That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Hi, Dave here, It has been a while since I have posted a blog entry, I have busy working on some renovations and remodeling of our fish room here in our store.  The bulk of the work is now complete, and wow what a change we have made, the fish room seems HUGE now.  Anyone who has not visited the store in the last couple months is in for a surprise when they visit the fish room.   Walls are missing, systems have moved, systems have expanded, and we are not done yet!

One of the objectives of the remodel was to create a bigger, better open space in what was our “pond room” for hosting events and having a flexible area for whatever we want to use it for.  The first event to take advantage of this new space will be the TFP/NCPARS winter frag swap extravaganza on January 31st, 2009.

I wanted to add some more details about the event, which we had announced a while back, and had a previous blog entry for.

The Frag Swap is being run by NCPARS (the North Central Pennsylvania Reef aquarium Society) and all proceeds from the event will go to benefit the club.  Information about the club can be found on their website http://www.ncpars.org/.  Entrance to the event is $5 for members and $10 for non members.  Attendees and sellers can pre-register on http://www.fragswapper.com/

The event has morphed into much more  than just a frag swap, and will be of interest to any marine aquarium hobbyist, from beginner to expert.  Through TFP’s assosiation with industry leading manufacturer’s and experts, we have put together a show that will include some great seminars, as well as on-hand manufacturers representatives to answer questions about their products.

Seminars for the event include:

Anthony Calfo: Anthony is a well known reef aquarium expert, Authored  “The Book of Coral Propagation” and is the publisher of “C the Journal“.  Anthony has spent years traveling the world and working in many phases of the industry, his seminar for this event is “Interesting facilities of the world” a showcase of places he has visited through the years in all areas of the hobby.

Steven Pro: Steven has worked in the industry for many years in many capacaties, including retail, wholesale, maintenance, and now manufacturing.  Steven’s presentation “You Touched it, Now What? Poisonous, Venomous, and Contagious things in your aquarium” puts together many things that he has seen and learned about dangerous things in your reef aquarium, and how to deal with them.

Randy Reed: Founder of Reed Mariculture, a manufacturer of specialty reef foods, that includes Phytoplankton and Zooplankton diets.  Randy will do a presentation about the “Fundamentals of Feeding Your Reef”

Dave Troop and Mike Elliot:  Dave and Mike are the founders of a new company in the hobby, Aquatic Life.  Dave and Mike have been integral members of a number of industry leading companies through the years, and have now joined forces to start a new company, that strives to bring truly innovative lighting and products to the hobby.  As a former TFP employee, Dave is returning home, to provide a presentation about ” Understanding light Output”

Ike Eigenbrode: Ike is a long time hobbyist, and is now the vice president of sales and marketing of Current USA, an industry leader in aquarium lighting and chiller manufacturing. Ike is going to do a presentation on “Aquariums and Energy Efficiency”

Along with these Seminars, manufacturer Representatives from Brightwell Aquatics, Kent Marine, Seachem, EcoTech Marine, Ice Cap, Coralife, Red Sea, and others will be present throughout the show to answer questions and showcase some of their products.

Last but not least THE DEALS!  TFP will give every paid attendee a 20% off one item coupon, good for use after the sale (restrictions apply).  In cooperation with our manufacturers, both attending and non attending, we will have a selection of over 300 additional products on sale the day of the event ranging from 10% – 25% off our already low prices.  These sale items will only be available to frag swap attendees.

Also benefiting NCPARS, the show will end with a raffle of some really great items that have been donated by our manufacturers.  A sample of some of the items in the raffle include:

Complete Solana and Cardiff aquarium setups from Current USA, these are beautiful high end nano aquarium, valued at over $700 dollars each!  These aquariums will be set up as displays during the show, so you can see them in all their beauty!

EcoTech Marine Vortec WMP 20 wave pump

Sunlight Supply  400watt Blue Wave Metal Halide ballast

Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Protein Skimmer

Aquatic Life pH Controller

Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor

And Many more items………

Come Join us January 31st from 11-5 for our first frag swap, there is alot of buzz about the show, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Schedule of Events:

Hope to see you there,

Dave

Have you ever gotten bored with your house and completely re-arranged your furniture just for fun? We here at That Fish Place/That Pet Place do it with our display aquariums. We get tired of looking at the same old tanks and get ants in our pants to re-model them. The most recent benefactor of this behavior is the 350 gallon acrylic cylinder tank in our Custom Aquatic Design Studio.

Over the first five years of operation, the display cylinder has had a few different themes as far as the fish that we had in the tank. For the last couple years its been a brackish community with puffers, scats, monos and catfish.

