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Can You Imagine Them Yesterday? – Yesterday They Couldn’t Imagine Us

July 27, 2009

Coral Reef

Wild coral reefs don’t think (if they could) in terms of ‘yesterday’ as we understand it. Yesterday could be a thousand years ago or more. This is the wild reef overall of course, not the multitudes of organisms that make it up. The ‘yesterdays’ in that case could be as ours.

We marine aquarists tend to think in terms of days, weeks and months. We wait for the bio-filter to ‘mature’. We watch as the captive reef settles and marvel at the incredible sights that Mother Nature created and we obtained. Slowly (in our terms) the captive reef changes and develops.

‘Yesterday’ is a direct literal word and also a suggestive one. Paul McCartney of the Beatles sang ‘Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away’ and this could have been a literal yesterday or months or even years ago. In this case we’re talking of years, quite a few in fact, forty plus and more.

Marine aquarists then were a different bunch; they were generally patient and careful and had to be. The modern aquarist is but not in the same way. The grounding for this care and patience in bygone days was lack of knowledge.

The internet wasn’t even a possibility or an item of science fiction. Marine aquarium books, there weren’t any. It was word of mouth and hope. The hobby itself didn’t really exist, as to be a hobby as such needs a largish following. The early marine aquarists were really dedicated hopers, stumbling along from problem to problem. It was believed that clean salt water was the answer and as soon as any problem reared its ugly head seawater changes commenced, often to no avail. The seawater itself wasn’t as we know it, it was a very basic mixture of ingredients obtained from chemists and home mixed. All that were kept were a few fish and perhaps an invertebrate or two. Nothing seemed to last long, something clearly was wrong.

Then a Mr. Straughan (an Englishman I believe) came along. He also was concerned about seawater cleanliness and spent some time considering how this could be achieved without changing seawater quite so much. He recognized that there existed one item in the aquarium that would make a very good solids filter – the sand. Most aquariums of the time had coarse sand on the base. What he did was pump seawater down into the sand under a plate so that it flowed up again through the sand. The debris became trapped and the seawater was noticeably cleaner. The amount of seawater changing reduced.

The fish lived longer and Mr. Straughan was sure that the increased cleanliness was the answer. In a way he was correct, the seawater was cleaner but not only from debris – also from the toxics ammonia and nitrite. Bacteria had developed within the sand and were fed with oxygen laden seawater. Mr. Straughan as I understand it was never sure about the toxin reasoning but this was the case – he had created an under-gravel bio-filter. Who suggested the presence of bacteria I do not know, but it was correct of course.

It wasn’t long before the marine hobby started to grow now that such a barrier had been overcome. This was apparent because commercial under-gravel filters appeared so there had to be a market. Pet shops started to keep some colourful marine fish, often damsels, which really advertised themselves. Numbers of fresh water aquarists moved to the marine side.

It was at this point that I became involved, being one of those fresh water aquarists. I saw some damsels and.. well, the seed was sown.

The very earliest marine aquariums were glass held in place by angle iron (just think of the problems with salt water). Attempts were made to combat this with stainless steel. However, my aquariums were glass and silicone sealant thank goodness!

Those aquariums were successful for the most part, but fish only. Keep corals, don’t be silly, impossible! We should have known, it had been said earlier that keeping coral fish was impossible, at least for any length of time.

My fish only aquarium was decorated with a sand base (with an under-gravel filter) and dead bleached corals. How awful that sounds now. We used to put the dead coral skeletons in fresh water, perhaps with bleach in, to kill and remove any living or once living material so reducing the chance of pollution. After careful rinsing, into the aquarium it went. I thought it was so wonderful having these colourful fish and they seemed happy and healthy enough. Thank goodness I never suffered from the dreaded wipe-out when all fish died. This wasn’t from ammonia, nitrite or disease (though disease did claim a lot of fish) but something was obviously doing it – all fish wiped out in up to a week or so. It still isn’t known for sure what caused it at least to me; some argued it was algae causing toxicity (how?).

One day something magic happened – a protein skimmer came on the market. It was air driven and the bubbles travelled in the same direction as the flow of seawater, so contact time wasn’t brilliant. It worked though and the tank wipe-out became a thing of the past. So it seems dissolved organic matter could have had something to do with the wipe-out? Perhaps so.

Improvements continued in small ways, such as the under-gravel filter had its seawater flow reversed. In other words, instead of seawater being pumped down under the sand and then up through it, the seawater travelled down through the sand and then came up tubes. This lowered the under-gravel’s major problem which was the accumulation of detritus which could seriously reduce effectiveness because of less seawater flow, but it didn’t cure it.

