There are all different kinds of frozen foods you can feed your salt water aquarium, and today I’m going to cover one of my favorites – Mysis Shrimp. But there are a few things you should know about how to do it and what not to do. Mysis shrimp is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein for your salt water fish.  So here are a few things that you should know.

First off, before you feed mysis shrimp to your salt water aquarium, you need to rinse it (no matter the brand).  When it is frozen, the liquid that the mysis shrimp are frozen in is loaded with juices, oils, proteins, etc. that you don’t want in your aquarium because it would significantly degrade your tank’s water quality. Specifically it would raise the phosphate, nitrates and organics. Rinsing can easily be done with a small fish net.  I use the small brine shrimp nets, but any small net with a fine mesh will do.  First, take the amount of frozen mysis shrimp that you are going to feed and thaw it out in a cup of saltwater (or you can let it thaw without water).  In water, it takes about 5 minutes to thaw.  You can also use warm tapwater.  I’ve not noticed any difference between the two.  When it is done thawing out, take a look at the water and ask yourself if this is something you’d want added to your aquarium water every time you feed.  The answer is pretty clear. This stuff is a grey, oily, yucky syrup that would make you shreek if someone said they were going to poor it into your tank. You get the idea.

Second, check to see if the frozen mysis shrimp has not been thawed out and refrozen before. Ideally you want to check this when you are buying it in the stor.  Unfortunately, over the years we have seen this happen occasionally (why – I have no idea).  The way you can tell if the mysis shrimp has been previously thawed out and refrozen is if it has a tan/brown/yellow color to it.  Good quality frozen mysis that has been properly frozen is a white/grey color.  The best time to check for this is upon purchasing your mysis shrimp either at the store or when it arrives in the mail.  If you ordered it online and it arrived by mail, then you can call the retailer you purchased it from to return it or have them ship you a new order.

And lastly, be sure to not overfeed frozen mysis shrimp to  your salt water aquarium fish.  Since it is so high in good fats, oils, and protein, it is great for putting weight on fish.  This can be a double-edged sword if you over feed, so remember that less is better.  The majority of most salt water fish species will eventually eat whatever is offered them, and the best kinds of foods to offer are primarily algae-based foods, such as nori (see brands such as SeaWeed Selects and Sea Veggies) and spirulina flake food (OSI Spirulina Flake).

The best frozen mysis shrimp I have ever used is PE Mysis (by Piscine Energetics). 

The shrimp are bigger and plumper and are not all fragmented like with other poor quality brands.  They are high in protein and good oils and fats and are great for overall growth and for helping fish put weight.  It is also an excellent food for plankton eaters such as Anthias, Bangaii Cardinals and pretty much almost all fishes will readily eat frozen mysis shrimp.

Just remember to rinse it thoroughly and not to overfeed.  Whatever amount you put into the aquarium should be completely consumed within two minutes.

Good luck and happy fishes.

If you ask most people what words come to mind when they think of saltwater aquariums, most of them will eventually mention “complicated”, “difficult”, or “a lot of work”. And – yes – saltwater aquariums ARE inherently complicated. BUT, they don’t have to be difficult or overwhelming or “a lot of work”. What if it were simple, easy and fun? What if it could be this way for you?

Well, I am here to tell you it can be. I don’t like to toot my own horn, but if there is one thing I am good at, it is taking things that are inherently complex and making them simple. In fact, if you are going to be both successful at saltwater aquariums AND have fun doing it, you must learn to keep it simple or simplify.

When people ask me what does it take to make a great saltwater aquarium I tell them that it is as simple as this:

1. If you put stuff in, you have to take stuff out – otherwise you end up with pollution.  Another way of saying it is that in order to prevent accumulation of bad stuff (nitrates, phosphates, organics, detritus, waste, etc.)  you need to always be removing it.  There are many ways to accomplish this, such as:  water changes; activated carbon, protein skimmer, refugium w/ macro-algae, water changes, phosphate-removing media, etc..
2. Stop and just stare at your tank regularly – few skills are more crucial to a successful saltwater aquarium than observation.  Observation is absolutely foundational to your success.  And the good thing is it is really easy to do.  Just stand and stare, and do it on a regular basis.  You will learn more, discover more, prevent more problems and come up with more solutions by just getting quiet and still and just watching your tank.
3. Become a learning and reading maniac and ask lots of questions.  Learn as much as you can about the animals you are keeping and have a strong sense of wonder – Whether it is animals or filtration equipment, it is vitally important that you learn as much as you can about them.  Let’s face it, this part takes a while, and yet there is no way around it, unless you are going to hire someone to take care of your tank for you, which may be an option for you.  You will need to learn about their life history, ecology, husbandry requirements and compatibility with other potential tank mates.  And filtration equipment or life support equipment must be understood in order to select the right one and to operate it properly.  So read as much as you can (books, magazines, online forums, blogs), join a local saltwater aquarium hobby club, attend seminars, workshops and lectures, and above all be open-minded.  Know you can never know everything, and be willing to be contributed to.  Be willing for the other guy to know more than you, so that you can learn something new (this alone has taken me very far).
4. Be consistent and keep a routine – There is no beating around the bush.  Saltwater aquariums require consistent routine care, and if you skimp on your consistency or miss a day or a week here and there, it can come back to bite you.  Tropical coral reef thrive with consistent conditions,  and your saltwater aquarium is no different.  You must be regular and consistent with your saltwater aquarium maintenance routine.  I have seen amazing tanks whose only difference from mediocre ones was that their routine was amazingly thorough and consistent.  The bottom line is that saltwater aquariums need regular attention.
5. Prevention, Prevention, Prevention – The saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is alive and well with keeping saltwater aquariums.  To the degree that you focus on preventing problems with your saltwater aquarium, you will be more successful.  This is an area I have been forced to become very good at as the owner of Gibbons Aquaria, Inc., a high-end custom saltwater aquarium design/installation/management company.  With multiple customers and multiple tanks (most of which are more than several hundred gallons) my business and my customers cannot afford too many problems.  And to be frank, saltwater aquariums require good problem solving skills.  Even if you are wildly successful, you will still have your share of surprises, such as mechanical failures, leaks, disease outbreaks, animal aggression/mortality, etc..  All of these unpleasant things are going to happen to you eventually, no matter how good you are.  The key is to prevent, minimize and respond to them so that they don’t cause big problems for you.  In other words, if a pump stops working and you don’t even know it, you can lose your entire tank.  Or even if you notice in time that the pump has stopped working but you don’t have a spare, you are in trouble.  So prevent problems in the first place.  Minimize them when they do happen.  And then set yourself up with some kind of monitoring system to notify you so that you can respond when they do happen.
6. Be like a boyscout and be prepared – Preventing problems is one thing (and it’s absolutely huge), and being prepared for problems is different.  If you can afford it, keep spares of as many critical life support components as possible (pumps, light bulbs for reef tanks, heater, etc.).  Also, part of being prepared is making sure you know that problems are going to happen and design your aquarium setup to accommodate them.  An example of this would be to make sure system fails “safe” in the event of a power failure.  This means that your sump will not overflow or your system is capable of starting back up without you needing to be there when the power comes back on.  Another example is to have your aquarium notify you of key life support failures when they happen by using a monitoring system (I love the Sensaphone 400 and Sensaphone 800).
7. Become a critical thinker and ask lots of “why” and “how” questions – It is vitally important that as you learn, that you actually understand what you are learning and why the thing you are learning is so.  The opposite of this is like kids in school who just want the teacher to tell them what’s going to be on the exam.  Just learning the answer won’t help you if you don’t actually understand why it is the answer.  In fact, this failed approach leads to more problems whereby you are mystified and confused, but now with even more problems that you don’t understand.
8. Move lots of water – Proper water circulation can be almost magical in its beneficial impact on a saltwater aquarium.  Here are some of the benefits of proper water circulation:  helps keep detritus and other waste up in the water column so that it can be removed by filters; helps increase oxygen levels and reduce carbon dioxide, brings nutrients to corals and invertebrates, provides ideal respiration for all animals and plants, acts as a treadmill for fish to get exercise, allows for better density of coral skeletons,  helps create more natural coral growth forms, increased coral growth rate, etc..
9. Lighting:  The proper quantity and quality of light – Simply put, you need enough of the right type of light.  One rule of thumb for reef aquariums with photosynthetic corals is to use 2.5-4 watts of lighting per gallon of aquarium.  So if your tank is 70 gallons and you want to keep stony corals, you will want to be at the upper end – at 4 watts per gallon.  So if we do the math:  4 watts x 70 gallons = 280 watts of  lighting.  A fish-only aquarium only requires enough lighting for aesthetic benefit -  about 1/4 of the wattage per gallon.
10. Build it fail-safe – It is one thing for bad things to happen with your saltwater aquarium.  But what if something bad happened (like a power failure) but no bad consequences came of it.  This is what happens when you design and build your aquarium’s life support system to fail safe.  For example, the aquariums I install and maintain can easily accommodate power failure, pump failure, leaks, overheating/cooling, and unwanted changes in water levels.  All of these can happen without any negative consequences to the tank and its inhabitants, because it was built to fail safe.
11. Water quality rules:  If you don’t have good water quality, nothing else you do will matter - Test the following water quality parameters once a week and graph your results so you can track trends over time (pH, salinity, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrates, and phosphates).
12. Disease is always present, so use a ultraviolet sterilizer - Since there is always disease in every aquarium all the time, use an ultraviolet sterilizer (U.V. sterilizer) to help prevent an outbreak.  Your fish and corals can live happily with a chronic low level of parasites, as can we humans.  But when stress levels increase in your aquarium (for whatever reason), disease can spread quickly and is difficult to get back under control once an outbreak occurs.  Thus, a U.V. sterilizer prevents such a thing from happening and in my opinion is mandatory as part of your saltwater aquarium’s life support system
13. Prevent stress and you will significantly lessen the occurrence of disease, aggression and deaths.  Just like in humans, stress is accumulative – even for fish and corals and other invertebrates.