The decoration in the tank has been largely the same over this time, and was fairly limited because of the design of the tank. The tank itself is 4’ tall, and 4’ in diameter. Pretty big, however, there was a center overflow box in the tank that dominated the design. We hid the box as much as possible with a few hundred pounds of hand carved lava rock, but it was still the dominating feature.

The first thing we decided to do as part of the display’s extreme makeover was to remove the overflow box. We changed the filtration method from an overflow box wet/dry to a closed loop system. This would open up the tank visually, as well as add approximately 50 gallons to the total volume. To accomplish this, the overflow box had to be cut out. With the help of a few power tools and couple of busted knuckles later, the box came out without too much trouble. With the overflow removed, the interior of the tank was wide open, so I took advantage of the opportunity to repair some of the scratches that were on the inside of the tank. Anyone who has an acrylic tank can appreciate how easily they scratch.

Seriously limited in available space for filtration under the aquarium, I needed to come up with a system that would give us good performance, at the same time take up as little space as possible. What I decided on was a combination of a Aqua Ultraviolet Ultima II canister filter, and a series of Pentair aquatics Lifegard modular filters. The Ultima II filter will handle the mechanical and biological filtration. The Lifegard modular system includes a mechanical canister for water polishing, a chemical canister for activated carbon (or other chemical media), and a heater module. A 15 watt Aqua Ultraviolet sterilizer rounds out the filtration, and is the only carry-over from the original filtration set-up.

To really change the appearance of the aquarium, we kept the furniture to a minimum. A large
piece of driftwood is the centerpiece of the new decor, and it also acts as a cover for the central filtration return. Some strategically placed rocks and artificial plants hide the rest of the internal plumbing, as well as provide some cover and habitat for the new fish.

The new inhabitants will primarily be schooling tetras, and other South American community fish. The new, open design of the aquarium will be really spectacular as the numbers of schooling fish increase and mature.

One of the interesting aspects of cylindrical aquariums is the visual distortions that are created by the curved surface, everything inside looks much larger that it really is. Without the overflow box in the middle, everyone’s immediate reaction is that the tank looks much bigger than it used to, now that you can see all the way through the tank. This effect will really show off the brilliant colors of the tetras and other fish as they mature. So far the makeover has been a big hit.

Hmmm, what can I tear apart next?

I’ll let you know when I decide, so stay tuned for the next project!

Thanks,
Dave

Dave here. Coral propagation, or fragging as we reef geeks refer to it, is the process of creating new coral colonies from a parent colony. Over the last several years, techniques, products, and general knowledge of the practice rapidly evolved to where it is quite common. As little as five years ago it was something new and exciting, or even scary depending upon your perspective. The thought of cutting pieces off of your prized coral colonies may seem intimidating at first, but it is actually quite safe, and the fragment has an excellent chance of survival if properly handled. Some corals are more easily fragged, and are better suited for the beginner, than others.

These types are what I will focus on for this blog. In general branching stony corals, and Zoo polyps, are among the easiest and most desired corals to frag. If you look around for your local reef or aquarium clubs, many of them will have frag swap meets, so that hobbyists can sell and trade frags with other hobbyists. It is a really great way to promote coral conservation: the more fragged corals you keep, the fewer corals need to be collected from the reefs. Frag swapping is also a great way to share knowledge, and increase the survivability of captive corals. Propagated corals are hardier, and often more colorful, than wild corals. They have been raised in artificial conditions, and will usually keep their color. Wild corals can change color dramatically when adjusting to captive conditions.

There are a few basic items that you will need in order to start coral fragging. First, you need a suitable coral (Duh!). You should try to use only healthy coral colonies for fragging, as it will increase the survivability of both the parent and the cutting. While much fragging is done with damaged or dying corals in an attempt to save something, this is a much less successful way to produce coral frags, and should only be done as a last resort for the specimen. Fragging healthy corals will lead to a much better result.
Second, you will need something to mount the coral to, and there are several options here. Live rock rubble makes excellent, natural looking frags, but can be difficult to get in volume, and can be difficult to keep stable while the frag is securing itself. Commercially available Plugs and Disks, while less attractive initially, allow for quick and easy attaching. Using Plugs and Disks will also allow for easy volume production, as they will either fit snugly into egg crate material, or flat surfaces, so that you can grow out many frags, securely, in a small area. While we are on the subject of eggcrate, for those of you unfamiliar with the material, this can be found any home improvement center in the lighting section. Eggcrate can easily be cut and built into shelves and platforms to mount your frags for establishment and growth.
Next, you will need glue for attaching your cuttings to your rubble, plug, or disk. “Super Glue”,or Cyanoacrylate Gel is the glue of choice. This glue is harmless to the coral, dries quickly, and is easy to use. The glue is available in clear and pink colors, as well as different thicknesses for the job at hand. Your other choice is epoxy putty, this works well for some stony corals, and is well suited for use on rubble rock. Epoxy Putty is also available in several colors.

