Harlequinmania

Click through to see the images. Researchers Kate A. Rawlinson and Jessica S. Stella collected ten colonies of Acropora valida at random from Lizard Island lagoon in the Great Barrier Reef. Of the ten colonies, seven harbored one to five AEFW by conservative estimates. The discovery paves the way forward to further studies of A. acroporae. This discovery may also provide insight on how AEFW entered the aquarium trade; AEFW grew in prominence in captive aquaria around the same time the hobby began to import GBR stony corals. The scientists also found two interesting morphological traits about Amakusaplana acroporae: The number of eyes on AEFW increases with their length. 3.2mm specimens had two eye clusters with five eyes per cluster. 10mm specimens had 2 eye clusters but with ten eyes per cluster. AEFW male reproductive systems develop faster than female reproductive systems. Smaller specimens had fully formed male reproductive organs but immature female reproductive organs. The full public-access paper is available at PLoS ONE. Kate Rawlinson is a contributor to the website Aquarium Coral Diseases and at the forefront of AEFW research. Please email Kate Rawlinson (k.rawlinson@dal.ca) for more information on the biology and life history of the AEFW and for a reprint of the paper "Taxonomy and life history of the Acropora-eating flatworm, Amakusaplana acroporae nov. sp. (Polycladida: Prosthiostomidae) Coral Reefs 30:693–705. Kate would be very interested to hear of AEFW problems you may have and is always looking for more specimens to analyse to help understand these coral predators. View the full article

Click through to see the images. For the first time, scientists have identified widespread skin cancer on an important reef fish species. The Coral Trout (Plectropomus leopardus) was the center of a study conducted by the Newcastle University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science collecting specimens from the southern portion of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: Heron Island and One Tree Island. "The individuals we looked at had extensive -- but only surface -- melanomas," explains Doctor Michael Sweet who led a team that studied 136 sample fish. “UV radiation appears to be the likely cause," explains Dr. Sweet. Of the136 specimens, 15% (20 fish) exhibited melanomas lesions on surface of their skin covering from 5% to 98% of their body. The entire study is available at PLoS ONE. Dr Michael Sweet is a main contributor to the website Aquarium Coral Diseases. Read Advanced Aquarist's interview with Dr. Sweet. View the full article

Most important is the color temperature (kelvin rating ) of the bulb being used. Ideally it should be 6000 - 7000 which is good for plant growth.

Click through to see the images. Dominated mostly by the genus Favia, "the water in this bay is basically turbid" says Hiroya Yamano, a researcher at Japan's National Institute for Environmental Studies. He continues on to say: "Coral reefs have been believed to develop under warm-water settings — at least 18 degrees Celsius [64 degrees Fahrenheit] in winter. This setting is 13 degrees Celsius in winter [55 degrees Fahrenheit], which is unbelievably low. The species, and thus seascape, is completely different from normal reefs." Yamano and his team are unsure how a reef could grow in such a cold environment but researching the Iki and Tsushima Island Reefs will lend insight on climate change, as the settling of warmer water species like Acropora have been documented over the past 20 years at both sites. His findings were published July 12, 2012 in the online journal Geology. [via LiveScience] View the full article

I think it will be announce in one of the sponsor thread shortly..

A researcher has observed a never-before-seen defensive strategy used by a small species of deep-sea squid in which the animal counter-attacks a predator and then leaves the tips of its arms attached to the predator as a distraction. View the full article

A research team uncovered an enzyme's role in the regulation of eye size in zebrafish. If the enzyme's role is similar in human eyes, it could be relevant to human vision problems, such as nearsightedness and farsightedness. The findings also warn of the potential changes phenylthiourea, a chemical used to block pigment, may have on zebrafish and the results of research using this common animal model. View the full article

When ordering seafood, the options are many and so are some of the things you might consider in what you order. Is your fish healthy? Is it safe? Is it endangered? While there are many services offered to help you decide, a group of researchers have found a simple rule of thumb applies. "If the fish is sustainable, then it is likely to be healthy to eat too," said one of the authors. View the full article