Technorati Tags: aquarium lighting, easy aquarium, reef tank, saltwater aquarium, saltwater aquariums, U.V. sterilizer, ultraviolet sterilizer, water movement, Water Quality

If you plan on keeping a saltwater aquarium for any amount of time, whether it is a reef tank or a fish-only with live rock tank (FOWLR), you are likely to experience an outbreak of cyanobacteria and diatoms.  Cyanobacteria or “Cyano” is also referred to as green slime algae (also comes in red and brown).  As it’s name implies, Cyanobacteria covers rocks and sand with a thin slimy film.  And while it is easily removed by siphoning, if the conditions that support it are not improved, then it will quickly return, unless you follow these steps.

Cyanobacteria and diatoms are brought on by the following factors:

• - high phosphate (>.5) and silicate
• - high nitrates (>25ppm)
• - insufficient current/water movement
• - high organics
• - low alkalinity (<3.0 meq/liter or <150ppm)
• - low pH (<8.2)
• - not enough grazers/inverts/sand stirrers (hermits, turbo snails, nassarius snails, seacucumbers)
• - not sufficient coverage of rock with corals (corals and algae do compete, so tip the scales in your favor by stocking to cover 60% of your rock with corals).

Three products that work to treat the symptom (not the cause – see above) are as follows:

Chemiclean

, which will eradicate the cyanobacteria (reef safe – we’ve used it in our service business for years)

Granular Ferric Oxide (removes phosphate and silicates) – we prefer Rowaphos, but there are other brands that work as well too.  This is great for removing phosphate, although a bit expensive.  Remember to focus on lessening the source of input of phosphate into your system (i.e. tapwater and foods).  For tapwater we filter with RODI (target is zero TDS).  As for the foods, we strongly recomment rinsing your frozen foods prior to feeding.  You’d be amazed at the amount of gook (scientific term) that would otherwise go into your tank/system.

• Doxicyclene hyclate – it has been years since I’ve used this for treating RTN (rapid tissue necrosis) in corals, but we also noticed that it was great for temporarily eradicating cyanobacteria.  I say temporary, because this is just treating the symptom and not the cause.  As long as the original cause (see above) is still there, the cyano will likely return.

If your type of saltwater tank is a fish-only with live rock (FOWLR), you are always going to have significantly higher phosphates, nitrates, silicates and organics to deal with than you would in a reef tank – even if you had the same number of fish in a reef tank.  This is because in FOWLR tanks, there are no (or very few) corals, sponges, coraline algae, clams, filter feeders, etc. to help remove nutrients from the water.

