OZ REEF Marine Park is finally filled and Marther is back from holidays.

Editorial

Wow, what a month this has been so far! and it is great to be back :) OZ REEF is now a reality, and well on the way to becoming a full blown reef tank :) And it really is quite a story the whole thing, how it all came together, the problems and successes. I'll try to just give you the main bits and give a feel for all that has been happening.

Well on Thursday the 27th of February was the day that it all happened. The water arrived first, about 700lt worth. A tank just full of water actually looks quite cool, but thats not why I spending all this money ;). Now this is where all the fun started, leaks, leaks, leaks and more leaks. I just could not believe it, most of the plumbing joins had a small leak. Luckily they were not that large, just a slow seep, but they had to fixed. The live rock then showed up about 2 hours later as it had to be picked up from the airport, direct from Mackay in Queensland on the Great Barrier Reef. Five boxes, each 20kg giving the 100kg and it smelt fine and looked great. I then attempted to stack it into the tank, nice and open and stable. The stable bit was easy to attain, but the open bit was a bit beyond me. Time ran out though, so it was left as is and off I went to sleep.

Next morning I woke up sick as a dog, and so was the whole household. Now isn't that wonderful timing to get a virus ;( Now there was no way that I would be able to rearrange the rock so I called a guy from the Victoria Marine Aquaria Club, Tony Smith. He helped me that night to rearrange all the rock, well actually he did all of it as I could hardly stand up for very long. Thanks a lot for that Tony, and as a result the rock was stacked nice and open with lots of caves and tunnels. I also added 40kg of coral sand, which really clouded the water for a couple of days and it made it a bit difficult to see when we were arranging the rock. The sand is only currently thick enough to cover the egg crate that is used to isolatd the lower sand layers and allow a strong support base for the reef. And it will be increased in thickness gradually before any sand sifting fish are added.

And the other big problem that was encountered was the DIY skimmer that I built. It is just too tall for the water to run out of the overflow directly into the skimmer. The problem is that not enough pressure could be generated in the overflow without going way too close to the top. So to solve this I rearranged the pumps such that the large flowrate UNO pump that was to be used for circulation on the back of the reef was now the return pump. The flowrate from the the pump is now split between the tank and the skimmer, with the outflow from the skimmer returning to the sump. Once this was done the skimmer worked fined, with the exception of the foam, it was just too stable and started to flow out the air vent holes in the collection cup cap. Until I could solve it I used only one of the airstones. This stable foam problem was easily solved by adding some extra height to the collection cup, and now it works great :)

And just lately, about a week after the rock was put in, lots of critters have started to show their face all over the glass. They will be everywhere in the tank, but on the front glass is where they can be easily seen. I am going to make an attempt at identifying what everything is, at least to the family anyway, and may be even photos. The photo idea may be very difficult as the fauna currently running around would be lucky to be over 1mm in length. Some of these guys are really cool and can move very rapidly. For more information, check out the new residents and resident of the month sections below.

Well that is about all of it, anymore detail and I may bore you even more ;)

I would also like to mention, give a plug for ;), a new online mail order company here in Australia, The Fin Attic. The business is run by Allan and Sharyn, and they have really been great with helping get equipment for myself. I am really happy to now see an Aussie company online, about time we started to catch up with the Yanks ;)

If you are interested, then checkout the Residents Directory section that I am currently working on. Let me know what you think, and if it is user friendly or not. There are also a couple of photos of the tank floating around. Note that I am yet to place the canopy on the tank in these photos.

Well until next month, which will have a lot more to say as there will actually be some added residents. Wahooooo ;)

Welcome OZ REEF's New Residents

OZ REEF is know packed full of residents, the problem being that few have shown their face yet or are very small and difficult to identify. All these free loaders came along with the live rock. Have yet to identify them all, but here is a short list; Isopods, Chitons, Sea Cucumber, Copepods, Polychaetes, Coralline Algae (Red, Purple, Green?), Macro Alagae. As I get into identifying more, they will be added to the residents directory.

Resident of the Month

Dear Marther ReefKeeper

Dear Marther

I would like to ask your advice on the process of cycling a new reef tank with live rock. Is there anyway to reduce the stress felt by any residents present, especial myself, and minimise the fatalities experienced during the cycling period.

From,
Koral Ine-Algai

Dear Koral Ine-Algai

Well Koral, the most important thing firstly is to keep the levels of toxic chemicals that appear during the cycling period to a minimum. Such chemicals include ammonia, NH₃, ammonium, NH₄⁺, and nitrite, NO₂^-. These guys are highly toxic in the elevated levels that are chatracteristic of the cycling period of an aquarium. There are several method to do this:

• Water changes
• Removal of dead or dying organisms
• Removal of detritus settling on the tank bottom
• Removal of surface active dissolved organic compounds via a protein skimmer
• Removal of dissolved organic compounds via activated carbon

For the best results, each of these should be done as regularly as possible. Some may contest the idea of water changes during the cycling period as this will lower the level of ammonia and nitrite present in the water therefore reducing the amount of nutrients available for the bacteria that utilise there chemicals.

Another important consideration is the photosynthetic organisms, such as yourself Koral. Leaving the tank in darkness for the recommended period, which is typically around two weeks, really knocks around anything that relies on light for its energy generation.

From,
Marther ReefKeeper

Tom's Bit

by Thomas S. Heo

Sorry, but Tom is not in the writing mood at the moment, having bit of a rough time currently. I hope things turn around soon Tom.

Special Feature

No feature for this month.

You Wouldn't Believe It!

..... how well bristle worms can hang onto a piece of live rock. When the rock was taken out of the boxes, bristle worms were hanging out of the rocks left right and center. Bit of a tug on them and there is noway that they want to come out of the holes in the rock. Tug even harder and several were just ripped into pieces.

..... how many birstle worms can be present in a piece of live rock. The number that can pack themselves into such a small space is rather phenominal. After the rock had been in the tank for 24 hours, the bottom of the tank was covered with squirming worms. Luckily the rocks were not sitting on the bottom of the tank so they were easily removed from the tank.

..... no matter how much you plan something, there are always bits that go wrong and don't happen as planned. Suppose that is just life and a part of the whole learning experience.

Bereavement Notices

Bristle Worms
It is not with very much sadness that I announce the passing of an absolute 'bucket load' of bristle worms. These guys can play really havoc with a tank full of corals that make a lovely meal for them, so they will not be missed. It is hoped that none have been missed in the tank, but it is unlikely that they have all gone.

True Crabs
I like crabs so these guys will be missed, but this is the personal view point of someone who does not yet have a full reef tank. But crabs can be a pest in a reef tank as they are very strong and can enjoy rearranging the live rock and corals without notification. There were in the region of 15-20 dead ones scattered throughout the live rock boxes, so they didn't even survive the trip down from Mackay.

Shrimp
These ones are a real unknown quanity, I have not seen anything like these anywhere before. So whether it is good or bad that they didn't survive the trip down from Mackay is up in the air. They were shaped as a typical shrimp is shaped, but the colouring was blue with black stripes around the body. Their size was around 10mm, with around 10 dead bodies found. Any ideas anyone?

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