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

My Brain is Bleaching

EricA — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:32:05 GMT

My open brain coral has begun to bleach I believe because a flame angel and tang began picking at it when I cut back the food I was putting in the tank. I guess you'd call it one of those laws of unintended consequences. In any case, this happened with a second brain recently and there seemed to be no way to reverse it. I've increased the feeding and started adding nori on a clip in the hope that the picking will stop.

My question is: Is there any way to reverse the bleaching?

Sponges release huge amounts of choanocytes to reef

Alentino — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:56:22 GMT

http://www.physorg.com/news177312219.html

Hi Eric and other experts,

if sponges release substantial amount of their choanocytes thought to be food source to the reef, what kind of organisms feed on these choanocytes? Do any corals feed on them or is it just the benthic organisms and certain filter feeders?

"An Idea": In Translation

johnalex — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:25:48 GMT

I'm not sure I'm ready to start an actual tank build thread yet, but as part of my continued research and planning for my first tank, I'd love to spark a discussion about how to translate some of Chuck's methods from his "Idea" thread into a model for those just entering the hobby, like me. This model would offer an alternative to what is commonly available and recommended to first-timers. (Now that I have finished the post, I apologize for its length. I'm not usually so verbose, but I can't find anything to cut out).

Being that I have only been at this a few months, I doubt I even have the perspective to fully understand what is so revolutionary about Chuck's idea. Maybe it has even been done before, in one way or another. I can only talk about my experience of entering the hobby, traveling around and talking to folks at the many and various fish stores in and around Boston and New York, reading a bunch of books and magazines, and of course wading through the huge volume of online resources. I have been intense in my research, but not for very long. Of course Eric's book was one of the books I bought, though I'm not all the way through it, and early on I was excited to see that he had this forum, but when I saw the titles of the threads, it just seemed too advanced for me, so I went elsewhere. I'm glad to be back!

Even though I have always gravitated towards a more natural approach in whatever I do, I can't help but be tempted when I see all the gadgets and potions out there. Like Christmas every day! It's very hard to resist that route. And to all initial appearances, it works, and one is able to create an amazing underwater world of brilliant colors and delicious textures, seemingly teeming with life. Soon I had every TOTM archive bookmarked and would spend hours pouring over the pictures and descriptions. It's kind of like online pornography. It's very seductive. If I had been more impulsive and started my tank sooner, there's no question I would have gone that route.

But as the days/weeks went by, I realized I wasn't pulling the trigger. My wife and I both got excited about this hobby at the same time, but she's into FW stuff, and soon she had 3 new planted tanks set up, but I would come home from the stores empty handed, or with yet another book. I was being conscientious, but I was also looking for something I wasn't seeing. I was realizing that setting up one of those eye candy tanks wasn't actually going to be satisfying on a deep and sustainable level. That there was something too artificial about it, not really soul nourishing, the way the the natural world can be.

I'm haven't gotten too far in determining exactly what would be deeply satisfying, but I hope this thread will help. I know Chuck's tank is speaking to me strongly, but I don't have enough understanding yet to know why. I know it involves simplicity of design, lack of gadgets and fads. I know it involves biodiversity, and diversity of ecological niches within the same tank. I know it's about the natural filtration processes, the massive generation of micro-fauna, the ability for the system to be to a large extent self-sustaining in its feeding and waste removal.

The final thing that's exciting about it to me is the most problematic. It's the way it's such a realistic "slice of the reef." It makes total sense for Chuck to recreate something he sees and has access to every day. But what kind of marine aquatic environment makes sense for me to create here in the Berkshires (and not a big tropical traveler/diver)? How can I discipline myself to ignore all of the amazing specimens available to me locally and online, and focus on just one small slice? Also, since I can't drive down the street and dive in and bring this stuff back to my house, how can I hope to approach the biodoversity, and will my system even succeed some small percentage of Chuck's with the raw materials I have access to?

So those are some of the stocking/philosophy questions I'm thinking about.

I also have questions about the physical setup. After I started to get past the TOTM phase, I started thinking that the only way to set up a system with integrity would be several interconnected tanks with different habitats. I would get pretty excited concocting these big plans, but then I would get overwhelmed. I just couldn't suddenly turn a huge portion of my house into an underwater laboratory, and I couldn't hope to set up and manage such a huge system with no experience. I needed something smaller to start, so each day I would come up with what I thought was a good tank size, and begin my planning anew. But then I'd add a sump with an ATS, because I knew that was a must, and while I was plumbing that I'd put in a refugium, but then I wanted the refugium to be bigger, and on display, and I wanted cryptic zones, etc,etc,etc and I was back to something unmanageable.

