VIA

What’s this? It sounds like a technical abbreviation such as PAR, PUR,
DOM, DSB and the rest. They are all relevant to a marine aquarium whether it be a reef or fish only system.

No, this isn’t technical at all. No mumbo-jumbo. However, it is directly to do with the aquarist and his/her aquarium. Very much so. The reef aquarium in this case, and it doesn’t matter if it is a hard coral reef, soft coral reef, or a mixed reef.

We’ve all heard of global warming. I know, I know, but please don’t switch off! This is to do with global warming, but there isn’t going to be any doom and gloom and techno- babble. Well, to be truthful a little gloom just to set the picture.

Reefs are at risk from global warming. Nothing new there. The corals we all care for so responsibly in our temperature controlled systems are at great risk from a temperature increase in the wild. Maybe not tomorrow or the day after, but if science is correct the time is going to arrive. Bleaching corals, dissolving soft corals, acidification and the rest. Not much to sing about really. It will apparently happen over a quite lengthy period in human terms, but a short period in nature’s terms. That’s the end of the gloom, hopefully the picture is clear enough. We’ve all heard it enough times anyway.

The marine hobby has advanced in leaps and bounds. Aquariums that used to house dead rocks and bleached coral skeletons with a few fish and maybe a shrimp or two, are now captive living reefs supporting a host of life forms. This proves the tremendous advance in husbandry techniques. There are of course fish, hard and/or soft corals, shrimps, algae and the myriads of tiny life forms that inhabit the reef rocks and sand. The trend is towards natural methods, hence the DSB (deep sand bed), algae filtration etc in addition to live rock. The captive living reef has been achieved by the maintenance of high quality seawater and the provision of high quality lighting, plus adequacy in other areas such as feeding.

Once an aquarist has, say, around a year of experience and can very honestly state that their aquarium is settled and successful there isn’t any reason that an exercise into ‘fragging’ cannot be undertaken. Many aquarists do this and are to be applauded. It is simply creating new corals from a mother hard or soft coral. It is straightforward and more than likely to be successful provided a little research is undertaken before starting. The techniques are well known and simple, and the research will take little time.

A major advantage of ‘fragging’ is that corals are produced that appear to be more hardy than those in the wild. It also reduces the pressures on wild stocks.

If the practice was done by sufficient numbers of aquarists then there wouldn’t need to be the heavy imports that are currently necessary. I don’t believe that imports would stop, but they would reduce very considerably. Commercial concerns are already involved.

But this is not all about the practice of ‘fragging.’ It is about the aquarist.

It is fairly well known that ’seed banks’ exist of very many land based plants. One such bank is in the UK, Europe. There are others. These banks are there to protect a species should there be a problem that threatens their numbers or even existence.

If enough aquarists undertook the practice of ‘fragging’ the hobby could be nearly self sustaining. But take it further - how many aquarists are there in the world who maintain reef aquariums? There are thousands.

All these aquarists keep corals on their reefs, hard and soft. There isn’t any global warming danger within these aquariums - they are temperature controlled with heaters and/or chillers. The corals grow very well.

So what in effect have we got? A seed bank, or in this case a coral bank. Whatever happens in the wild in the medium and long term, disaster or not, many of the corals will still be with us. They grow and produce more without too much difficulty for the aquarist. In fact, often they grow so well they have to be reduced by ‘thinning‘ - so more corals appear. Provided the marine hobby continues to exist, and I cannot see why it should not, many corals types will never be lost.

Public institutions usually are the main keepers and protectors of wild species, except in the case of marine corals (and fish). I haven’t any figures, but the numbers kept by all the marine aquarists around the world must greatly outnumber those in public aquariums.

So back to VIA then. You’ve no doubt heard of VIP, standing for Very Important Person. VIA stands for Very Important Aquarist.

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Tags: aquarium, coral conservation, Coral Reef, home-aquarium, marine-aquarium, saltwater-aquarium

Life Span Of Tropical Marine Fish

We look after our fish very well, don’t we. Whether it is a fish only aquarium or reef aquarium, a lot of thought goes into choice, taking into account compatibility, size and character. All in all, the fish should be healthy and happy.

The marine aquarium is a stable environment (or should be) with all the parameters at their proper levels. The fish receive a varied and appropriate diet. There is little stress I would imagine, apart from the odd squabble that usually doesn’t amount to much. Predation doesn’t exist.

