Marine Depot Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Corals and Coral Reefs - by Eric Borneman

Beware Rubbermaid trash cans

Eric Borneman — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:39:33 GMT

During our annual spawning work in Puerto Rico, we had one night where we collected about 600,000 gametes. On putting them under the scope, we found that sperm motility was bad to none. Hence, fertilization was very very low. This was very unusual. Over the next few days of development, many of the fertilized eggs had arrested development, abnormal development, died, or underwent embryonic fusion.

Since a major focus of the work was to cryopreserve sperm for genetic banking, we quickly wondered what could have gone wrong. I had purchased the standard grey Brute trashcan that almost everyone I know uses (you can put rollers on the bottom). When rinsing it, the water beaded on the surface but it was rinsed well and wiped with DI water. Nonetheless, the egg bundles were kept for experiments in 0.22 micron filtered water taken from that trash can that itself was filled with 0.5 micron filtered NSW.

Upon adding tiny amounts of this water to sperm acquired from another source and not exposed to the water in the trash can, the sperm became immotile within minutes.

Basically, the plasticizers in the trash can are highly highly toxic to sperm. Another group had a similar experience using new plastic containers (not the Brute trash can) on another night but did not test or have available healthy sperm to check for plasticizers being a cause.

The point here is that for all of you (including me) who use plastic containers, and definitely the almost industry standard" grey Brute trashcans to store water or kalkwasser, have highly toxic plasticizers. We do not know if these would leach out if soaked, exposed to UV, acid-base washed, if it is a coating, or impregnated. But, at the very least using water from these containers, definitely when new, will cause reproductive failure and who knows what other chronic effects it may have.

Some of you may be saying - as I have - that you have used them for years with no problems. Well, no problems you can directly find or can observe. It's like our test with Instant Ocean salt mix - I used it for years with no apparent issues, but in a controlled experiment, it perfomed terribly, caused chronic cyanobacterial films, and species died. Perhaps the resilience of healthy diverse tanks mitigates the issues, but when used alone, the effects are obvious. Perhaps the plasticizer is a new one, or perhaps it leaches out in time. We don't know.

I have posted a photo of the offending trashcan. Beware all plastic products that are flexible and that bead water when wetted.

The beginning of a skimmerless tank...maybe

rhdoug — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:56:18 GMT

My 58 gallon reef turns 10 years old this month. Well the tank has been set up for 10 years but most of the coral has been in there for 7-8 yrs at most. I started slow.

At any rate, the tank is heavily stocked with coral, -no acros-, 7 small fish and some other inverts. I feed fairly heavily and have no algae to speak of, thanks in part to the wonderful urchin I added a few months ago after conversing with Eric in an earlier thread. I need to trade him in soon for a smaller one -- it seems he is growing rapidly. I have even transferred him back and forth between the 58 and the 10 gallon nano for algae duty. It has been one of the most useful and interesting additions to the tank.

My skimmer (a downdraft style ETSS reef devil) has been acting up from time to time (overskimming a watery mix to overflowing) so I have been running without it for several days at a time. I guess I was/am trying to "wean" the tank to getting used to running with no skimmer, I have turned it back on a couple of times, but wonder if that is a good idea since the skimmer has been sitting with what must be stagnant water in it for days at a time. Should I just leave it off - go cold turkey and keep an eye on things? I do have an small airstone in the sump -- the pump is outside -- for oxygen and ph regulation. As always, thanks for your thoughts.

Coral Recruits

charlesr1958 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:06:46 GMT

For the last week I've noticed a good many little "dots" on the sides of the aquarium and at first thought they were simply calcified tube worms but over the last few days they have grown to where I can just make them out as being flat circles and not the spirals I expect from worms. I tried to take photos to see them better but could not make out any details, untill today.

The underside: First thought was their being foraminiferans, and could still not get a decent view of their top side due to their being at a viewing angle on the sides of the tank making photographing very difficult.

