20141130 Colored Bubble Tip Anenome

I have purchased this colored bubble tip anemone during the Aquatic experience in Chicago a few weeks ago. It has now successfully acclimated to the 180 and is doing well.

Neon Pink bubble tip anemone (left)

And also an update on one of the corners of the 180 Gallon tank.

20141126 180 Gallon Reef Ready Tank Build part 5

Now all the livestocks in!

I am spreading all three clams into three corners. Built two mounts of rock work to hide the overflow columns. And the wave maker hides perfectly in the corner.

20141125 180 Reef Ready Tank Build part 4

The LED light arrived and installed. All the plumbing are also in place. The cloudy crust on the front glass is just salt crystal when the tank was laying on its side waiting for the paint to dry.

I will be using two Mag 7 as return pumps, and also 2X 200W heaters. I have learned from experience to have 2X of these as a preventative measure in case one of them fails, I would still have one working. The general rule is to have multiple mechanisms that are considered "lifeline" for your tank, such as pump, heater, etc.

20141124 180 Gallon Reef Ready Tank Build Part 3

I spent day 1 of my vacation in the garage building the canopy frame. This was made of .5X2 and .5X1 wood. All I have to say is it's not easy doing the whole thing with one person and sub-par tools

The frame fits well over the tank. I plan to hang 3X 150W LED lights.

20141120 180 Gallon Reef Ready tank build

While waiting for the 180 gallon tank's paint to dry, I took the opportunity to also paint the back panel of the stand and the back of the 75 gallon tank, which I will be placing underneath the 180 as a sump.

Tank Stand upright while the paint dries

I am experimenting a "compartment free" sump, where the water is allowed to flow freely through without needing to flow through compartments. But I am building a media container within the sump and also act a as divider for any rock, macro algae, and possible livestock I place down here from the skimmer and the return pumps.

open divider for the sump

20141118 180 Gallon Reef Ready Tank Build part 1

I had the opportunity to obtain a briefly used 180 Gallon Reef Ready tank with built stand from a friend. I will be putting together a series of this build. First of all, if you are looking to obtain a tank of this size, please be sure to have enough muscle help- the tank weights 330b dry. I actually had to go on craigslist to find a couple big boys from a moving company to help me move this, especially to bring it down the stairs! The tank is measured 6' X 2' X 2' so you should also make sure whatever room you want to put it into will either be a straight shot or have enough room for turning, not to mention taking doors out, etc.

Painting back of tank, to preserve paint, I used masking tape to mask out the overflow sections

I purchased a 75 gallon tank to use as sump  ( you can see in the photo below). So the estimated total water volume would be around 230 gallon. The first thing I had to do is to paint the back of the tank. Although painting is unnecessary, I find it less distracting to have the back of tank be in a darker, solid color than seeing the wall and the wires hanging behind. After the tank is painted, I left it on the spot to dry for 3 days.
In the meanwhile, I also install the bulkhead for the overflow onto the tank while it's on its side. Because drying to install the bulk head upside down when the tank is already on the stand will be a much tougher job.

See the 75 Gallon sits perfectly under the 180 Gallon stand.

20141111 Driftwood for Fishtank

I attended the Aquatic Experience last weekend in Chicago to meet some of the leading aquarium industry venders as well as some local retailers. I will go through some of the highlights with each separate post. I know I seldom talk about freshwater so I feel like I owe this one.
So what is Drift wood?- Driftwood is mostly collected near water- ocean, river, or lake. These are mostly tree roots that have grown around rocks to form the unique shapes and curves you see. They are mostly dead trees that have been toppled and gets washed down by storm flood.

Driftwood vender- some jumbo pieces

So why drift wood? Do you go with natural or artificial? What kind of tank are driftwood suitable for?
To answer that question, I will break down some of the common functions of driftwood.
1) Decoration- similar to rock, drift wood help create landscaping dynamic in the tank
2) Structure- driftwood provide places for plants to root and grab onto
3) Food- Believe it or not, many fish, including many pleco species actually use driftwood as part of their diet.
4) Nutrition- When soaked in water, driftwood would slowly decay and release the nutrition, minerals into the water.

Driftwood Vender- Tree Trunks

What about artificial drift wood? The pro of artificial driftwood is they are light (mostly plastic), can be cheaper, and doesn't "color" the water like real drift woods would.
The con is they serve only function #1 & 2 as describe above but not 3 or 4.
Since real drift woods are collected from dead trees, it is not harmful to the environment in a direct way. Though if too much driftwoods are collected from the water body, organisms that relay drift/rotten wood to thrive and breed may face some challenges.

