Reef Hobbyist Magazine Q3 2012 by Reef Hobbyist Magazine

features

A Fish-Eating Trachy Dmitry Tumanov, founder of Aquaticlog.com, solves his missing fish mystery when he walks in on his Trachy with its tentacles wrapped around his damsel.

When Nano is Too Big: the Pico LED Project Christian Huang, an electronics specialist and new hobbyist, shows us how he pieced together a customized pico LED system when he couldn’t find an off-the-shelf solution that fit his needs.

Diaseris: Corals that Frag Themselves Bryan Dinh Do, a college reefer with a love for mushrooms, Faviids, and plate corals, introduces a little-known plate that is colorful, fast-growing, and frags itself!

Evolution of a 10 Year Old Reef Richard Ross, a biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, shares how his 150G reef has evolved over 10 years and shaped a reefing philosophy that’s allowed his tank to thrive.

Diversify now! Shane Ballou, a reef addict with a degree in zoology and a marine bio concentration from MSU, explains the critical importance of diversity within your reef tank.

32 on the cover

A Magnificent Decade: Success with Ritteri Joseph Peck, an SPS nut with over a decade of experience with Heteractis magnifica in captivity, synopsizes 10 years worth of trial and error with this anemone. Cover image by author.

The Second Annual MASC Science Fair Juan Muro, a board member of the Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado, introduces some new changes to this year’s science fair and highlights the entries being judged.

The Unknown Jim Adelberg, our executive editor, shares one of his very own coral hitchhiker discoveries that has earned a place in a reef at Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco.

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coral

A Fish-Eating

Trachy

Dmitry Tumanov

t all started one evening…While browsing a selection of corals on display in a local fish store, this red open brain coral (Trachyphyllia geoffroyi) caught my attention. I immediately purchased it and put it in my 10 gallon nano reef. The specimen was bright red, had a healthy fluorescent glow and appeared to be of a decent size. Imagine my surprise when by the middle of the next day, it had inflated to twice its original size. This coral quickly claimed the whole tank and was the main reason for an inevitable upgrade to a 28 gallon JBJ Nanocube. During its stay in the 10 gallon nano, one fish, a Royal Gramma (Gramma loreto), had gone missing. The fish did not appear extremely healthy in the first place, so the blame was put on the crabs who I assumed had probably disposed of the dead body.

The move to a larger tank went well and the open brain became the centerpiece once again. It would shrivel up at night and grow extremely large (8"-10") the next day under the bright LED lights. It would respond well to infrequent target feeding and seemed to be thriving. But, I continued to lose fish periodically. First, it was another Royal Gramma in the new aquarium. Then, the clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) disappeared. Both fishes were very healthy and were doing well right before their disappearances. Again, I assumed the crabs were to blame. A few weeks later, the mystery was finally solved. One night, after target feeding my corals immediately after the daylights went off, I decided to call it a night. It was just sheer luck that I came back to check on the tank when I saw something extraordinary: my Azure Damselfish (Chrysiptera hemicyanea) was lying helplessly on top of the brain coral and appeared to have been captured by it. The damselfish was very active and was moving around the tank just minutes before the incident. It turned out that my initial assumption was right; the fishes were being slowly devoured by the coral. This

Close-up of the Trachyphyllia geoffroyi in my 28 gallon nano.

fish appeared to be severely stung and was breathing heavily. My first reaction was to rescue it, but having thought about it, I decided that it would not have survived since a part of the fish was already inside the coral. Not sure what to make of this, I immediately took a few photos and a video and posted it on a couple of reef forums. The reaction from the forum posters was overwhelming; this was indeed a rare occurrence, and everyone wanted to know what would happen next.

Win one of the new prizes in our Photo Contest on page 41!

Another half hour had gone by and only a third of the fish was visible; the rest had disappeared inside the coral. It was getting late, so after I took a few more pictures, I went to bed. The next morning, I witnessed a plump, tall and fat coral, beaming with satisfaction. Having seen this coral with this same appearance before, it was not hard to deduce where the other fish had disappeared to. The coral spit out the fish’s carcass later that evening, which was readily disposed of by the crabs. It is common knowledge that anemones of many kinds can easily catch small fish or specimens that are weakened from stress or injury, but you don’t really expect that from corals. I think that a few factors were at play here: an extremely voracious and virile coral, a fairly small fish tank and infrequent coral feedings. The fact that I’d fed the coral just before this happened had a lot to do with it as well; the fish must’ve come close to it in order to eat some of the coral’s food when it was stung.

The coral has captured my damselfish and has already begun to ingest it.

I kept turning the daylights on periodically to snap another picture or take a video and then turning the lights back off so as not to spook the inhabitants. About 15 minutes after the fish was caught, my Pom Pom Crab (Lybia tessellatta) and Fire Blood Shrimp (Lysmata debelius) had joined the action. Both had come out from the rockwork and begun circling the captured prey. The shrimp would go after the crab, but the crab would always return after running away. In the end, the crab had climbed on top of the brain coral and started nibbling on the damselfish.

I’m glad that I got a chance to witness something as rare and remarkable as this event, although I do feel sorry for all the fish that were captured and eaten. This is part of these animals’ relationships in the wild and just another example of the unbelievable encounters any reef hobbyist is exposed to regularly. To find out more about my aquarium or to explore a gallery of other hobbyists’ aquariums, you can visit www.aquaticlog.com, a free online log for your reef tank. You can also see the actual video of my damselfish being eaten by the brain coral by scanning this QR code on your smartphone:

coral

tank tips & Tricks

When Nano is Too Big: the Pico LED Project

ri s h C

H n ti a

g n a u

hen my pico reef was being planned, formfactor was the primary goal. There wasn’t much to start with except an AGA 2.5g tank

that was lying around from a school project. With the small footprint of this tank, it was unlikely many components existed for it. But, there were a few examples that inspired this build.

Lighting is important, but there were only a few commercial options for this size aquarium, and none of them really suited the project. The use of metal halide was a bit much for the 2.5g pico, power compacts didn’t offer any cool fixtures, and LEDs had many fixture choices, but again, nothing that was the perfect fit. The construction of a do-it-yourself fixture seemed like the best solution. Although it may have cost the same or slightly more than off-the-shelf fixtures, this route allowed for customizable options and was perfect for the limited space available. The fixture needed to fit underneath a custom canopy that was manufactured from birch and poplar. There were many types of possible LEDs for the build, but the final build consisted of CREE 1-Up Indus Star™ LEDs. The LED store I found offered almost everything that was needed, which included the CREE 6500K Cool White XP-G LEDs and the mixture of Royal Blue and Blue XP-E LEDs. They also carried the necessary thermal adhesive, heat sinks, dimmers, and power supplies.