Finally, you will need cutting tools. Several types of cutters, scalpels, and snips are available on the market. Depending upon the type of coral being cut, different tools will work best, so it is best to have an assortment of tools at your disposal. What you may like to use may not be what I like to use, but if it suits your purposes, go for it. In general snips, shears, and cutters should be used on branching stony corals, and scalpels, razors, or chisels work best for Zooanthid polyps and encrusting corals.
You should strongly consider using safety goggles and rubber gloves, as many of the secretions and fluids that are produced when cutting corals can be very irritating, and even dangerous, to your skin and eyes. Protection is very important.

Once you have all the tools you need, the fragging process is easy. For stony coral, it is as simple as cutting the tips off of one or more of the branches of your parent colony and gluing the freshly cut tip to your plug or piece of rubble. Don’t be shy about the amount of glue that you use, you want to make sure that it stays attached so it can grow onto the plug. You can remove the coral from the water to perform this step. The parent colony will heal over and grow a new tip, or tips. The freshly attached frag will, over a period of weeks or months depending on species, grow over the glue and firmly attach to the plug.

Zoo Polyps can be removed from a parent colony by carefully removing them from the rock they are attached to with a scalpel or sharp chisel. Just a few full polyps are all that you need to start a new colony. With each removed polyp, a new frag colony can be started. Attach the cut polyp to a disk or piece of rubble rock, and then the polyp will attach and multiply on its own. Just as with the stony coral frag, the zoo polyp frag will grow over the glue and cover the disk or rock over a period of weeks to months.

This process can be repeated over and over, allowing you to produce many frags over time. Most people will choose to do this with just a few corals, and use these new frags to trade or sell for different species for their displays.

Interested in a more hands-on and guided approach? Stop by a frag swap! That Fish Place – That Pet Place in Lancaster, PA hosts one with the Reef Conservation Society Bi-annually. If you’re not in the area, Googling ‘frag swap’ is sure to yield one near you.

Until next blog

Dave

Please welcome back Steven Pro to That Fish Blog.                               

There is a breed of reef keepers that strives to setup their systems in such a way as to as closely as possible replicate nature.  They use live rock, live sand, refugiums with macroalgae, seagrasses, or mangroves, and they spend large quantities of money in lighting that replicates the power of the sun in the tropics.  They also invest a lot of time, money, and effort into maintaining optimum water quality and yet it is this very water, the basic foundation of any marine system, in which most reef keepers depart from this preference for all things natural.  The vast majority of these reef keepers instead use a synthetic salt mix.

Not to say there are not some good reasons for this.  Very few of us are lucky enough to live close enough to the coast to use natural seawater.  And for those that are, this is not always the best choice.  Our coastal waterways are often polluted by agricultural runoff, industrial pollution, nutrients, and other man-made sources that render this water inappropriate for aquarium use.  There are some companies that are now bottling saltwater from (hopefully) clean sources, but at today’s high fuel prices, transporting water at 9 pounds per gallon is not the most cost effective option.  That is where the Red Sea line of salt mixes can come into play.

Red Sea makes two brands of dry salt mix.  But, in contrast to most every other manufacturer, Red Sea does not use terrestrially mined components to create an artificial salt mix.  Instead, they evaporate salt out of the Red Sea to recreate Mother Nature.  Starting with water that is drawn from an actual reef near Eilat, Israel in the Red Sea, the water is evaporated using the power of the sun as well as the dry air from the surrounding desert.  Because the entire area is a desert, there is little rain and therefore little runoff.  Point of fact, the Eilat area gets little more than 1” of rainfall per year.  This coastline also has very little industry or agriculture leaving the surrounding water comparatively pristine.  The resulting dried salts are then screened, cleaned, and chemically analyzed.  At this point, the salt is 87% complete.  There are some compounds that once precipitated out of solution, won’t re-dissolve when hydrated again.  These are added back to the salt mix in ionic form.  At this point, a final quality control, chemical analysis is completed and if the product passes, it is packaged for sale.