Click through to see the images. Published as an Open Access article in the Aquaculture, Aquarium, Conservation & Legislation International Journal of the Bioflux Society, Andrew Rhyne and Michael Tlusty sifted through United States import data to understand how we as hobbyists have consumed marine flora and fauna for the last 10 years. Their paper "Trends in the marine aquarium trade: the influence of global economics and technology" summarizes their findings. What they did was pour through the mountain of data from trade sources including the United States-State of Florida Marine Life Landings, CITES stony coral imports, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Law Enforcement Information System import data for 'live rock.' They then sorted and compiled the data and extracted trends for the following groups of imports: Coral Invertebrates Live rock Fish Plants Live sand Sand dollars (curio trade) Rhyne and Tlusty then investigated what might have driven the trends they saw in the data while taking into account the recession starting in 2008. The data were highly variable in terms of coral, fish, invertebrates, and plants and no one factor could explain the variability in the data. However, of particular interest to them was the significant dip in imports for live rock and live sand, which started a downward trend in 2006. By the end of 2010, live rock imports had dropped to 23% of it's peak in 2005 of ~2,000,000 pounds to less than 500,000 pounds. Live sand, likewise, dropped from a peak of ~500,000 lbs to ~45,000 lbs. These are huge drops in imports. Trends in the marine aquarium hobby as depicted by 10 years of import data. Top, is 10 years of import data for corals and live rock imported into the United States and marine invertebrate landings from the State of Florida, United States. Bottom, is 10 years of landing data from Florida for marine fish, ‘plants’, live sand, and sand dollars (curio). The legend is below the y-axis on which the data are graphed. Rhyne and Tlusty attributed this large reduction due to "technological advances, primarily in lighting" which in turn "allowed for the advent of the smaller 'nano' reef tanks." They then went on to explain how the advent of compact fluorescent lamps in the mid 2000's followed by LED lighting allowed for nano tanks to thrive as high light corals could now live in much smaller boxes: "Aquariums could now be lit with energy efficient LED lights that produce very little direct thermal heat and indirect IR heat into the aquariums allowing for sustained coral growth at rates similar to those of HID lighting. This has effectively removed the limitation of heat dissipation on aquarium size and at the same time reduced the operating costs for aquarist." Interestingly enough, Advanced Aquarist was cited three times in this journal article (yay!) as examples of how lighting trends have changed in recent years: Adams, J., 2010. Reefing like it’s 1999: How reef aquarium flow and lighting has changed over the past decade. Advanced Aquarist Online Magazine IX: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/1/review2. Joshi, S., 2010. Quantitative comparison of lighting technologies: Metal halide, t5 fluorescent and led. Advanced Aquarist Online Magazine IX: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/2/aafeature2. Riddle, D., 2008. Product review: Lighting for reef aquaria: Tips on taking light measurements. Advanced Aquarist Online Magazine VII: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/2/review. They are quick to point out that correlation does not equal causation in this study and that other factors could certainly affect the data as well: the quality of coral products may affect import levels global coral market is also affected by the increase in coral aquaculture Their ultimate goal with this research was to better understand how imports change over time as "CITES and other international government bodies, concerned Non-Governmental Organizations and scientist would greatly benefit from a deeper understanding of this industry from a producer and consumer standpoint in order to better predict how the marine aquarium hobby will be shaped by external forces in the future." While I agree that techological advances like LED lighting open the doors for smaller nano reef tanks, I think Rhyne and Tlusty missed a couple key points which could also explain the observed trends: Live rock and live sand recommendations drastically changed from 2000-2012 Artificial rock, both mined and hand-made from ceramic, have made inroads into the hobby Back in the early 2000's, the recommendation for live rock was roughly 1.5 to 2.0 pounds per gallon with 2 pounds more normally recommended. Today the recommendation is much less lying somewhere between 0 and 1.5 pounds per gallon. You may scoff at no live rock in a system but there are people doing just that - at least on a smaller scale - with nano species-specific tanks. When I first started in the hobby in 2000, I remember seeing the typical "Box-o-Rocks" setups with tanks largely comprised of live rock. My 38 gallon tank at the time had at least 2 pounds per gallon (80 pounds total) and it seemed full to me. Now the trend is for much more open displays with plenty of open water areas, high flow, and good filtration using skimmers, refugia, biopellets, granular ferric oxide (GFO), in addition to much less live rock in pounds per gallon. The recommendation changed due to advances in hobbyist techniques and information sharing through online forums and magazines such as Advanced Aquarist. Craig Bagby's 240 gallon reef aquarium, which we featured in our May 2011 issue, is a prime example of low live rock usage in a display tank: Craig Bagby's 240 gallon aquarium features low amounts of live rock. Compare that to Kedd Lytton Smith's 180 gallon tank from December 2002: The 180 gallon aquarium Of Kedd Lytton Smith. For a really good example of how live rock and sand usage have changed since 2002, take a look at any of the Feature Aquariums from 2002 and compare them to our Feature Aquariums from 2011. You will see a general trend toward more open tanks with less live rock and live sand. Marco Rocks is an example of dry rock. Around 2007-2010 trends also changed with respect to live rock vs. artificial rock. Companies like Marco Rocks came into existence around 2007 supplying shapely dry rock that hobbyists could add to their displays. Interestingly, at the last MACNA a number of suppliers were featuring either mined rock or actual hand-crafted ceramic rock as live rock alternatives. CaribSea has their own dry rock products called Reef Rocks. CeramEco and Aquaroche both supply shapely ceramic rock structures. These alternative rock sources are becoming more prevalent in the hobby as hobbyists change their techniques and preferences for live versus artificial rock. Live sand had a similar recommendation change. Deep sand beds were all the rage in the early 2000's with sandbed depths ranging from 3" - 7". The thought was a deeper sandbed would promote better denitrification. Obtaining live sand cultures and organisms were also highly encouraged in the hobbyist forums and literature. Around 2005-2007 this trend started to change. Shallower sandbeds became the norm and the bare bottom tank made a reappearance with suggestions of using white polyethylene cutting boards ("Starboard") for bottoms in case hobbyists wanted a white-bottom look. This shift in sand recommendation would affect live sand imports. We published an interesting two-part series by Robert Toonen, Ph.D and Christopher Wee titled "An Experimental Comparison of Sandbed and Plenum-Based Systems, Part 1 and Part 2" where they evaluated deep sand beds, shallow sand beds, and plenums and their effects on ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and salinity. Sand bed depth was not significantly correlated to reduction of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. This finding highlighted that deep sand beds are not necessary for adequate denitrification. One confusing thing about the assertion that lighting trends drive adoption of nano reefs which in turn drive down live rock and live sand usage is how radical this adoption would have to be in order to drop imports by the magnitudes observed in the data. Nanos cost less to setup and operate which should open the hobby up to more people. This in turn should drive UP usage of live sand and rock if we assume consistent recommendation levels of 2 pounds live rock per gallon and a 3"-7" deep sand bed. Changes in recommendation levels and/or adoption of artificial rock and sand make sense showing how live rock and live sand imports decreased -- unless of course hobbyists with larger tanks all downsized their tanks to something significantly smaller. Without tank size and prevalence data, it is hard to make many conclusions on tank volume driving live rock and live sand imports. In any event, the data is very interesting and bears discussion. I highly suggest that you read the open access article and draw your own conclusions. Sound off in the comments below! NOTE: The latest MASNA podcast features Andrew Rhyne and discusses this particular paper. It's an interesting podcast so go check it out. In addition, we covered a detailed breakdown of fish imports for 2004-2005, again reported by Rhyne, in our blog post Taking a hard look at the marine aquarium trade importation numbers. View the full article

