Tunicates can be found in a variety of colorationsAmong the more fascinating creatures that commonly make their way into marine aquariums as stowaways on good-quality live rock are tunicates, or sea squirts. In terms of visual interest, these animals can be quite dazzling, with some exhibiting spectacular coloration or resembling small, delicate, translucent pitchers or urns. What are they? Tunicates are filter-feeding marine organisms with a very simple body plan. Essentially, they’re water-filled sacks with two openings—an incurrent (or oral) siphon and an excurrent (or atrial) siphon. As you’ve probably deduced already, sea water is drawn into the animal through the incurrent siphon, tiny planktonic particles are filtered out, and then the water is expelled through the excurrent siphon. These creatures can be either solitary or colonial and are often mistaken for sponges.

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In a surprise discovery more than 38 acres of critically endangered Acropora cervicornis Staghorn Coral has been found in patches on reefs along the South Florida coast. A stony coral, A. cervicornis typically grows in a branching form and is among the most important coral species for its ability to build reefs which in turn create a habitat for fish and other marine creatures, and provide a natural wave-break that protects the coast. A scientist from Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center found the coral while doing a survey for the environmental agency which wanted a better map of shallow reef system. Specifically, the dense patches of the coral (which is federally protected), were discovered through dives and the analysis of aerial surveys

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It’s the ultimate showdown, two pieces of technology that represent the pinnacle of circulation within a reef aquarium. Both are the results of years of research and many breakthrough innovations in creating currents within our aquariums that mirror those found on wild reefs. Of course I am talking about the Maxspect Gyre, released late in 2014, and its number one market competitor, the long standing Ecotech Vortech. While reviews have been pouring in for a while on the new Gyre pump, I wanted to offer aquarists a perspective on which pump packs the most punch when plunking down your hard earned money. While the Gyre is a bit cheaper than a Vortech mp40w, is the money saved really worth it, when looking at the various features each system offers. First, I’ll run through a short breakdown of each unit, and finally I’ll pit them head to head, in hopes of helping aquarists make an informed decision when upgrading to a new pump. Maxspect Gyre:Take one look at the gyre, and you will quickly see this is totally unlike other propeller pumps. Tunze stream pumps, Hydor korallias, all bear resemblance to Ecotech’s crown jewel, the Vortech. The gyre is a dramatic departure from that design. It’s a long pump which offers two rotating brushes. These brushes are made of rubber, very fine when compared to a rotating propeller. The gyre lives up to its claim, literally generating gyres in the reef aquarium. Gyres are a specific type of oceanic current, which creates 360 degrees of flow, moving water in a circular motion in several directions. When mounted horizontally, the gyre moves water across the top of the aquarium, looping up through the substrate, and back to the point of origin. Turn it on in reverse, and it does the exact opposite. Mounted vertically, the pump moves water from one aquarium wall, in a circular motion around the back wall, returning to the point of origin. Adding a thick white additive such as coral snow, really helps visualize how effective the gyre is, as you watch the milky cloud pass around the aquarium in a perfect circle. The gyre’s driver is simple, but effective. You can allow the pump to spin in one direction, creating a continuous circle. Also, it can spin in one direction, alternating to the other, for a gyre that flows both forward and back, or you can opt for several other modes, and each allows you to adjust the intensity of the current.… More:

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Following on from our recent unboxing review, we’ve now had chance to install our XR15w over the test tank, hook it up to one of EcoTech’s ReefLink wireless controllers and have a good old play with the various settings and functions on offer. In this review we’ll detail exactly how we’ve integrated it onto the test tank, and evaluate the units capabilities in a real hobbyist setting. So the first thing we needed to do with our unit was to mount it, and to achieve this we decided to use a custom-cut sheet of glass to support it from underneath. Although any of the EcoTech mounting systems would have been fine for our tank, the other light we are currently testing (an AI Hydra 26) wouldn’t fit with this system so we needed something universal.