Things moved on and gathered pace – as the marine hobby grew in popularity so more and more manufacturers recognized the potential market. Manufacturers are of course in competition so products became better. An example of this was (and is) the canister filter which had been in use in the freshwater world for many a year. This moved to marines and many bio-medias appeared, one of the best being sintered glass (this is the bio method I used, and still used until recently).

So here we are today. The hobby is at a point that would have made aquarists such as Mr. Straughan gasp in amazement. The fish we keep are so varied. Then the corals, what can be said? With a combination of both the captive reef is born.

In comparison to those early days we have a much easier life, even compared to when I began with marines. This is based on knowledge not necessarily in the grasp of aquarists but with manufacturers who are able to produce so much advanced equipment to maintain seawater quality. Lighting too, there are many choices of bulb or fluorescent tube tailored for corals, whose light requirements in those early days were unknown. Protein skimmers are mainly no longer air driven but use electricity, with seawater flowing through clouds of tiny bubbles achieving a high contact time. Then all the rest of the equipment available such as calcium reactors, aquarists don’t even have to top up the seawater if they don’t want to, they can use automation. Tap water isn’t good enough; we can super filter it with a reverse osmosis unit!

So when that beautiful captive reef is watched what a foundation it is built on. We have a great deal to thank those early pioneer aquarists for. The stress we modern aquarists feel from time to time really shrinks in comparison to the efforts, stress and frustration that must have existed then.

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Disease!

July 24, 2009

The very word can strike fear into any marine aquarist. Diseases, particularly ‘velvet’ and ‘white spot’ are real threats.

The threat can be minimized of course. Careful selection of fish is the initial way, being careful to ensure the selected ones are as ‘clean’ as they should be. Other intended livestock should also be carefully inspected.

A second line of defence is the quarantine tank where any disease can be treated and cured before it is introduced to the main display aquarium where it creates a threat to other livestock. Strangely, most marine aquarists do not make use of quarantine instead introducing their livestock direct. This is taking a chance as dealing with disease especially in a reef system could be difficult – difficult because copper, the number one treatment for certain diseases, is deadly to corals.

The question of disease and its treatment is wide and quite varied. Most marine books have a section on disease which can be of assistance.

Here are two videos which deal with the subject, they are good quality and actions are clearly explained. A large part of the videos deals with cleaning up the aquarium prior to medication. Obviously the instructions on the medication container must be properly followed relative to the net gallonage of the aquarium. Finally, as already mentioned copper should not be used in a reef system – if there is any doubt check the medication manufacturer’s instructions and suggestions.

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Reef Loss – Some Very Worrying Information!

July 21, 2009

Coral Reef

It seems to me that if captive reef aquarists love their corals it follows that they love the wild coral reefs. Surely so, it’s where the corals, for the most part, came from.

We all know of the threat of global warming – no, don’t switch off, there isn’t yet another lecture coming. As far as coral reefs are concerned the potential increase in sea temperature is a threat to corals. In addition, because the seas are absorbing more carbon dioxide acidification is occurring (acidification means that the pH of the seawater is reducing), which is another threat to corals. If corals are threatened then it is said that fish species or many of them are also threatened.

It underlines the need to treat all imported corals and fish properly and to attempt to cultivate and breed them wherever possible. I’ve said before that along with public aquariums the thousands of home aquariums around the world could become a coral reef ‘seed bank’.

I’m not a scientist but most scientists are agreed on the truth of the global warming threat. When a respected scientist speaks who has a name reasonably well known to aquarists it carries more authority within the hobby. The name is Dr J. Veron (known generally as Charlie for some reason). Owners of the book ‘Aquarium Corals’ by Eric H. Borneman will recognize the name, as the foreword in that book is by him.

The point is that the probable future of wild coral reefs including the Great Barrier Reef has been made available on ‘The Times’ website (‘The Times’ is a highly respected UK newspaper).

The link is to that website and should make interesting but worrying reading for all. Click on the ‘Related Links’ and ‘Coral Bleaching Graphic’ as well (boxed on left-hand side of page), they’re interesting.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6652866.ece   

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An Attached Quarantine Tank

July 18, 2009

1160292_82946141Having a quarantine tank is generally accepted as ‘a good thing’. Strangely, the majority of marine aquarists don’t use one, instead throwing caution to the winds or at least relying on good luck. Perhaps they obtain their fish from sources where they are guaranteed to have been successfully quarantined.

Anyway, this isn’t about the merits of quarantine, this is about continuing usefulness.