Good try, but maybe we can consider for future contest

That's Fast !! Anyway, Marine life still have Yasha Goby, Goldhead Gody, Pom Pom crab, percula clown, cleaner shrimp, banggai cardina, porcupine puffer fish , rabbit fish, Green BTA, RBTA and some wrasse ect which i couldnt' remember the name..

Fish channel got new shipment not to be missed !! Get ready your pocket lol.. Chaetodontoplus Conspicillatus (Conspicuous Angelfish) Small size 3.5" Chaetodontoplus Conspicillatus (Conspicuous Angelfish) Medium 4" plus Chaetodontoplus Conspicillatus (Conspicuous Angelfish) Large 5-6" Pomacanthus Chrysurus (Earspot Angelfish) Large 5-6" Holacanthus Townsendi ( Townsend Angelfish) M, L Chaetodontoplus Septentronalis ( Blue Line) True Taiwan wild caught 2.5" - 3.5" Chaetodon Mitratus 3" Chaetodon Gardineri (Rare) 4" only 2 Zebrasoma Gemmatus (Gem Tang) SM 2" Heniochus Monoceros 3" (Madagascar) Cirrhilabrus Temminickii (Vanuatu) 3-3.5" Cirrihilabrus Rubriventralis (Red Sea) 2" Linear Blenny (Madagascar)

We have our own power consumption calculator if anyone didn't observe ;

The biopallet is still under " Break-in" period especially when you are using it for the first time, just monitor for a few more day and see ?