On the wild reef the fish are more stressed as they hunt for food, attempt to avoid becoming food, maybe defend a territory, ensure they have a safe haven for the night and additionally have the need to breed.

Disease is a threat in both environments, but more so in the aquarium. The aquarium gallonage is really miniscule compared to the enormous gallonage of the reef, so the appearance of disease is much more serious. Just consider the entry of oodinium. The fish in the wild may meet it once or twice or not at all. If it does appear it is unlikely to cause a problem. So disease is an area where captive fish could be more stressed than their wild counterparts.

So the lifespan of fish that are commonly kept in captivity is easy to record. All that is required is for the aquarist to note the date when the fish arrived at his/her aquarium. My fish have dates recorded - for example, the flame angel (Centropyge loricula) is 5¾ years old. This excludes the period in transit and with the retailer of course.

Knowing the real age of a fish is close to impossible. How long has the fish been in the wild? Who knows, maybe there is a size related calculation that could assist? But size relates to diet and overall health to a considerable degree.

Perhaps a comparison could be made between wild and captive fish. The fish selected would have to be of the same type and of the same size. So taking the flame angel, it is easy to note the date the fish entered an aquarium, but the fish in the wild would have to be tagged or similar, and how would track of it be kept? No, it isn’t going to happen.

So the only lifespan that could be measured would be of fish in an aquarium. That would not reflect the potential real lifespan, of course, as there are many variables and a lot of the variables have changed.

An inquisitive aquarist keeping fish in captivity will just have to refer to a record and state to a fellow aquarist with pride ‘I’ve had this fish for x years.’

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Tags: aquarium, aquarium-fish, marine-aquarium, marine-fish, reef-fish, saltwater-aquarium

The Banggai Cardinal

The Banggai Cardinal, proper name Pterapogon kauderni, is a relatively new fish for the salt water aquarium. The fish in the aquarium is fairly sedentary, but has lovely colouring with black vertical striping on a silver body. The tail is long and forked, again being silver/black. It has become popular and can now be seen in many home aquariums.

I became concerned about this lovely fish as I thought there was a danger that supplies of the fish from the wild would dry up. Then I learned something potentially much more serious - perhaps wild stocks were in jeopardy which made my initial feeling insignificant.

As far as supplies drying up, this isn’t going to happen. First, the fish in captivity is much more helpful than many marine species in that it brings its young into the world much like a freshwater cichlid - it is a mouth brooder. Eventually the young require a defence and this is easily supplied with real sea urchins, the long spine types, or something artificial which is similar and quite easy to accomplish. So some pressure on wild stock is eased a little in that way. Only a little though, as the fish can only produce a few young in each batch. Clownfish, for example, produce far more young. But at least breeding is an option.

The second concern about wild stocks being in jeopardy as said is much more serious. It is estimated (on what basis I don’t know) that circa 700,000 of these fish is collected for the aquarium trade every year. The total population is thought to be in the region of 2,000,000. It doesn’t need a mathematician to work out that the collection ratio is high. The fish come from one small area in the Pacific Ocean and therefore is not widespread.

A proposition had been put to CITES to ban totally the collection of this fish, on the basis that the population could not be sustained with such a high collection ratio. This ban would mean that US and EU imports would cease, though presumably captive breeding would mean the fish would remain available but at a very much increased price.

However, in deliberations CITES have not imposed a ban. This is because the government of the area has agreed to a strict management programme which is to include training of local collectors and the number of fish that can be collected in view of the estimated populations. The aquatic trade is involved, and monitoring is to be carried out by an independent authority. CITES has accepted the fish is at risk, but, as said, have not banned collection.

This is good for the marine hobby. The fish will still be imported, but in smaller numbers, and the number available to the hobby boosted by commercial and private breeding programmes. The local collectors still have their income, or part of it, protected as far as possible. Above all, it appears a commonsense outcome in this day and age when there are many pressures, sometimes misinformed, to ban ‘exploitation’ of the wild.

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Tags: aquarium, aquarium-fish, Coral Reef, marine-aquarium, marine-fish, reef-fish

The Protein Skimmer - What Is Wet And Dry Foam?

In a saltwater aquarium there are various devices that are designed to assist in the maintenance of high quality seawater. Perhaps the most useful of these is the protein skimmer (ignoring bio-filtration).

As with all devices for it to be at its most effective it must be adjusted correctly. First though, the skimmer must be appropriate to the size of the system.