As I mentioned before, Red Sea makes two brands of salt.  There is the classic Red Sea salt, which has been around for over 15 years.  And now, there is the Coral Pro Salt version.  It is specifically formulated for use with reverse osmosis water.  Many reef keepers have noticed that when using most salt mixes, the values of things such as pH, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium might be a bit low when mixed with de-mineralized water.  That is because most formulas are designed to be safe for use with tap water.  Tap water usually has a certain amount of carbonates, bicarbonates, calcium, and magnesium.  When blended with tap water, these salts mix to their appropriate values.  But, when added to reverse osmosis water, which has been stripped of these components, the resulting mix is sometimes lacking.  Red Sea has heard the complaints of reef keepers worldwide to design a salt specifically for use with reverse osmosis water.  When mixed to a specific gravity of 1.025 at 75F, Coral Pro delivers a pH of 8.2, a calcium concentration of 450 parts per million, alkalinity of 2.5 milliequivalents per liter, and a magnesium level of 1,300 parts per million.  Even more importantly, because the mix was originally derived from the reef, it also has all of the minor trace elements as well and in their proper, naturally occurring ratios.  No elevated metal levels here.  Everything is as it was on the real reef.  And, in keeping with this natural theme, Red Sea salts also do not contain any EDTA or other binding agents.

Also, in testing done by Eric Borneman and Kim Lowe and presented at the 18th annual Marine Aquarium Conference of North America in Houston, Texas, Red Sea salt tied for “first place” in their general observations. It is with this in mind that I first decided to try Red Sea salts.  Actually a funny story, that is why I have the job I do now.  I operate as a side business a 7,200 gallon coral and anemone greenhouse propagation facility.  I was unhappy with the brand of salt I was using then, so I started to investigate other alternatives.  I recalled the MACNA presentation by Eric and Kim and tried to get in touch with their sales representative to buy their Coral Pro salt in quantity.  After several attempts in vain, I discovered that the reason I could not reach Dave was because he had moved on to another company and Red Sea was currently advertising for his job. I sent them my resume and after an interview, I had a job offer.  Now, I am the East Coast Sales Manager for Red Sea and a happy user of their Coral Pro salt in my greenhouse too!

Thanks Steven. If you have any questions about any Red Sea Products or anything else for Steven, feel free to send them along.

Until Next Time,

Dave

The use of ozone has long been a standard practice in industrial and public water purification plants, and large scale public aquarium filtration, as one of the best and most efficient means to increase water quality, while still being able to promote water conservation.   One of the biggest problems to overcome in these closed water systems is the accumulation of dissolved organic waste from various biological sources such as animal waste and decomposing food and plant material.
In aquariums of any scale, mechanical filtration will remove large organic and inorganic solids, and biological filters will remove dissolved organic material in the form of Ammonia and Nitrite, this still leaves behind a large number of other dissolved and colloidal organic materials that will accumulate over time (the ones causing colors and odors being most noticeable).  In most cases these materials are only removed by physical water changes, or chemical absorption media.  While frequent water changes may be practical for removing these dissolved materials in smaller aquariums where you are not dealing with large volumes of water, it is not a practical method for removal of these materials in large systems or in systems where water conservation is at a premium.  Using chemical absorption media is expensive, and is limited in is ability to remove all of these undesirable dissolved organics.  This is where the use of Ozone comes in, I will try to answer some basic questions about ozone below

So, what is ozone, and how does it work to remove these dissolved organic molecules?
Ozone is a naturally occurring highly reactive form of oxygen gas comprised of three oxygen molecules (O3) that is also highly unstable and short lived.  It is this inherent instability of the ozone molecule that is taken advantage of for use as a strong oxidizing agent.  “Normal” oxygen, as found in air and water, has two oxygen molecules (O2) and is very stable.  When ozone molecules break down, they lose an oxygen molecule, forming a stable “normal” oxygen molecule, and a free single oxygen atom.  It is this free oxygen atom that attaches to dissolved organic compounds, which in turn causes them to break down into simpler forms that can consumed by heterotrophic bacteria , or recombine into forms that can be removed with mechanical filtration or protein skimming.  The organic molecule that gained the free oxygen atom and subsequently broke apart is now said to be oxidized.  This is a bit of an oversimplification of the process, but it is a about as general an explanation as I can give without losing too many of you. (and myself, chemistry was never my strong point)

How do I get ozone, and how do I use it in my aquarium?

