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A Large Aquarium Re-Start

September 18, 2009

There are all sorts of aquarium sizes that are kept at home, though none as large as can be seen at a public aquarium as far as I know.

Successful small aquariums from the very small 10 gallons to the larger 50 gallons, fish only or reef, are very beautiful to look at as a whole, but their main impact is in the detail particularly with a reef. Even in a very small aquarium, provided it is a well aged system, there are growths of different algae, sometimes different corals popping up, existing corals spreading, miniature life such as tiny worms waving around looking for food and tiny shrimps foraging about particularly at night. At night small snails could appear then hide away again when dawn arrives. There’s often more.

With larger aquariums the impact is not just the beauty but the eye filling dimensions. I would guess that if asked a marine aquarist would normally advise that a larger aquarium would be on their shopping list ‘if only’. It cannot be denied that a fish only system with many fish and some of them larger species such as angels is a real spectacle. A properly designed and stocked reef system, well, that is truly something. It appears as if the reef has been sliced out of the wild and placed in the aquarium complete with life. It is true of course that any captive reef doesn’t have the diversity of Mother Nature’s own, but let’s not start nit picking. Again, close inspection should reveal all sorts of interesting items as in the previous paragraph but probably more so. Most viewers however wouldn’t be too concerned about small detail; the overall view would be the one to watch.

There is a large aquarium that is accepted as one of the best. It belongs to David Saxby and can certainly be described as large. Many marine aquarists are aware of it and have watched the video of the original aquarium, lovely as it was. Was? Yes, the aquarium has been stripped down and re-started so that the livestock could be altered. A new video has been produced that is very watchable and well made. There are some lovely fish to be seen, anthias and yellow tangs seems to be a favourite – watch out for the different coloured one. There’s also one of my favourite fish, the copperband butterfly.

As said the video is worth watching and is relaxing, so sit back and just enjoy. Here it is:

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What Is An Invertebrate?

September 11, 2009

Invertebrate

To avoid becoming a squishy heap on the ground humans have a skeleton. Quite a good invention really, not having a skeleton would cause quite a few difficult problems.

Humans aren’t alone with the possession of a skeleton of course; there are all sorts of life forms that have one too, how about the elephant or man’s best friend the dog as just two examples.

Skeletons are not essential to life however; there are creatures that don’t use one at all. As a non-scientist I can say that they use a different method to maintain their body shape, I’m not sure how a scientist would put it. For example a shrimp has a hard outer shell rather than an inner skeleton.

Vertebrates, those that have a skeleton, are vastly outnumbered in the world. It is estimated that vertebrates are around 3% of the life forms in the world. It follows that a massive 97% (I just had to demonstrate my mathematical abilities) are invertebrates.

There are land dwelling insects such as spiders and worms, examples of well known invertebrates. In the cold sea there are huge numbers of plankton, anemones, sponges etc. The warm seas contain many better known (to the marine aquarist) invertebrate species, including filter feeding worms, shrimps, corals and sometimes very large anemones. It is with some anemones of course that the representatives of the vertebrate/invertebrate world have combined forces to mutual advantage; these are the clown fish with their selected hosts. There are other examples of this life style.

Invertebrates are very adaptable as demonstrated by the discovery of volcanic activity deep in the sea well beyond the sun’s light. Scientists used to accept that life basically depends on the availability of light from the sun, an example of which is that plant life uses the sun’s light to photosynthesize and grow, and then the plant life is eaten by a herbivore from which energy is obtained. Herbivores are then the prey for carnivores. They all basically depend on the plants and the sun. This belief has been changed by the life found near this deep volcanic activity, including filter feeding worms, mollusks, bacteria and crabs which depend not on the sun’s light but on heat and chemicals.*

Anyway marine aquarists, or rather those who maintain a reef system, keep various types of invertebrate including shrimps, corals, sponges, anemones, filter feeding worms etc. These very interesting life forms only ask for a few things for success, including high quality seawater, for the majority of corals and some others sufficient light of the correct spectrum, space to grow and freedom from predation. It is usually important to place for example corals in a position where they receive sufficient seawater flow.