The normal way of sizing a skimmer is to simply double the net gallonage of the entire system, then find a skimmer that can deal with about that amount. This is a guideline only, and is designed to overcome the sometimes optimistic claims of manufacturers. As long as the skimmer is not a long way short of the guideline it should suffice. Having said that, some manufacturers seem to be more realistic of late with the potential performance of their skimmers.

Skimmers are available as ‘hang-on’ and stand alone, and it is the aquarist who decides which is the most practical. For example, if there isn’t a sump then a ‘hang-on’ is probably the best choice.

It is also important to ensure as far as possible that the model chosen is a good one. Internet forums are useful for this, though there are likely to be some differences in opinion. Maybe more useful, sometimes a local retailer has hobby-sized skimmers running on aquariums, and these can be judged quite easily. First of all, look at the chamber where the bubble/water interaction takes place. The bubbles should be very small and in very great numbers - the bubble chamber should be full of them and coloured white (ish). One respected manufacturer states that the important things about a skimmer are ‘design, air output, air output, and air output.’ Also look at the collection cup, hopefully the skimmate (the dirty liquid inside) will be dark coloured. (This colouration has a lot to do with the way a skimmer is set-up and the amount of dissolved organics available, so a visual check is not entirely reliable.)

So the foam. This is the foam that forms at the surface of the bubble chamber and rises up the throat towards the collection cup. In a badly set skimmer, foam rises very rapidly in the throat and dribbles nearly continuously into the collection cup. The foam can be seen to collapse immediately or nearly so. The skimmate collected is weak in colour and thin. The cause of this is usually the bubble setting, where the amount of bubbles being produced is too high. This is the so-called wet foam.

At the other end, the foam may not rise very much at all, but when any gets into the collection cup it is thick and dark. The foam can be seen to be stiff, and is very slow to collapse. In this case, the setting is not far from being correct. This is the so-called dry foam.

The general ideal is where the settings produce many bubbles, but the foam does not get into the collection cup all the time. The foam may rise up the throat only to fall back when the rise begins again, and it is stiff and not too quick to collapse. When dissolved organics are present, the foam rises and enters the collection cup readily. It is dark, thick and can be smelly.

The manufacturer’s instructions should be followed initially, setting the device as suggested. Make sure the foam does not flow into the collection cup too rapidly, but allow the skimmer time to settle for a few days, as foam production is often affected by the manufacturing process. Once this time period has passed, trial and error will show the best settings for an individual aquarium. There needs to be good bubble production, which is controlled by the air intake setting, balanced with the appropriate flow rate.

A skimmer does not usually produce skimmate continuously, but will react to any dissolved organics. Some additives cause a reaction, and the addition of foods, such as some frozen types, usually will too.

Once the settings have been arrived at, usually they can be left alone. It is important to clean the throat (and collection cup) of the skimmer, as the sludge in the throat will adversely affect performance. When cleaning is done, skimmers often needs a short settling period again before full performance returns.

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Tags: Aquarium Water, dissolved organics, Equipment, foam fractionation, Protein Skimmer, Water Quality

Live Rock and Corals - Excellent!

Some conservationists have expressed their concern over the use of live rock in the aquarium hobby. They see this as denuding the reefs, and, if that were shown to be correct, I for one would have sympathy.

As I understand it, much of the live rock is taken as rubble, that is, it is not part of the actual reef, but rock that lies loose. There is an argument to say that this rock should not be touched as it belongs to the reef. The opposite is that the reef is unchanged if it is taken away. I feel fairly certain that some rock may well be taken from the actual reef in some areas, in the same way that cyanide is/was used to obtain fish. Hopefully the latter practice is now minimal or has ceased altogether.

The amount of live rock that is being used nowadays is substantial. It is probably the most used filtration media in reef aquariums, and is often used in fish only aquariums as well. So it is reasonable that some attention is paid to its source. No-one wants damage to be caused to the reefs because of the aquarium trade.

It was a pleasure therefore to read of the efforts of a commercial concern that is providing live rock but is not taking it from the reefs - well, not from the wet reefs anyway.

What is happening is that land based rock that used to be a coral reef is being mined in quantity and then transported out to sea, around 20 miles off-shore. In the sea it has been left as a coral reef allowing it to develop. The area used is in the Gulf of Mexico.