So with a FOWLR tank, you will need to be more aggressive with use of carbon, GFO (granular ferric oxide – removes phosphate) and with the removal of detritus.  I strongly recommend “storming the tank” at least twice a month (during normal/ideal conditions), but I would recommend doing it once a month in your current situation.

What I mean by “Storming the tank”, is putting a submersible powerhead pump on a stick/pipe and blast the rock to liberate detritus that has collected in the live rock.  And then having some type of mechanical filtration in use to remove the detritus now that it is suspended in the water column.

To do this you can use a canister filter, D.E. filter (diatomacious earth), or even a small powerfilter (hang-on-the-side).  Or if you don’t have any of these items, you can storm the tank with the powerhead and then siphon it off the surfact of the rock/sand as you do a large water change.  With this method I recommend blasting with the powerhead twice during the water change, allowing it to settle out for siphoning between blasting.

So if you end up with an outbreak of cyanobacteria or diatoms in your reef tank or fish-only tank (FOWLR), consider yourself fortunate that it is just cyanobacteria and diatoms, which are relatively easy to get rid of, and not something more difficult like bryopsis or hair algae.  And remember, you are better off preventing than reacting.

Technorati Tags: chemiclean, cyano, cyanobacteria, diatoms, fish-only tank, FOWLR, green slime algae, phosphate, red slime algae, reef tank, rowaphos, slime algae

Since video is so much more effective for teaching (and more fun to make), I’ve also created a youtube channel for you to go check out.

Go check us out on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/SWAQSECRETS, and ask me your biggest question about reef tanks and saltwater aquariums, fish-only too, and I’ll answer it.

Video questions get preference, so fire up your video camera or iPhone and shoot a quick video of you asking your question. You can even show us what your questions is about, if it’s about something specific to your tank or a fish or coral or some life support equipment you have a question about.

Go for it!

Technorati Tags: aquarium videos, cool aquarium videos, question about my tank, question about your tank, video, youtube

I got into whitewater kayaking because I wanted to have fun. And yet it is inherently fraught with dangers. So my motto became “Safety first”. If you’re not safe, then someone’s going to get hurt, and then no one’s having fun. So if you put safety first, you can have fun.

So right now you might be thinking “Ok … so what does safety first have to do with keeping a saltwater aquarium? Well, instead of ‘safety first’, think avoiding problems. If you can, at the very least, avoid problems, then you are going to have a lot more fun. Would you like to know my secret to avoiding most problems?

Keep reading.

In fact – let’s face it – most problems are caused by us humans. Yes, the majority of problems (by far) are human error. Next in line is mechanical failure, and then, lastly is biological. Biological error is usually out of our control – for example where one fish all of a sudden begins harassing another or even kills it.

So the big question is what if you had a procedure to follow, that, when you followed it – you were all but assured of avoiding most problems. I mean, I’m talkin’ preventing 95% of the problems that come with keeping an aquarium – period. Do I have your attention?

Ok, here’s my secret. I use a ‘check-in and check-out’ procedure. I treat my tanks like a patient in the hospital. We’ve all seen the shows on T.V., like E.R.. Whenever a doctor comes on shift, the first think they do is they do “rounds”. This is where they go around and check all patients, and confirm that all equipment is operating correctly, and that all vital signs are normal, etc. (I’m not a doctor). And just before the go off shift, the do rounds again. Here, again, they make sure all equipment is operating properly, that all vital signs are normal, etc.. You get the idea.

CHECK IN and CHECK OUT is a routine procedure – a check list – that you do at the beginning and end of each time you do any work on your aquarium. And when it is followed, nothing is missed and often you catch something you forgot to turn off, or a valve that was set wrong, or a pump that was off, or a tank that was still filling, or a leak, or a water level that isn’t right – you get the idea. I can’t tell you how many times I have been interrupted in the wee hours of the morning and called to go to a customer’s tank (we use computer monitors that call our cell phones), only to find a problem that was not caught during checkout – because aquarist did not follow the CHECK OUT list.

So, imagine, you set aside an hour or two to work on your tank. You go about fragging corals, cleaning glass, doing a water change, changing GFO (ferric oxide – removes phosphate – Rowaphos is the best for this), culling algae from your refugium, etc..