The combination of 5-Cool White LEDs, 3-Blue, and 2-Royal Blue CREE LEDs was chosen. The white LEDs and the blue LEDs each had their own power supply and dimmer. This allowed even more control over the light output and cycle of each color. Since high-output LEDs produce a good amount of heat, thermal management plays a huge role in their life and output. With that in mind, a plan had to be devised to dissipate the heat. A few heatsink bricks were added to help air flow across the LEDs, but that was not going to be enough. Therefore, the decision to mount the LEDs on an aluminum plate in conjunction with the heatsink bricks was made. The first step was to measure the internal dimensions of the canopy. Once that was determined, a trip to a metal supply shop was taken to purchase a 1/4” thick aluminum plate that was then cut to size.

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Using a computer aided drawing program, a template was drawn to show placement. It included where the LEDs were going to be mounted along with where the heatsinks were to be placed. This template was printed out, taped onto the aluminum plate, and traced with a hobby knife which scored the aluminum as a reference.

Before attaching the heatsink bricks to the aluminum plate, a thin coat of thermal grease was applied between the aluminum plate and heatsink to help transfer the heat from the plate to the bricks. Aluminum rivets were used to hold the heatsink bricks in place. A 1/8” drill bit was used to drill twelve holes for the heatsink bricks.

Once everything was wired, the fixture was tested and temporarily mounted above the aquarium.

On the backside, the placement of the LEDs (the holes are slightly off because a last minute rotation of the heatsinks took place) is revealed. HexaTherm tape was used to mount the LEDs onto the aluminum plate. Once in place, each set of five LEDs was soldered using 20 AWG wire, then attached to a 20W power supply through the BuckPucks. All connections were soldered and heat shrunk.

tank tips & tricks

Each component was then installed inside the canopy.

Moisture was a potential issue for the LEDs since the distance between the water surface and LEDs was only about 3”. To remedy this, a sheet of glass was purchased from Home Depot, cut to specification and inserted on the inside rim of the aquarium.

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Once the fixture was installed in the canopy, the system was fairly enclosed; therefore, heat became an issue as it built up within the canopy. In order to aid in thermal management, two holes were drilled on top of the canopy just above the fans. The system now pulls cooler air from outside of the canopy in towards the tops of the heatsinks.

This is the end result. If you ever can’t find a lighting system to fit your needs, hopefully you’ll consider building your own, and I hope this article helped you to understand the basics required. And while this article may help you put a system together, you will still need to test the output of your LEDs in order to make sure that they are giving off the spectrum and intensity that your fish and coral require.

tank tips & tricks

coral

Diaseris : Plates that Frag Themselves

Bryan Dinh Do

have always wanted a plate coral, but plate corals never seemed like ideal corals to buy because of their high price, large size, and slow growth. For example, Fungia

and Cycloseris species are sweet but can take up a lot of

space in a small tank. The more colorful ones command a premium price which is a turnoff given the relatively slow growth rate of this type of coral. This would make any reefer think twice about fragging one of these expensive, slow-growing corals. A once beautiful plate could look like a half eaten pizza for the longest time. 12

Similar to other plate corals, Diaseris species are hardy and adaptable. What makes Diaseris plates different is their amazing ability to reproduce. This is a coral that can literally frag itself! Diaseris corals are not new. These corals have been floating around in the hobby for some time while avoiding mainstream attention. Reef Builders recently showcased Julian Sprung’s mangrove refugium that has a nice collection of Diaseris in a corner, but for the most part, the genus remains obscure. Like their cousins Fungia and Cycloseris, Diaseris species are free living (unattached) large polyp stony corals. I was told by a vendor that these plates are collected in Indonesia under 70 feet of water. So initially, I thought that these must be low light corals. However, the specimens in my tank do not seem to mind being blasted with LED’s. An unhappy plate can slowly move to wherever it likes by inflating and deflating. That’s fine with me.

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Various color morphs of Diaseris.

Bluish plate with bright orange mouths and rim.

Fully extended tentacles.

A recently fragged Diaseris.

Of the few specimens that I have seen, the most common color varieties are green and combinations of green and purple. However, solid orange and purplish-blue morphs also exist. Most Diaseris plates have quarter-inch long tentacles, but the solid orange morphs have very short, pimple-like tentacles, similar to mushroom corals. Plates with the longer, sticky tentacles are very active feeders. Food is grabbed and ingested quickly, at a speed somewhere between that of a duncan and a carpet anemone. A full grown Diaseris may have multiple mouths, and naturally produced frags each come with a mouth or quickly develop one. This enables even small guys to feed early on. And they are not fussy eaters at all; Cyclopeeze, flake food, and mysis shrimp are readily accepted. Diaseris plates are like easy-going babies which is great because less stress makes for a happier reefer.

coral

Diaseris plates grow in various shapes. (top side)

Notice the varying skeletal growth of each plate. (bottom side)

Although they only reach two inches in skeleton diameter, Diaseris plates are fluffy and relatively fast growing. Their skeleton has the ability to naturally dissolve, creating cracks that weaken the skeletal structure. A bump may cause a segment to split clean off or hang together by skin tissue which may remain connected or eventually dissolve. I was told that it is common for these corals to “frag themselves” during shipping. At first, I thought that only fully grown (two inch) pieces can reproduce by skeletal dissolution; however, I have seen a half dollar-sized piece develop a hole through the center. You could see the sand bed on the other side! The piece eventually

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Diaseris frag that has grown over a year.

Notice the segments and grooves in the skeleton.

Slight pressure will cause the segments to break apart cleanly.

New hand-made frags.

coral

split by itself. This is a coral that hobbyists can frag by hand; no Dremel, bandsaw, or butcher knife needed. Frags can be made at various sizes, all the way down to booger size. Is it safe for other corals if you have a sand bed full of booger-sized plates? Maybe. As reefers know all too well, there are many corals that we want, but we can’t have everything. Compatibility is so important. This is especially true for me because I have a 20 gallon, long and narrow tank (30"x12"x12"). My corals are packed like people sitting next to each other on a crowded bus. The yellow watchman and black hi-fin gobies do not seem bothered when perching on the plates. The pistol shrimp occasionally tosses sand on a plate, but the plate inflates itself and the sand falls off. My Faviids and plates play nice. Diaseris and mushrooms tolerate each other to an extent, but mushrooms eventually gain the upper hand. Based on their hardiness, adaptability, compatibility, and ease of fragging, I would recommend Diaseris plates for reef tanks of all sizes. These guys stay small, cute, and open up the possibility of reef tank bonsai.

Diaseris plates and Faviids seem to be immune to each other’s stingers.

Don’t miss RHM sponsored Reef-A-Palooza in Costa Mesa, California, October 20-21. (reefapaloozashow.org)

Evolution of a 10 Year Old Reef Richard Ross

y home reef tank is now 10 years old and has been an integral part of my life for one year longer than my daughter, and I love them both.

Over the years, my reef system has been an interesting,

entertaining, painful and wonderful teacher.