The commercial concern involved has to be congratulated as the rock had to be left for 4 years to develop naturally, so for that period the company had the investment but no profit. That length of time is quite a commitment.

The reef is being harvested now, but not all of it. Part is left intact without interference, and the remainder is recovered in sections by divers, who fill baskets that are raised to the surface for the waiting boat. The areas that have been harvested are re-seeded with replacement rocks from the land, and in this way a continuous supply is available. The amounts involved are substantial. The quality of the rock is described as ‘premium.’

Of course the mining of the rock from the land could be damaging environmentally. I assume that in order to obtain authority to mine the rock, an agreement to landscape the mining areas would be required.

Separate from the live rock enterprise and in a different area of the world is hard coral production. Divers go down to the reefs and selected mother colonies have a part removed. This part is placed in a small tube which in turn is fastened to a small manufactured standard tile. These tiles are then left in the sea to develop. Again, harvesting is delayed pending development, but after a period a near continuous supply of corals can be obtained. The system means the mother coral remains in situ and continues to provide further corals as long as it continues to be deemed suitable.

Much of the coral programme came about through an education exercise, where local collectors have been taught sustainable methods.

With all the gloom about the potential future of coral reefs at the moment, usually with global warming as a foundation, and the known problems of sedimentation, over fertilization, destruction for building needs etc, it is very pleasant to learn of efforts such as those described. True, in the commercial case it may be simply that a profit source was identified but so what, it is a big step in the right direction. Corals are grown (‘fragged’) by many aquarists, but the majority are still obtained from the wild, so the fact that some are now cultured in the wild and at the same time protect the livelihood of local people can only be good.

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Tags: Aquarium Filter, Aquarium Filtration, Coral Propagation, Coral Reef, live-rock, natural reef

What Is PAR?

When this topic arose I wondered what to do with it. The reason I wondered is that this website is designed for beginners and ‘earlier-on’ aquarists (though I notice that experienced aquarists are now visiting, and they’re more than welcome). Lighting is a scientific and technical subject.

Most things can be broken down to basics though, and an attempt has been made to do this. In addition, advice is always given to employ the proper lighting, that is spectrum and power, particularly for reef systems. Perhaps a basic explanation of PAR will demonstrate why this is, and is therefore relevant.

There isn’t a requirement to know any more than the need to employ the proper recommended spectrum and power output over a reef. Fish only systems are not so demanding of course, the fish need to see and be seen, and it is good to see the colours reasonably enhanced.

Having the proper spectrum and power output is important, as said. The power output is measured in watts (W), and with metal halide bulbs this requirement depends on the depth of the aquarium. Fluorescent tubes have power outputs generally relevant to their length, though different tubes exist (eg. normal output (NO), high output (HO), and very high output (VHO)). Spectrum refers to the colour of the light, which is of particular importance to the corals, or more correctly a great many of them. The corals that we have in our aquariums for the most part require the correct spectrum.

Generally, corals contain zooxanthellae, or single-celled symbiotic algae. This algae is very important to the coral (see the text ‘Zooxanthellae’). The algae use photosynthesis and need light to do this.

So PAR then. This stands for Photosynthetically Active Radiation. In other words, light that is potentially useful to photosynthesis. It is measured in nanometers (nm).

In the sea, different colours of light are lost, some before others. The first to be lost is red, within a few feet of depth. Blue penetrates deeply, and is the only light left (except UV) after around 50ft. It is blue that is of interest to aquarists. It is stated that blue light of circa 420nm is of good use to zooxanthellae. Thus there are ‘actinic’ tubes and other tubes that are manufactured to peak at this point. Metal halide bulbs can be obtained with different spectrum outputs.

Blue is not the only colour useful to photosynthesis, but it has been found to be useful in a captive system. There are many corals that use this available light and they are usually lower in depth on the reef. There are corals close to the surface and obviously these receive much stronger light and more than just blue. The corals deal with this naturally, as there is much more light available for photosynthesis than is needed.

I reckon that is all that is needed. It really is a ’skim’ over the surface, as said lighting is a complex subject. As with so many things, one thing could be dependant on another, provided that yet another is present. I apologise to any lighting engineers who might see this text, but it is not intended for you.

Us aquarists need only understand what is needed and basically why on the different aspects of keeping a marine aquarium. In this case, it is the lighting that the zooxanthellae can use to photosynthesize, allowing our corals to prosper.

