Diver's Den Tour- Invertebrate Section

To continue the previous thread, this post will feature the invertebrate section of the facility.
First I want to show you the massive protein skimmer and reactor combo at this LiveAquaria, there are several of them:

This protein skimmer is taller than me... enough said.

Asked my wife to model for scale, humongous carpet anemones

More carpet anemones

Each of the anemones in this section, including carpet and a bunch of bubble tip are all hosting a pair of clownfish. it's really cool to see they make them all happy, even though as a retailer it's completely unnecessary to pair clownfish with anemone since one or the other would be sold soon anyways. But they did what they can to make each feel happy.

A bundle of long tentacle anemone

 a cluster of derasa clams (not yet offered on diver's den, they were exclusive for the tour), and a bunch of cultured maxima clam. very sweet deals! I managed to snatch two of these handsome derasa clams

Lighting may be one of the biggest questions any hobbyist buying from LiveAquaria wishes to ask. In the photo below you will see a broader view of the facility with lights running on a track. The lights run in a lateral movement so that it can cover all angles of the photosynthetic animals beneath rather than creating a "hot spot". When I toured this place a few years ago all lights were 400W 20K Metal Halide. Today this facility has a mix of high end LED (such as AI hydra + a few other varieties). All holding raceway are no more than 12" deep. All the animals look healthy and for clams I can observe significant growth indicating excellent health condition.

The livestock raceway

Here is a picture of the holding section for shrimp, small crabs (such as acropora crabs) and small shrimp (pistol shrimp or squat lobster, which by the way are size of a pinky nail!) They are held in individual transparent containers approx. the size of a film box (if you are born after the mid 90's you might not know what that is lol).

squat lobster, I can't believe how tiny they actually are compare to the online photos.

maxima clams in the diver's den section

And lastly, the diver's den clam section. I must say, almost all the clams in this section appears much larger than what is seems on the photo (contrary to the squat lobster), and honestly, the photos don't do justice on how beautiful they are. One of these clams I purchased looks like a mustard, brown color online but turns out to be a shiny gold in person! All of them are kept under 400W metal halide, 20K bulbs hence the very blue photo here. And one thing they offer that no one else do is live arrival ad 14 day guarantee.
Here is a couple videos:

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

20140719 Waikiki Aquarium 2

Part II of the Waikiki Aquarium tour today-
I've already said this was where I first fell in love with the hobby. But the true reason I fell in love with it was because of its clam display. The setting is a bit different now than before as they have moves some of the larger "small clams" to an outdoor display (to come later). But they still host a variety of beautiful "small" giant clams. Such as these three tridacna squamosa in a reef tank with some of the happiest soft and large polyp stony corals I've ever seen

 Here is another Long nose hawk, not as large as the display by the entrance but equally as adorable

 Another squamosa under the light. I also want to point out that almost ALL reef system aquariums here are exposed to actual natural sunlight with supplemented 1000W metal halide bulbs- you cannot beat this lighting environment.

With huge system capacity and space, you can clearly tell that you can break a lot of the "rules" on what's reef safe and what isn't. For example, normally people would not consider harlequin tusk wrasse nor copper-banded butterfly "reef safe". But you can see that they are not only thriving in this system, but so are the corals!

 An illustration of how "happy" corals should look like, look at the tissue extension on all of them! And the water seems really bubbly because of the unique "surge" tank system Waikiki Aquarium invented to provide natural, life-like surges for the best of corals' health and oxygenation.

2014-05-17 Gear Spotlight- Chiller

So what's the deal with Chillers? Until I began keeping salt-water aquariums, I've never even heard of it! Why chillers? Well, there is an excellent article here on Marine Depot taking about it: http://www.marinedepot.com
I also want to credit Marine Depot for this illustration below:

Tank Chiller Set up according to Marine Depot

So why do you need Chiller, if you already have to use a heater to "heat" up your tank?

Well, While terrestrial day time and night time temperature swings can be quite big- here in Wisconsin we have 80 degree days with nights in the 30's, it's ridiculous!