Quarantine tanks don’t need to be large, just large enough to comfortably hold the largest fish that will occupy them. All the same, it is a little irritating to have an available space doing nothing – the tank sits there empty. The tank can of course be used as a hospital tank should the need arise, but this is hardly ever needed particularly if quarantine has been completed on carefully selected and compatible livestock.

An idea came up recently about a way of using a quarantine tank as part of an overall system so that it wouldn’t sit and ‘do nothing’.

The tank would be selected to ensure it could accommodate anything likely to go in it. It would then be connected into the main system permanently. Err, sorry, what was that again?

Instead of the quarantine tank sitting empty most of the time it would be connected to the main display system as a permanent feature. This gives the advantage that the system would hold more gallons of seawater. It would not be intended to be stocked with anything, just have seawater flowing through it. (Hmm, how long would that last I wonder, aquarists tend to fill empty spaces.)

The tank would be fed seawater that was circulating through the display aquarium and any sump. See the first problem? Of course you can, any problem in the tank would become an available problem throughout the system. Disease for example, the very thing that the quarantine tank is designed to prevent entering the main display.

The idea went on that this problem could be prevented by using a UV (ultraviolet) sterilizer. UV sterilizers (some call them filters) kill or severely damage unwanted organisms as they pass close to the UV light (they do the same to good organisms as well). The seawater exiting the quarantine tank would flow through the sterilizer and therefore anything unwanted would be dealt with. On the face of it this isn’t a bad idea.

The first problem is that the flow rate through the UV unit has to be correct. This is because in order for the UV unit to be effective organisms have to be exposed to the radiation for a long enough period. Therefore the flow rate would probably have to be slowed down.

The second problem is that good as a UV sterilizer is there isn’t a guarantee that all organisms passing though will be killed or sufficiently damaged. Most probably would be or the UV sterilizer wouldn’t exist – but there isn’t as said a surety that all will be properly dealt with. So the system as a whole would be at risk.

The next is not really a problem, more a discipline. The aquarist would need to ensure that the UV bulb, which has a specific life, was renewed well in time or its effectiveness would reduce.

So the basic idea is flawed. However, how about a small modification? How about placing a shut off valve on the outlet from the tank? This would require a complication which is another outlet for the seawater to go through the UV unit. This would be easily achieved by fitting in a correctly rated powerhead to run seawater through the UV unit and back again. Oh, there’d need to be a shut off valve on the inlet to the tank too or it would overflow. Things are getting a bit too complicated. With the shut-off valves at each end of the tank it is now independent of the system.

Many aquarists use a UV unit fulltime or part time or as necessary. Fine, there’s no problem there. Many aquarists don’t use them at all. It’s a choice. But the UV sterilizer is not an answer to the quarantine question.

The only way a permanently attached quarantine tank could work, as far as I can see, is to have stop valves on the seawater input and output. Therefore the tank could not be plumbed directly in line with the display aquarium and sump, it would have to have a direct feed to and from the seawater source which wouldn’t interfere with overall system circulation.

Under normal circumstances (that is, empty without livestock) the quarantine tank would be full of seawater flowing through it, which is an advantage to overall gallonage. If the time came to use it as a dedicated quarantine area, the first action would be to turn off the input and output valves to isolate the tank.

Another problem now arises and that is seawater circulation. Now that the tank is isolated there isn’t any circulation so there would need to be available a low powered powerhead to deal with this. The next problem is that the circulating seawater would cool down, so a small heater would be needed. Then, for the security of the quarantined fish, a suitable clay pot, for example, would be needed as a temporary home.

Light needs to be considered – is there enough light over the quarantine area? Would any need to be added for the comfort of the fish?

Once the quarantine period was over, before the inlet and output valves were opened, all the seawater in the quarantine area would need to be removed. Most could probably be siphoned out. It would be important to dry out the tank entirely particularly if any copper treatment had been used, and probably rinse the area out as well. Not particularly difficult, but another necessity and complication.

All of this leads to the thought that it would be better to stay with the unattached quarantine tank. They are usually small and can be put out of the way somewhere with the powerhead and heater inside.

Having an additional tank attached to the main system isn’t a bad idea, as said it increases gallonage. Also it could house further filtration or even special livestock of interest to the aquarist. There wouldn’t need to be inlet and outlet stop valves either!

There is one thing that must be said and this is that thinking ‘outside the box’ is one of the ways that the hobby progresses, so the aquarist who mused over this idea is to be congratulated – the idea is not practical when examined, but it is an idea.

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Things Change

July 16, 2009

Reef Tank 1

Pretty obvious really! The weather is an example. But no, we’re concerned with marine aquariums of course.