That's what I think is so revolutionary about Chuck's simple design. But it seems that Chuck only came up with it because his tank wasn't drilled! I don't have a tank, so I could get a drilled one if I wanted.

So my first question for Chuck is: if you had it to do again, and you could start with a drilled tank and do an interconnected system as you originally planned, would you? I hope you'll say that this in-tank ATS/sump/refugium plan is the greatest, because that's what I think and what I want to pursue, but I thought I'd check to make sure!

Thanks to all of you who have made it through this long post. I hope to be less long winded in future, but I thought the background would be helpful and necessary. I hope this will begin an exciting and informative journey.

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!

Caribbean Corals?

mukymuk — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:16:28 GMT

Hi Eric,

I've always been interested in building a reef tank populated with only Caribbean species. My assumption has been that Caribbean stony corals were not available in the trade due to collection/importation laws. Is this true?

I googled up "Caribbean corals sale" and eventually happened upon your article, "Caribbean Corals Coming Soon"--I was thinking "Jackpot!". Well, the cliffhanger at the end of the article definitely had me googling ferociously, but to no avail. I was wondering if I simply can't find the follow-on article. Or perhaps you have yet to write it?

Also, you mention in the article that the problem algae was dictyota. That caught my attention because in the late 90's I dove some along the Yucatan peninsula--mainland south of Cancun north of Tulum. Its nothing but mile after mile of dictyota and sponge choked reef. Is dictyota a general consequence in the Caribbean? What eats that stuff? I've seen it before and since, but never on the scale I witnessed in Mexico.

I have some history diving Caribbean reefs over the past 20 years. I have never been diving anywhere else. I can't argue the superior diversity and physical beauty of pacific reefs. Even so, Caribbean reefs have something special for me. I'd really like to be able to create a small piece of them. I've always imagined a Montastrea annularis boulder setting in sand and rubble with it's typical entourage of life--sponge, worms, gorgonians, a hidden anemone, even a bit of fire coral. It's always been sort of an Caribbean reef icon to me.

Anyway, I was wondering if there was a follow on to the article? Are you were aware of any new developments--for the facility mentioned in the article or for the industry in general?

Shawn

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

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.

Sun Coral

ReefNewbie — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:16:09 GMT

I went to my LFS yesterday to buy a couple of firefish, only to walk out with 4 new coral frags .
They had a nice collection of new frags and among them was a sun coral so I bought it and I want to make sure I feed it properly.
Does anyone have a good way to spot feed the heads individually without the food floating off and the shrimp/fish eating it all?
I heard about placing a cup over the coral at night and squirting in some mysis shrimp. I'm not sure that is sufficient.
Do they only eat mysis or would they like pellets as well?
How often should I feed them?

Another subject: I bought a yellow toadstool coral about a month ago. It was doing great. I got up a couple of days ago and found that something had been feeding on it overnight. I am suspecting my pincushion urchin (he looked guilty)

The coral looks very pitiful now but it seems to be hanging in there (what's left of it). Are they known to recover from such a thing?

Any tips/suggestions are very much appreciated!

Black Band disease?

reefer31 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:48:53 GMT

Anyone know what kills it and how it comes about on the coral? I read on wiki that its a cyanobacteria? So technically an antibiotic dip or maybe chemiclean/redslime remover would kill it??? Any comments?

Thanks, Ian

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

Skeletal boring organism

charlesr1958 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:36:50 GMT

For the last week or so I've noticed a number of small white spots appearing on the eldest of my Pocillopora colonies and fearing that they could be a nudibranch spp. I broke off a small fragment of an affected area and put it under the dissecting scope.

I gently touched a few of them with a pin but noticed that they are not a nudibranch but more of a sandy ball of mucus.

I gently moved the "ball" away hoping to see some details or movement but it is easily obvious that it is indeed mucus with what I'm assuming to be the drilled remnants of the coral's skeleton. The area under the mucus balls are dead and each one has a very tiny hole centered in the dead areas, which I am again assuming is the burrow of something. No clue as to what it could be and don't see how I can do anything for the coral at all other than hope it will not become a huge problem and the coral can deal with it.