It is worthwhile noting that all marine aquariums, big or small, fish only or reef, depend on invertebrates for their health and life. The bio-filtration system, whether this is live rock or canister filters, contains bacteria that deal with the toxins ammonia and nitrite. Without these bacteria the life in the aquarium would die. With live rock, further bacteria should be able to deal with the sometimes troublesome nitrate.

Those aquarists who make use of natural live rock could discover that they have invertebrate life forms in their aquariums that they didn’t import themselves or at least not intentionally. Some such as filter feeding worms could be welcome. Others such as the Aiptasia anemone are not welcome. The Mantis shrimp is another, though in this case it is worth keeping but needs re-housing to an area where problems won’t arise.

Invertebrates provide the aquarist with a chance to create a living reef at home, be this large or small, though compared to Mother Nature’s creations all home reefs are miniscule. Nevertheless, a successful home reef is wonderful to see.

(* Reference: Marine Invertebrates. Martyn Haywood & Sue Wells)

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Goldfish And Marine Aquariums

September 8, 2009

Gold Fish

I’ve been involved with aquariums for 40 years or more and no, I’m not going to try advising the secret of keeping goldfish in salt water! What I’m going to do is remember, if I may.

Over 40 years ago I had nothing to do with fish. What did I do with my time I wonder – well, I had two children, Michael and Peter. As is normal we ended up one day at a fair and yes, there was a goldfish stall, throw a hoop or something similar. My boys must have been good shots because we ended up with a couple of goldfish, the common variety, in a plastic bag. They had instantly joined the family and so a small plastic aquarium was obtained on the same day. Once home into the aquarium they went. Michael and Peter were overjoyed. It must have been at least a whole week before they lost interest!

So there they were, these two goldfish, in their small aquarium on a shelf. For a while nothing changed and then I added some gravel as it didn’t look natural. A while later I added a couple of plastic plants. Now things were so much better. The fish seemed to enjoy nosing about in the gravel. Guess who was in charge of cleaning and it wasn’t Michael or Peter!

Then I decided – and this I reckon is where I became doomed to my fate – the fish would be happier in a bigger aquarium, so they got one 24″ long. It came off the shelf and stood on a more solid work surface in the kitchen.

Then I decided it would be better to have tropical fish (the addiction was getting a grip). I kept standard tropicals for a while and still used plastic plants. The fish were fine.

Then I saw my first marines, this would be quite a while later, about 5 years after the first goldfish appeared. They were in a pet shop and I learned they were damsels. What colours, wow! I didn’t buy damsels once the decision had been made to keep marines; I obtained two common clowns (Amphiprion ocellaris). These were kept in a slightly larger aquarium, 30″, which sat in the same place as had the 24″.

Since that time I’ve travelled down the road in the same way that so many others have. That first small marine aquarium which was fish only became larger and as time passed contained a variety of fish. All were reasonably successful and I don’t recall any serious problems except one. This was with a juvenile emperor angel (Pomacanthus imperator) about 3″ or so in length. It was so lovely I was quite awestruck. It seemed very happy in a 4 ft aquarium which had a reef and several soft corals. Then one day I found it lying upright against the front glass. Close observation showed it was breathing quite heavily and I suspected white spot or velvet, two serious diseases with marines. As the fish wasn’t moving I was able to inspect it with a magnifying glass but couldn’t see anything. Seawater testing indicated all parameters as being fully acceptable. Strangely, no other fish displayed any symptoms. Eventually the fish died and it affected me considerably, feeling quite guilty of losing a fish that had been taken from the wild and had died in my care. I was not as experienced as I am now of course, and currently I would have investigated further.

Soft Coral

On I went in the hobby and eventually graduated to a full blown reef aquarium. The first one was built into a wall like a picture, with a sump (a 30″ aquarium). The aquarium became larger (I filled in the hole in the wall) until, calamity, we moved house. This was 10 years ago.

An aquarium was inevitable though, the one I have now is smaller than that at the previous address because of the space available. Peter kindly purchased it for me, and I made the cabinet and hood and fitted all the bits and pieces.