By sheer luck I picked out one that gave me a side view and having seen the photo now, it is quite obvious a coral. Most likely a Pocillipora as the only other corals in my tank right now are Porites and a single Pavona colony. Guess time will tell.

Had to break from this post for a minute and run downstairs and take a head count. Minus the few that I killed when trying to remove them for photographing, there remains 39 recruits that I could see.

Chuck

Polyp Bailout with elegence coral?

reefer31 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:01:21 GMT

Anyone have some experience with bailed out polyps especially with elegence corals? I have a maint account that had this happen and I took the coral home and its now in my tank in a clear cup with rubble at the bottom. The coral is showing great polyp expansion and is looking good besides not having a skeleton. Any ideas on if they will attach to rubble or will they just grow their own skeleton again? My plan is to keep it in the cup until some skeleton/rubble gets stuck to the coral and then glue to a rock or just set it in the sand depending on what happens and to feed it often. Any ideas?

An idea

charlesr1958 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:32:50 GMT

While sitting on the front porch watching the sunrise and thinking of my upcoming system makeover along with my never ending frustration at our hobby's stagnation, It dawned on me, which should have happened a very long time ago, that to mimic what I see of the reefs here, I am going to have to include a vastly larger macroalgae habitat in relation to the coral reef habitat, yet to do so would mean taking over the entire living room. Being married, thats not really an option, so what to do? Well, taking a look at what I do have already (80 gal display, 20 gal refugium and a 20 gal sump/ATS) I came to realize that I could simply make the 80 gal tank a macroalgae reef flat display with the 20 gal tank becoming the coral reef display, which would put things into a much closer relation to what the reef actualy does. Granted, my coral display would be extremely limited and would have to pick but a few choice coral species, preferably slow(er) growing types yet I can already picture in my mind how and with what to do so. Herbivore seletion is going to be key. And on the bright side, I do find some coral species in such macroalgae fields and could simply include a few here and there within that tank, putting much of the "grazing" in my hands but is something I would have to do anyways since selective trimming is going to have to be done by myself or face having a herbivore simply consume everything. But I was thinking that my brown scopas tang would have to remain with the 80 gal tank to keep the green algae (what could become pests) species under control and chose a variety of algae species that the tang will not consume to remain as functional habitat. All of it is going to take much forethought and tweaking, but I see this as being the only means in which I can honestly make the claim of having a "reef" vice the usual, very frustrating, pointless single tank systems that are nothing but a bunch of corals parked on top of some horribly degraded live rock which forces one to do some very weird things such as the popular "methods" that include vodka dosing, rock cooking, massive, constant water changes, and the addition or use of the hundreds of bottled magic formulas that keep us in the hobby just long enough to spend a great deal of money and kill a shipment worth of livestock before we drop out of the hobby in frustration. (this is the stagnation part I mentioned).

Chuck

Maze Brain coral....lost due to sudden RTN...please help eric...

snorkelwasp — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:38:00 GMT

hello,

First let me introduce myself. My name is Mike and I am a senior at Oregon State University, in my second to last term of my zoology degree. I have decided to dedicate my life to corals. I have had this particular system up and running as is for 3 years. I have read many of your books as well as many others and would like to determine the sudden loss of my Maze brain coral (looks most like Platygyra lamellina) I looked in your Aquarium Corals book. pg 298.

A little about the system:

100 gallon main display tank, attached are: a 33long growout tank, 20gal long frag tank, and 10 gal mantis tank. all enter a 33gallon sump. Large double pump recirc skimmer, phosban, phosguard (for silicates), and carbon. 15watt uv sterilizer. ca reactor. ALL CORALS go through a quaratine period before entering tank. There is anywhere around 100 species/varieties or corals/clams/inverts in the system. (all but 20 or so many years old...including this maze)

Lighting: 100gal main (where maze was) has about 1000 watt of lights. 3-110watt VHO (2 actinic, 1-daylight) with 3x250 metal halides at 20k spectrum. i also use moonlights. other tanks dont really matter...