Background and Basics

I became a reef keeper in the early 1980’s when algae covered rocks were considered cool and hair curlers were the ultimate in bio-filtration media. I took a break from the hobby after college but got back into it in the late 90’s. As I experimented and worked to catch up with new methodologies, my 50 gallon tank slowly took over the living room like some sort of creeping infection – there were top-off, dosing, feeding, and monitoring apparatuses everywhere. Needless to say, though she loved the tank, my wife was less than pleased with the situation, and I agreed. Wouldn’t it be better to have all that life support concealed so that the focus was on the animals rather than the equipment? Anticipating the birth of our daughter in 2002, we moved to a larger house, and every reef keeper knows what that means – a new, bigger, better tank! I settled on a used, 150 gallon tank mainly because it fit well along a wall in the living room. I was adamant that the tank go in the living room because that is where I spend most of my time at home. It wasn’t an easy feat to put the tank in place. We needed to relocate a bathroom door, but my wife gave the okay provided that I keep “tank creep” to a minimum. I installed the new bathroom door and at the last moment, decided to keep the original bathroom door in place, allowing me to have unrestricted access to the back of the tank which is awesome.

space under the house. All the noise, humidity, and detritus could live there and bother no one. I installed a 180 gallon sump and a 150 gallon Rubbermaid trough as a freshwater storage/ saltwater-mixing basin. Experience has taught me that it is critical to have the ability to do large water changes on short notice, and this particular hedge against disaster has saved my reef several times.

Just flip a switch and all this skimmate is pumped to the sewer. The float switch turns off the skimmer when the bucket gets full.

Hiding the Mess: What’s Changed

Though I loved the custom stand and canopy, we took the opportunity to make the tank ‘semi’ built into a wall when we had to have the floor redone. I say semi because I used the existing stand (I just painted it) and used 2x2 framing but did not attach it to the floor around the tank nor the neighboring bookshelf. This would allow for easy removal of the tank and ‘walls’ if we moved or, shudder, decided we didn’t want the tank anymore. It looks like a full built-in, which I love, but it’s really just a facade.

Philosophy

The main idea behind this system was to maximize the joy of watching animals grow and thrive but minimize the drudgery of the myriad everyday maintenance tasks that actually allow the animals to grow and thrive. Water changes are done by opening valves and flipping switches...no more buckets and hoses. Everything that I could make automatic, I did. At this point, even the skimmer effluent fills a bucket that automatically shuts off the skimmer when the bucket is full. Then, I flip a switch to pump that effluent to the sewer. Of course, automation has its own headaches, but the ability to leave the tank for work or vacation for three weeks at a time or just relax all weekend without having to worry about the tank has greatly enhanced my overall enjoyment of the reef.

Hiding the Mess

Reef keeping creates its own detritus; test kits, magnetic cleaners, tubes of glue, towels, spare parts, feeding cups, and lots of other stuff cover every surface if left unchecked. To combat this tendency in the new house, we ordered a custom cherry stand and canopy to hide things both above and below the tank. The best idea we had to deal with the potential mess was to drill a hole through the living room floor and put all the support equipment – sump, skimmer, top-off, reactors, etc. – in the 40 inch-high crawl

retrospective

The original sump, kalk reactor, top-off reservoir and skimmate collection area. Note the mess and salt creep that no one cares about because it is all under the house.

The semi built-in as it neared completion.

The space above the tank is huge (30 inches by 5 feet) and goes all the way to the ceiling. I can easily get my entire torso over the top of the tank. The lights are now hung from the ceiling, which makes raising and lowering them during work or lamp changes very easy. There is a storage shelf on one side of the tank and a magnetic storage strip on the other for things like scissors, tweezers, and bone shears. There is also a vent fan to the outside of the house built into the side wall to keep humidity down and keep the lights from overheating the tank during hot weather.

Aquascaping

It was important to me that the tank wasn’t a ‘wall of rock’ on top of a bed of sand because not only do I think such setups are visually unappealing, but they also don’t promote coral coverage or water flow. Even worse, detritus can collect under and behind rock walls, and if a coral accidentally drops behind that wall, it’s gone forever unless you are willing to remove everything from the tank. My solution to avoiding the ‘wall of rock’ was to purchase several nicely shaped, large pieces of live rock (one is over 50 pounds) and rest them on smaller pieces of live rock to raise them off the bottom of the tank. I also glued some tabs to the overflows and the back of the tank to help hold rockwork in place. The large pieces already came with swim-throughs and had interesting shapes. I arranged them in such a way as to minimize areas of low flow and maximize coral placement sites while giving visual depth to the display. To me, it feels like a real reef in the sense that you have to keep looking behind corals to find more corals.

Aquascaping: What’s Changed

The aquascaping arrangement has remained essentially the same over the entire 10 years this tank has been set up. I removed the deep sand bed, and in addition to the potential safety impacts (discussed below), a huge benefit was reclaiming the valuable space the sand took up in the display tank.

Water Motion

The water flow was originally designed following the best thinking of the day and the prevailing thought was to maximize random flow. An Ampmaster 3000 is the main return from the sump and it feeds two 1-inch Sea Swirls located in the front corners of the

Visual depth is achieved through careful coral placement taking into account shape and color. The purple dig’ and the yellow turbinaria are some of the oldest corals in the system.

tank. A Danner Mag 9.5 on a SQWD in a closed loop enters the tank in the bottom-back corners and prevents detritus build up. I also have a Danner Mag 7 running a SQWD with one output to the above tank refugium and the other able to be moved around the tank depending on where I think more circulation is needed. Finally, two powerheads on an MVT wave maker eliminate dead spots, and one large power head, also on the MVT, acts as a surge across the top of the tank. That seems like a lot, but in 2002, we really didn’t have a great concept about what ‘a lot’ of flow actually meant.

Water Motion: What’s Changed

The idea that random flow is the key to coral growth did not seem to pan out, and the idea of moving the entire mass of water has taken its place. I am an advocate of the idea of changing flow over the course of the day, in a way mimicking the current and tidal changes over the course of a day on a wild reef. I want the flow in my tank to be laminar for part of the day, random for part of the day, calm for part of the day, and going the opposite direction for yet another part of the day. Almost all of the water pumps in my system are now on some sort of timer so the flow in all areas of the tank varies over time.

Don’t miss RHM sponsored Reef-A-Palooza in Costa Mesa, California, October 20-21. (reefapaloozashow.org)

The Ampmaster 3000 is still the main return. Out went almost all the powerheads, SQWD’s, and Sea Swirls, and under the house went a Sequence 5800 on a heavy duty timer cycling off/on six times a day feeding two 5-port ¾ inch manifolds on each side of the tank. These are still in use and the flexibility they give the One of two 5-port manifolds in its original system is part of the configuration being fed by a Sequence 5800. key to its success. As corals grow, they impact flow, and being able to alter where the flow goes by moving the Loc-Line has really helped me tend my underwater garden. I have also started to put small water rotators, powered by the water moving through them, at the ends of some of the Loc-Line runs for even more water movement. When they became available, I installed Vortech MP40s at both ends of the display tank. If these had been available when I initially designed the system, I would have designed the rockwork differently. But whatever visual impact these propeller pumps now have

is more than justified by their operation - several different ways to vary their wide, massive flow over time is built into the units, not to mention the option of battery backups! These units really help get the entire body of water moving. Behind the rockwork now are two eductors facing the middle-back of the tank powered by a Poseidon titanium pump which keeps any detritus from settling at the back of the tank. The MVT wave maker is still in operation, turning a Hydor Koralia on for six minutes, then off for eight minutes in a continuous cycle. There is also a Hagen 801 in one of the overflows with the output of the pump plumbed back into the tank which provides the added excitement of raising and lowering the water level in the display about ¼ inch.