But you didn’t begin by going thru your CHECK IN procedure and check list, so you didn’t discover that your R.O. unit was leaking (Revers Osmosis filter – purifies tap water). You went about having your fun with your tank for two hours and now that it’s time to leave, you go to get some Reverse Osmosis water to top off your tank and now you discover the leak. But this is a whole project all by itself, and you have to meet your family for dinner in 25 minutes. Had you gone through the CHECK IN procedure when you started, you would have found the leak at the beginning and had plenty of time to fix it. You get the idea.

How’d you like to get your hands on the CHECK IN/CHECK OUT sheet that we use? Submit a comment and be sure to include your email address and I’ll send it to you. In fact, if you would like me to, I’ll do a video going over the entire CHECK IN/CHECK OUT procedure and put it up here on the blog. Just post a comment below, and let me know if you’d like to see that video.

And if you’d like to be notified of new videos and articles, just subscribe to our newsletter (upper right corner of the blog).

Technorati Tags: "check in", "check out", leak, monitor, problem prevention, problem solving, refugium

There are all kinds of algae problems an aquarist can experience in keeping saltwater aquariums, particularly with reef tanks. But none of them can be as nightmarish as Bryopsis.

Unlike most other algae, such as hair algae or cyanobacteria, Bryopsis does not respond to most removal methods. Even a normal algae problem can be extremely frustrating or even lead to someone giving up and shutting down their tank. But that doesn’t have to happen. There is a solution and I’m going to share it with you here in just a moment.

Typically, most algae problems such as hair algae or cyanobacteria, can be solved with a combination of:
- elevated pH
- increased water circulation
- removal of phosphates and nitrates
- removal of detritus, and
- addition of algae grazers (tangs, hermit crabs, snails, emerald crabs, urchins, sea hares, etc.)
- manual removal by humans (i.e. plucking, scrubbing, siphoning, etc.)

But Bryopsis is different, as it does not respond to these methods. Actually, it can often grow even more because of such methods (especially manual removal, which can feed asexual reproduction via fragmentation). And even biological controls such as adding grazing invertebrates and tangs is not only not very effective with Bryopsis, but it can be expensive (them critters ain’t cheap).

I wish I could say it was my idea – far from it. In fact, I have been dealing with a bout of Bryopsis recently in our 950-gallon saltwater reef exhibit at the Ocean Explorium, where I am Curator. And I was researching solutions to my problem when I cam across this solution. Here’s the link.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1113109&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

It explains the whole process in fair detail, with photos of results, showing the Bryopsis dying off and disappearing as a result of the treatment. I’ve also done more research on this method (thank you google) and it has actually been widely used with consistent successful results. And yet, it is a mostly unknown method.

Most people who get cursed with a Bryopsis algae outbreak, work like crazy for long periods of time, getting very frustrated, and still not even make a dent in the problem. Bryopsis algae outbreaks are usually caused by a new addition, where the algae comes in as a hitch hiker on a new coral or piece of live rock, or even a snail shell. So I’m glad I found it and even more glad to share it with you. Please be sure and share it with your friends too.

The method uses increased Magnesium levels for three months (1600ppm compared to the normal 1300ppm), to bring the Bryopsis to its threshold for binding Magnesium. This causes the Magnesium to then perform as an enzyme inhibitor, making the Bryopsis shut down and die off. Once this happens, the grazers in your saltwater aquarium will clean up the remains.

Point of caution: Be sure not to raise the Magnesium level by more than 100ppm per day.

Please post a comment here on the blog to share your feedback, or to tell your story if you are having any problems or frustrations with your saltwater aquarium. We would love to help you out in any way we can.

Technorati Tags: algae, algae removal, bryopsis, bryopsis algae, cyanobacteria, hair algae, magnesium, problem solving, reef tank, saltwater aquarium

As the Curator of the Ocean Explorium (New Bedford, MA), I am responsible for multiple marine aquarium exhibits.  Two weeks ago, I got one of those phone calls no one wants to get.

It was the weekend and I was enjoying my time off.  As I listened to the aquarist describe the problem, her frustration was high.One of our aquarium exhibits was up to almost 90 degrees F!  It was the sea scallop exhibit (normally at 58 degrees F).

