lighting. The ultimate placement of a wellsi colony should be in a relatively medium to low light zone in the display tank and this species is especially well suited to some of the more intense fluorescent lighting systems being used for today’s reef tanks (T-5’s and T-5 high output for example). If you have a colony of this coral and it seems to have died, don’t give up as quickly as you might with other LPS. Remarkable instances of wellsi “returning from the dead’ and developing new polyps have been reported even many months after all visible soft tissue has disappeared.
others fare better with their precious charges. It is everyone’s responsibility as a hobbyist to freely share information that may allow our hobby to better care for these corals. The next installment of this article series will showcase a classic soft coral- The Green Nepthea.
Both Blastomussa species (B.wellsi and B.merletti) are excellent choices for the nano reef enthusiast and both species have a number of interesting and desirable color morphs to collect and trade, though the high-end “designer” blastos are almost entirely wellsi morphs. I will also recommend this species for captive propagation efforts, particularly if lighting is to be less intensive. The value of captive raised specimens of the more desirable color morphs is likely to remain high for all the reasons previously discussed. And now I must confess to you the fact that, in my early years of reefing, I killed quite a few colonies of B.wellsi as I learned (the hard way) about their tendency towards light shock immediately after being imported. I feel a sense of responsibility to those corals I killed and hope this article, and indeed this magazine can help
Pulsing Sinularia parent colony and frag. Note the clean cut and the water losing clarity due to mucus production of the stressed coral.
If your local fish store doesn’t give away RHM already, ask them to contact any of our distributors listed on the table of contents.
11
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13
FISH
Maroon Clownfish By Robin Bittner Images By Greg Rothschild
Scientific Name
Distinguishing Characteristics/Variants
Premnas Biaculeatus
Premnas clowns are distinguished by the presence of a rear facing spine that originates under each eye and extends backwards over the head stripe. As the only member of the genus Premnas, this group is monotypic and therefore taxonomically separate from all other clownfish, which are classified within the Amphiprion genus.
Common Names Maroon Clown, Spinecheek Anemonefish, GSM, GBM
Distribution Tropical Indo-Pacific, from the southeastern tip of India, south to the northern coast of Australia, east to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, and north to the Philippines.
Size May reach a maximum size of 6.75 inches (17 cm), with males smaller than females. Commonly available in the aquarium trade from 1 – 4 inches, with most individuals 3 inches or less.
Natural Habitat Prefers protected coastal waters and lagoons in water as shallow as 3 feet (1 meter), although may be found on seaward reef slopes at depths of up to 50 feet (16 meters). Although juveniles may be found hosting singly in anemones, Premnas adults usually are found as pairs hosting in Bubble Tip (Entamacea quadricolor) anemones. Typically feeds on planktonic organisms and algal matter in close proximity to the host anemone.
Young maroon clowns are usually bright red, with some males retaining this color as they mature. Females, however, will turn the classic maroon color as they mature, with some individuals becoming almost black. Nearly all wild maroons have complete banding patterns, but captive bred maroons exhibit one of the highest rates of incomplete (or “misbar”) banding. A relatively common (and highly sought after) variant of Premnas possesses a yellow or gold tint to the typically white bars of mature specimens. Specimens exhibiting this trait do not represent a distinct Premnas subspecies, but rather are a color variant that has been traced back to specimens originating around Sumatra. Gold Stripe Maroons (or GSMs as they are known in the tropical fish trade) are born with white stripes like all maroon clowns. But, as GSM juveniles mature, they begin to show the yellow coloration at the top of the head bar. The appearance of the first gold coloration varies with the age and condition of each individual, but typically by a year of age the GSM coloration will begin to appear.
Behavior & Care Maroon clowns have a well deserved reputation for being one of the most pugnacious and aggressive members of the anemonefish family. Large females are known to be particularly aggressive, and many an aquarist who has had blood drawn by a protective female maroon might even call them “vicious”! Male maroons are typically much smaller and more docile than their female partner, who keeps order by terrorizing the male into submission while attacking anyone who dares to approach her nest or partner. For this reason, maroon clowns are best kept (Continued on page 16 ...)
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(Continued from page 14, Maroon Clownish ...)
alone in a species specific display, or placed in a large (55 gallon plus) community aquarium with aggressive tankmates that can hold their own.
Breeding The art of pairing maroon clowns is fraught with risk, since in addition to their aggressive nature they also seem to have short memories. Stories are not uncommon about how an aquarist purchases a maroon pair in the fish store, has the fish bagged up separately (as is common practice), conditions the fish together upon arriving home, and then observes the female killing the male shortly after placing the pair in their new tank. For this reason, maroon pairs are commonly kept within line of sight while packing and shipping, which means placing the male and female in different bags, then placing both these smaller bags inside a larger bag so the pair can continue to see each other during transport. Even the usual clownfish practice of purchasing two babies and allowing them to mature together into a pair may not work with this species, since both young maroons will want to be the dominant fish and may fight each other to the death. For the aquarist who already has one maroon and is looking to find a mate, the best practice is to find another maroon that is vastly different in size. Opinions vary on whether it is better to add a larger female to a small, established male, or vice versa. In any case, the male will require an escape area to run to in case the female becomes excessively aggressive. Small fish holders or a box fashioned from mesh or plastic crate work well for this purpose, as long as the holes are large enough for the male to sneak through when escaping the female. If the male starts spending more time out of the “safe area” than in it, the box can be removed, as the bonding process will have begun. However, if the male is constantly under attack, then he should be removed for his safety. Once a maroon pair has bonded, they may take many months or even years before laying their first clutch of eggs. However, once egg laying begins, the maroon pair becomes a nest producing machine, regularly producing huge clutches that might contain up to 5,000 or 6,000 eggs. Upon hatching, the very young babies are
D.B.T.C. DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN
Congratulations to Bay Area Reefers for creating the original and longest running DBTC program!