Chuck

Bacteria and Allelopathy

SantaMonica — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:52:21 GMT

Given:

1. Bacteria break down DOC.
2. Allelopathic chemicals are DOC.
3. Skimmers remove bacteria.

Does it follow that skimmed tanks would have more allelopathic chemicals, since the bacteria is being skimmed out?

Reef Video

charlesr1958 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:03:07 GMT

This video was created by the local Mactan Aquarium and is shown to all visiting school children and is also distributed throughout the local school system as well. Quite shocking at first but there is a bright side and I'm thrilled to see such educational material being produced localy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GDxw-dlALs

Below is a link showing how Linda and I use our home aquarium to teach our local school children about the life that lives literaly in their backyards. I'm always amazed how unaware the local population is of their reefs.

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/Reef%20Awareness%20Day.html

Chuck

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?

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.

My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:19:04 GMT

Part one. My early tanks (as best I recall).

Based on an email to a friend in South Africa (edited for continuity, ehb 1-3-09)):

Let me start by telling you what I have found and why and how it corresponds to what we know about reefs and habitats. Basic energy flow is really important, spatial heterogeneity is really important, and maintaining diversity is really important.

If I showed you photos of my main tank today, or in recent years (before Hurricane Ike this year), it is probably the most attractive I have ever had. I rarely buy anything - livestock, equipment or supplies (except salt) - and don't seek out the really colorful coral morphs. I have occasionally wound up with them as they became colorful, or occasionally I have bought something unusual that happened to be colorful, but most of my tank livestock is and has been, for ten years, the equivalent of an animal shelter. Most of my fish and corals had been given to me to aquarists who left town or didn't want them anymore, or they needed care/healing. Although I still maintained a similar strategy, it has not been the ideal system as I had in the last years of the 90's and early 2000's. I have missed that opportunity to recreate it because I won't get rid of all these unwanted homeless animals simply to satisfy my desire to go back to what I had.

Unfortunately, that wonderful whole system, as well as my favorite 40-gallon tank that was a pure "box of water" was lost in 2001, two days after I had left for Australia. I received a call in Melbourne that the air conditioning had quit in the house and "all the corals had turned white or green." Of course, the resultant loss took out the snails and made quite a mess. No fish losses, but the whole habitat was essentially knocked back to ground zero with only small remnants of some of the corals left, and I met Brandee a few months later. It took us four years before the tank was absolutely perfect again, but different, and at a stage even I was uncomfortable with in terms of growth- and then it was lost again. This time to a tank sabotage that was well known from this forum. I almost left the hobby for good after that, and Brandee and I were both streaming tears as we removed the wreckage of the tank, pulling out Acropora colonies that were twenty pounds. I have a photo of one that Brandee is holding that was from her waist to her chin and the base was as thick as her leg - all from a fragment four years earlier.

So, I am taking advantage of this opportunity to live out my desire to recreate that system, but different, through you. It was admittedly an amazing system, and most people could not believe it could be done, and those who saw it appeared stunned to me. I was actually stunned how well it worked too, to be honest, and hence my remorse at its loss. It was not as visually stunning as it was in recent years in terms of having that "tank of the month" look, but I liked that. As one person said, looking at my sand bed at night, "I can't believe this, the bottom of your tank is literally moving." There was a lot of life! I never got that again because I have never completely set up the system to meet the criteria I designed.

So, let me describe first those earlier tanks to show what is possible, and then I will suggest what you can do, in your own way, to have similar results and bringing together the best of all worlds as far as I have envisioned and experienced but never had the chance to make happen.

First, I want to describe the 40-gallon “box of water,” and two other examples to impress what can be done. I was intrigued by the Jaubert descriptions in the early 1990s and, humbly, I think the three finest tanks I know about or have seen to date have been this one, the mangrove tank Julian Sprung had, and the entire facility of Inland Aquatics. All three of these were operating at roughly the same time - the mid 1990s. Inland was the licensed facility for Algae Turf Scrubbers, and the owner, Morgan Lidster, had an enormous facility with some retail space but the majority was a breeding and culture warehouse filled with tanks. The entire system of countless thousands of gallons of water and tanks with critters and fish breeding on their own and propagated corals growing everywhere was run by a turf scrubbing system. Two 4m Archimedes screw pumps pulled water up and across the turf screens, so the water flow was totally non-traumatic. The huge fiberglass sumps that fed them were filled with rock and coral recruits (mostly P. damicornis) and sponges. The sides of the tank looked indistinguishable to staring at the substrate of a reef or a tide pool. Indistinguishable. Complete crusts of filter feeders, sponges, byrozoans, forams, corals, reproducing snails, coralline crusts, clumps of macroalgae. Morgan did get in livestock regularly which he quarantined before they were sold or used as broodstock, rarely selling anything brought in until it was bred or propagated, and even then, only after many months of holding and acclimating. This is such a good story, and I will tell you more about it next time we see each other because there is a lot to be learned here and it is impossible to type it all. Morgan also maintained huge vertical column cultures of rotifers, greenwater (phytoplankton), and Artemia that were literally poured into those systems. The amount of food going in was just crazy. The nutrient levels were below detection.