The aquarist had just completed a water change AND she did complete the “check out” procedure we always do when leaving for the day.  And then she went home.  But … during the “check out” process, instead of looking at the temperature controller to confirm that the chiller was on, she looked at the power plug (which she had unplugged during the water change).  The only problem was that the plug wasn’t plugged all the way in, thus, the chiller was not on and the tank overheated to 90F (instead of 58F).

Saltwater aquariums, and all aquariums for that matter, are subject to inherent vulnerabilities, which, if not addressed and accounted for, may lead to the demise of your aquarium’s inhabitants.  So what are these inherent vulnerabilities?

Well, before I get into it, let’s just say they are simpler than you may think.  You might be thinking of the 100 things that can go wrong in a saltwater aquarium.  Because, lets’ face it.  Keeping saltwater fish and/or reeftanks involves solving a lot of problems.  After all, there is nothing like a big problem to help you really learn your lesson and improve your skills of problem solving.  At the end of this post, I’ll tell you a brief story of one recent nightmare that was a perfect example of not doing a proper “check out”, and how it would have caught the issue and prevented the loss of animals.

But first, back to the mistake of only focussing on problem solving.  Even if you only focus on becoming great at problem solving, you will waste a lot of time dealing with problems that could have and should have been prevented.  So now you’re thinking you should be focused on the prevention of problems … and you’d be right.

So what is my big secret to how to prevent over 90% of the inherent problems that come with keeping saltwater fish and reef aquariums?

When I tell you my secret solution, you’re going to say to yourself “that’s obvious” or “that’s so simple”.  And again, you’d be right.  So here it is.

My secret to preventing over 90% of all problems that are inherent with saltwater aquarium keeping is … “check in …. and check out”.

See, I told you it was going to sound simple and obvious.  Most problems that occur in keeping saltwater aquariums are preventable … by far.  If you want to see consistent problems, floods, broken equipment and loss of valuable saltwater fish or corals, then watch what happens when you don’t do a proper “check in” and “check out”.

And the key to doing a proper “check in” and “check out” is to turn it into a written recipe or procedure that you go over EVERY SINGLE TIME you work on your tank(s).  The key here is that it be written out as a check list, SO THAT YOU DON’T FORGET ANYTHING.  In fact, because you’ve written it out (post it on the wall in your fish room or on the cabinet door under your tank, etc.), now you no longer have to worry about forgetting any of the key steps in this process.

This whole ‘forgetting things’ is usually the biggest source of nightmares, accidents, leaks/floods, and problems in saltwater aquarium keeping.  In my aquarium consulting business, we service large, high-end saltwater aquariums (typically costing over $50,000), so you can imagine how important it is to prevent problems.  When we come to service a client’s tank, the first thing we do is go through our “check in” process.  We use a simple written check list for this, and you’d be surprised how many items are on the list (it’s over 25).

But the great thing about having this list is that you don’t miss anything, and you don’t have to think.  You just go down the list and check them off.  Save your thinking for problem solving.  Yes … that’s right.  Even after you adopt a strict and consistent routine of doing a thorough “check in” and “check out”, you will still have problems to solve … just A LOT LESS of them … a lot less.  I mean, even in the story I told at the begging of this post, a problem still occurred even though we were using a “check out” procedure … it just wasn’t followed correctly.  This is where the human error part of the equation comes into play.  We humans make mistakes and when we’re in a rush we take short cuts … which is one of the rules of proper “check in” and “check out” – no short cuts.  Always follow the procedure.

So you’re probably wondering if we lost any animals with that big of a temperature spike.  The answer is yes.  We lost four scallops, but it took them a few days until the effects of the temperature spike to do them in.

Stay tuned for more, in upcoming posts, as I’ll go into detail on how to do a proper and thorough “check in” and “check out”, and exactly what to “check” for.  Meanwhile, go to www.saltwateraquariumsecrets.com and sign up so that you don’t miss anything.  Also, you can click on the orange RSS button at the top of this page to be notified whenever we post new material here on the blog.

Go now to www.saltwateraquariumsecrets.com to get more tips and secrets on how to actually enjoy this wonderful hobby.  Look over our shoulder as we take you behind the scenes of public aquariums and custom saltwater aquariums.

Technorati Tags: "check in", "check out", high temperature, overheated tank, prevention, problem solving