Recently, my son’s 10-gallon goldfish tank took a turn for the worse. So, you might be asking yourself, ‘what does goldfish have to do with saltwater aquariums’? Stick with me here … keep reading.

When my son Nolan was born, it was only a matter of time until he had an aquairum in his bedroom. I think he was about 2 when we caved in and bought a 10-gallon starter kit from PETCO … yes PETCO. I paid full retail for it, even though I could have bought it from one of my wholesale suppliers I regularly use in my business. It was just quicker and easier – plus my wife got to get in on the fun of getting the tank too.

As for the fish, I got 5 feeder goldfish ($1.00 for all 5 – thank you). I wanted something that was simple, hardy and wasn’t going to be a lot of work. The goldfish were the perfect fish for the job.

Our strategy was two-fold. During the winter the fish would live in the 10-gallon tank in Nolan’s room, and during the summer, we would move them to our barrel fountain on the deck. In the barrel fountain they always go through a growth spurt, as they feast all summer long on mosquito larvae and algae. We even occasionally feed them some flake food, when we remember.

So this seasonal back and forth has worked without issues for almost 3 years now, until this past Christmas when the fish broke out with a case of fin-rot. Are you starting to get the lesson here and how it applies to saltwater aquariums? Keep reading.

WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE
All of a sudden, one morning the goldfish starting showing a white film on the margin of their fins, and two of the most hardest hit fish were losing control of their swim bladder, as they were swimming head down most of the time. This was a classic case of fin rot – a fungus in combination with bacterial infection.

THE REAL CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM
Are you ready for this? Here it is. The real cause of this disease outbreak was … I got lazy. That’s it – neglect. All this was caused by being lazy and not sticking to a preventative maintenance routine. I wasn’t doing regular water changes and feeding was sporadic. This allowed stress to build up to the tipping point – and then presto – instant disease outbreak – totally avoidable.

SHORT-TERM REACTIVE SOLUTION
To get the tank back on track I did the following:
- added kosher salt to raise the salinity to 2ppt
- treated it with a product called Maracyn-Oxy (by Mardel) for 5 days;
- performed a 50% water change
- vacuumed the gravel, removing a large amount of detritus and organic matter
- resumed regular daily feedings

THE LESSON – If we would only surrender to the discipline of keeping up with our preventative maintenance routine, we could avoid 90% of the problems we encounter. And let’s face it, much of being a good aquarist is being good at solving problems – it’s simply a part of aquarium keeping, whether it be freshwater or saltwater aquariums. So wouldn’t it be nice if we could greatly reduce the number of problems? That would mean more time for fun and enjoyment of your saltwater aquarium – or freshwater aquarium. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of problems to solve.
Now do you see how this is not just about a goldfish tank with a disease problem. This entire problem could have been avoided had I stuck with the preventative maintenance routine of doing regular water changes. It’s only a 10-gallon goldfish tank. A 50% water change takes 15 minutes. The most common cause of people getting out of this great hobby is most often described as “something went wrong and all the fish died”. Well I’m willing to bet that 90% of these cases are due to some form of being lazy or neglecting the preventative maintenance routine.

Technorati Tags: 10-gallon goldfish tank, PETCO, saltwater aquarium, water change

As I help more and more people to make their saltwater aquarium work, I find there is one big common thread.

Can you guess what it is?

Drum roll please . . . It’s confusion.

Confusion about water chemistry, or how to choose the right lighting for their coral tank, or which fish go together, or what filters they need and how to set them up – and on and on and on it goes.

So what i want you to do now is post a comment and tell me what is the most confusing for you. Whatever it is, I want you to tell me what it is and how it is stopping you.

Happy Fishes,

Warren

Technorati Tags: confusion, saltwater aquarium

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

A while back I posted on a method for bryopsis algae control, that involved using Kent Marine’s product Kent Tech-M. And in that post, I also told you that one of the exhibits in my care was a 900-gallon reef tank with a persistent bryopsis algae problem, and that I was about to use this method to eradicate the bryopsis algae from my tank.

And . . .

Drum roll please. . . . . . . . .

It worked!

Yes, it worked quite well. Before treating the tank with the magnesium supplement (Kent Tech-M), we did the following important steps to prepare:

PREPARATION STEPS
Step 1: performed two 35% water changes to help up the magnesium level to the normal 1,300ppm and to lower the phosphate level;

Step 2: Manually plucked/removed as much bryopsis as possible while the water level was down (during the water change). We did this during both water changes over a period of one week.

Step 3: stormed the tank with a powerhead on a stick to help get as much detritus out of the tank as possible. We have 4 filter socks in the sump that catch it quite efficiently;

Step 4: Replaced the Rowaphos media (a.k.a. ferric oxide) in our chemical filter (Precision Marine SR55P Professional Series Substrate Reactor), which helps to insult and stress out the bryopsis algae.

Step 5: Began dosing kalkwasser (saturated solution of calcium hydroxide and R.O. water), which precipitates out phosphates so that the protein skimmer can remove them. It also elevates the pH to 8.3-8.5, which helps inhibit the growth of unwanted algae such as bryopsis and hair algae. And kalkwasser also helps to elevate alkalinity, which also helps inhibit unwanted algae.

Step 6: Turned off the activated carbon filter. This is just a hunch, but since the active ingredient in Kent Marine’s Tech-M magnesium supplement is not known (that which eradicates the bryopsis), I certainly didn’t want the activated carbon to remove it. Originally, people felt it was the elevated magnesium level that was doing the work, but after multiple methods of raising the magnesium level produced inconsistent results, it was concluded that Kent Marine’s Tech-M product worked the best because of some mystery active ingredient.

Now that the preparation steps were completed we were ready to begin dosing the Kent Tech-M (magnesium supplement). The main instructions are to make sure that you do not raise the magnesium level by more than 100ppm per day.

So I went ahead with dosing the tank to raise the magnesium level by 100ppm per day until the magnesium level was between 1600-1800ppm, and in one week the bryopsis dropped to less than 50% of what it was before dosing. And by two weeks, 99% of the bryopsis was gone from the display tank. I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Overall it took 2 weeks and the Bryopsis is now gone. It is my feeling that the aggressive manual plucking/removal was a critical step to insulting/stressing the bryopsis. And remember we did this just prior to changing out the Rowaphos media (lowered phosphates to zero) and the subsequent dosing of the magnesium supplement.

We will see what time will tell. I have heard of the bryopsis coming back after a successful treatment, so the constant vigilence will continue – as it always does with a truly successful saltwater aquarium.

Please comment and share your experience with hair algae or bryopsis and how you went about it and what happened.

Technorati Tags: bryopsis, bryopsis algae control, chemical filter, chemical media reactor, hair algae, kalkwasser, kent tech-m, magnesium, rowaphos

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