Driftwood Vender- Roots

20141107 LiveRock for Reef Tank

How much Live Rock is enough for (insert Gallon #) Tank?
This is one of the most commonly asked questions among many new hobbyists.
So why live rock? What kind of live rock? How much?

Newly set up tank with Bare Tonga Live Rock

Liverock serves several functions in the saltwater aquarium:
1. Landscaping- Aesthetically, this is one of the reasons people want to get a salt water fish tank- to resemble a part of the ocean at your own home!
2. Landscaping- Place holder, live rocks serve as a foundation for any corals you wish to encrust over and grow onto.
3. Landscaping- Housing complex, in the wild, the reef, live corals and dead corals (live rock) serve as housing for both fish and numerous invertebrates. This provides security for your fish's night time resting as well as a territory separator should you have an aggressor in the tank.
4. Maintenance- Since live rocks are primarily composed of coral skeleton and fossils, they are extremely porous just like our bones. The porous structure enables rocks to house an enormous amount of bacteria to help breakdown wastes in the water column.

In General, most aquarist recommend 1.5-2lb of live rock for every gallon of water volume. This figure is only for reference and often times very successful keepers are able to use much less rocks with compensation of other means such as an extremely efficient filtration system. In all of my current tanks I use an average of .7-.9 lb/gallon. But the key is for the tank to find its perfect equilibrium, then things will settle down and stay stable.

There are various types of live/dry rocks one can establish their aquariums with:
Live rocks- like these seen in LiveAquaria, these are collected from the tropical coral reef and are packed with freshly dead algae/critter plus an abundance of marine bacteria to start your new tank's cycling. It is advised to "cure" these rocks as you let it sit in an aerated tank and allow the excessive ammonia/nitrate to be eliminated before you add them to your tank. They come in various shapes and sized. Some of the most popular ones are Fiji live rock, they are typically more rounded with rugged edges and very porous. There are also rocks from Tuvalu, Tonga, and other areas of the South Pacific to offer landscaping options with shelf and branch like rocks.

Dry rocks- These are rocks mined from the land. They are not "live" as they are dry, such as the ones sold by Marco Rocks. But the composition of these rocks are the same as live rock- coral fossils. So once you place them into the water, bacteria and marine organisms will culture the dry rock and turn it into a full functioning live rock. Compare to the live rocks, dry rocks are less mysterious as you do not need to worry about introducing harmful or hazardous organisms into the tank along with it. But it will take a bit more patience as you must wait for the rock to mature and be cultured.

Artificial rock- These are "man-made" liveroks that looks and functions like live rock. Such as the rocks produced by Realreefrock. They are artificially infused with all the necessary bacteria for your tanks cycling and waste processing. And since they are artificially produced, they have less impact to the natural reef.

LiveRock are not cheap, especially because of their weight often times you must also pay for expensive extra shipping cost. My personal suggestion is join a local fish club or keep your eyes on Craigslist, wait until someone is selling off their rocks, not only the rocks are much less expensive, easily accessible, no shipping charge, but also the rocks are already cured, cultured, and all ready for you to use. Unless, off course, if the rocks are currently covered with undesirable organisms then you might have some heavy cleaning on hand.
Good luck rock hunting!

20141104 What Light for your Saltwater tank? Part 1.

One of the most commonly asked questions is the choice of lighting. What's appropriate for your critters? What's the best color temperature combination to bring out those colors? All lights seem so expensive, can I just DIY?
First, I must say that without proper training in light, physics, and electrical, everything I am going to discuss is entirely based on observation and real life experience.

LED light reflecting from the surface

Currently some there are many options for aquaria lighting. Among some of the less expensive but least light output are:
Regular T7 florescent tubes, incandescent bulbs, power compact lights
These lights are suitable for fish only aquaria or some of the non-photosynthetic or least light demanding soft corals. But in most cases will not provide enough energy for higher end corals and inverts to thrive
Some of the more sophisticated lightings are:
VHO T5 florescent tubes, Metal Halide bulbs, and LED lights
These lights tend to have a higher cost and drains more electricity, but can sustain some of the most light hungry creatures such as small polyp stony corals (SPS), large polyp stony corals (LPS), clams, anemones, etc.
Another option is DIY- if you are skilled in electrical, you can also design and put together your own lights. You can find many light parts, ballasts that are suitable for your project. Warning, if you do not construct the light correctly it can result in fire.
There are many other aspects of lights such as PAR, light's distance from the water surface, water depth, and light color temperature. We can save all them for the ensuing parts of this series.

In the mean time, there are some good readings I recommend from a couple reputable online livestock retailer:
Liveaquaria Light article
Pacific East Aquaculture Light article

20141103 Green Hair Algae- What do I do???

Green Hair Algae, or GHA as many forums refer to it, is a bonafide nuisance in any marine aquaria. The bad news is, it is always an uphill battle against it. Good news is, unlike cyanobacteria, there are many more creatures who will happily gobble it up.