Patient is the key to success in this hobby, just wait for the tank to cycle for about a month and continue to check the cycling process . After cycling is done, do a major water change and you can start putting in your first live stock !

Scientists identify melanoma in the coral trout, a species found on the Great Barrier Reef and directly beneath the world's largest hole in the ozone layer. View the full article

Scientists identify melanoma in the coral trout, a species found on the Great Barrier Reef and directly beneath the world's largest hole in the ozone layer. View the full article

Click through to see the images. We've all seen them. Those wonderful jellyfish displays at public aquariums. At least, I sure hope you've had the chance to see them. They are beautiful, graceful, soothing, and most of all super cool. Jellyfish tanks are a great conversation piece, a great draw for marine life, and serve as a perfect example of aquatic husbandry and success. Efforts to learn about jellyfish life, care, and requirements has now culminated with the ability for home hobbyists to keep, raise, and even breed these amazing animals. What is a jellyfish? Jellyfish are a group animals within the phylum Cnidaria. Cnidaria is the phylum that contains "stinging animals" which use nematocysts to capture pretty. There are around 10,000 species in Cnidaria, nearly all living in marine waters. These animals morphologically develop into a sack within a sack. This body lacks basic organs like heart, brains, kidneys, etc. They do possess a couple important items including a digestive sack (stomach) and stinging cells called nematocysts. This phylum contains all the anemones and corals, which can be very similar to jellyfish. Jellyfish are very similar to anemones. Looking at their life cycle you can see that they go through the same development and processes, only they spend a different amount of time in each stage. I like to use the analogy of caterpillars and butterflies. A species of butterfly may be able to live for many months as a caterpillar and then following metamorphosis spend just a couple days as a butterfly. On the other hand, a butterfly may spend just a couple days as a caterpillar, but then spend several months as a butterfly. This is very similar to jellyfish and anemones. Jellyfish have a life cycle that basically includes the male and female system of spawning, larvae, settled polyps, juvenile medusa stage, and adult medusa. The adults are the free floating large medusa stage, which is what most people think of when you hear the word jellyfish. These medusas are usually one gender and they will spawn with other jellyfish sometimes releasing eggs and sperm into the water column. At other times the male will release sperm, which the female collects and uses to fertilize the eggs she is holding. The fertilized eggs begin to develop and eventually become free-swimming larvae. These larvae settle onto a substrate and grow into polyps. The polyps can grow and spread and develop in an asexual manner for several weeks. If conditions are right, these polyps bud off and asexually produce little jellyfish which are called ephyra. The ephyra are roughly 4 millimeters across and swim through the water and eventually grow into larger jellyfish to complete the cycle. Crystal jellyfish are successfully kept in public aquariums. It is certainly plausible to think they could be kept by home aquarists, but this is a new frontier in aquatic husbandry. Shown here an aquarium with a gentle current is being used to grow moon jellyfish polyps. These polyps are settle onto acrylic plates where they grow and divide. This life cycle is very similar to corals and anemones, the main difference is that jellyfish spend a longer amount of time in the free-floating medusa stage, and can spend a very short period of time as polyps. Some jellyfish will spend several months as polyps, but they are difficult to see and are usually not displayed in aquariums. Many anemones spend a long length of time as polyps growing on the substrate, but most have a very short free-floating larval stage. There are many variations in the amount of time jellyfish spend in each stage, cues to cause them to strobilate (convert from polyps to free-floating animals), reproduction systems, etc. If you'd like to know more or discuss these items on a particular jellyfish, please contact the author of this article at adamblundell@hotmail.com. Blue Bell jellyfish are readily available in the aquarium trade. Many hobbyists have successfully kept these beautiful animals. Like all other jellyfish these animals need an aquarium free of intakes and overflows where they become stuck and injured. Moon Jellyfish Moon jellyfish is a funny term. It is used by some people to describe pelagic jellyfish, but most use it for the particular a group of jellyfish from the Aurelia genus. There may be close to 20 species in Aurelia, and to be honest I can't tell them apart. These jellyfish usually have very large translucent bells (even up to 15 inches across!), small, short tentacles, four gonads and slow, rhythmic pulsing. The most readily available moon jellyfish species for is Aurelia aurita. The moon jellyfish are found worldwide. They live in tropical warm waters, cooler temperate waters, and even into cold water systems. They drift along in ocean currents and are not contained to reef settings. For this reason they can drift hundreds if not thousands of miles and their offspring are far reaching. Two species of the moon jellyfish are available to hobbyists. Aurelia labiata is a species of moon jellyfish naturally living in the temperate waters off of California. Given the great number of hobbyists and public aquariums in California these animals are sometimes found in the hobby and on display. They are not readily available for purchase, but are readily available for collection by the more outgoing aquarists. If you'd like to keep Aurelia labiate my advice is to keep a chilled aquarium of roughly 50 degrees, and to contact a public aquarium in California as a potential source of jellyfish. Some of them have literally thousands of small medusa jellyfish on hand at all times. The other species of moon jellyfish we see are the Aurelia