Lots of new residents have decided to move in this month, Thomas S. Heo is back shouting 'NO FAIR', and an article on temperature, written by DBW, is featured.

Editorial

Hi ya all :). Well the first thing I would like to inform you of is the fact that I know have put quite a few more photographs online of OZ REEF and the residents. I am very happy with how well they came out, it is amazing how much difference a bit of experimentation and experience does.

A couple of weeks ago I built a refugium. The idea of a refugium is to have a place where fauna such as isopods and copepods can live and multiply with out preditation by fish. In this way there is a place where they can multiply and move out into the main tank, supplying a food source, without being totally removed from the tank by over preditation. The idea for this came out of a discussion on the #reefs IRC channel, thanks a lot to the guys that helped with the nutting out of the idea; which were Norm , BRose and someone else who, for the life of me, I cannot remember,. Sorry, but I still appreciate your help in coming up with this idea, who every you were. It is made out of eggcrate and cable ties, so is very simple to make. I will keep you posted to see how it all goes, and whether it actually works in the end. The details of its construction and photographs can be found via the DIY section.

Overall the tank is looking good, with only limited growths of hair types of algae. The snails seem to be keeping up with things quite well. Some of the macro algae is grwowing quite large and adds a great effect to the tank. Especially a type of green algae that forms a very large and thin leaf that folds up on itself. The money cowries added really like to chew on this on. It also seems like the coralline algae is growing, but it may be too soon to really tell with any certainty how much. Several spots have appeared on the glass and also the PVC piping.

Started to test calcium for calcium, and found it to be around 330ppm. This has now been increased to over 450ppm by addition of Seachem Reef Calcium. Currently dosing about 1ml every morning, and will have to see if this is currently enough to maintain suitable calcium concentrations.

Also on the water quality side, the nitrates appeared to peak at 0.2ppm and now have fallen to below 0.1ppm. This is much better than I thought it was going to be and it will be interesting to see how the level goes once more fish residents move in. An interesting thing that may be linked to this reduction of nitrates is that bubbles are appearing within the sand bed. When they are stirred up from the sand, no smell is noticed, and the spots are still the coral sand colour, therefore it is not going anaerobic. Phosphates are also on the the way down, from 0.2ppm and now around 0.1ppm.

I would like to welcome Tom back after his 'break', and I have absolutely no idea where he gets them from, or anything to do with the topics he comes up with ;) He has also revamped the look of his site, and it is looking good.

Welcome OZ REEF's New Residents

Now this list is going to be rather extensive, as quite a few residents have now moved in since the last newsletter.

• 2 x Lysmata debelius, Fire/Blood/Scarlet Shrimp. Beautiful red coloured cleaner shrimp. Very timid though, as have yet to see them out in full sight.
• 1 x Fungia sp., Plate Coral. Has the weirdest colouring, fluorescent orange. It is possible that this is due to bleaching, so will have to see what happens over time. Colour may darken.
• 1 x Trachyphyllia geoffreyi, Open Brain Coral. Nice fluorescent green with brown bands.
• 1 x Favia sp., Brain Coral. Has about 10 Barnacles living in between the poylps, looks really cool. Fluorescent green colouring.
• 1 x Gonipora sp., Flower Pot Coral. Also had a daughter colony that I removed and have attached to another rock.
• 1 x Amblygobius phalaeria, Banded Goby. He does not dig that far into the sand, just scoops up the top 1cm.
• 1 x Stichopodia sp., Sea Cucumber. This one has the most unusual colouring and shape. He has 'spines' about 1.5cm along back and sides. The colouring is black, orange and white patches.
• 2 X Cyoraea annulus, Money/Ring Cowrie. These guys are very good herbivours, and are very interesting as they have a mantle that fully extends over the shell.
• 2 X (?), Orange Hermit. Same as one previously added to the Park.

Resident of the Month

Dear Marther ReefKeeper

Dear Marther,

Since I have moved into OZ REEF Marine Park bubbles have started to appear in the sand around the base of my skeletal cone. The sand is not discoloured, and the bubbles when they rise past me do not smell. I am a little concerned about this occurance. Where are these bubbles coming from, and what are they.

