Dear Anthony,
I met you at the IMAC conference in Chicago this past June and I had many questions on how to set up an aquarium at the Field Museum to do research on coral bleaching. Let me first give you an update on what we did with your helpful suggestions and then ask your advice on 1) lighting for the aquarium, and 2) on introducing coralline algae in the aquarium.
We set up a 50 gallons aquarium (48†x 12†x 20â€, l x w x h) with only one frag of Montipora given by Mr. Firemouth with Uberfrags.net in the middle of June 2007, whom we are also in contact with. We are about to acquire a few more coral species from Mr. Firemouth/ Uberfrags and we would like your opinion on the set up we currently have, since you helped us building it:
1) Chicago Tap Water which is dechlorinated prior to adding Dead Sea Salt. Following your recommendation we replace 50% of the tank water every week, and that is working out really well (you did mention that the best would be to replace 90% of the tank volume/weekly, but since we only have 1 frag we thought 50% should be enough). We monitor the salinity with a hydrometer, every day to keep a stable salinity of 34-35 g/1000l at 79-81F.
2) 40 lbs. of aragonite from www.carib-sea.com covering the bottom, while the frag is sitting on a grid elevated to about 12†high from the bottom and about 2 feet from the light source
3) Also following your advice and especially because we only have a small Montipora, we set up 2 x 48†light fixtures with 2 lamps each (Phillips); 40W each, 6,000K and 84 CRI (all home made from Home Depo), with a 8h photoperiod. Currently we have the lamp bulbs about 1 foot from the surface of the water completely exposed; so there are a lot of splashes on the lamps which we need to clean. Also because the evaporation is significant, we are leveling the water every other day. Since we are acquiring more coral frags, especially Acroporas, we would like to ask your opinion on lighting – please see below the specific system I have in mind, also following your suggestion.
4) Again, following your suggestion, we are using a 205 Fluval Aquarium Canister Filter (110 GPH flow) (but we are buying the 405 Fluval which provides a filtering capacity of 225 GPH), where we added activated carbon, instead of live rock
5) We also added 2 power head pumps (Penguin 550, 145 GPH flow) to increase the circulation in the tank and we will be adding another more powerful power head pump (Penguin 1150, 300 GPH flow).
6) We are feeding the coral with a combination of liquid bio-plankton and liquid cyclope and rotifers (Roti Feast) 3x/week (turn off lights and filter for about 20 min)
7) We occasionally monitor the ammonia/ nitrites/ nitrates, pH and alkalinity with a kit, and everything seems to be good.
The coral seems to be doing quite well with its small polyps occasionally exposed and with a healthy brown color (please see picture included). We removed some tissue using a cytological brush on one of the branches to do some experiments, and it looked white after the procedure. However, within 3 weeks it had regained its original brown color and now it is impossible to tell where the wound occurred!
Question # 1- What kind of lighting should we purchase?
I would like to ask you if you recommend me to buy the set up 48†outer orbit 2x150W /T5 lamps sold by champion lighting & supply http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=80007&cat=714&page=1
(their quote discounted price is $580) . Would you recommend that I get the 2 x 150W or the 2 x 250W lamps of 10,000K? I am not sure if this system is shielded or not; what are the advantages and disadvantages of shielding the lamps?
Finally, I can have the 2x 150W 10,000K HQIs which come with the fixture replaced by 2x 150W 10,000K Ushio (part number: UHI-150AQ/10), or 2x 250W 10,000K Ushio (part number: UHI-250AQ/10).
Question #2- How to introduce coralline algae into the aquarium
We have observed a succession of algae and we are at a point where the hairy algae are being replaced by shorter green “matt†looking algae. I was thinking in introducing some live rock to the tank to add some coralline algae to the system. I was told that to use the live rock as a filtration system I would need 1lb/gallon, so I am assuming that we would need maybe 5-10lbs of live rock to introduce coralline algae in the system. I am however concerned with how this may affect the aquarium (will I be introducing a lot of unwanted creatures/ should I supplement the water with calcium). What is your opinion on this?