aurita. These jellyfish are found in warmer waters and I've personally seen many of them on reefs with temperatures around 80 degrees. For this reason, I much prefer them. They are typically an easier to keep jellyfish, if there is such a thing, and may not require a chiller in the system. Ideally I'd recommend keeping them in aquariums around 79 degrees. These jellyfish are always available for purchase from places such as www.SunsetMarineLabs.com. Sea nettles are fascinating jellyfish. Their long tentacles are mezmorizing. These animals are not recommended for beginner hobbyists, but they are successfully kept in captivity. For experienced jellyfish keepers these animals are fantastic candidates for further studies and aquariums. Why Keep Moon Jellyfish? Moon jellyfish can make wonderful aquarium inhabitants. Several hobbyists have had success in not only keeping jellyfish but breeding them and completing their life cycle. These animals are not only successfully kept in home aquaria, but they are collected at incredibly low numbers from the wild with no effect on wild populations. Keeping jellyfish is a fantastic source for gaining knowledge and furthering our understanding of them, and advancing jellyfish husbandry in foods, filtration, system design, grow out and more. In general jellyfish love to eat Artemia nauplii. Which is to say that that they love to eat newly hatched baby brine shrimp. In addition to this, copepods, shrimp, chopped seafood, and zooplankton are also important food sources for jellyfish. Fortunately, there are people harvesting and raising foods for jellyfish on a daily basis, and those foods are available for purchase. The frozen foods are highly nutritious and very convenient to use. But culturing techniques and experiments with other commonly available prepared foods is still on the horizon. What Do Moon Jellyfish Need? Moon jellyfish need a few basic items. They require gentle water flow to keep them suspended and to allow their tentacles (equipped with the familiar nematocysts) to capture food. This is usually accomplished by creating a kreisel or pseudokreisel aquarium. The term kreisel comes from a German term meaning spinning or rotating. These aquariums feature circular flow that keep the jellyfish slowly moving around without hitting pumps, screens, aquarium sides, etc. The jellyfish needs the space in the water to properly expand, and it needs the flow to gently bring food items to it. The type of food consumed by jellyfish is currently being explored, but some commercial foods are available. Visit www.SunsetMarineLabs.com to see the process of making your own food, or to purchase theirs. In general, jellyfish eat small copepods and protein-rich organisms swimming in the water column such as juvenile shrimp (krill), brine shrimp, and a plethora of pelagic copepods. The jellyfish most commonly kept in aquaria are fed a mixture of brine shrimp, copepods, phytoplankton (to feed the zooplankton) and finely chopped seafood. Private companies have developed and are continuing to develop and produce their own blend of foods for jellyfish, but experimenting with other readily available foods may lead to great success for adventurous hobbyists. With the ever growing availability if prepared foods for the aquarium market there are always new foods that may be well suited for jellyfish. Take note- not all jellyfish eat foods that can be so easily prepared. Some jellyfish even live by eating other jellyfish. For this reason it is important to know what your jellyfish naturally prey upon before selecting them for your aquarium. The Aurelia moon jellyfish are a good choice since their nutritional needs can easily be met. Shown here a large moon jellyfish photographed in the warm Caribbean waters. This jellyfish is over a foot in diameter! Jellyfish also need very clean water and stable water chemistry. This is usually accomplished by standard aquaria filtration methods, and frequent water changes. The filtration found on most jellyfish aquariums includes a biological filter bed of bacteria. This is usually located in the sump and often times use the "old school" trickle filter and bioball design. More recent aquariums use sponge filters, floss, and sand beds. Some filtration methods are up for debate. Removing detritus and waste can be accomplished with filter socks and protein skimmers. However, some experts including Chad Widmer, have argued against these filtration techniques as they may in fact be removing items that would be food for the jellyfish. In that scenario, it would be better to keep those items suspended in the water allowing the jellyfish more time to capture and consume the foods. Another added benefit of a sump and trickle filter is the increased gas exchange. Anytime you have water breaking apart and moving with air you'll have great gas exchange. Temperature ranges for most jellyfish are lower than that of tropical aquariums. While most hobbyists are familiar with a 74 to 82 degree Fahrenheit range they keep their fish at, moon jellyfish are often found in waters in the 50 to 70 degree range. This can be a challenge as chillers are not nearly as common in the hobby as heaters, and it is difficult to keep aquariums cooler than the surrounding room. In most homes it is easy to keep an aquarium at 78 degrees Fahrenheit, but it takes some work to keep them below 70 degrees. I've seen aquariums kept below 70 degrees using only fans for evaporative cooling, but if this isn't possible with your set up then a chiller may be in order. Keeping the jellyfish aquarium in a basement or cooler part of the house is also a good idea. Some Things Moon Jellyfish Don't Need Number 1 is light. Unlike most aquariums and certainly most reef aquariums, most jellyfish tanks can be dimly lit. In the case of moon jellyfish this is an advantage as the lack of light reduces the problems of algae and diatoms and other aquarium nuisances. Unlike many other cnidarians, there are many jellyfish species that are not photosynthetic and obtain all of their energy needs by feeding. There are some jellyfish that do utilize photosynthetic zooxanthellae. Jellyfish such as the upside down jellyfish (Cassiopea spp.), which typically inhabit sandbeds in warm, shallow