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In the full-blown frenzy of the holiday season, I was feverishly searching for new Cephalopod-inspired ornaments to adorn our little tree, so obviously an “octopus ornament” google search was in order. That little search got us here – Full Blown Glass – an online shop with a wide gamut of eight-limbed mouth-blown art glass in various shapes, sizes and functions. Get ready to fall madly in love.  They’re generously priced pieces exist in the form of ornaments, pendants, bottle stoppers, sculptures, magnifying glasses (that one’s for you, Sherlock) and glass straws. Yea, straws, so you can drink every imaginable beverage through one of these (hint: these are perfect for slurping up one of these Shark Week-themed cocktails next year). Not limited to the usual cephalo-suspects, they also carry adorable cuddly cuttlefish, nautilus, sea turtles, brittle stars , jellyfish, seahorses- the works. Each unique piece is made with borosilicate glass at the Fullblown Glass Studio in Waynesville, North Carolina. As mentioned, everything is very reasonably priced, ranging from $8 and peaking at $250. An added bonus for you reefs.com readers – enter the code “REEFS” at checkout at their online Etsy store and you’ll receive 15% off your purchase! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go order a bunch of octo-straws.   … More:

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Brett Harris, the “SPS Guru” of Cherry Corals, informed me last week that he was going to be releasing a new Acropora morph he had been cooking for a while during their recent Live Sale. It’s not overly often I get excited about a fuzzy stick, but this one has definitely piqued my interest. This acro has yellow undertones with bright pink and orange highlights exposed on the coralites. Polyps appear very fuzzy and “milli-esque” once the coral settles in.While these days it seems many vendors of “SPS” are solely out to hoard new imports and price gouge hobbyists by selling tiny stick frags for $400+, Cherry Corals released a few of these at a fair price range of $100-150 each. Fantastic! I don’t keep any fuzzy sticks at this point, but this one may has me chomping at the bit… 

Who wouldn’t want to be as cool as Brian Fantana?

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Most of the livestock within my aquarium came from an online vendor. Actually, with the exception of a few fish, everything for my aquariums was ordered online and delivered to my door. The competition for online ordering of fish and corals couldn’t be higher. There are small basement vendors, which I’ve consistently criticized for offering extraordinarily high prices. For example, I saw a 6” rainbow chalice (one of many names randomly applied to coral) for sale on a Facebook post earlier today. The seller wanted $650 for the coral, saying they were very firm on that price. I have the exact same coral in my aquarium. I paid $79 for 3” of chalice years ago, and now it’s well in excess of 7”. If I were to sell the colony, I would probably ask around $200 for it, or less. Basement vendors often lead the charge when it comes to over-hyping coral; manipulating species in photo editing software and making otherwise ordinary pieces appear rare or exotic. Then you have large aquaculture outlets; usually well run facilities that are constantly sparring for the consumer dollar, with offers like free shipping or reduced cost. All this leads to the topic of guarantee policy.  Most aquarists who shop online know the golden rule; Live Aquaria offers by far the best guarantee policy in the industry. In fact, it’s too good to be true. Purchase a fish or coral and it dies within 14 days, you either get a store credit or money back, the total cost of the livestock minus shipping, which is usually free. It’s hard to beat, and aquarists have wondered if this policy didn’t lead the Wisconsin based company to end up on the auction block, eventually getting swallowed up by Petco Inc. There are a variety of guarantee policies in the middle, some seven days, some several hours and a few vendors offer nothing, not even live arrival. Whenever you ship something alive or perishable, there has to be some sort of guarantee policy. On top of that, livestock can be packaged to survive in a variety of shipping conditions, even arriving healthy after a delay. I’ve ordered from enough online vendors to know which ones can package their livestock, and which ones cannot. So if the vendor is doing their job, your livestock should arrive in good condition, even if it’s delayed 24 hours, right?… More:

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Since Chris and I launched Saltwater Smarts back in April of 2013, we’ve been immensely gratified to welcome a steadily increasing number of visitors to our site, to have the opportunity to share our personal insights on a wide variety of topics related to marine aquarium keeping, as well as to bring you authoritative perspectives from a variety of aquarium industry professionals and other seasoned hobbyists. Special thanks to all who helped make 2014 such a stellar year here at Saltwater Smarts: our regular contributors, Jay Hemdal, Than Thein, Paul Baldassano (PaulB), Paul Poeschl, and Dave Bowers; our site sponsors, Doctors Foster and Smith, Tidal Gardens, Advanced Reef Aquarium, GHL, Coral Reef LLC, Coralreefaquarist.com, and Majano Wand; and, of course, each and every salty out there who took the time to visit our site over the past year! Today, as we stand on the cusp of 2015, we’re bullish about our trajectory and looking forward to some exciting changes and new offerings ahead. Here’s a sampling of what you can expect from Saltwater Smarts over the coming year: New media You could say Chris and I both have perfect faces for radio, but I’m afraid you’ll be seeing more of our ugly mugs in 2015. We plan to step away from the keyboard from time to time and bring you more video offerings—for example a series of short how-to’s on basic marine aquarium techniques, one documenting our recent efforts to capture and remove several rogue damsels from the display tank in a local coffee shop, and much more. New resources We’re also thrilled to announce that day one of 2015 will see the release of Saltwater Smarts’ first eBook, The Salt Smart Guide to Preventing, Diagnosing, and Treating Diseases of Marine Fishes, penned by Jay Hemdal, Curator of Fishes and Invertebrates at the Toledo Zoo. Be sure to tune in to Saltwater Smarts this coming Friday (January 2) for much more information on this exciting new resource. And Jay’s disease guide is just the beginning.

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Happy New Year!! Here’s to a 2015 filled with health, happiness and fish!! Silverside minnows spawn just once a year, in the coral reefs off the coast of Key Large, Florida. Every year the minnows gather in shoals around the aptly named ‘minnow caves’. The caves are just around 20-25 ft underwater, surrounded by beautiful coral reefs. The reefs are a very popular dive site for the abundance of coral and marine life at such accessible depths.Underwater photographer John Chapa captured these amazing photos earlier this year, but since this article just came out and I was reading this morning, I couldn’t help but share. I think my new years resolution this year will be to go to Key Largo this summer to check this amazing sight out. MORE… More:

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If Chris and I were to categorize all the questions we receive here at Saltwater Smarts, it’s safe to say the vast majority would fit under the heading of “fish disease and health issues.” While we’re always happy to offer advice to our fellow salties and help them succeed in any way we can, responding to fish disease inquiries in this forum presents some very significant challenges. Among them is the fact that neither of us is a veterinarian (though Chris may play one on TV) and any diagnosis/treatment advice we might dispense is essentially a “best guess.” What’s more, it’s extremely difficult—oftentimes impossible—to determine what’s actually wrong with a fish and recommend an appropriate course of treatment based solely on a description of symptoms and, potentially, a photo of the ailing specimen. With this dilemma in mind, we asked ourselves, “How can we provide Saltwater Smarts visitors with reliable, authoritative advice on fish diseases rather than mere guesswork that might end up doing more harm than good?” In seeking an answer, we approached Jay Hemdal, Curator of Fishes and Invertebrates for the Toledo Zoo and an avid aquarium hobbyist with over 45 years of experience under his belt. Jay is one of the first people Chris and I turn to when we have an aquarium-related question we can’t answer or problem we can’t resolve. He’s also an accomplished author, having written six books and over 150 articles on aquarium-related topics. So you can imagine that we were both beyond gratified when, upon hearing our dilemma, Jay agreed to pen an eBook on marine fish diseases to be published here at Saltwater Smarts. After many long months of writing, editing, and design work, we’re thrilled to announce that the product of our collaboration with Jay, The Salt Smart Guide to Preventing, Diagnosing, and Treating Diseases of Marine Fishes, is now available

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Tidal Gardens 2014 Year in Review 2014 has come and gone. It's been a big year for us here at Tidal Gardens. Let's take a look back at the major milestones of 2014. Check out http://www.tidalgardens.com for information... From: tidalgardens Views: 0 0 ratingsTime: 07:01 More in Pets & Animals

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The pinks and purple in this captive grown Halomitra are enhanced with potassium