Flow in main tank (where maze was): roughly 5000GPH turnover...3 koralia 4's - 3600gph+ 1-koralia 2 @ 600GPH +return from sump @ 800 GPH. Other tanks dont really matter.

Levels:

Ammon 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10ppm, pH 8.0, KH 8dKh, Cal 380 (a little low), phosphate 0. mag is 1250. temp 78-80.

Things I might attribute this too:

1)Just got new bulbs (same bulbs just renewed from like 8months use.) Omega star-250watt20k. VHO changed in april.

2)Just took out approx 3inch deepsand bed from 33Long grow out tank and replaced with fresh aragonite at like .5inch to 1inch max. Thought it was causing slight increase in nitrates due to it having the lowest flow of the system. (detritus trap)

3)Maybe 20 or so new frags have gone into an attached frag system (all were quarantined but maybe someone got through I didnt see or was species specific.)

4)A random thought but I recently had to add the Koralia pumps due to a failure of a dart closed loop (just thinking maybe it changed the flow pattern making an older adjusted coral angry) haha.

5)possible shading due to dense corals growing above...could this set off RTN? the only thing possibly touching it was a dersa clam besides possibility of unknown species in #6.

6)There was an odd looking substance/organism for lack of a better term on the under side lip of the brain coral i had never seen before (could have been there all along, just wasnt in a spot to see) It was black, shiny, blotches. 3 dimensional (meaning it stuck out) and was smooth to the touch and didnt really give when pressed...definately didnt have typical spicule structure of a sponge. and is was also on the underside of the bordering lip of the area where the RTN started.

7)bacterial infection JUST KIDDING! why does everyone always assume that? I know how you feel on the topic! haha

Symptoms:

RTN starting from outer margins heading towards center. Took almost whole colony down in one work/school day (approx 8 hours). Colony was a dense softball size boulder. The tissue would haze up, then go mucusy and slough off.

I tried to frag the coral to save a little tissue in the center. upon breaking open the coral I noticed a not too pleasant smell. (I am umfamilair with fragging large dense corals so I dont know if this is normal.) Didnt smell like death more like an established sandbed, like ocean I suppose. Pictures are attached.

Also I kept some of the black tissue attached to the coral, I put it in rubbing alcohol. Is that ok? the frag did not make it.

I know you cannot really exactly tell me what happened. I am especially looking for help discerning what the black substance was and if it is something to be worried about with other corals. Other than that maybe tell me what you think about the other options. Sorry for the long post. let me know if there is anything else I can describe. I have a microscope too if there is anything I can look for. Thanks

Mike

possible Scolymia Australis reproduction?

lux_06 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:02:29 GMT

Hi,

i am intrigued as to why my scolly is doing? it has a very obvious lump that seems to be coming from its mouth, its fluro green and red just like my scolly, and seems to have its own mouth at the top of the lump, BUT i 'see any feeder tenticles come from it when i feed the scolly. not much info around on scollys reproducing this way so havent really been able to find out much. so your thoughts would be much appreciated. i can tell you this pic was taken 2 weeks ago, and today the lump extends further out by half again i would think.

here are some pics...

thanks and look forward to finding out a bit more about this!

adam

Red bug treatment info

Umm_fish — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:39:10 GMT

Hi Eric! Your website is still unavailable. I wonder, is any way I can get the red bug treatment info (dosages and such) that I would find on your website? Thanks!

Coral Bugs

REEFRACER — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:50:18 GMT

I was just wondering if anybody has had any experience with, very small but visible to the naked eye with no problem, blackish coloured "bugs" that are found on Montiporas. I first noticed them after receiving a shipment of frags from a vendor from out of province. I just saw them in the montiporas (digitata I think) and that was about it. Lately I have been noticing them in my pocilloporas as well. They do not appear to be doing any damage and they appear to prefer the montiporas and pocilloporas. I have stylophoras and seriatopora that appear uninhabited by these "bugs". Anybody know what they could be, what their purpose in corals is, and whether or not I should be concerned about these? Any info would be appreciated. I will attempt to obtain a clear photo in the next day or two.