Lighting

When I set up this system, double-ended metal halide bulbs were new, and I loved their small form factor. I installed four 250 watt PFO fixtures, but quickly added a fifth. The bulbs were arranged 20,000K/10,000K/20,000K/10,000K/20,000K for a nice blending of color temperatures. I also had two 48-inch VHO bulbs.

Lighting: What’s Changed

When I changed the canopy, I replaced all the double-ended fixtures with two 400 watt MH bulbs in Lumenarc fixtures. Bigger is better, adds more punch, and uses less electricity overall. But after a while, I really began to miss the variability in light that more fixtures and multiple color bulbs gave me, and I also thought that I had better coral growth when I had more bulbs. I didn’t go back to the double-

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ended bulbs because I broke too many of them during installation and the originally advertised electrical savings didn’t seem to hold up. Instead, I got the nice guys at Lumenarc to make Custom Lumenarc reflectors with two bulbs each. me custom reflecThe evolution of the Loc-Line manifold is also tors that held two evident in this shot. bulbs. I would lose some of the reflector’s punch by moving the bulbs off center, but that should more than be made up for by the light from the additional bulbs. I have run a few different combinations of wattages in these reflectors, and one of my favorites was a 400 watt, 20,000K Radium with a 250 watt, 10,000K XM bulb in each. Currently, to save electricity, I run a 250 watt, 20,000K Radium with a 250 watt, 14,000K Ushio in each fixture, and I haven’t noticed a significant change in growth or color. The light timers are staggered with the full array of bulbs on for only three hours a day, and the total photoperiod for the metal halides overall is eight hours. I have also replaced the two 48-inch VHO tubes with two 48-inch, blue Reef Brite LED strips. LEDs seem like a fantastic solution for supplementation, but I have not yet felt compelled to try LEDs as my main lighting.

Life Support

I am not a fan of constant mechanical filtration on reef tanks so when this tank was set up, I added the ability to run filter socks or pleated cartridge filters when needed. Water flow would keep detritus from settling in the display, allowing it to settle in the long sump under the house where it could be netted out. Most of the filtration was biological in the form of live rock and sand. When the tank was first set up in 2002, deep sand beds were in vogue. The deeper the better, went the wisdom of the times, and I ended up with a three to four inch DSB. I added a refugium mostly for algae growth to help export nutrients, a EuroReef CS-3 skimmer with an ozone generator plumbed into the needle wheel, and a DIY reverse flow calcium reactor.

Life Support: What’s Changed

As the home tank got going, I decided an in-tank DSB wasn’t for me. I didn’t like the space it took up in the display, the way it limited the water movement in the tank, and how detritus seemed to build up on it. But more importantly, I had an incident where a powerhead fell out of place, stirred up the sand, and many animals died. I don’t know for sure if it was the sand bed that caused the deaths, but when a second similar event caused similar results, I decided that the sand bed had to go. I invited a few friends over, removed everything from the tank, removed the sand bed, and put everything back. Since I liked the idea of a DSB for natural nitrate reduction, I plumbed a 20 gallon tank into the sump and filled it with sand for a remote deep sand bed (RDSB), and it seems to work well.

retrospective

The faux sand bed was made by gluing sand to roughed up Starboard.

After removing the sand bed, I didn’t like the look of the bare glass bottom so when the tank became semi builtin, I made a faux sand bed by gluing sand to cutting board pieces. I love it; the look of a sand bed without the sand bed.

Gone are both the algae refugia and the ozone generators. As either broke down for various reasons, I saw no degradation of water quality or animal life, so it seemed there was no reason to spend money or time on either. The EuroReef CS-3 skimmer is still chugging away. I added a kalk reactor to the automatic top-off. In the last year, I replaced the impeller pump that fed the calcium reactor with a peristaltic pump which I consider one of the best purchases I have ever made; I have not needed to adjust the feed to the reactor since this upgrade.

Disaster Preparedness

Because there are so many things that can go wrong in a reef tank, I decided it was important to control what I could. I installed several extra electrical circuits so different pumps, heaters, and lights are on different breakers. There are heaters in the sump and heaters in the display. A single powerhead near the top of the water line in the display tank was put on its own UPS battery backup, and there are several battery powered air pumps that switch on automatically

during a power failure. There are two overflows in the display in case one gets blocked, and the main return pump is connected to a float switch on the display so if both overflows get blocked, the return pump shuts off, preventing a flood in the living room.

Disaster Preparedness: What’s Changed

The power head on the UPS is now a Koralia for more water motion in a power outage. Vortech MP40’s have been added to either side of the tank and one of them has a battery backup. All of the outof-tank electrical devices are now stored on a wire shelf above and behind the tank where it is nearly impossible for them to get splashed with water. The 150 gallon freshwater storage/saltwater mixing container was great, but I added a 240 gallon tank just for saltwater mixing and storage. Now I can have 150 gallons of freshwater on hand at all times as well as more than 200 gallons of saltwater.

Crashes

Sanjay Joshi says that the single biggest point of failure in any reef system is the reef keeper, and my experience agrees. The biggest disasters in my home system have been from me doing something unwise: at various times forgetting to close a freshwater valve, not securing a powerhead properly, etc. All these things have sadly resulted in the death of fish and corals in my home system, and that’s all squarely on my shoulders. Luckily, most of these disasters have been mitigated by the large volume of mixed saltwater I always keep on hand.

Disaster struck in 2008 in the form of a pH spike due to a human error based kalk overdose. 90% of SPS corals were lost, but the tank was back to the predisaster level within 2 years.

Diseases

This system has been right on the leading edge of reef pests, and it’s interesting to see how most of these pests initially seem like the ultimate disaster, but end up not being the worst things in the world. Acoel flatworms turned out to be mostly just ugly and easily controlled by siphoning and off the shelf treatments. Red bugs were not quite as easy as an off the shelf solution, but with a little research, a practical treatment is available. Montipora-eating nudibranchs are tricky, and I don’t think there is a decent treatment available. I dealt with them by manual removal of adults and eggs, fragging, and the addition of several wrasses I wanted anyway (though it is important to note that I don’t really know if the wrasses actually helped to control the pest). Acro-Eating Flatworms seem quite easy to control by getting ahead of their life cycle, and I have had no significant fish diseases in this system ever, which I attribute to selective animal choices and strict quarantine practices.