Congratulations to Manhattan Reefs, Southern California Nano Reef Society, and Reefers Café for successfully launching their own DBTC programs!
Will YOUR club be next? www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com
has your complete DBTC listings! Join us at www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com for the most current listing of DBTC programs, info about starting your own DBTC program and the latest news and milestones of this radical new way to share coral! If you missed the ground-breaking article that helped start this phenomenon, go to www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com and read it in issue Q2, volume 2.
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RHM sponsored Reef-A-Palooza takes place Oct. 11-12 in California. Log onto www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com for more info!
RHM SPONSORED EVENT MID WEST FRAG FEST 2008 HIGHLIGHTS Reefers in the Mid West enjoyed two days of educational speakers, dry goods and livestock exhibitors and big prize raffles while helping Rockford Reefers and Reef Nutrition raise money for natural reef conservation. Look out for MidWest FragFest in early Spring 2009! IMAGES BY GARY L. PARR
rather delicate eaters and will require excellent water conditions and a regular supply of live foods (most commonly rotifers) for their first week or two of life. After reaching metamorphosis at 7 to 10 days, larger food items such as enriched, newly hatched artemia may be gradually mixed into their diet, until such point at 14 to 21 days when dry foods may be introduced. As the young fry mature, their classic pugnacious behavior will begin to emerge, which requires that they be maintained in a growout system of fairly dense concentration so no single juvenile will get attacked too often. However, even under these conditions there will be a couple of “super bullies” in the tank who must be closely watched to ensure they do not wreak terror on their siblings while they grow to marketable size!
Final Thoughts Maroon clowns are an excellent choice for the aquarist who is seeking an aggressive clownfish with a larger than life attitude. Young (1 – 1.5”) maroons can be incredibly cute with their large, round pectoral fins waggling as they dance in front of the tank and they often draw comments of admiration from tank watchers. However, aquarists that are contemplating the purchase of a young maroon must remember that like the cute puppy that will grow into the vicious watchdog, those cute little maroons will soon turn into the terror of the tank, and will defend their home against anyone ... even the hand that feeds them!
References www.Fishbase.org www.wetwebmedia.com Wilkerson, Joyce D. 1997 Clownfish; a guide to their captive care, breeding & natural history. Microcosm, VT. 216 pp.
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17
TANK TIPS AND TRICKS
BEAT THE HEAT By Richard Ross
E
very year when the weather starts to heat up, the online forums fill with posts about how to cool a tank and where to buy fans, chillers or portable AC units. Sadly, once a reef hits 90+ degrees, it’s too late to be looking for a cooling solution. Not only are the animals already suffering or dying, but trying to find a solution during a heat wave can be next to impossible.
I generally try to keep the temperature of my reef in a sweet spot between 76 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Some people run their reefs as cold as 74 degrees, and some as hot as 82, but almost everyone agrees that one of the keys to having a healthy tank is keeping the temperature relatively stable. One way to ensure this is to find the temperature your tank naturally rises to with all your equipment running, and set your heater to that temperature. If you are lucky, this temperature will be in the range that you find acceptable, but if it isn’t, you’ll have to look at some options to cool down the tank year round. No matter where you live, you are probably going to need some tank cooling strategy due to seasonal weather changes. Keeping your reef from over heating can be difficult given daily temperature swings and seasonal changes. Sudden hot snaps can strike out of the blue, raising your tank’s temperature without warning. Prolonged high temperatures can turn your tank into a cloudy soup. Even the life support you use to keep your reef thriving; return pumps, power heads, and lights, produce heat that can raise your water temperature. This article will try to help you head off excess heat problems by looking at the effects of heat on your reef animals, sources of heat in a reef aquarium, and what you can do to beat the heat in your system. At higher water temperatures, corals can bleach, while at the cellular level, proteins can denature, essentially cooking the coral. However, it is not necessarily the temperature change that stresses or kills your animals. Often, it’s the lower amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. Hot water carries less oxygen than
IMAGE BY RICHARD ROSS
cold water so when the tank overheats, your fish and corals have trouble getting enough oxygen. The problem can be exacerbated by low flow in the aquarium, as good flow is required for coral respiration. Less oxygen in the water and less access to that oxygen due to low flow is a bad recipe for reef health. Like everything in this hobby, preplanning is key. When it isn’t hot outside, you have plenty of time to research potential solutions. That’s the time to find the right piece of equipment, often on sale out of season, like fans, chillers or window/portable AC units. You get to choose the solution you want instead of being forced to buy what is available (and perhaps having to spend more money buying the right solution later). Also make sure it’s installed to the best advantage instead of rushing into a temporary fix because your animals are suffering. Having strong aeration and flow in an overheated tank can mitigate the dangers to your reef, so initial system design, including a quality protein skimmer to aid in aeration and removal of dissolved organics, can play an important role. Since gas exchange occurs mostly when the surface of the water is broken, the more you can “churn” the surface of the water, the more dissolved oxygen you can get into your reef. A power head or return line pointed at the surface of the water, instead of the bottom of the tank, can help add a lot of oxygen to the water. Water flowing into an overflow and down a standpipe to the sump is great for gas exchange, but the way the water enters the sump can also increase dissolved oxygen levels. While we all like quiet (Continued on page 20 ...)