Free Lecture on Coral Reef Conservation

Eric Borneman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:28:41 GMT

If you are in the D.C. area, or want to attend, the following meeting is free and open to the public to proceed a NOAA/SI workshop on the conservation of Caribbean Acroporids.

Free Lecture and Panel Discussion on Coral Conservation

When: November 12, 6:30 p.m.
Where: National Zoo Visitor Center Auditorium

Coral, one of the world’s biological treasures, is at risk worldwide. Colonies that have flourished for thousands of years are dying because of environmental damage, destructive fishing practices such as dynamite fishing and bottom trawling, pollution, and global warming.
This important program will be hosted by acting Zoo director Steve Monfort. The distinguished panel includes experts working on all aspects of coral conservation.
• Mary Hagedorn, from the Zoo, will discuss her latest research on creating a frozen repository of endangered coral.
• Mike Henley, from the Zoo’s Invertebrate Exhibit, will discuss his work growing endangered coral at the Zoo.
• Eric Borneman, from the University of Houston, will outline some of the global and local threats to coral.
• Mitch Carl, from Henry Doorly Zoo, will discuss how he has grown and distributed thousands of specimens of endangered elkhorn coral.
• Jennifer Moore, from the National Marine Fisheries Service and head of the Endangered Species Task Force for Coral, will discuss the latest plans for coral protection and restoration.
• Dirk Peterson, from the Rotterdam Zoo, will discuss the formation and work of the coral consortium SECORE (Sexual Coral Reproduction).
• Christine Hicks, of Counterpart International, will discuss efforts to save coral throughout the Caribbean.
• Ken Nedimyer, of the Coral Restoration Foundation, will discuss how he created his staghorn coral nursery in the Florida Keys.

6:30 – 8 p.m. Lecture
8 – 9 p.m. Grab a drink from the cash bar and enjoy complimentary cheese and crackers. Mingle with scientists and international conservation leaders from Belize, the Netherlands, Fiji, Jamaica, Virgin Islands, and the United States including Puerto Rico, and learn about the Zoo’s coral collection and research from volunteer interpreters.
Parking is free, but we encourage you to take public transportation to the Zoo.
This lecture is sponsored by NOAA, Counterpart International, and the Smithsonian Institution.

RSVP fonz_programs@si.edu

Flower Gardens?

CTReefer — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:41:25 GMT

E: Wanted to get your assessment since I knew that you would know!

What's meant by "Healthiest" anyway?? Steve

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090813142508.htm

A "walking dendro"

Umm_fish — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:27:57 GMT

Hi Eric! Sorry it's been a while. The tank seems to be sustaining more than fish these days so I'm slowly starting to stock inverts.

I was in the LFS where I had some store credits saved up and I came across a coral I'd never seen before that I had to pick up. Called a "walking dendro" because it lives in associate with a worm symbiont that will move the coral around as needed. Mine stayed pretty close to where I started it out and burrowed on into a sandbed overnight. The coral itself looks like a small brain coral. Very cool.

I'm really interested in these little structures:

Any idea what those could be?

Thanks and I hope you've been well.

Another tank spawn !!!

corysreef — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:54:14 GMT

I came home yesterday to this..What a good way to end a hard day at work..from 1pm to 10pm they let eggs out..i am not sure what time they started=)

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr137/saltwaterpimp/BlueCloveSpawn012.jpg

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr137/saltwaterpimp/BlueCloveSpawn010.jpg

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr137/saltwaterpimp/BlueCloveSpawn007.jpg

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr137/saltwaterpimp/BlueCloveSpawn004.jpg

Coral placement guide/light saturation

xroads — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:02:07 GMT

Hi Eric,

I have been studing alot.

I keep on seeing people talk about the proper placement of corals in the tank as compared to on the reef. Is there a guide somewhere that will tell hobbiests where on the reef the corals they are buying come from & where to place them in your tank?

Same with light saturation.

Is it the coral can only use so many hours in a day, or is it that it can only use so much par. I have a par meter, but I dont know which corals need which par for how long.