It’s a soft coral reef which has been running for 7 years (I know this as I keep a notebook). I love soft corals, the pastel colours and the way some of them sway in the seawater currents. It’s lit by a bank of three marine white fluorescent tubes, and two blue (actinic) tubes. The tubes are timed for a ‘dawn’ and ‘dusk’ sequence, in the morning the blues come on first then the whites, and vice versa when they go off. Seawater movement is created by two powerheads, arranged to produce the necessary random chaotic flow type. The bio-filtration was by two Eheim Ecco canister filters containing sintered glass, this could seem a bit backward to some but it worked well. Any nitrate presence was dealt with by a home made hang-on sulphur based denitrator and routine seawater changes.

The reef is constructed of inert dead rock with the name ‘Grotto Rock’, I don’t know why as it wasn’t from any grotto. The rock is very porous which is good for bacteria populations. It was excellent for the purpose with its various shapes, and many caves and crevices were formed. The reef sits on a plastic grate about 1¼” or so above the base glass. Another powerhead pumps seawater under the reef (below the grate) through a multi-dispersal pipe, which has successfully kept the underside more or less clean and of course has kept the lower regions oxygenated and prevented temperature stratification. Once the reef had been constructed the net gallonage of the system was 43.

I also constructed a hang-on anti-phosphate filter filled with a well known media, and this has operated from the beginning.

There is also a hang-on protein skimmer, a Red Sea ‘Prism’. This isn’t the world’s best skimmer but it does a sufficiently efficient job probably because of the low fish load. There could be some DOM (dissolved organic matter) that could have been removed, but perhaps it is helping to feed the corals. Let’s not get into that as it’s another subject.

Apart from various corals there are only two fish, a Flame Angel (Centropyge loriculus) and a Fijian Damsel (Chrysiptera cyanea). I believe that with reef systems it is better to under stock than fully stock (although there is nothing really wrong with the latter if done properly and growth is taken into account). This is because of seawater as it is easier to maintain at high quality with less fish. It’s a matter of personal opinion and taste. Routine seawater changes are still completed.

I have a very small DSB (deep sand bed) which is not large enough to have any particular impact on the aquarium; it was constructed purely out of interest. It is successful and, particularly at night, numerous tiny life forms can be seen. In the main aquarium quite a large number of snails are seen at night, and fortunately they are not the troublesome variety.

The canister filters are still running though the media has been removed. This happened a good while ago because I suspected the dead rock had changed to live. The rock, with all the growths on it, looks very similar to the live variety. I began to wonder about the rock as there wasn’t ever a trace of nitrate when the seawater was tested. Admittedly there was a denitrator but was it that efficient? Also of course routine seawater changes were being done.

To check I stopped the denitrator. Over three months of testing there wasn’t a trace of nitrate so the denitrator wasn’t changing anything. It remains switched off though it hasn’t been removed (I’m maybe too lazy!). Then I tested the seawater before a routine change, still no trace of nitrate. Then I left the seawater unchanged for three weeks, still no trace. So I began to remove the bio-media from the canisters, one was emptied entirely, and then the system was left for two weeks. There wasn’t a trace of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate at weekly testing. Then I removed ½ of the bio-media from the other canister, still no change. Now the final media was removed, though this made me nervous there wasn’t any change whatsoever. The rock had become ‘live’.

As the rock was porous the bacteria that deal with the toxins ammonia and nitrite established themselves on and in it, followed deeper inside by the bacteria that are able to deal with nitrate. The canisters had become redundant, though they still run to cause agitation at the seawater surface. The rock dwelling bacteria are clearly dealing with any toxins that are produced.

There’s a large amount that I’ve missed out about the journey from goldfish to a reef as there would be with other marine aquarists who have followed the same or a similar route.

The marine hobby has provided a little insight into the world of the wild reefs. I’ve had the good fortune to snorkel on many reefs in various areas and what a pleasure it was.

