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

Whether you have a reef tank or a fish-only tank with live rock, the aiptasia anemone or glass anemone can become a real pest in your saltwater aquarium and can even overrun your tank, killing off corals and covering your live rock.  They can even cause problems with your fish too.  Here are some of the biggest mistakes to avoid and what to do instead.

Mistake #1 – Not Inspecting New Invertebrate Additions For The Presence of Aiptasia Anemones - This is one of the biggest mistakes aquarists often make.  We get excited about adding a new coral, snail, hermit crab, or live rock to our tank and do not take the time to inspect them for the presence of these pesky anemones.

Solution: Inspect any new additions to your tank (especially invertebrates) for the presence of aiptasia anemones.  The best way to do this is to setup a small quarantine tank, in which you can place new additions for to observe them for any nasty hitch hikers such as aiptasia anemones.  It doesn’t take long, perhaps a few hours or a couple of days of observation.  And if you find them there are many ways to remove them.

Mistake #2 – Depending Only On Manual Removal - In the event that you do get one or more of these anemones in your saltwater aquarium, you will want to remove it.  And while there are many products on the market for manual removal of aiptasia, not all of them work.  And even for the ones that do work, manual removal is only part of the total solution.  This is especially true when you consider the fact that aiptasia anemones reproduce asexually by pedal laceration.  This fancy term breaks down to the words “foot tearing”.  As aiptasia anemones crawl along (yes they are motile) they leave behind pieces of their foot, which then grow up into more adults.

Solution: Think prevention and biological control.  This means putting animals in your tank that eat aiptasia anemones.  Examples of such animals include, Copperbanded Butterflyfish, Bristletail Filefish, Berghia nudibranchs, Auriga Butterflyfish, Racoon Butterflyfish (not reef safe).

Mistake #3 – Over Feeding With Baby Brineshrimp And Other Small Suspended Foods – While they are photosynthetic, aiptasia will really begin to reproduce quickly with the presence of suspended food items such as baby brineshrimp or Cyclopeeze, which they can capture with their tentacles with great efficiency.

Solution: Limit the offering of baby brineshrimp and other small suspended particulates and be sure not to over feed.  The less particulate food they catch, the less they reproduce and the easier it is to control them.

Mistake #4 – Removing Live Rock  Pieces and Corals To Kill The Aiptasia Anemones – Often when people go to remove or kill the aiptasia anemones in their tank, they grow on live rock or on the rock base of a coral.  And the mistake made here is removing the rock from its position to kill or treat the aiptase anemone.  The problem with this is that the rock almost never gets put back into the exact same position, and worse it destabilizes the live rock structure.  This destabilization leads to rock slides and collapse of the rock structure, which can kill fish and corals and other invertebrates.  It also shrinks the size of the live rock structure, ultimately turning the live rock structure you took so long to get just right into a pile of rocks.  This takes away hiding places for fish, reduces water circulation through the live rock, which causes it to collect detritus and organic matter, which degrades water quality.

Solution: Leave the rocks and corals in the tank when removing aiptasia anemones – even when killing the aiptasia anemones by hand.  You are better off focusing your removal efforts on using biological controls and let the aiptasia-eating animals in your tank do most of the work.  They are much better at it than we are.

Have you ever made any of these mistakes, or others not listed?  Please leave a comment and tell us what you think.

Technorati Tags: aiptasia, aiptasia anemome, anemone, fish-only tank, prevention, reef tank, saltwater aquarium

In some saltwater aquariums, it is a mystery why some clownfish will not go into the anemone that is provided. It can be pretty frustrating for the aquarist, who purchased the clownfish and the anemone for just that purpose – hoping all the while that they would end up with the cool phenomenon of having a clownfish that lives in an anemone, right in your aquarium.

So what can you do about it? Watch this video and then leave a comment.

Technorati Tags: anemone, clownfish, reef tank, saltwater aquarium, saltwater fish

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

Check out this short video of a male pajama cardinal fish brooding a new egg mass in its mouth.  I filmed it this morning at The Ocean Explorium (www.oceanexplorium.org), in the 650-gallon reef tank.  The fish were purchased from Pro Aquatix in Florida and stocked in the tank on 7/1/2009, and while there has been plenty of courting and paring up for at least a month, this is the first observation of a male mouth brooding eggs.  In total, there are roughly 8 pajama cardinals in the tank, so a possible maximum of 4 pairs.  And as long as there is enough food and stress is minimized they will continue to lay eggs about every month or two.  Enjoy. If you’re in New Bedford, MA, come by and visit the www.oceanexplorium.org, and ask for me (Warren Gibbons).  I’d love to show you around.

For more short videos on interesting animal behaviors and other aquarium related educational information, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ocean-Explorium-at-New-Bedford-Seaport/98256108758?v=wall and become afan/friend (I’m still a bit new to to Facebook). Also, for more ‘how to’ information on saltwater aquariums, design, installation, maintenance, etc., go to www.saltwateraquariumsecrets.com and sign up. Sincerely, Warren M. Gibbons www.saltwateraquariumsecrets.com

Technorati Tags: mouth brooding, Ocean Explorium, pajama cardinal, reef tank