(Ref: Aquarium Corals. Eric H. Borneham)

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Tags: aquarium, Aquarium Lighting, Equipment, marine-aquarium, saltwater-aquarium

Can You Add A Deep Sand Bed To An Existing Setup?

Every week I like to pop into my local fish shop, even if it is not to purchase something just to have a look about and have a chat with the owner.

Over the years we have built up a bit of a friendship and over a cup of coffee we tend to sort the world out – both aquatic and non aquatic related!

Anyway whilst I am in there other people of course come in and ask various questions, purchase things and I like to keep out of the way whilst this is happening. I normally go and look at the corals and fish with my cup of coffee in hand.

Yesterday whilst I was there I overheard a conversation between a customer and the owner of the store entailing deep sand beds.

It is probably obvious by now that I am a huge fan of deep sand beds.

Basically the customer had heard that you cannot add a deep sand bed to an aquarium system which is already setup and the owner of the store was patiently attempting to explain to him that it was possible to do so.

The conversation did not get heated but to cut a long story short the customer would not take any advice from the store owner (the expert if you will) and left the store. As far as he was concerned this is what he had been told so it must be right!

It must be very hard for owners of shops, not just fish shops but any shop for that matter to deal with situations like these.

We chatted about it afterwards and he said that although it is hard he will not tell anyone incorrect information even if it means losing their business. It is not just about the money he earns but the love for aquatic life which he sells.

To be honest what he was discussing with the customer was correct and I thought that I would cover it here in case any readers of Aquarists Online have been wondering about this as well.

If you are interested in understanding more about deep sand beds then click the link below :

http://www.aquaristsonline.com/blog/aquarium-filtration/the-deep-sand-bed-one-of-the-most-effective-filtration-methods/

The above article covers how a deep sand bed works, the importance of grain size etc etc.

What we will cover in the remainder of this article is the introduction of a deep sand bed into an existing aquarium system.

It is presumed that you have purchased sand which is of the correct particle size.

I would advise that any sand purchased is cleaned thoroughly in saltwater. The saltwater removed from the aquarium when you do a water change would be fine for this use. An even better way than just washing the sand is to leave the sand covered in saltwater for a period of a couple of weeks.

Some aquarists even run a magnet over the surface of the sand just in case there are any metals in there but this is not a definite requirement.

Once the sand has been prepared you are now in a position to be able to add it to your aquarium.

If you have any sand in your aquarium and it is not of the correct granular size then it will need to be removed from the aquarium. Do not discard it though as you can use some of it to ‘seed’ the new sand bed.

If you have any sand in your aquarium and it is the correct size then it can be left in the aquarium, however do not be tempted to add all of your new sand in one go – add it slowly over time. The reason for this is that when you add new sand the life which lives in the existing sand needs to move higher up in the sand bed and if you put to much in at one go then you may kill them.

Due to displacement some water will also need to be removed from the aquarium.

Turn the pumps/powerheads off in the aquarium and slowly add the sand to the bottom of the aquarium.

Do not be tempted to lift any of your rocks off the base of the aquarium simply add the sand around the rocks.

If you did lift the rocks off the base of the aquarium and then place them back on top of the sand then this would cause compaction in the sand and the bed will not function.

With you adding the sand around the base of the rocks compaction can occur and more importantly the little beasties can migrate from the rock into the sand. It is important to have a huge diversity of life within the sand bed as they consume the detritus in the bed as well as ‘turning over’ the sand.

The pumps/powerhead can now all be turned back on again.

With you having a running aquarium system then you will no doubt get a sand storm in the aquarium. This will clear quite quickly.

Once the bed is in place if you removed and old sand from the aquarium then some of this can be placed on top of the new sand bed as this will help introduce the valuable little creatures into the bed.

Your job now is to feed the bed to ensure that the population grows and grows. Regular feeding will be required and can be achieved by simply placing a cube of frozen food daily on top of the sand bed. The food can be held in place by a stone, shell of something similar. Vary where you feed the bed and over time the population will increase and before long you will an exceptionally powerful filtration device – especially if you combine it with live rock.

I suppose that there is also a moral to this article as well as some information being provided in relation to the introduction of a deep sand bed.

The moral is that you are not always right. Listen to what other people have to say, take their advice and then make your own decision.

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Tags: aquarium, Aquarium Filter, Aquarium Filtration, deep-sand-bed, home-aquarium, marine-aquarium

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