Also, while fluorescent lights and LEDs do not emit as much heat, reef tanks with metal halide can boil eggs and more! So it is vital to ensure your tanks does not over head by the end of your photoperiod (light-on hours). 

A couple ways you can get by without a chiller- have well ventilated tank/sump area with central air/AC on for the house, not just for the tank but for your own comfort. But let's face it, it's cheaper to cool down the tank than the entire house.

Or, you can choose a low-heat emission lighting system such as LED light, which can emit almost as much, if not more energy than that of metal halide.

But if the above are not in your option, a chiller might be the better choice.

Natural tropical sea water's temperature range from low 70's to mid 80's, depends on the current, time of day, and the depth. Many people say the sea water is very constant, that's not true. 

I used to spend years living in Belize and swim in the barrier reef on weekends. The real ocean water comes in waves of warm pockets followed by cool pockets, and the surface (top 3 feet) is significantly warmer than the deeper region (5-30 feet). So don't worry too much if your temperature swings a little between day and night. It's OK and it's natural.

2014-05-16 Species Spotlight- Derasa

This is the third Derasa clam I've kept in my personal aquarium.
My first clam came as a birthday present, a 5" derasa, had the tiger spotted marking.
Second one is similar to the one below, also a 5" derasa, with a slightly lighter color. That one unfortunately died due to disease introduced by another clam.

The current clam I have is between 8-9" and has beautiful stripes down its mantle.

In many people's opinion, Derasa clam is one of the hardiest, and easiest clams to keep.

In my opinion, squamosa is the hardiest and easiest, but Derasa clam is a close second.

Like all clams, it does require full reef water condition with extra care in calcium level for proper growth. It will also need slightly nutrient rich water (i.e. plenty of fish waste) to thrive as it absorbs phosphorous from water to build its body parts. Hence it's nearly impossible to keep clams in an aquarium with no fish in it.

Although Derasa doesn't require as much intensity in light as Maxima and Crocea do, it still need a decent light source. I've been able to keep it healthy under power compact at at least 5W/gallon with slower growth. Currently I have it under my AI sol blue LED fixture at around 70% at peak time and it's growing rapidly. Many others keep it under Metal Halide, which is more than enough light but can really suck up your energy bill.

Unlike Maxima and Crocea, you should place this clam on a sand bed. And give it plenty of room to "rotate" as it has a mind of its own in choosing what direction it wants to face. Lastly, keep the tank free of potential clam eaters. I had a flame angel who would nip at my Squamosa before. That flame took its own life one day, and my flame angel II has been very well fed and has not touched the clam.

One other conscience complier is that most of these clams you find in the trade are now aquacultures with minimum to none impact to the reef. And the bonus of aquacultured livestock is they are far hardier than those wild collected.

2014-05-08 Save $$$ on electricity

I have heard and seen many discussions on how much energy their reef tanks draw and that they can see a BIG difference in energy bill with/without the tank operating. Today I want to make an attempt to break it down by using my own tank as an analysis.

First of all let's understand how do power companies charge your energy usage

Below is an example of one of my recent bills:

  Customer Charge                  30 DAYS   AT $    .34308  $       10.29       
  State Low-Income Asst Fee        30 DAYS   AT $    .10333  $        3.10       
  Distribution Service           1356 KWH    AT $    .03000  $       40.68       
  Electricity Service            1356 KWH    AT $    .10992  $      149.05       

    Subtotal Electric Meter     250177 ---------------------------$      203.12  

Note the items in line 1 and 2 are things you cannot change- you are paying those regardless how much energy you use.

And line 3 and 4 are basically two of the same thing, so I am going to add it together and call it approximately $.14 for each KWH of energy we use in the house.