Don’t miss RHM sponsored MACNA 2012 in Dallas, Texas, September 28-30. (dfwmacna.com)

Stocking

Coral: The tank has always been an SPS dominated mixed reef, and most of the corals have been grown from fragments. I started with the fruit stand method of putting fragments everywhere, and as the fruit stand matured, colonies were moved around/removed for both aesthetic and coral health reasons. I love to let corals grow into each other and hope one day that the tank becomes a near solid block of living coral with fishes. There are several corals that have been with me since the 50 gallon tank in the old house. I have also been adding some large-polyped, NPS (non-photosynthetic) corals to the tank, and they have been doing well for several years. Fish: Generally, the fish population stays stable, and I only lose fish in catastrophes. The oldest fishes in the tank include a female blue stripe pipefish (Doryrhamphus excisus) that refuses to accept a mate, a Swales Basslet (Liopropoma swalesi), a pair of Blotchy Anthias (Holanthias borbonius), a Radiant Wrasse (Halichoeres iridis), and a pair of Mandarin Dragonets (Synchiropus splendidus). Since the last disaster three years ago, I have added a Margined Butterflyfish (Chelmon marginalis) which helps with aiptasia control and a pair of Orchid Dottybacks (Pseudochromis fridmani).

Feeding

I feed the tank a lot; I use mostly Reef Nutrition products but I also feed Cyclopeeze, PE Mysis, and fish eggs when I can find them. For the corals, I practice the flood feeding approach, saturating the tank with food so it’s easy for sessile animals to eat. At least every third day, I feed the tank enough to see food everywhere in the water column and let the animals and the skimmer clean it up.

Water Quality

The tank gets a 20% water change every two months. I try to keep salinity at 34 ppt, water temperature between 76 and 80 degrees F, ammonia at 0, nitrate below 20 ppm, alkalinity above 3 meq/l (approx. 8 dkh), calcium above 400 ppm, magnesium at about 1300 ppm, and pH above 8. The one weird level is phosphate which tends to run between .1 and .3 ppm regardless of how much GFO (granular ferric oxide) I run on the system or how much feeding is reduced and water changes are increased. I stopped worrying about that ‘high’ level because I have not seen any slowdown of growth or decline in coral health and I have no nuisance algae problems, so I am not going to worry about it.

On the Horizon

I am considering adding a carbon source to my kalk/top-off, but cannot yet justify this addition. I believe that stability is the key to a healthy reef and that corals can adapt to a relatively wide range of parameters as long as most of those parameters are reasonable and stable. Other than that and ongoing regular maintenance, I plan on no changes because I am at my favorite stage of keeping a reef tank; leave it alone and watch it grow! Thanks to everyone that has helped with this system over the years, especially my wife Libby and daughter Kalin. And just about everything I have ever written about this system (and more) is available on the website www.packedhead.net.

Don’t miss RHM sponsored MACNA 2012 in Dallas, Texas, September 28-30. (dfwmacna.com)

Large-polyped, non-photosynthetic corals can be a great addition to an SPS tank as long as they are placed strategically.

A full-sized colony of Agaricia that was originally a hitchhiker coral as featured on page 42.

A top-down shot of a number of corals beginning to form a solid block and growing to the water’s surface.

Corals growing into each other in every direction.

retrospective

maintenance

Diversify Now! Shane Ballou

Image by Totophoto.

t can be found in music, culture and your local shopping mall; but what role does diversity play in your saltwater tank? Both a support system and byproduct of life, diversity can be thought of as the oil that greases the gears. Diversity is essential in many biological processes, and we would be silly to assume it does not play an integral role in the ecosystems we strive to duplicate and maintain in our living rooms and businesses alike. In the paragraphs to follow, I will attack diversity from many angles of the marine tank and present details on diversity as related to four topics specifically: refugia, substrates and surface areas, water movement and rock movement.

Refugia In a biological sense, diversity is defined as the state or fact of being diverse, multi-formed, or a point of difference. We have all hopefully heard of or dealt with the idea of a refugium. Refugia largely benefit aquariums due to the diversity they add to the overall tank system through the plants and animals they host, the chemical processes they encourage and the movement of water through the substrate of the refugium itself. Typically, the water flow in the refugium is different than tank conditions and can be adjusted to better suit the animals contained within. Refugia that have a light to grow macro-algae add habitat for many invertebrates and can also help maintain pH and carbonate stability through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis produces oxygen which plays many roles in the aquarium involving different biological processes. For example, photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide (CO2) which would otherwise facilitate the formation of carbonic acids when CO2 dissolves in water. The less acid or H+ ions

Don’t miss RHM sponsored MACNA 2012 in Dallas, Texas, September 28-30. (dfwmacna.com)

This refugium plays an important role in keeping pH stable in the overall system. Image by Luis Gonzalez.

Extra porous live rock have higher surface area and aid in greater biological filtration.

minimize this effect that led to the development of RDP (Reverse Daylight Photoperiod) refugia. By lighting a refugium of macroalgae on a reverse cycle from the display tank (lit when the display is dark), some of the swings in dissolved oxygen levels and pH are tempered. Substrates and Surface Area A diverse population of macro-inverts should be highly prized in a reef aquarium and is beneficial in fish-only systems too, both for detrital export as well as food chain management. These critters are at the base of the food pyramid and remove waste that is broken down at food levels above them. The substrate added to refugia (live rock included) creates additional surface area for increased biological filtration as well as providing a diverse habitat for interstitial creatures (critters that live in the sand).

present in the water, the higher (or less acidic) the pH of the system. So, having a refugium always performing photosynthesis will help maintain the system’s buffer capacity against changes in acid concentrations when the lights go out.

Having a refugium with many different substrate sizes is also a detail worth pursuing if biological filtration is hindered or not keeping up. Flow over surface area can be thought of as an equation: some amount of flow over some amount of surface area will remove X amount of waste. Now, it becomes easy to see how to manipulate and maximize the efficiency of this idea; attain the highest amount of flow over the correct proportion of surface area in order to maximize nutrient export.

When the tank is dark, respiration becomes the primary source for ATP. Respiration is the flip-side of the cycle of photosynthesis, and during respiration, plants take in oxygen and release CO2 which increases the CO2 concentration in the water. It was a desire to

Water Movement The water flow in an aquarium should be as diverse as the species contained within, but no areas of the tank should be allowed to go stagnant. In terms of the water flow idea above, having diverse flow

Biological filtration is increased with a greater diversity of substrates. Image by Jim Adelberg.

maintenance

The areas behind our rockwork tend to lack water flow and are collection areas for detritus.

taking place in the tank itself will surely aid in nutrient export, considering the live rock and sand bed are major parts of the biological filtration of the tank. It’s no coincidence that turbulent areas of streams have lower levels of dissolved organics than slower flowing areas; this is largely due to the higher flow.

Returning water against the front of the tank aids in the removal of surface film.