As time has progressed I’ve become more and more involved in the whys and wherefores of this and that. Now that experience has accumulated, looking back to the very early days with marines I have to smile and consider it was certainly worthwhile. Learning continues. I’ve found the marine hobby to be educational and it develops the discipline of patience. It’s also entertaining and fun.

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How About An Apple?

September 5, 2009

Sea Apple

Most marine aquarists are only too happy to have something different in their aquariums, as long as that something fits in with the current population.

The apple being talked of here is the Sea Apple which is definitely different! As can be seen it’s colourful too. An aquarist who has one will usually be fascinated by ‘the thing in the corner’. The Sea Apple has been available to aquarists for many years. I feel that the beginner aquarist should let experience build before keeping one, as a pure guess say about a year, or at least until the common general husbandry mistakes are no longer made and seawater quality is consistently high. This is important as will be seen.

‘Sea Apple’ is the common name; the proper one is Pseudocolochirus axiologus. They need the usual correct introduction to the aquarium, that is, acclimatization, and should not be exposed to air. They need to be handled gently but this of course is the same for all livestock.

The Sea Apple does not require reef lighting as it is not a coral but a species of sea cucumber. This can of course be confusing, the common name talks of ‘apple’ yet the species is ‘cucumber’. (This seems to happen from time to time, such as the Foxface fish (Lo vulpinus) that belongs to the rabbitfish family.) The Sea Apple is usually able to grow to about 4″ (circa 10cm) though there are larger species that grow to about 6″ (circa 15.25cm) or more though these are not so readily available and are more expensive.

The Sea Apple is able to move slowly around the aquarium and will do so until it is happy with its position, and this depends a lot on seawater flow. The flow doesn’t need to be very strong but moderate to brisk. This is because from the top centre a crown of feathery tentacles will appear and too strong a flow could cause problems. As said, the Sea Apple will make its choice and the final place could be a viewing glass, a corner, a rock or even the tube from a tubeworm. The aquarist has his or her preference for position, so keep those fingers crossed. The final position is likely to be between half way and the top of the aquarium. Once the Sea Apple has come to rest it should be left in peace unless the position is causing trouble to other livestock or presents a danger to the Sea Apple itself. It should not be irritated by the aquarist; this could be a real problem as will be seen.

The tentacles are used for feeding and are extended into the seawater column for this purpose. Fine particulate matter is captured and, one by one, the tentacles are passed into the mouth for removal of any food and then withdrawn, it’s a bit like a human sucking food off the fingers. This is a fairly slow process and is fascinating to observe.

The Sea Apple is quite hardy in a high quality environment and can live a long time. Many do fail though and this is to do with feeding, or rather the lack of it. In most aquariums there is insufficient suitable fine particulate matter in the seawater and therefore the Sea Apple doesn’t get enough to eat. This causes it to slowly shrink until it dies. Target feeding is needed, the frequency of which is best twice a day or more if the need is observed. There are plenty of commercial fine foods available that are suitable. All that is needed is for this food to be squirted into the seawater with a suitable instrument a little upstream from the Sea Apple when it has the tentacles extended, the food will then drift over them. If the seawater current is too high causing the food to pass too quickly, turning off the pumps for a short period will not do any harm. Any of the fine food that is not taken will drift off and could well be captured by corals.

Overall I would suggest that a reef system is the best aquarium for the Sea Apple to be introduced into. The reason is that there is a greater likelihood that there will not be any fish present that could nip at the tentacles, though this is not always the case. If the Sea Apple is excessively harassed then serious trouble could occur.

The problem that a Sea Apple could cause is very serious. If it is excessively harassed and stressed a toxin could be released that could, and likely will, kill the other livestock. Not a pleasant thought. That is why the Sea Apple should not be harassed excessively by the aquarist and its tank mates should be suitable. In addition it would be a good cautionary measure to protect the intakes of circulation pumps etc so that the Sea Apple cannot be accidentally damaged, this should be done before introduction.

Having said that, the Sea Apple should be a good introduction to a suitable high quality environment provided the aquarist has reasonable experience and feeding is given suitable attention.

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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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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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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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