A lot of people complained that his water was yellow and his corals were brown, but it was logistical. Morgan used 5500K bulbs in the interest of cost and efficiency for so many tanks, knowing those corals would become or appear colorful again in the owners’ tanks. The yellow water came from the chlorophyll from the turf screens and the constant input of greenwater. He had one tank in the back where he used ozone, and even local application to this tank despite being a single water system clarified that water so that it looked like a display tank. The complaints of yellow water were flawed judgments against the system since Morgan was operating from a functional and not aesthetic mode, and obviously he or anyone could clear the yellow to crystal clear with carbon or ozone if desired. Some hobby leaders at the time wrongfully relegated the method of turf scrubbers to the ash heap of the hobby without ever using one, based solely on the yellow water and the brown corals which was an artifact of the practical function in place.

But here's the best part. He never did a water change. Ever. Seven years (at that time) without a water change in a facility with a flux of selling, propagating, breeding, and thousands of gallons. He remarked, "I had to have a system that could do this - I only have a handful of employees and they are busy breeding, selling, and keeping things running. How could I afford the time or the money to change water on this scale?" And that was absolutely true. Allegra Small (Walter Adey's grad student) and I analyzed the diversity of life in the water and benthos in the summer of 1995 and found it was nearly equivalent to a wild reef. She published it in Atoll Research Bulletin a few years later. I have photos, but they are on film (no digital cameras then) and are buried in a box. The point here is that you can have a low nutrient, high diversity system that is all but self-sustaining except for artificial lighting, the scrubber trays and dump buckets, and the water pumps.

Incidentally, the entire concept of refugiums in home aquariums came from Morgan based on Adey’s work and design. They were an integral part of the Adey turf scrubber systems that were sold, and the entire concept of a "DSB" that has since become a mainstay of the hobby also originally came straight from here as another integral part of the ATS system, predating Jaubert's DSB of the late 80's by almost ten years! Knowing history is really kind of cool, and to see the hobby today with really no idea of where these methods and concepts came from, now being discussed as common language, is very strange since we were all right in the middle of it - and it was Walter Adey who did it first at the Smithsonian, and then licensed it to one facility in the world for the aquarium trade - Morgan Lidster at Inland Aquatics. He was the first to offer aftermarket HOB refugiums, and was the first to sell refugium starters with critters. He was the first to offer beautiful decorative macroalgae for refugia. He seeded turf screens with 50 species for successional growth. He largely introduced the concept of phytoplankton that formed the basis of bottled phytoplankton and phytoplankton reactors. It was all right there, and how many people know this or credit this to him or Adey? Amazing, huh?

Julian's tank was exceptional because it came when people first started bringing in mangrove props and imagining that they would work as "nutrient export." It was, of course, a rather preposterous notion that a mangrove prop or tree would or could “filter” a reef aquarium but nonetheless people were planting trees in the middle of their aquariums, underwater. Most rotted, of course, because the sand was too clean and too shallow, and the people who did get them to live quickly found out you can't plant a tree in a tank since they would grow through the ceiling. Duh. But Julian, living in Florida, knew mangrove habitat well, and he had a small shallow tank with a small mangrove with prop roots and stocked it with very few things, and only a few fish and invertebrates that you find among the prop roots of a mangrove forest. He had barely a trickle of water flowing in the tank, so it was very still. No filtration and it used sunlight. A tiny microhabitat, and as far as I know, no one has done this better or really done it well at all in the hobby until public aquariums began doing real mangrove habitat tanks.