Thank you so much for your help,
Luisa Marcelino
I met you at the IMAC conference in Chicago this past June and I had many questions on how to set up an aquarium at the Field Museum to do research on coral bleaching. Let me first give you an update on what we did with your helpful suggestions and then ask your advice on 1) lighting for the aquarium, and 2) on introducing coralline algae in the aquarium.
We set up a 50 gallons aquarium (48†x 12†x 20â€, l x w x h) with only one frag of Montipora given by Mr. Firemouth with Uberfrags.net in the middle of June 2007, whom we are also in contact with. We are about to acquire a few more coral species from Mr. Firemouth/ Uberfrags and we would like your opinion on the set up we currently have, since you helped us building it:
1) Chicago Tap Water which is dechlorinated prior to adding Dead Sea Salt. Following your recommendation we replace 50% of the tank water every week, and that is working out really well (you did mention that the best would be to replace 90% of the tank volume/weekly, but since we only have 1 frag we thought 50% should be enough). We monitor the salinity with a hydrometer, every day to keep a stable salinity of 34-35 g/1000l at 79-81F.
2) 40 lbs. of aragonite from www.carib-sea.com covering the bottom, while the frag is sitting on a grid elevated to about 12†high from the bottom and about 2 feet from the light source
3) Also following your advice and especially because we only have a small Montipora, we set up 2 x 48†light fixtures with 2 lamps each (Phillips); 40W each, 6,000K and 84 CRI (all home made from Home Depo), with a 8h photoperiod. Currently we have the lamp bulbs about 1 foot from the surface of the water completely exposed; so there are a lot of splashes on the lamps which we need to clean. Also because the evaporation is significant, we are leveling the water every other day. Since we are acquiring more coral frags, especially Acroporas, we would like to ask your opinion on lighting – please see below the specific system I have in mind, also following your suggestion.
4) Again, following your suggestion, we are using a 205 Fluval Aquarium Canister Filter (110 GPH flow) (but we are buying the 405 Fluval which provides a filtering capacity of 225 GPH), where we added activated carbon, instead of live rock
5) We also added 2 power head pumps (Penguin 550, 145 GPH flow) to increase the circulation in the tank and we will be adding another more powerful power head pump (Penguin 1150, 300 GPH flow).
6) We are feeding the coral with a combination of liquid bio-plankton and liquid cyclope and rotifers (Roti Feast) 3x/week (turn off lights and filter for about 20 min)
7) We occasionally monitor the ammonia/ nitrites/ nitrates, pH and alkalinity with a kit, and everything seems to be good.
The coral seems to be doing quite well with its small polyps occasionally exposed and with a healthy brown color (please see picture included). We removed some tissue using a cytological brush on one of the branches to do some experiments, and it looked white after the procedure. However, within 3 weeks it had regained its original brown color and now it is impossible to tell where the wound occurred!
Question # 1- What kind of lighting should we purchase?
I would like to ask you if you recommend me to buy the set up 48†outer orbit 2x150W /T5 lamps sold by champion lighting & supply http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=80007&cat=714&page=1
(their quote discounted price is $580) . Would you recommend that I get the 2 x 150W or the 2 x 250W lamps of 10,000K? I am not sure if this system is shielded or not; what are the advantages and disadvantages of shielding the lamps?
Finally, I can have the 2x 150W 10,000K HQIs which come with the fixture replaced by 2x 150W 10,000K Ushio (part number: UHI-150AQ/10), or 2x 250W 10,000K Ushio (part number: UHI-250AQ/10).
Question #2- How to introduce coralline algae into the aquarium
We have observed a succession of algae and we are at a point where the hairy algae are being replaced by shorter green “matt†looking algae. I was thinking in introducing some live rock to the tank to add some coralline algae to the system. I was told that to use the live rock as a filtration system I would need 1lb/gallon, so I am assuming that we would need maybe 5-10lbs of live rock to introduce coralline algae in the system. I am however concerned with how this may affect the aquarium (will I be introducing a lot of unwanted creatures/ should I supplement the water with calcium). What is your opinion on this?
Thank you so much for your help,
Luisa Marcelino