I like to return water against the front of the tank. This results in a fair amount of surface ripple for glitter lines and surface film removal. Oftentimes, hobbyists forget about the areas that are out of sight, particularly the areas along the backs of tanks under the live rock where water flow can be greatly reduced. For areas like these, I find it beneficial to have a small power head pushing water along the back just above the sand bed. This helps keep nutrients from settling in hard to reach places and will provide more habitat for various suspension feeders and biological filtration alike. Crashing or tumbling water will provide lots of oxygen for aerobic decomposition as opposed to anaerobic decomposition which is less energy efficient. So, keeping the tank well mixed is a must. Rock Movement As a general rule of thumb, 1-2 pounds of live rock per gallon should be sufficient surface area. However, if 2-3 pounds of rock per gallon can be used, the tank will be healthier overall and have a greater affinity for nutrient export. There have been several studies done near intertidal areas (where the waves crash) on diversity based on the amount of rock movement as a result of waves. These studies concluded that areas where boulders and rocks were not moved via wave action generally had lower numbers of species per area, whereas areas defined with medium to high rock movement hosted a higher number of species per area. This means we can cultivate the diversity of inverts and bacteria in our tanks just by occasionally moving “loose” rocks around in the aquarium. In my personal tanks, I try to do this monthly, usually rearranging rocks at the top or sitting on top of my sand bed. It’s best to leave rocks that are buried in the sand in place. Adding live rock is a great way to increase the different species of bacteria and inverts in any system which adds to the overall diversity of the aquarium. The addition of live rock should be well thought out and pieces should be thoroughly inspected for possible hitchhikers. You can always add more live rock to the aquarium as long as it is well cycled and no longer has decomposing micro and macro fauna. Conclusion It should be clear by now that the intricate relationships that allow our aquaria to function are based on a diversity of creatures, chemical reactions and balances which are robust by the very fact of their diversity. The phrase ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’ is the fundamental truth of how bio-diversity functions. Begin reducing that diversity and the system becomes ever more fragile until collapse is inevitable. Sadly, this tipping point, where diversity has been lost to the point where the overall system fails, is not easily predicted. The natural systems discussed in this article are far more complex than the overview presented here, and many of the critical relationships between their components are only barely understood. I think it’s worth pointing out that the World Wildlife Fund just issued a report citing a 30% decrease in the Earth’s bio-diversity in the last 40 years. I hope that by gaining a basic understanding of the interconnected and wonderful diversity of your aquarium, you can better appreciate what this global loss represents.

Don’t miss RHM sponsored Reef-A-Palooza in Costa Mesa, California, October 20-21. (reefapaloozashow.org)

Anemones

A Magnificent Decade:

Success with Ritteri

Joseph Peck

nemones are among the most captivating of all marine animals to keep in an aquarium and some of the most challenging. Like so many other aquarists, the desire for an anemone was what got me to try my first saltwater aquarium. Sadly, my early experience with keeping an anemone was disastrous. I take small comfort in knowing that it wasn’t all my fault as a rather unscrupulous shop owner offered to sell me two clownfish, a baseball-sized Magnificent Anemone (also known as a Ritteri or Heteractis magnifica), and a cleaner shrimp and then told me they would be perfectly happy in a 7 gallon aquarium with a single power compact bulb for lighting. Within a week, the anemone had died, along with one of the clownfish. The silver lining, if there is any to such a sad story, is that my total failure made me take a giant step back, slow down, and learn as much as I could before trying to keep another anemone. Within a few months, I did buy another anemone. And now, a decade later, that anemone has produced six clones, some of which are close to half a meter across! This then is the story of all that I have learned about keeping anemones over the past ten years and the advice I have to offer to the countless individuals who are thinking about trying the same. 32

Don’t miss RHM sponsored MACNA 2012 in Dallas, Texas, September 28-30. (dfwmacna.com)

Clownfish coping with a splitting home.

This is split #6 for this captive Magnificent Anemone.

What is an anemone? Scientifically, they are from the phylum Cnidaria and class Anthozoa which makes them just like most other corals in the eyes of biologists. But then they have their own order, Actiniaria, within their subclass of Zoantharia. Generally, they are distinguished by the fact that they have a single polyp with a big body and mouth, and they don’t look umbrella shaped or swim freely like their cousins, the jellyfish. The anemones we are most familiar with in the hobby have a base (called a pedal disc), a column, and a mouth. The mouth is also known as the oral disc and is surrounded by tentacles, many of which have the ability to sting using tiny stinging cells called nematocysts. Sometimes, the column is not so well defined like on the carpet anemone, but generally, the biology is about the same. Most interesting is that many anemones have developed a survival technique that brings symbiosis to a whole new level. Not only do they incorporate zooxanthellae that enable them to survive on sunlight like a plant, but they have learned to

protect certain fish, crabs, and shrimp with their stinging tentacles, and in return, they host a resident population of animals which bring food fragments and guard their soft flesh. For me, that alone makes them one of Earth’s most amazing creatures. Even so, not a lot of research has gone into studying these magical animals, and that’s where you, the aquarist, come in. Currently, the success rate of keeping anemones in captivity is low; in fact, some might say very low. Accurate data on exactly how low is not available. Suffice it to say that most folks I have met who have tried to keep an anemone no longer have one, and I have met more than my fair share of aquarists. The main problem is that anemones are vagile. That’s a fancy biologist’s way of saying they can move. And all too often when someone brings an anemone home, they end up wandering all over the tank, getting sucked into a powerhead, clogged in an overflow, or crammed into a deep, dark crevice with no chance of getting any light or food. Sometimes, they thrive for months on end and then suddenly disintegrate overnight, killing most of the tank with their decaying bodies. So how can this be avoided? First, there are the basic items to consider. Is your tank ready? Is the specimen you want to buy healthy? Do you have the right environment for the specimen you would like to keep? In general, nothing difficult to keep should be put into a tank until the tank is “mature.” So what constitutes a mature tank? Well, that could be an entire chapter in a book on reef keeping, but I will offer up my personal rule of thumb that your tank should be at least three months old before you even consider such a creature, and a tank that has been running for at least one year would be even better. Next, is

anemones

the specimen healthy? Remember, these creatures have usually been shipped half way around the world and are likely to have encountered stressful conditions in transit. If the anemone appears overly pale, has a distended mouth, does not respond to touch, or is rolling around in the tank not attached to anything, then you should think twice before buying. Lastly, is your tank the right tank for the anemone you want? There are numerous varieties available to the aquarist these days from the Maxi-minis to the Bubble Tips to the difficult carpets, and of course my favorite, the Magnificent Anemone; but all have different needs that must be considered. The Magnificent Anemone demands intense lighting, the Bubble Tip requires extensive rock work so it can find a suitable crevice, and the carpet needs a sandy bottom. The main point here is that you, the aquarist, need to do a lot of homework before taking on the challenge of an anemone. My advice for almost any aquarium topic is to find someone who has a successful tank you like and just copy what they are doing. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel. We know Magnificent Anemones do quite well under 400 watt metal halide lighting; we are not yet sure if all types of LED lights provide a broad enough spectrum, so if you’re going to try a Magnificent Anemone, why not stick to what you know will work? And the same holds true for all the other anemone varieties. Whatever anemone you choose, you will not be the first to own that variety so simply find out what has worked and stick to those conditions. Once you’ve got the basics covered, there are a few added details you might want to consider. First, how long do you plan on keeping a tank? Like I said in the beginning of the article, not a lot of

This Bubble Tip anemone requires extensive rock work for long-term survival. This stunning red carpet anemone requires a sandy bottom.