Having seen this, and also with talk of the theory of Jaubert being a buzz in the hobby (but no one really trying it, or trying it for a short time and failing, quitting or complaining), I tried it. At the time, I had a Berlin bare-bottom skimmed tank with a Carlson surge device, and two years later I would set up my first ATS tank when Morgan gave me a small ATS to try and use. We talked a lot then, and we talked about Jaubert, too. I got a 40-gallon breeder tank and set it up with a 4" sand bed and a 1" plenum, according to the Jaubert design. I put rock in, let it cycle, and then added a few coral props from my main tank. I added two fish. That was it. I then went to sleep each night in a sweat, worrying I would wake up to dead corals and fish in the morning. After several months, nothing had died and things looked good, so I added some more. And more. And more. My Berlin tank was doing well, but had various issues... increasing nitrates, phosphates, cyano blooms, etc. requiring water changes. But the Jaubert tank didn't. At the time, I was just using fluorescent bulbs, but the corals did well, nutrients stayed low, and the fish were fat and happy. The sand bed was very alive, and I had used all medium grade sand as per the model. I was doing water changes, but was not adding any calcium or alkalinity supplements, again as per the Jaubert model.

Rob Toonen and I were talking at the time, and Morgan agreed, that fine sands seemed more productive though largely unavailable – the sand people were using was usually Carib Sea Special Grade Reef Sand (mostly old dead Halimeda thalli). Rob would go on and prove that fine sands were better in some articles he wrote, and it led quickly to the availability of fine grained "oolitic sands" to the hobby. This led years later to the seminal discussions DSB's with Ron Shimek and Rob Toonen, the pseudo-discussions and articles of Bob Goemans, and the many discussion of forums continuing today. Morgan and I also recognized the importance of spatial heterogeneity in the tank and in the sand. The more habitats, the more diversity, So we began doing different things, Morgan would screen areas of the tank and have separate areas of fine grained, medium grained and coarse grained sands. We both began to bury rock and rubble in the sand, and I opted to mix sand types. I found they stratified and had different types of life in the various layers. Rob was running tests, and as we all suspected by now, the plenum was a theoretical exercise by Jaubert and really did nothing (Charles Delbeek also sampled plenum water at Waikiki and essentially found the same).

At this point I moved back to Houston and took that tank by putting the rock and fish and corals in buckets with water and a powerhead in each bucket. I put these in a moving truck and used a cigarette lighter power inverter for electricity, taped extension cords along the side of the truck into the back, and powered the powerheads in the buckets. I didn't want to lose that sand bed, so I drained it to a few inches of water, and carried the massively heavy tank into the truck, drove 500 miles from dusk till dawn to avoid overheating in the truck, and set the tank up again. Everything lived, but now I lit it with a 175-watt metal halide, removed the plenum, and ramped up the water flow to have 2000gph using four powerheads in this 40 gallon tank. The water surface rippled with motion. I had long ago learned that contrary to what Jaubert said, the dissolution of sand could not keep up calcium and alkalinity. At least not for me. My corals were growing too fast. The tank was packed with corals, and eventually my Montipora digitata all reached the surface and formed a mini-atoll of dead branch tips where algae grew "intertidally." I no longer did water changes. I used a fan to increase evaporation so I could add enough kalkwasser to keep the calcium and alkalinity up. And I fed heavily using my now well-known coral food mix. So basically, I had a thriving coral reef tank that was a single box of water, four powerheads, and a single light. I fed heavily, never did water changes, and added kalkwasser for all makeup water (almost three gallons a day!). Of course, the Montipora remained rather brown since they only had 175 watts above them, and these same corals would later turn bright purple in my main tank under 400 and 1000 watt lights, but the tank was rock solid. Nothing ever went wrong, nothing ever died, and water quality was a non-existent question. I stopped testing entirely. And the tank ran this way for another four years until 2001. It was a beautiful thing.

I'll get into my main tank and my early ATS in the next installment...stay tuned.

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?

Live streaming of DC coral lectures

Eric Borneman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:49:09 GMT

All,

The following are the instructions to live stream the video from Thursday night's lecture as posted in the pinned thread below.

>>Subject: RE: live streaming of coral panel discussion

You can place the webcast on any website(s) you please with the embed code that I sent to Brittany earlier today. I had assumed this was intended for the National Zoo's site, but this code can be placed on any site you wish, including partner sites outside of SI, if that fits your needs. The webcast will be accessible to the public, as long as they have the Windows Media Player properly installed and they are not behind some firewall that blocks the stream.