 My experience with potassium was highlighted during an aquaculture project using filtered natural seawater that was low in potassium. I was advised by Steve Garrett, the outdoor coral system trailblazer in California, to make sure to correct this potassium deficiency. He noted that when tested his system was running at higher levels of potassium and doing great. He keeps a wide range of very colorful SPS, and flocks of Xenia growing in his outdoor glass aquarium of wonders. He has noted long term consistent growth with his Xenia with no crashing. Steve lends that to the potassium. Potassium is part of my regular reef husbandry regime. I have been using potassium chloride for years and doing so I have had much brighter and more intense colors. I have also had faster growth on my soft coral and macroalgae. I think it’s probable that the potassium in the Lugol’s what grows the Xenia. Perhaps the iodine alone is not as critical as potassium. I do very sparse iodine dosing, and all is well as far as growth and a lack of colony collapse are concerned. I do however dose iodine to enhance macroalgae growth when needed. 

Pink, Purple and some Greens like those in this picture, are enhanced with potassium

 I’ve noticed potassium enhances certain pigments especially pink. I had color enhancement effects within several days of dosing. Iron dosing (which I will cover more in he future) helps develop brown pigments, healthy background color, and deep toned greens. This in part seems due to enhanced zooxanthellae growth. Potassium has a more striking effect on the coral’s fluorescent proteins. Pinks, Purples and Reds respond most profoundly. Pink and Purple Pocillopora and Stylophora start emanating eye blasting hues. Neon Green and Orange fluorescence are all kicked into overdrive as well. I use the hot pink Stylos as a visual litmus test. It stays super bright pink with daily dosing. With slight overdosing the pink gets crazy bright and bleaches a little. Low potassium and the colors are dull, even brown. Potassium, because it is a nutrient, will cause increased nuisance algae growth in the presence of elevated nitrates and/or phosphates. Potassium will support the photosynthesis of all photosynthetic species, including macro and micro algae. This works great in a refugium, as the macroalgae grows quite lush.… More:

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Stoney corals require many things to thrive.  Once the basics are mastered, stability is most important.  Keeping the parameters close to the natural sea water numbers will work every time as long as stability is considered.  Chasing elevated parameters or sudden changes stress the corals greatly.  Some believe keeping Calcium or Alkalinity at a elevated level can supply the animals with more of what they require.  The problem is that a coral does not need more of these to grow and thrive.  Trying to keep elevated levels creates a see saw effect and one or the other becomes out of balance quite often.  Alkalinity in the approximate range of 7 dkh to 8 dkh if measured accurately is much easier to keep stable and sufficient for coral health.  Calcium in the 380 ppm to 400 ppm is also sufficient.  The balance of these two parameters is extremely important  If one is allowed to rise greatly, the other will tend to drop from precipitation.  Another key parameter to consider in Magnesium.  Alkalinity and Calcium are difficult to keep stable if Mg is not kept at proper levels.  A level of 1300 ppm to 1350 ppm is a sufficient density of this mineral.  A better approach is to keep these closer to NSW and at a stable level.  Using a balance additive to maintain these if any additions are necessary is the best practice.  Some corals will not react extremely negative if this premise is not followed, but some sensitive stoney corals can loose tissue essentially over night  Acropora species in general do not favor this instability.  Soft corals will tolerate some abuse in this process and fare well when Acropora specimens will not.  This can be a hard learned lesson when losses occur.  It is best to follow mother nature in this regard and keep levels as close to NSW as possible.  Keeping them very stable is also a very important factor.  Chasing numbers without paying close attention to this may result in unnecessary loss and necrosis of your prize specimens.… More:

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Long-tentacled Plate Coral (Heliofungia actiniformis)Easily mistaken for an anemone at first glance, Heliofungia actiniformis is a large-polyp stony (LPS) coral that can be an excellent option for reefkeepers with modest-sized systems. Even relative newcomers to the reefkeeping hobby can succeed with this species, provided they make the effort to satisfy its few special care requirements. Physical traits Commonly known as the long-tentacled plate coral or disk coral, H. actiniformis (the only member of its genus) has a disk-shaped skeleton very similar to that of its Fungia spp. cousins. However, as its common name implies, it differs in having much longer tentacles that are usually brown or green with bulbous, contrastingly colored (typically white or pink) tips, giving this coral a decidedly anemone-like appearance. It also produces long sweeper tentacles, with which it can sting neighboring cnidarians, and can inflate its tissues to surprising dimensions