water and need a high amount of light to survive in captivity. These jellyfish have been kept by many hobbyists within their sandy, muddy or seagrass tanks and reeflike aquariums. Some jellyfish can sense light or "see light" but are not dependent on it for survival. The jellyfish making their way into the hobby today are typically moon jellyfish and do very well in dimly lit systems. Color changing led lights like those shown here are become popular with moon jellyfish aquariums. These lights illuminate the animals and give them an aesthetic glow. The Upsidedown jellyfish is very common in the aquarium trade. It is photosynthetic and does very well in sandy or muddy bottom aquariums with heavy lighting used for photosynthesis. Jellyfish also do not require much oxygen. Being animals, jellyfish do need oxygen to survive, but they don't need highly oxygenated water with heavy gas exchange. Most jellyfish systems feature a slow moving current and rely on passive oxygenation, meaning the oxygen slowly dissolves at the water-air boundary layer without air being pushing into the water. This usually occurs in the overflow or in the sump area as the water passes through biological filters. Not needing heavy amounts of oxygen is also beneficial because it allows a hobbyist to design a system without air bubbles, which is important because air bubbles can be damaging to most if not all jellyfish. Most jellyfish systems are also well maintained with very little filtration. Most all professional systems utilize a trickle filter, but these are very uncommon in most current hobbyist systems. As was mentioned earlier, it has been recommended by many experts to not use filter socks or protein skimmers on jellyfish aquariums as they may remove potential food from the water. Thus the aquarist is faced with the most challenging aspect keeping jellyfish: providing clean water while also providing a constant source of planktonic food. What Moon Jellyfish Can't Have Dirty water. That seems obvious for just about all marine organisms but it certainly holds true for pelagic or free-swimming jellyfish. Moon jellyfish need water that is free of organics and degrading nitrogen compounds. The main culprit in jellyfish dying in aquaria is thought to be elevated levels of ammonia. Additionally, jellyfish can do poorly with other stinging animals like various hydroids. Some public aquariums use a routine system of completely draining and disinfecting their jellyfish systems regularly. This practice is typically not followed by commercial systems or by home hobbyists. As previously stated, air bubbles can also be detrimental to jellyfish. Microbubbles commonly found in aquariums with protein skimmers are certainly inadvisable. These bubbles can become entrapped within the tissue of a jellyfish severely damaging the respiration, feeding, and locomotion abilities of the jellyfish. And most importantly, it seems that moon jellyfish cannot be kept in an aquarium with objects. They are fragile, slow moving, unable to see dangers and unable to get away. Nearly anything that can be placed in the aquarium is a hazard to jellyfish, even the corners of the aquarium. For this reason, kreisel and pseudokreisel tanks are used to provide rounded corners and continuous, slow current. Building an aquarium like this has been done before, and a quick Internet search can help you with examples. But keep in mind, constructing a tank like this makes for a fun, involved do-it-yourself challenge and is not for everyone. Building a Moon Jellyfish Aquarium Public aquariums often feature jellyfish tanks. These aquariums are very popular with visitors. Building a system for moon jellyfish can be a challenge, an exciting project, a hobbyist's dream or a daunting task. Moon jellyfish are typically kept in kriesel or pseudokriesel aquariums. Kriesel comes from the German term for spinning, as these tanks feature water moving continuously around in a spinning motion (like a washing machine, or a top). These aquariums are sometimes round, cylindrical or shaped similarly without corners and edges. More commonly these aquariums are made by constructing a curved inner wall of an aquarium that is between two flat planes for easy viewing. The pseudokriesel tanks are more common today and basically feature a "false spin" system where water is moving in and out of the aquarium for filtration, gas exchange, etc., but the tank appears to have a steady circular flow. One of the pseudokreisel aquariums I built used a 40 gallon aquarium and a flexible piece of thin acrylic. I bent the acrylic sheet around into a circular shape and used silicone to insert it into a rectangular aquarium. With an opening for a drain (screened off) and a return spray bar I was all set. This takes some practice and there are some important tricks to keep in mind. First of all, the drain area needs to be very large so that the flow through the screen is very small. Don't underestimate the importance of this, because jellyfish will always stick to a screen if the water if flowing that direction. To help keep jellyfish away from the screen, most pseudokreisel aquariums use a spray bar for the return, with the flow directed across the filter screen. This design keeps jellyfish away from danger by gently pushing them away from the screen. Conclusion Jellyfish are an exciting new realm in the marine aquarium hobby. Some species are very challenging and yet to be seen in the hobby. Other species have been shown to be well suited for captive care and they are a welcomed addition to the hobby. Not only are jellyfish aquariums now available for purchase, but creating and building your own system is also an exciting project. All systems are unique and should be designed according to specific size, space, filtration, feeding and care requirements. The size of the aquarium will help to determine the types of jellyfish you can keep. The physical length and width of the tank will determine how much flow is needed. Also the number of jellyfish being kept will determine the amount of filtration needed. If you'd like to discuss these items and get advice on your specific system please contact the author of this article at adamblundell@hotmail.com. View the full article