Green Hair Algae

In case you did not read my voice on cyanobacteria, with the exception that brown slim algae is not algae, just about everything else on the characteristic of cyanobacteria is the same as green hair algae- will thrive with light and dissolved nutrient. The one key difference is that this is an actual algae and will require iron, among other elements to properly grow. So on top of light control, nutrient control, and predator introduction, we can add one more element here: competition.

Unlike cyanobacteria that can disappear completely if you keep light off for an entire day or two, hair algae is an actual plant and can store enough energy to sustain an extended period of darkness, just like your corals would. So the light off trick must be carefully modified here- instead of all out for a day or two, you can attempt to change spectrum/color temperature and also shorten photoperiod.

Reduction of dissolve nutrients will not affect corals so this is a safe approach by limiting how much you feed your fish, inverts, and corals, and maximizing your skimmer.

Predators- Many creatures naturally prey on hair algae- all tangs, most dwarf angelfish (reef caution), all rabbitfish (reef caution), many hermit crabs, snails, urchins, etc.

Lastly- competition. So a hair algae's competition is obviously another algae- but you probably don't want more algae in the tank? a good option is to house some macro algae, here is a place you can find many different varieties with reasonable price: Reef2go- Macroalgae. Keep these macro algae in your established sump or refugium to absorb nutrient and minerals just like hair algae would, but at a much faster rate to out compete the hair algae.

Good luck!

20141102 Cyanobacteria (brown slime algae) problem

One of the most commonly discussed in forums for many beginner hobbyist is the brown/red slime algae, or cyanobacteria. Although they are referred to as algae, they are not really algae. Instead they are monocellular bacteria that obtains energy by photosynthesis. They will form enormous colony thus visible to human eyes without microscope with the appearance, and behavior of algae.

Cyanobacteria (Brown Slim Algae)

The photo above shows how a cyanobacteria can take over the substrate (or rock work) by covering up the surface and forms a "film". While they are considered a nuisance, they are not your worst enemy in a reef aquaria. There are plenty ways to tackle them. But to properly fight them. We first need to know what causes them to bloom.

Even though the bacteria can obtain energy by photosynthesis, like all bacteria, they also thrive under nutrient rich condition. So the two elements we can control here are: light- photosynthesis, and dissolved nutrient- food.
Three ways to effectively reduce the colony:
1. prevention- do not overfeed your tank
2. attack- stir up the sand with sifters such as goby, cucumber, nassaurius snails, or sand sifting stars*
3. elimination- with moderation, turn lights off for a day to discourage photosynthesis.
Cyanobacteria is a natural part of the tank cycling and path to maturity. There is no need to freak out when you experience a break out. Just stay calm and tackle them!

*sand sifting stars do require a LOT of sand to forage for food in order to properly survive and thrive. Please do not add one to a tank smaller than 125G.

20141101 Mexican Turbo Snail

The Mexican Turbo Snail, Turbo fluctuosa, is a very commonly available cleaner crew in the aquarium trade. They are easily accessible and not as expensive as other snail such as trochus. The only problem is, well, two problems are: 1. You can't seem to keep them alive long enough or 2. If you do keep them alive long enough they get really large and start knocking things over all the time.

Mexican Turbo Snail

So first of all, why can't you keep them alive? Well, most saltwater hobbyist like to keep "tropical" fish or "reef". This means they tend to keep the tank temperature at lower 80's or at least in the hight 70's to accommodate the most adequate survival needs for most of their specimens originated from Western/South pacific, or the Caribbean. So here comes the problem- the turbo snail is actually NOT a true tropical animal. 

Although this snail can tolerate exposure to warm temperature. In the long run, they do best living under cooler conditions. Keeping them a few weeks, or even months in a warmer habitat may not kill them, but they will not thrive as much as they would have in cooler condition.

Secondly, They are large, so they have a large appetite. This translates to they'll need to patrol a larger area than most other snail species in the trade to get enough algae grazing for nutrition gain. So often times people "overstock" them. Also, these snail lives in tidal zone with rubbles. Even when they end up on their back, the constant, strong tide would have swept them upright. So they do not need to worry about falling or flipping over. But when they fall from a glass aquarium wall, their shell mechanism will for them to fall on their back. And like an astrea snail, this snail cannot turn themselves over once they are on their back. If not caught within minutes, they will close up to protect themselves from predators and then die of hunger.

Conclusion- They are not suitable for tropical aquaria. Also, because of their huge size they can easily knock over any coral/inverts not secured in the tank.