From,
Trachy Phyllia

Dear, Trach Phyllia

Well I can safely say that you have nothing to worry about. What you are witnessing is denitrification in progress, that wonderfull process that helps reefkeepers in the removal of nitrates from the closed system of their tank. In regions where there is a low oxygen concentration the bacteria living there have to be able to use an alternative source of oxygen to oxygen gas, O₂, that aeorobic bacteria typically use. What the anaerobic bacteria typically use is the nitrate molecule, NO₃^-. As a result the nitrate is transformed to nitrous oxide, NO₂, and then nitrogen, N₂. The bubbles that you are observing in the sand is the accumulation of these gases because saturation levels of these gases have been reached in the water contained in this region.

You would have something to worry about though if the sand was becoming blackened and a smell of hydrogen sulfide, H₂S, could be detected. Hydrogen sulfide is toxic, and if detected something should be done immediatedly.

From,
Marther ReefKeeper

Tom's Bit

by Thomas S. Heo.

NO FAIR

Hello all, and sorry for my long hiatus. I have been busy with other things, like life, and not had much time to write nor do anything these past 3 months or so, but now that my life has settled down some, I can at least for this month, make my monthly contribution to this great great site, that we all lovingly refer to as "Ox Beef" oh, I mean "OZ REEF".

I have not even been working on my own site, and as such, I have proof that I was not only ignoring all of you here and anywhere else that you expected me to show up, like at the local supermarket or where ever you hang out the most.

Another reason that I have not made my monthly contributions anywhere is that I have been busy fighting a crusade for our reefs in the Indo-Pacific regions of our world. These reefs are rapidly declining, and they may soon be extinct if we do not act now. It is estimated that most of the reefs in our world will be gone within 20 years. Because of these startling statistics, I have decided to have some reef hobbyists band together and fight this injustice of not being able to take our grand children to the Indo-Pacific and saying "see there little DB weebie, that there is an anemononone, and there is a clownfish yeah, that's it, the little orange fish that's having an orgasm while swimming within its anemone". This new group, I am proud to introduce, is called "NO FAIR".

"But Tom, how did you come up with the name?", you ask yourselves. Well, just like with any other good organization, the letters don't just make up a word or phrase, they stand for something. They stand for corals and fishes rights, along with a spirit that lets us know that we DO care about our reefs and the things that live down in them, and we are responsible individuals. NO FAIR stands for "Nobody Outta Flatulate Around Indo Reefs", or "NO FAIR" for short.

There is much more information out there, but this article will not go into them this month, partly because it's hard making things up, "butt" (hey, get it!) also, I think that I've at least got 1 diver thinking twice about making his wet suit into his own personal "sauna in the wild" with this brief introduction to this 134 part series on my crusade.

We must band together to fight this ill. It is not fair for people to go out in their glass-bottom boats, and then see a cloud of yellow gas coming up towards the bottom of the boat. Of course, do not forget the poor school of fish which usually follows that cloud, usually dazed out of their minds, cross-eyed, and just feeling not-so-fresh.

I hope that this article will make y'all think twice about conservation of reefs. There's enough blasting in the reefs, and they do not need our help. Sure, I know that there are the ones who say "but it's nature's skimmer, with the gas coming up to the top of the water surface!". Those people are wrong, but also stupid, so they are wrong and stupid, which is not a good combination, especially when they're driving their own boats.

Remember, "each time you toot, you pollute" and remember, it's NO FAIR!

Special Feature

by

Temperature is an important factor that must be controlled exactly and in the correct range for a reef to be successful. It is one of the first parameters that should be allowed for when considering the establishment of a reef tank.

Why is it that the temperature is such an important factor and has to be maintained in such a narrow range? There are several reasons:

The activity of enzymes.

Enzymes are used in various biological pathways within living organisms in order to catalyse or assist a reaction to take place. The shape of an enzyme is of vital importance to its ability to function correctly, with a slight temperature change having a huge impact on the shape of the enzyme molecule. This results from the fact that the shape of the enzyme is determined by hydrogen bonds (the sharing of a hydrogen atom between two parts of a molecule, usually two hydroxide groups, OH), and the tendency for hydrophobic (water hating) parts of the molecule to isolate itself from the surrounding water environment. These two forces that hold the enzyme in the correct shape are relatively weak and can be easily disrupted by a change in temperature. Once the shape of the enzyme is disrupted from that of its biologically active form, then it either performs its function at a reduced efficiency or no longer can perform it at all.