In a fish only aquarium the changes are usually, strangely enough, to do with fish. New additions, growth, the cave/hole they live in and the like. In a reef system more changes are often noticeable.

On the wild reef changes occur slowly for the most part, though things could happen quickly. If a storm comes along then coral formation could change as corals are broken. Unfortunately change can also happen quickly (in terms of the life of the reef) caused by man-made pollution and interference. Normal reef changes are when one coral slowly dominates another in a long drawn out battle for space, or coral colonies spread over new areas.

So change is quite natural. In the aquarium changes could be unnatural, that is caused by the aquarist. An example is the cutting of corals because of growth. When corals grow they could shadow or at least reduce the light available for others and in addition the seawater flow could be altered, meaning that some corals do not receive the flow they require. So the aquarist cuts the corals to maintain the balance of light and/or flow. This is a quite drastic change that doesn’t occur in the wild of course. Overshadowing will occur to some extent though. Hopefully the aquarist having cut corals will ‘frag’ them so that additional good comes from the exercise.

Other changes can occur and this unfortunately includes coral failure. Nowadays with the greater amount of knowledge available failure in this area should be much reduced. However, failure can occur in more than the usual way, the usual way being that a coral is just not happy, closes and shrinks away quite rapidly.

In my soft coral reef there is a colony of green star polyps, which are sometimes called star polyps or daisy polyps. The proper name is Pachyclavularia purpurea (some call it Clavularia viridis but this is incorrect)*. Anyway, the thing is that this colony arrived six years ago on a rock which was completely covered. The rock would be generally about 6 inches across at the base and about 4 inches high. After a while the coral spread onto a neighbouring rock and completely covered that as well. There wasn’t anywhere else for it to go so it stopped spreading.

For a long while it just came out at ‘dawn’ and went in at ‘dusk’. It was perfectly healthy and also completely at home, happy with the lighting and seawater currents. It was attractive and added to the many colours of the display.

Eventually I noted that it was beginning to climb onto itself that is it had nowhere to go except to cover itself. So the mat was spreading and new polyps were opening on top of the original.

I was quite concerned about this as I thought first of all that the lower layer could lose adhesion – but it didn’t. The spread across a lower layer continued for a long while, years in fact and eventually the colony was higher than it had been originally because of the layering. I was pleased in a way as the shape of the colony had altered; it no longer followed the shape of the rock but had formed mounds and spires plus some flatter surfaces, making it more interesting.

This situation continued until I noticed that some of the colony, a small area only, didn’t have any extended polyps. Sometimes the colony had not expanded for a whole day or so on previous occasions, therefore I wasn’t concerned.

However, the polyp areas that failed to expand extended in area. Eventually I noticed a bare area of rock down near the base. This area extended until very nearly all of the rock was bare. Some of the remaining un-layered matt containing polyps was removed and placed elsewhere in the aquarium and this is opening normally, appearing to be beginning to form a new colony.

Apart from one area on the adjacent rock that was colonized there wasn’t anything left. The reduction and loss happened over about a period of two months, which isn’t very long.

It isn’t all bad news though. I’ve recently noticed that a few odd polyps have appeared on the rock and hopefully these will lead to a re-colonization. If this occurs then I’ll recover the original colony and have an additional transplanted one.

Reef Tank 2

So why did this occur? All other corals are fine, expanded with proper polyp extension. It follows that seawater quality and lighting are also as they should be.

I reckon my original fear that the original matt could lose adhesion was not the reason for the die-back. Adhesion loss could of course have occurred but the colony remained in place.

It seems to me that as the colony for the most part actually disappeared then it must have ‘dissolved’, or rotted away. This could have started with the covered lower layers rotting, which would have caused the top layer to become affected.

What I have to do now is wait and continue observing the polyps that remain, both the two small colonies and the separate polyps. Hopefully the original colony will grow back to full size.

If full size is achieved then perhaps the colony will eventually begin to overgrow itself. This would presumably mean the colony will eventually fail again. The possible way out of this is to put a bare rock alongside the re-generated colony which can be grown over. This can be placed elsewhere in the reef or given away.

As in the wild changes occur with the captive reef. It all makes the hobby so interesting, don’t you think?

The photos (taken by me so not of professional standard!) show the area where the original colony existed alongside the rock that was colonized, where some of the coral remains. The other photo, taken closer in, shows the polyps that have appeared that give me hope that a new colony will re-generate.

(*Reference: Aquarium Corals. Eric H. Borneham)

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The Foxface

July 14, 2009

The title ‘Foxface’ does belong to a marine fish, one that is fairly commonly kept though I suspect not a top favourite. Why it should be called a foxface I don’t really understand, or maybe it’s just me! I think at best it could be called ‘badgerface’, though the flow of the name isn’t so good.