As I have already discussed ozone is a highly unstable gas, so it is not possible to store, or purchase ozone, it only has a life span of a few seconds before it breaks apart.  Ozone needs to be generated as needed with a device called an ozonizer or ozone generator.  Most modern units available for the aquarium hobby use a Corona Discharge method to create ozone. In a Corona Discharge unit, air is passed through a strong electrical field which causes atmospheric oxygen (O2) to break apart into single oxygen molecules.  Some of these oxygen molecules will then combine back together after passing through the electrical field to form Ozone (O3).  This generated ozone gas must then be quickly used before it breaks apart again.  Most marine aquarium hobbyists already have the perfect piece of equipment for introducing ozone into their aquariums, their protein skimmer.  Ozone needs to have contact time with the water so that it is exposed to the materials that you wish to oxidize.  Fractionating the ozone gas by drawing it into the air intake of your protein skimmer, you can use your skimmer as a highly efficient contact chamber.  This works for both venturi type, and air pump driven protein skimmers.  You need to make sure that your skimmer is made of ozone safe materials, and that you use ozone safe air tubing.  Some plastics and rubber can be damaged by ozone, and cause leaks or failures if exposed for prolonged periods of time.  There are also ozone reactors available, but they are a bit more difficult to use, and harder to find.

How much ozone needs to be used, and is it safe for aquarium inhabitants.

The best way to monitor and control ozone is with the use of an ORP monitor or controller.  ORP stands for Oxidation Reduction Potential, and In terms of your aquarium water, it reads an electrical voltage in Milli Volts (mV) which measures the oxidation ability of the water.  As Ozone is applied the ORP level increases.  Natural sea water has an ORP value of 350-400 mV.  ORP levels of 200 or less in your aquarium are indicative of low oxygen, high dissolved organic, conditions.  By monitoring the ORP level in your aquarium, and maintaining it between 250-350mV, you can adjust your ozone dosage accordingly. Using an ORP controller simplifies this process to shut off you ozone generated at a desired ORP level.  You should never exceed an ORP of 400mV in your aquarium.  Ozone units like the Red Sea AquaZone Plus have a built in ORP controller.

Most manufacturers of ozone units recommend a dosage rate between 5-15mg per hour per 100 liters (26 gallons) many different size units are available, so you can choose an appropriate output unit for your size aquarium, and most have a variable output.  Controlling your ozone output is very important, too much is not a good thing; very low doses will provide you with excellent results in most cases, overdosing can be harmful to both you and your aquarium inhabitants.  There are several methods to make sure that you are applying the correct amounts of ozone into your aquarium.  The goal when introducing ozone into your protein skimmer is for all of the ozone to break down in the chamber or escape through the top of the skimmer.  You do not want ozone to escape freely into your aquarium, it will also oxidize organic material in there, which will cause damage to fishes gills, and invertebrate tissue.  You also do not want high concentrations of ozone to escape into the air; it is harmfull to your lungs if in high enough levels.  Most hobbyist units do not produce dangerous levels of ozone.  You can use carbon in your sump chamber that the skimmer discharges into, or on top of your protein skimmer to absorb residual Ozone, and use an Ozone test kit to make sure that none is escaping the reaction chamber into your aquarium.  Overdosing Ozone can also produce some harmful compounds, mainly in the form of hypochloric and hypobromic acids, this is why you should not exceed and ORP of 400 mV It is a not a good idea to use ozone in small confined spaces, a well ventilated room or aquarium cabinet should be considered.  If you are not using an ORP meter or controller, a conservative approach should be used, stick to the 5mg per hour, per 100 liter rate to be safe.  Another caution when using ozone is to use an air dryer to make sure that the air that is drawn into the ozone generator is dry, a simple and effective unit like the Red Sea Air Dryer, uses regenerable desiccant  beads to draw moisture out of the air.  Moisture can react with Ozone to create nitric acid, which can damage equipment, and lower the pH in your aquarium.

What are the benefits of using ozone?

Water clarity is the number one reason most people use ozone.  There are many dissolved organics that can discolor your water, ozone will oxidize these and produce water that is crystal clear.  This is especially beneficial to reef aquariums where light penetration is crucial.  Many people do not even realize how discolored their water is until they see the difference ozone can make. Ozone also has disinfecting properties, pathogenic bacteria, single cell parasites and algae, viruses are all destroyed by contact with ozone.  Increased dissolved oxygen levels from the reduced organic load and bacterial oxygen consumption.  Ozone will destroy pesticides, detergents, and many other toxins that may be in your tap water.  Many organisms release substances that are intended to defend themselves, or inhibit predators or competitors that can accumulate over time and become problematic will be destroyed by ozone.  Ammonia and Nitrite are oxidized into less harmful Nitrate when exposed to Ozone.  And as mentioned previously, using ozone can reduce the amount of water that needs to be changed in closed systems.

I hope that this has shed some light on Ozone use in the home aquarium, and that I answered some of the questions that you may have about Ozone use.  Feel free to leave comments if you’re looking for any additional info.

Until next time,

Dave