The demand and solubility of oxygen.

As the temperature increases, then the metabolic demand for oxygen also increases. But conversely the solubility of oxygen falls, with oxygen only being half as soluble at 30^OC as it is at 0^OC. Therefore an organism will have difficulty extracting enough oxygen from the water to keep its metabolic processes operating at elevated temperatures, above that which it is acclimatised to.

The temperature dependence of chemical reaction rates.

The biological chemical reactions that occur in a cell are highly complex, with many different ones in parallel and series occurring simultaneously. These reactions are all in balance, with the rate of each tuned such that there is no undue accumulation or depreciation of any one species within the reaction pathway. The reaction rate of each reaction is influenced by the temperature, with an increase in temperature typically increasing the rate at which the reaction proceeds. (It should be noted also that in the case of some reactions, a temperature increase may cause a decrease in the reaction rate.) And each reaction involved in a biological reaction pathway will have a slightly different rate change for a given temperature change. With a disturbance in the temperature, then these reaction pathways become unbalanced. As a result some products and reactants required become either depleted or in excess. This unbalancing can cause major problems with the health of the organism, possibly resulting in death when taken to the extreme.

The ideal temperature range for a tropical reef tank is from 21 to 27^OC. A swing of one or two degrees during the daily cycle with in a reef tank will not cause any undue stress to the tank inhabitants. But it is best to aim for a closer variation to that experienced in nature, which is typically measured in tenths of a degree in temperature change day to day. It should also be noted that a higher than normal temperature is more dangerous than one lower than normal.

What influences the temperature of a tank? Anything that has a different temperature to the tank, and comes into contact with it in some way, whether direct or indirect, will influence the water temperature. The following items will influence the temperature of a tank:

• Water heater
• Chiller
• Room temperature
• Heat generated by water pumps
• Heat input via the light globes
• Heat generated by the lighting ballasts
• Evaporation of tank water
• Convective cooling via the air blown over the water surface
• Convective cooling via the tank walls

In order to control the temperature of a reef tank, several methods can be utilised.

1. The one that first comes to mind are water heaters. When using a heater, make sure it is located in a high water flow area. Additionally, use more than one to achieve the required total wattage for the tank so that if one fails then the problem that it will cause will be minimised.
2. The simplest method, and most stable, of temperature control is having the tank stored in a temperature controlled room. This usually means the room is maintained at a constant temperature by air conditioning.
3. Evaporation of the system water can be used to lower the temperature. This is helped by using fans to move a high volume of air across the water surface, allowing more water to evaporate.
4. If evaporation is not enough to maintain a low enough temperature then a chiller can be used. A chiller is just a type of refrigerator that cools the system water. They are expensive, but if there is a large wattage of lighting over the tank then this will be the only way to keep the temperature down into a suitable range.

Bibliography:
Adey W.H., and Loveland K., Dynamic aquaria: building living ecosystems, Academic Press:Sydney, 1991.
Delbeek J.C., and Sprung J., The reef aquarium: a comprehensive guide to the identification and care of tropical marine invertebrates, vol. 1, Richordea:Coconut Grove, 1995.
Raven P.H., and Johnson G.B., Biology, 2^nd ed., Times Mirror/Morsby College:St. Louis, 1989.

You Wouldn't Believe It!

..... last month I put in two brittle stars, and I have not seen one since. These guys are not very out going guys, hating light and slinking in the crevices and underneth the rocks. All I manage to ever see of them is an odd waving arm from underneth a rock.

.... how far a Fungia sp. can move in one night. Almost every night since it has been placed into the tank, he has moved up to 5cm.

Bereavement Notices

Nothing
Things have been good this month, though I am a little concerned about my Gonipora sp.. He has not opened up totally for a couple of weeks now, with a section being retracted. The puzzling thing is that the daughter colony that dropped off after added to my tank is quite happy, figure that? Also moved him around a bit in the tank, trying different positions and lighting, oh well, just got to keep on trying. It seems like some of the tissue is now breaking away from the skeleton, not good. So I gave it a dip in some tank water with iodine for 10 minutes to try and kill off anything that may be affecting the coral. And this seems to have worked as the effected spot has expanded more over the last couple of days.

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