KWH stands for Kilowatt hour. Basically if you add up all the wattage your household electronics' and appliances' labels you are looking at this. To illustrate:

1356/ 30 days= roughly 45 KWH for each of the 30 days this month, meaning I use 45KWH each day. To divide that by 24 hours, I am using nearly 2KWH each hour. 2KWH= 2000W= 20 X 100W lightbulbs on simultaneously for the entire 24 hour cycle each day. Using this principle above, let's estimate what % of my household energy contributes to my tank:

Tank energy:

Light: 2X70W Aqua Illumination Sol Blue LED on for 10 hours at an average of 35% of the 70W= 70 X 2 X 35% X 10= 526W

Heater: 200W, but not on constantly, probably on for approximately 70% of the time- 200 X 70% X 24= 3360W

Return Pump: Mag drive 7- 60W X 24hours= 1440W

Powerhead/wave makers: 3X 15W X 24hours= 1080W

Skimmer Pump: 60W X 23 Hours (minus feeding time)=1380

Total= 7786W

Here is the kick, even though electronics may label as 100W. Few to none ever operate at exactly that amount. Most of them actually consumes 20-40% more energy to operate at the energy level labelled. In another words, if a light build is labeled 100W, it might actually consume 140W in reality. 

For that reason, we will multiply 7786 X 140%= 10900W

10900W=10.9Kilowatt, let's call it 11 KWh

So each day out of the 45 KWh, 11 goes to the tank, roughly a quarter of my household energy! and if you look at my monthly charge- that's about $50

Now, things actually used to be worse- Metal Halide bulbs. I used to use a fixture containing 1X250W Metal halide + 4X24W T-5 tubes, a whopping 342W. And this fixture did not have the ramping and % control like the LED lights do. So if I have this light on for 10 hours/day- 342X10= 3420W 

Add this up with other parts (heater, pumps, skimmer)-10680 X 140%= 14952W

14952W is roughly 15KWh

So let's do the math: 15KWh - 11KWh=4KWh/day

4KWh X 30= 120KWh/month X $.14= roughly $17 a month of energy bill difference.- $200 a year in energy savings!

A Good LED lighting system cost between $400-$900 and lasts 10,000 hours - if you can keep the light for more than 2 years you got your money back.

A Good Metal Halide system cost about the same amount and definitely does not last as long - at least you need to replace the $50 bulb annually for optimum performance.

So next time if your significant other questions why you need to upgrade to the LED and other energy efficient pieces, please show her this post and tell her- you are saving money on the energy bill in the long run.

2014-05-01 Livestock Spotlight

My heart almost stopped when I saw this clam...
Yes, I have a thing for clam. In fact it was when I laid my eyes on the giant clams in display in Waikiki aquarium that made me fell in love with this hobby.
http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com

maxima clam as seen on Pacific East Aquaculture

This is a 5" Tahitian Maxima clam with golden turquoise leopard spotted mantle.
To keep this claim, please have nothing short of Metal Halide (at least 250W, 400W preferred) or LED. You will also need adequate calcium level (400+), 8.3pH, and slightly dirty water (nutrient rich) so the clam can feed on the nitrate and phosphate in it.
Believe me, if I have room in my tank I would have snatched this up in a heartbeat!
But at the moment my tank is a bit crowded with an 8"Squamosa, 8"Derasa, and 7"Squamosa...
and are all growing rapidly.

2014-04-29 Deal of the Day-Acan

Ok, I really don't understand why are Acan frags so freaking expensive! I have kept them and they grow really fast for me!
Anywho, I found this on Pacific East Aquaculture and man is this a gem!
And $89 price tag for a frag of this size- 12 heads, is a steal~
http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com

If you have never kept Acan, here are some tips:
Water quality- the usual reef parameter- no trace of nitrate.
Water Temperature, I would say that the polyps and tentacles expands the best when it's slightly cooler at around 75-77
Calcium- it is a large polyp stony coral so you need adequate amount of it
Light- T-5 seems to be the universally best light source. If you use LED or Metal Halide, make sure to place them medium to bottom. The color will become very light and eventually bleach out when there is too much light. They can actually do pretty well in dimmer condition because you can also supplement their energy by spot feeding- I've used a turkey baster to feed them grind up shrimp, mysis shrimp, spiraling enhanced brine shrimp, etc.
One word of warning, do not put them on sand, especially if you have something in your tank who likes to stir up the sand, they get irritated by sand quite easily.