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Here’s some great news to start off our new year with. During a research program initially intended to improve knowledge of coral reef habitats near the shores of southeast Florida, Brian Walker, a scientist from Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center, happened upon a dense forest of Staghorn coral spreading roughly 38 acres across the ocean floor. Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) is a crucial player when it comes to reef building, and its long, fragile branches provide a residence for many species of fish and invertebrates. A. cervicornis has been listed as an endangered species under the ESA since 2006 after a review of a NMFS proposal a year prior. The species has fallen victim to a wide variety of detrimental factors over the years – bleaching, coral-band disease, oil spills and anchoring amongst the culprits, so this discovery gives us a glimmer of hope for this beautiful coral. “This is a huge win for Florida’s corals”, said Joanna Walczak of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida coastal office. The coral was discovered off Golden Beach through Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, it’s northern limit believed to be Boca Raton. You can read more about the discovery here, as well as check out some footage of the corals here. This is a welcome little discovery during a time of where it feels like we only hear of decline, devastation and a seemingly endless battle of conservation. Here’s to hoping this year brings more positive stories our way.
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Phew…2014 is almost over. And while it has been a fun year, it has also been an exhausting one. But, we made it, and we can look forward to the brand new adventures that await for us in 2015. Before we can move on, however, we must pay our respects to the passing year with a robust recap of the top 10 stories that were featured on the AquaNerd Blog during that time. So, without further adieu, here is our list of posts we got the most mileage out of.

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My FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/coralfish12g In this coralfish12g video I am going to be talking about the great Zoanthid debate. There are always fads in the hobby and right now one of the biggest is the selling, trading, buying, and collecting of rare Zoanthids. Some people are sick of other hobbyists creating rare sounding names to match barely different color variations. They don’t understand this craze for Zoas with special names. Others love that aspect of Zoanthids becoming collectors who can sell them to create additional revenue from their reef aquariums. So what do YOU think about this debate?

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Building a saltwater tank is one of my favorite things todo. I enjoy the client interactions, the planning, the challenges and I REALLY enjoy seeing the finished product. It never hurts when the tank is thriving as well.

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Tagged as:
radion,
sps coral,
tank build show

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If any coral fits this description of eye candy, the candy coral has to be it.  The Caulastrea species is often called by the common name candy coral.  This is a very fitting name with the amazing color combinations it sports.  This particular specimen is very bright and stands out in any reef aquarium it resides in.  It is very hardy and can tolerate many bio types quite nicely.  Lower light seems to be its preference and it eagerly accepts food particles when healthy.  Some of this species will have contrasting color combinations with the center being a different pigment then the outer edge.  The most appealing quality is the fact that it is a great beginner coral with plenty of bling.  Being a larger polyp stoney coral and not exhibiting a extremely aggressive nature to surrounding specimens is a plus.  A couple inches of space is all that is required to minimalize warfare.  Many of the similar corals will become very aggressive to surrounding specimens and a battle for space will ensue.  This coral grows fairly quickly and forms new heads when active growth is realized.  This particular coral is so bright that it can become the focal point of the aquarium.  This specimen is a captive grown colony that was found at one of the many frag swaps I attend.  A single polyp was the starting point and only after a short time a mature colony developed.  New heads will grow on a elongated skeleton over time.  It is very easy to propagate with the stoney portion being a branching formation.  Cutting the branch below the soft tissue and attaching it to a solid substrate is quite easy.  All that is needed is some cyanoacrylate or reef epoxy and the proper location.  It can be placed lower in brightly lit aquariums and will do nicely in this location.  Aquariums with lower light levels can keep it closer to the top with no ill effects.  This may not be the type of candy you can enjoy as a snack but it surely is pleasing to the eye.… More:

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