Thanks

Craig

a dearth of pods-why?

Reefski — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:20:29 GMT

There still continues to be a dearth of small crustaceans. When I look in the tank at night I don’t see any small crustaceans. The Mandarin continues to pick at the rockwork and doesn’t seem to be suffering.

the surge tanks are kept in the dark. one is empty and the other has several pounds of long established live rock with sponges et al. over that i put a layer of 1" size dry coral. that was 6 months ago.

when i look in these tanks and the garage tanks that are fishless i don't see any pods moving around. the only waer movement in the surge tanks is the inflow of water to fill. the surges are fed from water at the end of the sumps.

should i run a powerhead in the surges? should i fed these other tanks directly?

i think my water quality overall is getting better. i have been running the ro/di almost continually and changing out water with Seachem ASW. the cyano in the display has gone. the one Acro remaining is growing and the Heliopora is still doing well in the garage tank with lot of macroalgae seen below.

there may still be a few small crustaceans. i saw one Mysis shrimp the other night after lights out. i think it was just the exoskeleton blowing in the current but it means there was/is mysis still in the system. when i first set up the tank there were no fish in the system and the display tank was ruled by hundreds of mysis. i know many of the fish i have like them, the two hawkfish, copperband, 6 line wrasse, Mandarin, et al.

when i don't clean the viewing panel for a few days there are some very small, less than 1mm pods in the algae film.

there are lots of feather dusters in the sumps and garage tanks. i know the copperband in the display is likely eating any there.

This garage tank has no fish. It grows macroalgae and sponges but there doesn’t look to be any life in the sand. That is probably not true but that is how it looks.

in the display there are lots of the tube worms with two feeding tentacles in the sand. there is also hundreds of mini brittle stars all over the system. is there a fish that likes to eat them? i don't think a Harlequin shrimp would survive the hawkfish.

should i feed more? should i feed after lights out? i only occasionally feed after dark.

PO4 levels were 0.19 a couple of days ago and i used Lanthanum Chloride for the first time in many weeks.

there is a lot to do later today. 150 gallon water change, clean skimmer, change carbon and GFO.

Evil Coral

Mudslingercor — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:38:19 GMT

Evil eye watching me all the time, make it stop

Happy halloween

acro growth/tumor

LarryK — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:28:30 GMT

I've had this coral for a few years. I got it as a small frag. I noticed a whitish looking growth near the base a while ago, but never really paid attention to it. By now it's gotten pretty big...maybe 1/2" long. I thought it might have been a sponge of some type, but when I poked it, it's hard. Sort of looks like it "growing" out of the coral itself. Sorry about the pic quality, but it's the best I can do.

This 1 is near the base.

I just noticed this 1 when taking the pics. It's near the top left of the coral.

Here's the whole coral with the 2 areas circled.

Reef Stewardship Foundation Review available

Eric Borneman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:32:17 GMT

Thank you, Marine Depot, for your support!

http://rsr.reefstewardshipfoundation.org/vol1iss1/

Euphyllia collapse

Doug G — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:34:10 GMT

I have had a torch coral die over a few days. Just sort of melted away into empty skeleton. There is only a tiny bit left, looking poorly. It had been doing fine for maybe 2 months.

What could be the problem?

I think it is excess flow, as it seemed to happen first to the polyp that had the greatest flow, but then spread to the three others (it is a branched skeleton type, had four polyps/branches). I did some searches, and it sounds like excessive flow can lead to recession and melt out.

The nearby frogspawn (also the branched species) frags are doing well, including one that the fragger had cracked into the live part. They are even growing, and the cracked skeleton pieces are fused. Also a nearby Favites is doing fine, growing well..... I'm thinking these observations rule out feeding, light or water quality issues. The clownfish bothers the frogspawn, not the torch, so that doesn't seem to be the problem.

Any other theories?

Holy PH drop

xroads — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:13:47 GMT

I finally closed up the house & turned on the heat yesterday.