Don’t miss RHM sponsored Reef-A-Palooza in Costa Mesa, California, October 20-21. (reefapaloozashow.org)

A mature tank will give an anemone the best chance of long-term survival.

anemones

research has been done on anemones, but one thing we do know is that some types can live for hundreds of years . . . yes that’s right . . . hundreds of years. Given that some anemones reproduce asexually, in other words, they simply rip themselves in two, and the two clones continue to live, only to rip in two again years later, one can’t say which is the new and which is the old. Senescence is the fancy scientific word for aging, and since a budding anemone produces a perfect genetic copy of itself, in theory, the colonies of anemones found on today’s Indonesian reefs could be thousands of years old; we just don’t know for sure. The point here, for those that are concerned, is that bringing this creature into your home, assuming you have an interest in keeping it alive for as long as it can survive, may be a lifelong endeavor! Secondly, how will you feel if your anemone takes over your reef? Anemones are top of the heap in the world of Cnidarians. They easily kill neighboring stony corals and occasionally make a snack of wayward fish. If you aren’t willing to lose an occasional nearby coral or fish, maybe an anemone isn’t the best choice for you. Lastly, how diligent are you planning to be in keeping your aquarium? Although some anemones have proven to be hardy, the general rule is that they require ideal water conditions: nitrates below 1 ppm, zero phosphates or close to it, salinity that is stable around 35 ppt, temperature that never gets above or below the animal’s preferred range, and excellent oxygenation of the water. Also, if you go away for weeks at a time and let your tank’s water quality falter in between maintenance episodes, then an anemone may not be your best choice. But, assuming you’ve got all the bases covered and are committed to trying to keep such a beautiful creature of the ocean, then here are a few thoughts from my own experience with Magnificent Anemones. As I mentioned in the opening, I bought a second Magnificent Anemone about four months after my initial failure. That anemone has turned into a total of seven anemones today including three clones at Greenwich Aquaria, two clones in my own tank, and two clones in the tanks of local friends. On a fascinating side note, the anemone in my tank and one anemone at Greenwich Aquaria split in May of 2012 at exactly the same time. Whether this was triggered by the unusually warm April or the closeness of the moon, or pure coincidence, I guess we’ll never know, but it certainly raises plenty of intriguing questions. In any case, when I bought the anemone, I had a 60 gallon acrylic aquarium with dual 150 watt

Don’t miss RHM sponsored MACNA 2012 in Dallas, Texas, September 28-30. (dfwmacna.com)

metal halide pendants. Initially, I put the anemone on a smooth rock about 8 inches off the bottom. The anemone immediately started wandering up the side walls and front glass of the tank and then got stuck in the overflow grate and ultimately got sucked into the intake of a Maxi-jet powerhead. I had to cut away the powerhead grating, and the pedal disc was totally mangled in one spot. Folks have speculated as to why Magnificent Anemones wander like that; some guess that the anemone is reaching for oxygenated water while others guess that it’s reaching for light. To try and stop the wandering, I built a pyramid of rock that raised the anemone to within a few inches of the water’s surface and placed it directly under a metal halide lamp. Then, I added a second powerhead to increase the flow. Its clones have never wandered since. I have moved my anemone and its base rock by hand several times, but the anemone itself has never moved more than 2 inches since that first week in January 2002. Over the years, I have acquired other Magnificent Anemones from folks that decided they didn’t want theirs any longer, and after a few initial mistakes, my last two guest anemones never moved since the day I put them in my downstairs, 180 gallon holding tank. The secret for the Magnificent variety, I believe, is intense lighting, very fast, turbulent flow, and a pyramid of rock with a ball or plate on the tip-top. The top rock must give the anemone a sense that it is on a precipice, and that seems to keep it from wandering, assuming that the lighting and flow are adequate. Ideally, if you decide to try keeping a Magnificent Anemone, it should be settled in the tank before you begin filling up the tank with corals. That way, you have a chance to adjust rock work as necessary should it decide your design for its home is not to its liking. Equally important, you must eliminate any powerheads or build a box out of egg-crate to surround the powerheads to keep the anemone from getting sucked in. Also, there is a good chance that a new anemone will have lost most of its zooxanthellae and cannot live on light alone. In this case, you will need to feed it a steady diet of any meaty food it will accept. With my first anemone, I would put whole cubes of frozen food onto the tentacles and the anemone would take it in, but only dissolve about half the cube before spitting it out. Since then, I have had great luck with dime-sized pieces of fresh, unfrozen salmon. In addition, it seems to me that the Magnificent

This is a close-up of the splitting taking place.

anemones

Anemone settles in faster when it has a clownfish living in it. Lastly, a note on feeding: as the anemone regains zooxanthellae, I suggest you stop feeding meaty foods. I do not feed my anemones, and they have stayed a manageable size while the other clones outside of my care have received heavy feedings and are rapidly approaching the famous one meter diameter for which wild Magnificent Anemones are known. Interestingly enough, Magnificent Anemones in the wild can be found as large individuals or clusters of diminutive clones, so hopefully by not feeding directly, we are not starving them, but rather recreating the scarcity found on natural reefs.

One of my clowns nestled down in its home.

For so many aquarists, their dream tank includes a beautiful, swaying sea anemone. Without question, certain anemones are fairly well suited to the environment of a home reef, especially those cloned from fellow reefer’s anemones. But that doesn’t mean they are easy to keep. So if you are thinking about keeping an anemone, keep in mind that wild animals are a limited natural resource and buying one that is tank raised will go a long way towards conservation. And lastly, please remember that the sea anemone, more than almost any other saltwater critter, demands that you do your homework and that you learn to practice the utmost in patience!

My Magnificent Anemone preparing for nightfall.

One of the clones post-split.

This newly split clone is still a good home.