Anyway it’s a rabbitfish (hey, there we go again!) and the proper name is Siganus vulpinus. Actually it’s the overall family of these fishes that are termed ‘rabbitfish’, why I have no idea. I can’t see the basis for that name either. (A surgeonfish has blades – ‘scalpels’ – near the tail so that makes sense.) I’ll stop nattering.

The fish is usually purchased from the retailers at quite a modest size, say 3 or 4 inches, and is suitable at this point for a fairly small aquarium of 3 feet +. The fish is capable of growing to about 9½ inches (circa 24.25cm) though usually less in captivity, so an initial aquarium size of 4 feet + would be better.

It needs to be noted that the foxface has venomous spines on the dorsal and anal fins. It’s necessary to ensure that the hand or arm does not come into contact with them during maintenance operations. The one I kept seemed to be particularly inquisitive when I needed to put a hand in the aquarium trying to come really close, so my wife kindly used a clean stick to gently keep it at a distance, which did the trick. No mishaps (that is me jumping about holding an arm!) ever occurred. Better safe than sorry.

The foxface is likely to be aggressive towards one of its own kind so it is best kept singularly. They are suitable for a fish only or reef system. As with most fish it needs a secure hole to hide in – having said that the one that I had would jam itself behind the same filter every night, keeping itself in position by curling its body. At first I was very concerned as the colours faded very markedly at night, however I learned that this is a normal situation and the fish was always out in the morning back to normal colouration.

The foxface is easy to feed as they will accept just about anything that is on offer, which usually includes flake, de-frozen brine and mysis shrimp etc. This is fine but it is important to offer food containing algae as well, such as ‘spirulina enriched’ types. In addition, blanched lettuce fixed to a clip is usually accepted. However, it’s always best to offer algae – the fish is likely to take algae available in the aquarium but this is more than likely going to be insufficient. Sheets of algae such as Nori can be purchased and these can be fixed to a lettuce clip and left for the fish to browse on. If there are surgeonfish in the aquarium as well they will also take it. The aquarist will soon learn from experience how much to put in.

In the aquarium the foxface offers colour and a different shape, to an extent anyway, behind the head it is a lovely yellow colour in total, with a long black-topped snout, underneath is a length of white, then black again. Here’s the fish:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Siganus_vulpinus_2.jpg

Now, why is it called a foxface in a family of rabbitfish…?

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Conversions

July 11, 2009

conversions

Here are a few conversions which could be useful to someone, you never know. The ones shown are those that could be applicable to aquarists, maybe!

To find volume.

Multiply length by breadth by height. (If finding the water space volume of an aquarium it is more accurate to measure from the water level. It must also be remembered that volume will be taken up by rocks and sand.)
Cubic inches to cubic centimeters – multiply by 16.3871
Cubic feet to cubic meters – multiply by 0.0283
Cubic centimeters to cubic inches – multiply by 0.061
Cubic meters to cubic feet  multiply by 35.315

Converting Centigrade to Fahrenheit.

C                         F
24                        75.2
25                        77 (the temperature many aquarists use)
26                        78.8
27                        80.6

Length.

(10 millimeters = 1 centimeter)
(1 inch = 2.5 centimeters)
Inches to millimeters – multiply by 25.4
Feet to meters – multiply by 0.3048
Millimeters to inches – multiply by 0.0394
Meters to feet – multiply by 3.2808

Area.

To find area multiply length by width.
Square inches to square centimeters – multiply by 6.4516
Square feet to square meters – multiply by 0.0929
Square centimeters to square inches – multiply by 0.155
Square meters to square feet – multiply by 10.764

Capacity.

UK fluid ounces to liters – multiply by 0.0284
US fluid ounces to liters – multiply by 0.0296
UK pints to liters – multiply by 0.5682
US pints to liters – multiply by 0.4732
UK gallons to liters – multiply by 4.546
US gallons to liters – multiply by 3.7854
Liters to UK fluid ounces – multiply by 35.1961
Liters to US fluid ounces – multiply by 33.8150
Liters to UK pints – multiply by 1.7598
Liters to US pints – multiply by 2.1134
Liters to UK gallons – multiply by 0.2199
Liters to US gallons – multiply by 0.2642

Weight.

Ounces to grams – multiply by 28.3495
Pounds to kilograms – multiply by 0.4536
Grams to ounces – multiply by 0.0353
Kilograms to pounds – multiply by 2.2046

(Reference: The Chambers Dictionary)

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