My PH plumeted from its normal 8.2 down to 7.55 in a day. I dosed some Kak last night & it came up to 7.8 Then this morning it came down to 7.55 again.

I dont have any windows in the basement I can keep cracked. This is a fairly new house that is pretty tight.

Any good recomendations?

Thanks
Craig

What is it about rot?

Doug G — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:33:42 GMT

It seems to me about the primary problem that happens to aquariums is excess rot, basically. Too much food, too many fish and their waste, dead things, dying algae, etc. Or too much vinegar, in Charles' case.

It's obvious that if, say, you drop a dead trout into your aquarium, most things will die. And it's obvious if you drop a dead trout in a bucket of water, wait a week, then drink the water, you will get sick.

What is happening with this? Aquarium books talk a lot about Ammonia and Nitrate cycling, but I think often that cycling is well taken care of anyway, and pure nitrate is not all that toxic. Somewhat a problem of pH lowering due to organic acids, and all the oxygen being used up by decomposers. But I think the primary problem is perhaps bacterial toxins or toxic complex organic byproducts of decomposition?

Fine Tuning Microscope Picture Taking

BrianPlankis — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:53:27 GMT

Hey Eric and all,

The Reef Stewardship Foundation recently received its first high quality microscope for doing research on marine ornamental larvae. Eric and I setup the scope and took a few test photographs of a simple glass scrapping of the tank wall. These are just the first shots with almost no adjustments to the scope or the camera.

I will use this thread to describe how I adjust the microscope and post pictures from after the adjustments are done. While I think these pictures are OK, the view through the eyepieces was CLEARLY better, so I'm going to work with Eric and Dr. Shimek to start getting better pictures. All that being said, these pictures are better than any I've gotten with a couple of crappy scopes that we used for initial larval work.

TestShot1:

Eric mentioned what this critter was before, but I have forgotten. The filaments in the background are cyano algae.

TestShot2:

Another unknown critter. This one was moving very fast and I did not have glycerol at the time.

TestShot3:

Two more unknown critters. I saw hundreds of the circular (spherical) object on the right, none of them moved at all. I only saw one of the critters with the forked tail on the left.

Except for resizing and for auto adjusting the contrast, these pictures are unaltered. One thing that constantly bothers me about the microscope shots I have taken, regardless of what microscope I have used, is that I always need to adjust contrast on the pictures in Photoshop to clear up a "fuzziness". I hope I can find out how to take pictures to eliminate that step.

What do you think Eric? Others?

Brian

PS. I couldn't figure out how to do inline images, the little image button on the toolbar did not seem to function for me.

MH bulb question

troypt — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:09:36 GMT

I need to replace my bulbs. I have been running 2 250 watt 14k Phoenix bulbs on my 125 gallon tank. The tank is doing fine, but certain corals have pretty drab colors. For example, I have an orange plating montipora and a purple plating montipora that are both about the same brownish color. I have a superman montipora that has great red polyps, but the base is not really blue, more purple. Other's, are pretty good, for example, I have a nice green acro with blue tips

I was wondering do you have any recommendations? I was thinking of trying a 10,000k bulb. Are any brands, better than others?

Thanks

Troy

numbers on plastic bottles

beaslbob — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:23:05 GMT

I heard on a sunday morning medical show (housecall on foxnews) there is a number in a triangle on the bottom of plastic containers.

These numbers indicate what plastic the containers are made of.

The report was that certain numbers (2, and 6 i think) are fine to refill and drink from again. 2 is used in milk bottles but I can't remember the others.

found this link:

http://www.sproutman.com/pdf/Plastic_Drinking_Bottles.pdf

Which lists the plastics on page 2 or 3 but I could not copy the text.