Here's the code:

NAME="MediaPlayer" WIDTH=320 HEIGHT=310 ShowStatusBar="1" />

And you are correct, ZooNet is not reachable from the outside.

Below is some background to keep in mind for future events; don't let it confuse you about this one. It involves the use of Ustream.TV as our broadcast platform, which may or may not be viable on the 3 to 5 year old PC in Sam's booth:

Your audiences will only be as large as the group of interested parties who are made aware of the event through your publicity. I do not remember the audience count for the Amphibian Rescue project. I believe we did it through Ustream, which greatly increases the potential size of the audience through both the site's popularity and the PR campaigns in which they engage on our behalf when they believe the content will be of interest to the their viewers and they have a slot in their schedule to place us on their homepage. Placement on their homepage is key for to reaching a large number of people simply because of the native traffic they receive. Even without such placement, the event shows up on our own Ustream page and the Ustream video can be placed on our sites as well, just as we do with our own Windows Media player. We webcast a children's opera from NMAI on Saturday and had 30K total viewers (because we were placed on Ustream's homepage) and about 350 concurrent viewers throughout. Much of that 30K were people who simply happened to visit Ustream's homepage during the event, watched a few minutes and moved on, but they were nonetheless exposed to our brand. Of the 350 concurrent viewers, about 200 were those interested enough to stick with the event throughout. Previous experience around SI tells me that if not for Ustream's front page placement and PR efforts, we'd have had less than 40 viewers, so there is a lot of value there. Ustream is a great option, which may work with the current computer in the booth, but that would have to be tested. I'd also have to show Sam how to use the software. Convenient access to two decent cameras would also be a priority.

Ustream generates their revenue by overlaying ads at the bottom of the screen, so there is that to consider, but I have had no complaints from SAAM or NMAI, our two biggest users, so far. In fact, NMAI is readying to make an ongoing commitment to future streaming. I produced a 3 hour webcast which had 6K viewers and their Director received a lot of encouraging feedback. Thereafter we installed about $20K worth of gear in their auditorium and will be adding cams to other locations in the building. NMNH purchased $45K to upgrade Baird as well. SAAM brought on a new staff member who devotes a portion of his time to streaming and they hire SI AV to shoot the events. In all these cases, I spec gear and provide training and support. I am moving further away from reliance on our own Windows Media servers simply because regardless of the technology employed, we will only be seen by a portion of those people who receive the message that we are hosting an event. Ustream is a destination site and their assistance in carving out a piece of their audience will always yield vastly larger numbers of viewers, and our current audience still has access to the streams either on Ustream or through embedding the player on your own sites.
<<

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.

fuge on reverse daylight question

troypt — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:42:57 GMT

Do the lights on the fuge need to be on the entire time the display tank lights are off?
My MH are on from 3 pm to 11 pm. Then the fuge lights come on at 11 pm and turn off around 8 am. From 8 am to 3 pm the fuge is dark and the tank gets a little natural light from the window. Is this enough time to prevent the drop in ph or do I need to leave the fuge lights on until the MH's come on at 3 pm. I am trying to not use so much electricity.
Thanks
Troy

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

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

Building of a Reef Tank Revisited

Grognard — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:40:29 GMT

I have read the sticky, http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic23945-9-1.aspx, and find it very helpful. I am building a new tank, and have a question on how to put this advice into practice in my new tank.

My setup is a sand habitat planted with seagrass. The seagrass is what is giving me pause. My setup is a 90 gallon system with a DSB in 4 layers; commercial refugium mud on the bottom, covered with sand of mix grades, a layer of live mud at about the depth where the root systems will be, and covered with more sand. I have about 50 pounds live rock in the tank in two bommies, lights is an ATI Sunpower 4x54w, water movement is a Vortech MP20, then the various other components that make a tank.

The live rock is in the process of curing now, about 10 days in. The ammonia spike is past, and the nitrite spike should pass soon too. I will be adding herbivores - dwarf and regular cerith snails, and nerites, this week. I will also be planting some manatee and oar grasses, and some sargassum.

For the moment the tank should be okay with the nitrates from the live rock curing, but I will need a source of nitrogen to keep healthy plant growth. So should I dose a product like Brightwell Florin Grow, or add fish earlier than I would otherwise?

Not sure which is the wiser course

I will be testing CA, Alkalinity, Mg, Fe, and Potassium and will be ready to dose those for the plants.

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

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.

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

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/

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.

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