Click through to see the images. Download your free copy today. This issue features the following articles: Raul Roman discusses his prized 150 gallon, mixed reef garden eel aquarium. Freshwater guru Lea Maddocks discusses the care and keeeping of the iconic Angelfish. Dave Wilson, owner and proprietor of Aquagreen.com.au presents a guide for educators and students on keeping a biotope aquarium. We present a fact file on the Red Sea Clownfish, Amphiprion bicinctus. In part 3 of his reefkeeping journal Redfish Editor David Midgley starts the process of adding corals to his reef tank. View the full article

Best if you can test the water parameter; TDS, N03, P04 ect..

AM still have some left over SPS from last week shipment , LPS and clam.. Fish is mostly those common one ..

Ich doesnt come from the tank itself, usually from the fish ( especially newly bought one from local LFS , since it is capture from the wild and mix with other fishes. ) For higher success with this fish, tried to get a establish one from fellow reefer which is free from Ich or QT your new fish fif you decided to buy one from local LFS. Happy reefing..

Get a sump tank, there are hundreds of benefit from having one and you can hide all the equipment below.

Get a chance to win yourself one set of the latest Reef Angel Controller ( Basic package ) Worth $ 498.00 !! The winner of the next SRC TOTQ ( Tank Of The Quarter ) for the period of Sept ~ Nov 2012 will be awarded this latest gadget proudly sponsored by Reef Angel Singapore . So start updating your tank thread now . Contest Period : 01th Aug 2012 till 31th Aug 2012 Thanks again to Reef Angel Singapore for the support ! ** Winning prizes will be delivered by RA Singapore, which include setting up .

Rapid rates of coral reef growth have been identified in sediment-laden marine environments, conditions previously believed to be detrimental to reef growth. A new study has established that Middle Reef – part of Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef – has grown more rapidly than many other reefs in areas with lower levels of sediment stress. View the full article