Just wondered if this has some spill over to our reef tanks and dosing containers.

cabezon eggs and mussels

jakik — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:22:12 GMT

Hi,
I often go to the coast and while my husband catches our dinner, I collect food to feed the fish and corals that I keep. My haul usually consists of: sand crabs, mussels, grass and sand shrimp, copepods and seaweed. Sometimes there are roe in the fish that I use as well. This weekend, a pregnant cabezon was caught, full of eggs. The eggs are known to be poisonous to humans so I have never used them. I do wonder if they are also poisonous to fish and corals.
I only recently began to wonder about mussels. We can't eat them from May thru the end of October due to the danger of paralytic shellfish poison and domoic acid. Do you know if fish and corals can be poisoned like people can? I also read that I should be concerned about mercury. That is a real possibility because there are old mercury mines around here that are still leaching mercury. I have fed mussels during the summer months in small quantities and no fish have gotten sick yet.

Thanks for your Input,
Jaki

Zoanthid species

charlesr1958 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:36:06 GMT

I was lead to a website that supposedly had photo identifications of Zoanthids and I wrongly assumed that I was going to see some actual species names which of course it was all a bunch of photos of various colored Zoanthids with those lame arse names (superman, watermellon ect ect). I have wondered from time to time if there are actualy any distinct Zoanthid species and up untill now, always assumed they were all just color variations of the same Zoanthid species, whatever that is? Anyways, are there distinct species and if so, do you have a species list? I tried google but came away empty handed other than Zoanthids being made up of a few genera and thats about it. What I'm interested in are the popular Zoanthids that makes everyone seem to lose their mind and shell out 100 bucks for five polyps....

Chuck

Synthetic salt test

xroads — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 06:22:30 GMT

Hi Eric,

Can you share your findings on your salt tests.

Thanks

Craig

Pink Skeleton on Acans?

rtparty — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:39:52 GMT

So all of my acans now have pink skeletons. I have searched all over the internet and find nothing about us. The President of my local club said I should try here. Even he has no idea what is up and he is a marine biologist. You may know him or you may not but look him up. His name is Adam Blundell.

Anyways, does anyone here know what causes the pink skeleton? Is there anyway to treat it? I was told Tetracycline will kill the bacteria but I am afraid of hurting the corals also.

Thanks in advance!

Different habitats

troypt — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:30:05 GMT

So when I set up my new tank this past summer, I set up a fuge with different chambers to try to set up different habitats. The first chamber has a few pieces of live rock and chaeto. The second has a DSB 6-8 inches deep with a few small pieces of live rock, some of the rock as pushed down into the sand. The third has pebble sized crushed coral/shells 3-4 inches deep with a few small pieces of live rock. the last chamber has 1-2 inches of the pebble sized coral/shells ( I didn't have anything else to put in there) and some bigger pieces of live rock, with some parts of the rock sticking out of the water. There are a couple of turbo snails and cerith snails that live in the fuge, but that is all the livestock I have put in.

Should I add to or change any of the chambers? Each chamber is about 6-8 inches long and 15-18 inches wide and 24-28 inches deep. Should I add any other livestock-shrimp, snails, crabs, different kinds of macro, etc. to the fuge? I don't want to add any livestock the would be detrimental, but at the same does adding other livestock to increase diversity, improve the tank?

Thanks

Troy

60 reef epoxy

Ste Hughes — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:20:38 GMT

Hello Eric

on one of your fragging videos i have seen i notice you mention and use a 60 second epoxy to attach frags

could you tell me which one it was please

thanks muchly

Steve

Preliminary look at skimmate

Eric Borneman — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:31:19 GMT

I just sampled some skimmate after one month of operation, allowing for both liquid and sludge in the sample and from the inside and outside of the skimmer neck. A quick look under the microscope and there is a lot of activity - polychaete larvae, copepods, amphipods, nematodes. I stirred it into solution and will let it settle to see what creatures might come out. Then, I will filter the water over various microns of filter paper and determine the average particle size removed and then do an analysis on the water saving an aliquot for higher resolution analysis and freeze the sludge for mass spec ande other at -80C for analysis at a later date.

I should get good bacterial counts and biomass on another sample after filtering between 1 and 0.22 microns. I'll try and enlist a good microbiologist to help...any out there?