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IMAGE BY JIM ADELBERG
IMAGE BY RICHARD ROSS
(Continued from page 18, beat the heat ...)
sumps, an overflow that splashes, or flows along the sidewall of the sump above the water line allows for great “churning”, gas exchange and evaporative cooling. Adding water motion is an excellent to way raise dissolved oxygen levels during a heat wave. Keep an extra pump, powerhead, or air pump, some airline and an airstone on hand, and set them up when it gets hot outside. Turn off your lights on days it’s going to be hot. Your corals and fish will be fine without the tank lights for 2 days or more. If it’s going to be hot for a while, you can change your photoperiod to late at night or early in the morning when ambient temperatures are cooler. You can even set an electronic temperature controller to turn off your lights if the water temperature gets too hot. Evaporation will help cool your tank, sometimes by a significant amount. You can boost evaporative cooling by adding fans to blow across the surface of your tank water, either on the sump or the main tank. The fan can also be automated with an electronic temperature controller, turning it into a year round solution rather than just a seasonal solution. When it’s hot, your reef can evaporate a surprisingly large amount of water in a very short time, and your salinity can rise to dangerous levels in a matter of days or less. Therefore, a plan for dealing with increased evaporation is a must. Keep a few buckets (or more) of fresh top off water, either reverse osmosis/deionized water or treated tap water on hand. At the very least, know which LFS in your area has RODI water for sale, and hope you don’t need it when the store is closed or sold out! You can manually add the top off water as needed, or you can use any number of methods to automate your top off with float switches or dosing pumps connected to reservoirs of RODI water. I recommend investing in some sort of auto top off because it can be very difficult to manually keep up with evaporation rates. With an auto top off, you don’t have to check on the tank all the time so you can go out and enjoy the hot weather.
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Some advocate the use of several 2 liter bottles of water kept in the freezer and rotated into the sump as needed. In my experience, this is not only labor intensive (you have to actually be near the tank all day to know when to change out bottles), but it doesn’t work very well except on small systems. Cooling the air of the room the reef is in with air conditioning can also control runaway temperatures. This solution has the added benefit of keeping the reef keeper cool as well as the reef. Many people use window AC units that the user needs to install (screw into place) to work safely and properly. There are also portable (rolling) AC units that exhaust through a window through an easily installed exhaust port included with the unit. Both units work well, but the portable unit has the added benefit of being able to be moved into your overheated bedroom at night. Though they can be expensive, electric aquarium chillers are a great way to directly control overheating. A chiller is like a tank heater in reverse; when the tank gets too hot, it turns on. A drop-in chiller has a cooling coil you drop into your sump, while a flow through chiller needs water pumped through it to function. The more powerful the chiller, the more it can “pull down” the tank’s temperature and the faster it will cool the water. For sizing and flow requirements, please see individual manufacturer’s recommendations. If you are running a chiller, make sure that the chiller and your system’s heater are set so they don’t waste electricity fighting each other. It makes little sense to let the heater heat the water the chiller is cooling and let the chiller cool the water the heater is heating. Another way to deal with this potential issue is to get a dual stage controller, which will control both devices and not allow them to work against each other. Because a chiller can eat up a lot of electricity, some people have a multi-stage temperature controller running a fan on the sump that is set to turn on a few degrees lower than the chiller. This way, the fan and evaporative cooling does the lion’s share of the work, while the chiller is there for the really hot days.
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The author’s tank thrives with consistent temperature control. IMAGE BY RICHARD ROSS
IMAGE BY JIM ADELBERG
If your tank gets too hot, and you start to lose animals, you are going to want to do water changes before your water quality degrades and you lose more animals. Make sure you have enough salt mix and RODI water on hand to be able to do a 50% water change if needed. I actually have a 150 gallon reservoir that I keep filled with saltwater that is ready to go, so if there is a problem, I can act immediately. (Editor’s note – “clean” (newly mixed) salt water is lower in dissolved organics and therefore can carry a higher dissolved oxygen level) The summer heat is on its way, so whichever solutions you choose, now is the time to get them in place! Take a look at your system, maximize flow and aeration, and do what’s required to help your tank beat the heat.
Special thanks
to Jake Adams and Jim Adelberg for their influence in writing this article.
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