May 1997

In reading through the letters and emails that are forwarded to me
each month I often wish that I could receive more information on the
systems being discussed. Since I cannot ask you more questions, I
think it would be best if I outlined some of the parameters I would
like to know about your systems when you send me questions about
problems you are having.

Lets start with the tank itself. How big is the tank and what are its
dimensions? How much total water is in the system including the
filtration system? Where is the tank located? Is it close to open
windows or doors?

The lighting system is the next important area to consider. How many
lights do you have? What type are they? What is the wattage, colour
temperature and length? How often do you replace them? How far above
the water are they located and is there a shield between the lights
and the tank?

Filtration is of course critical. What types of filters do you have?
If you have a protein skimmer what size is it, how much water are you
sending through it and with what type of pump? If you are using
activated carbon, how much do you use, how often is it replaced and
where is it located? If you have live rock, how much do you have, how
is it arranged, how old is it? How did you setup and cycle your
system?

Additives are always a tricky thing to put your finger on. What
products do you use, how much and how often do you add them? If you
use calcium supplements how do you prepare them and how are they
added?

How you maintain your aquarium is also important. How often do you
clean your filter system, the glass, the aquarium, and the
prefilters? Do you do water changes if so how often and how much?
What type of freshwater are you using and where does it come from?

Water chemistry is a critical parameter. You should provide me with
the following measurements: ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, pH (range),
alkalinity, calcium, temperature (range), and specific gravity.
Iodide and strontium levels are also useful to know but not critical.

Finally what do you have in your tank? What types and how many fish,
corals and other invertebrates do you have in there? How large are
they and how close together are the corals? When were they added?

One of the best ways to help yourself understand what may be
happening in your aquarium is to keep a logbook. Each day write down
anything you do to or observe in the tank. Record all your water
quality test results. Often, when looking back in your logs you may
be able to trace a change in your tank to something that happened or
you did days, weeks to even months ago. Your logbook can be as simple
as a notebook or you can use your computer to build a database or
spreadsheet, you can even use one of the shareware or commercial
aquarium data logging 
software packages now available.

The Internet

What's that you say? Not another story about the Internet?? I'm
afraid so. Whether you have access to the Internet directly, through
an Internet provider, or through an on-line service such as
CompuServe or America On-line, do yourself a favor and explore some
of the reef- related resources available on the World Wide Web. A
number of hobbyists, businesses, public aquaria and professional
aquarists have their own home pages where you can get information on
system design, products, reef exhibits, reef aquaria, coral and fish
identification, do-it-yourself projects ... the list is almost
endless, as is the Web itself. To get you started you can access my
aquarium link page at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~delbeek/aquarium.html.
It will offer you a good start for your reef-related Web surfing.

In addition there are newsgroups where you can find reef-related
discussions, or post your own questions. Try rec.aquaria and
sci.aquaria. These areas have currently undergone changes to better
organize the thousands of messages that get posted each day into more
specific categories. At best these areas are confusing to the novice,
and still a little hostile to neophytes. On-line services such as
America On-line (Keyword: Pets), Prodigy and CompuServe (Go Fishnet)
offer message areas, files, weekly chats and monthly guest lectures
on a variety of reef-related topics, and in my opinion offer the
better choice for asking questions and getting useful answers. I have
been a member of CompuServe's Fishnet forum for over 10 years, and
America On-line's Pets Forum for 2 years. In my experience, of the
two, CompuServe is the better choice for reef-related advice, quality
of information available, quality of discussions and the level of
expertise of its members. America On-line is easier to use for the
novice, and has many excellent files on a variety of topics available
for downloading. One thing that really bothers me about the AOL Pets
Forum is that their chat rooms are shared by everything from cats to
parrots. Nights are designated for certain topics but people often
intrude on fish or reef discussions, this does not happen on Fishnet
since it has its own chat rooms devoted only to fishy topics.

Pests, Pests and Still More Pests!

I recently received two letters, each describing a different pest or
perceived pest, in reef aquaria i.e. dinoflagellates and flatworms
(planaria).

Flatworms come in many shapes and sizes. The ones we normally
consider pests tend to be small, less than 5mm in length,
dorso-ventrally flattened worm-like creatures. They can be brown,
green or red, often with a white strip down the middle of the back.
These animals feed on bacteria and coral slime and are thought to be
relatively harmless. The problem comes when you get a population
explosion in the tank and they begin to cover every available
surface, including your corals. They become a real eyesore and can
also severely cut back on the amount of light the corals receive. At
this point you have three options: leave them alone and wait until
they begin to disappear, which often happens; siphon them off the
corals everyday until their numbers begin to decrease or; find a
biological control. Biological controls are tricky because there is
no guarantee that they will work and if they do work what will they
eat once the flatworm population declines? Fish are the most
effective biological controls for flatworms. Members of the genus
Valenciennea (Sleeper Gobies) have been observed to control
flatworms effectively but they tend to waste away in aquaria once the
flatworms decrease in number. Wrasses are very interesting fish in
that if there is something that occurs on a reef there is usually a
wrasse that eats it. Both Macropharyngodon (Leopard wrasses)
and Anampses wrasses are suspected to eat flatworms in aquaria.
In the few cases where I have experienced flatworm outbreaks the
populations eventually disappeared in about 6-8 weeks. Flatworms
often appear in new aquaria with live rock, with new pieces of live
rock added to an already established reef aquarium, and with new
pieces of coral. This is why it is prudent to carefully inspect new
arrivals for suspicious hitchhikers and to quarantine new pieces in a
separate tank to make sure they are pest free. Often vigorously
shaking the piece in a bucket of seawater is enough to dislodge
flatworms. A more drastic procedure is to dip the live rock briefly
in freshwater for 30-60 seconds causing them to drop off.

Dinoflagellates can become a real pest in aquaria and have caused
more than one hobbyist to completely tear down and sterilize their
aquaria. This tiny, single-celled protozoan can multiply into large
mats of brown, filamentous growths, often with air bubbles attached
to rising filaments. When examined under the microscope they appear
as very tiny spheres embedded in a gelatinous goo! There is no
sure-fire way to rid an aquarium of this plague and often it is
merely the shock of the change that causes them to disappear.
Treatments have included raising the pH to 8.5 for several weeks,
dropping the specific gravity to 1.016 rapidly and keeping it there
for a few weeks, raising or lowering the temperature, using phosphate
lowering compounds, and turning off the lights for a few days to a
week. Sometimes a combination of the above will cause a positive
result. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any organism that
will eat these beasties either! As you can probably tell, many of the
above options carry their own dangers for the other inhabitants of
the tank but drastic times sometimes require drastic means, you may
loose all your animals or you may be successful, the alternative is
to do nothing and that will eventually lead to a very nice of display
of dinoflagellates and little else.

Till next month ... Aloha!