I'll do fresh bubbles as they are skimming, too.

Killing Montipora's Nudibranch

Joematota — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:00:58 GMT

Dear Eric,

I read your article "two potential molluscides useful against...".I have a question about the treatment to the montipora.I believe I have this problem with one of my montiporas and I really want to save the piece of coral.I read that we need to use potassium permanganate to treat the infected coral.On the article you recalled that in the past you used the oxidizer with a product called Poly-ox but in the trial you used dilution of 100% pure potassium permanganate to treat the infected coral.
What is the concentration of potassium permanganate in the product(poly-ox) and If I intended to follow trial 5 how could I get it done with the Poly-ox product?(how much do I need to use).

Jose Figueroa

Wondering what your opinion is on the product

Graveyardworm — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:38:41 GMT

http://mcuresearch.com/co2.html

There are soo many different ways for CO2 to enter our systems do you think this could have an impact on CO2 and consequently pH levels. I'm considering getting one just to see. With the onset of colder weather here in the Northeast, and closing windows I see my pH is running lower. I've tried kalk with a controller in the past and while it did work to an extent it really didnt help as far as keeping Ca and alk up so it was basically just buffering pH. I took that offline after my pH mysteriously went through the roof one day. If it doesnt work out atleast I have a nice canister for running some other media.

Heteropsammia cochlea

pebbles — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:55:06 GMT

Hi Eric,

I originally posted this question in Dr Ron's forum as I wasn't sure which 'category' it fits into. I am posting here because Dr Ron is uncertain about the feeding nature of the worm, and I am hoping you may have kept this coral before. So here goes...

I have been offered the above coral, but upon googling I have some questions I hope you can help me with.

Basically I'm not too worried about keeping the coral, but I'm concerned about providing the appropriate habitat for the accompanying worm Aspidosiphon corallicola. I'm also not sure if this will come with the parasitic mussel, Lithophaga lessepsiana. I guess unless these are looked after the coral will ultimately die - or no? Is it right to assume survival is dependent on the health of my DSB? What can I do to provide an appropriate habitat / food source for the worm and/or mussel?

Thanks for your time,

Chlorine and Algae

SantaMonica — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:07:25 GMT

Is it known if algae consumes chlorine?

Adding vinegar

reefdiculous — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:59:07 GMT

So ive been doing some reading and have began to consider adding vinegar or seltzer water to try and lower my ph. It is about 8.6 right now with an alkalinity of 12 and calcium of 450. My water has been slightly cloudy, without an algae bloom, and ive read that my imbalance of a high ph and high alkalinity could be the cause of such problems. Does this sound like sound logic? Would you warrant against it? I would going to add about .5ml/gal to start.

Zeovit method

reefdiculous — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:34:06 GMT

Is anyone familiar with the Zeovit method? I cant seem to find much on it but I hear its quite effective.

When Swordfish Conservation Biologists Eat Swordfish

Alentino — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:28:37 GMT

An interesting and engaging article to share;

http://www.tethys.org/download/pdf/Bearzi_ConsBiol_InPress.pdf

Millepora wont extend polyps

reefdiculous — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:21:31 GMT

My millepora was doing fine when i bought it but wont extend its polyps since ive had it in my tank. About 3 weeks now. Any idea why?

Chloride Imbalance Fears

Alentino — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:23:44 GMT

Hi experts,

I setup a skimmerless mixed reef aquarium with mostly acroporids in my workplace. It's been running only for 7 months, and as usual I never did any water changes due to zero nitrate and phosphate readings on salifert kits all the way. However, the calcium demand is high and i find myself keep having to replenish calcium levels with the use of calcium chloride (seachem reef advantage calcium). Not long after continued dosage, i noticed an increase in salinity and so i had to dilute my aquarium water with DI.

Now I have read all the warnings regarding "slow accumulation of chloride atoms with frequent use of calcium chloride powder", just wondering has anyone actually experienced any negative impacts on livestock in this manner? Has anyone gone through a similar route like mine and yet had no problems after years?