Don’t miss RHM sponsored Reef-A-Palooza in Costa Mesa, California, October 20-21. (reefapaloozashow.org)

masna clubs

MASC

2012 Science Fair A

Club Spotlight

Juan Muro

he Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado (MASC) is a non-profit reef club founded in 2007. Our goal is to deepen hobbyists’ knowledge, increasing the longevity and well being of the creatures in our care. We do this by dedicating our club to the endorsement, education, and fellowship of marine aquarium hobbyists with a focus on developing an awareness of marine ecosystems and their preservation through captive propagation. We achieve all of this by having monthly meetings. Those meetings are held either in members’ homes or in the stores of our sponsors. We also hold special educational events, garage sales, “don’t break the chain” meetings, and a science fair. After the success of last year’s science fair, we decided to try our hand at it once again. This year, the MASC board of directors has bolstered the judging process by adding three new judges to the previous panel of two. The five judges will select our winner who will be sent to MACNA 2012 in Dallas, Texas. Our newest judges include Marc Levenson of Reef Addicts, Christine Williams, head of the Mariponics Marine Research Laboratory at BASF, and Richard Ross, an aquatic biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium. Of course, rounding out our panel of judges are our mainstays from last year: Matt Pedersen of the Lightning Maroon Project and the Bangaii Rescue Project and Bob Fenner, renowned speaker and contributor to Wet Web Media. In addition to bolstering the judging panel with the new additions, we have also added a $500 cash prize to go along with the free trip to MACNA 2012. The $500 was a donation from a supporter who wished to remain anonymous but felt that this contest was a vital tool to encourage future hobbyists and scientists. Contestants have been working tirelessly since last December on their 2012 projects. One of the biggest changes that we implemented, besides the new judges, is what we call a “coaching phase.” The biggest feedback that we got from our judges last year was that they would have loved to have been a little more involved in the projects in their early stages, allowing them to give suggestions, ask questions, and try to help steer the contestants in a direction that would give them the most scientific results. This new process lasted through the first three months of the projects. Many useful suggestions were offered during this period and a few changes within some of the projects were made due to the great advice of our judges. We were ecstatic, as the board of directors felt like this small bit of interaction between our judges and contestants may have been the best change that we implemented from last year to this year, and we believe that our contestants are now even more prepared to present compelling projects.

Currently, all of the contestants are in the “experimental phase” and this will continue for some time to allow for proper data collection. The whole process will take six months to complete, which will culminate in the showing of each project at MASC’s August monthly meeting. During these six months, contestants will be composing a hypothesis, conducting research, completing their experiments, taking pictures and video of their work, and in the end, gathering and presenting their results. This year’s science fair projects are as follows:

#1 Does a Deeper Sand Bed Effect Denitrification? By Mary Peterson

This project examines the relationship between the depth of deep sand beds and the speed of denitrification. Currently, it is generally accepted that more sand is better for denitrification.

#2 Varied Food vs. Brine Shrimp By Hannah Turner

This project examines the nutrient content of brine shrimp versus a food mix to see if there is an effect of using brine shrimp as the sole food source for fish.

Don’t miss RHM sponsored MACNA 2012 in Dallas, Texas, September 28-30. (dfwmacna.com)

#3 Can Hydrogen Peroxide be Used as an Additive? By Aaron Moss

This project will try to determine whether hydrogen peroxide, commonly used as bleach or a cleaning agent, can also be used as a super additive for reef aquariums.

#6 What Effects the Pulsing of Pulsing Xenia? By Brian Jackson

This project will test theories about what makes different species pulse or not pulse. Is pulsing an all or nothing phenomenon or does it happen faster or slower under different conditions?

#4 Does an Incline Increase Growth Rate? By Amber Hoover

This project will try to determine whether or not growing zoanthids and palythoas on an incline will increase growth rate. Measurements of growth rate by weight and by number of polyps will be considered.

#7 The Effects of Calcitic Electrolysis By Aaron Ediger

This project will attempt to reproduce phenomenal rates of growth in a captive aquarium through electrolysis.

#5 How Reef Safe are Medications? By Steve P.

This project will examine various medications and treatments and calculate their effects on reef systems.

I’d like to thank Elite Reef, a local fish store in Denver, for providing the airfare and Jon Garnett of Fathom Aquatics for providing the hotel! I’d also like to give a special thanks to the MACNA team for providing our winner with an all inclusive, free pass to MACNA as well as the banquets and the speakers! If it weren’t for all of you involved, as well as our amazing judges, we would never be able to achieve such great things for the Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado. In loving memory of Don Volak 1978-2012.

WINNERS

Photo Contest Current Topic:

“Wrasses” 1

Ed Bonyai

Andrew & Erika Brown

Eshopps

Brandon O'Meal

Reef Nutrition

Two Little Fishies

2 3

Next Topic: PRIZES

“Blennies & Gobies” Submit original photographs of your Blennies and Gobies for a chance to win awesome prizes!

Nano Skimmer

For rules, details, and entry, go to www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com.

Roti Feast, Arcti Pods & Phyto Feast Live

Julian’s Thing, replacement tips & ZoPlan

To sponsor a RHM Photo Contest, email an inquiry to info@rhmag.com.

masna clubs

coral

The Unknown

Jim Adelberg

t was nearly a decade ago that I first saw ‘The Unknown,’ and I remember it like it was yesterday. I was strolling the aisles of one of my local aquarium stores, and the selection was fair to middlin’. Nothing too spectacular, and I’d already looked at the more interesting pieces in the shop and decided they weren’t worth the prices posted. So on this particular day, I spent some time looking at creatures I don’t usually shop for. Clams – interesting colors, but not too active. Mantis shrimp – certainly active enough, but what a messy eater! Feather dusters – very cool, but need high concentrations of suspended plankton, etc. At the end of that row, in the very last tank, was a small group of ‘red cluster duster’ worms (Bispira brunnea). I had always liked this animal but found that it didn’t do well in my tanks and tended to become smothered in algae and eventually die. So, having no intention of buying one, I was content to just enjoy studying them in detail. I was looking at the third of these when I noticed a light-green, fluorescent patch towards the underside of the piece. The patch in question was about half the size of my pinky nail and displayed no structure whatsoever. At first, I thought it might be a broken piece of green Padina algae that had become stuck to the piece. Closer examination revealed three tiny little bright-green mouths in the patch. This was when the excitement began to kick in.

The Unknown at Steinhart Aquarium.

Here was an encrusting Atlantic coral frag in a beautiful, light neon green which could never have legally found its way to California, yet was staring me in the face! Of course I took the piece home, and that’s where the story really begins. The very first thing I did was very carefully cut all the cluster duster tubes off the piece and mount it on a frag plug. I wanted to take no chance that any associated organics could cause problems for the coral. Within a few months, the piece had spread over the plug and was beginning to display a whorling and folding morphology. Another interesting characteristic of this coral was that it created soft growing edges which ruffled in the current. By now, there was enough of the coral to begin to share it. The first piece went to Rich Ross who kindly backed up my single piece. The colony continued to grow, and I subsequently gave a number of pieces away through the Bay Area Reefers’ DBTC program under the name ‘The Unknown.’ About a year after acquiring this coral, I happened to be browsing through Corals of the World and came upon the Agaricia group. I tentatively identified this coral as Agaricia agaricites. I was later able to share this piece with my friend Jake Adams who confirmed this species ID. And though that tank and my original colony were long ago distributed to fellow reefers, the decision to back it up proved wise. Rich Ross grew out some amazingly large colonies of this coral, and one of the largest is now on display at the Steinhart Aquarium where I volunteer. Every week, I look at this large colony and think about its humble beginnings, way back when…

If you have a rare or unusual coral you’d like to share, email us at info@rhmag.com!