Out of all the difficult choices a reef aquarist has to endure when setting up a Reef Aquarium is deciding on what their aquarium will look like. Reef aquarium aquascaping is a pleasure to some and a pain to others, for me its a little bit of both. I have changed the look of my aquarium several (dozen?) times over the last five years and endured the pleasure and pain of the aquascaping experience.
If I had to tell a new reef aquarium hobbyist how to plan and change there reef aquascaping I probably couldn’t, after all beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I could, however, give some pointers on what should be done to provide a safe living environment for the new owners livestock.
First, Consider your coral and fish’s water flow needs, so that you can get a better understanding on how your live rock placement will effect your reef tank’s water movement. Live rock comes in all different shapes and sizes and if you are fortunate enough to live near a good fish store then you can usually hand pick the pieces that you want. But before you do all the live rock picking, you should come up with a plan for your rock placement. Live Rock should not be obtrusive in that it will block water movement but should be placed so that it will assist it, creating canyons, slopes, valleys and pillars will help assist this. To assist holding your live rock in place it is recommended that you superglue, putty (aquarium safe) or drill in PVC or plastic dowels into your rock work. While this is recommended by many reefers it is somewhat permanent and not necessary in most cases.
Keep in mind that certain corals have specific requirements that have to be met for the welfare of the coral, this usually include height and substrate placement. Also if you are going to have corals with sweeping tentacles then its important that they can not reach other corals. Always research your corals and make sure that they will fit your reef environment.
Here are a few examples of reef aquarium aquascaping.
Notice how on the above picture the rock work is not entirely laying on the sand.
The above picture I like to refer to as the Valley, this is an actual hobbyists reef aquarium and not an imaged picture.
One of the most common creatures kept in the reef aquarium trade other then corals and fish are feather dusters. Feather Dusters come in many diffrent sizes and colors and the more common ones such as the Sabellastarte indica (shown above) are very hardy and easy to keep. Feather dusters offer the reef aquarist diversification within the reef tank and it is an interesting subject to talk about as most people in my experience don’t realize that it is a marine worm.
Purchasing a Feather Duster
Picking out a feather duster is not an easy task as it may seem. There are several things you should look for when purchasing a feather duster. One of which is if the crowns (the feathers) are still attached. The feather duster should have a full crown, the crown should look healthy and the worm should retract into it’s tube when scared or if approached from the side of the tank. The marine worm should react and retract to shadows as well. When looking to buy a feather duster its best that the feather duster be in the dealer’s reef tank for a while. If the feather duster has been in dealer’s reef tank for some time then it should be well acclimated and well fed. Newer deliveries of feather dusters tend to be hungry from being moved from tank to tank or tank to bag. Make sure that the feather duster you are picking out has a complete tube without any damage.
Feeding and placement of a Feather Duster
Depending on the type of feather duster you acquire you will want to research where the best possible placement is for it. The most common feather dusters as pictured above will feed on live brine shrimp, nuapali, rotifers and finely minced “meaty” foods. They capture the food particles in there crown of feathers and bring it down to there mouths, they may retract after capturing food. Placing a feather duster such as the one pictured is relatively easy for us that have a full blown reef tank. The feather duster prefers vigorous water movement so that it can help with the exchange of wastes and the capture of food. Most common feather dusters prefer to be placed in the sand or if you have a bare bottomed reef tank then between rocks (as long as its not crushing them!). If the feather duster does not like where it is placed then it will abandon its tube and look for another spot. The feather duster above, has moved before and ended up living in a hole in my live rock. Another thing to note is when moving your feather duster its important not to expose it to air if at all possible, captured air bubbles in a feather duster’s tube can spell disaster for the feather duster.
Water Parameters for a Feather Duster
To keep a feather duster in your reef tank it is recommended that you have very good water quality. From my experience, they will loose there crowns if you have an excess in nitrate. I would also assume other water quality issues such as ammonia, nitrite and salinity would also come into play. If you are not sure of what your reef aquarium’s water quality should be at then check my post marine aquarium water parameters.
If you would like to share your thoughts and information on on the marine feather duster please do so with the comments button below.
I recently received an email from a reef aquarist that was concerned about her reef tank and sump setup. The person was looking for a way to prevent siphon into her sump and thereby preventing flooding of her sump and display tank. I wrote her back saying that I would right an article about preventing overflowing her sump and I gave her some tips on how to do such.
So how do you prevent your main tank from overflowing your sump in case of a power outage or some other saltwater tank catastrophe? The short answer is simple. Make sure that you leave enough space for saltwater in your sump in case your main tank siphons the water down into it. So then what if your sump can not handle all the saltwater from your main tank? Then you have to get clever and figure out ways to break a siphon or to prevent the overflow.
Let’s take my 46 gallon bowfront for example. The main tank is 16″wide by 36″ long and when in a power outage my tank will loose 1″ of water due to a siphon before the water line hits my siphon break. If my tank does not siphon break at 1″ below surface it will then loose 3″ of water. Using the volume calculatorover at reefcentral.com I can predict that my 46 gallon tank will siphon down 2.5gallons of water into my 10gallon sump. If It does not break at the 1″inch siphon line then the tank will siphon down 7.5 Gallons of water.
My sump is only a 10gallon sump packed with equipment and the dimensions are 10″ wide, 20″ long and I keep it 5″ empty (meaning almost 3/4 full of water). This allows me to have 4.3-4.5 gallons of siphoned tank water (from my 46gallon) before my sump overflows.
So if my siphon breaks are not cleaned correctly or if there happens to be a snail on each one during a power outage then I will flood my sump and about 3 gallons of saltwater will pour onto my floor and my wife will make me buy her new carpeting. As improbable as it seems that two snails will cover my siphon breaks at the same time, it does happen. This is why I keep 5″ of empty space in my sump, after all 3 gallons of saltwater is much better then 7.5 gallons when it comes to overflowing your tanks.
Pictured above is my 10 gallon sump, as you can see there is 5″ in the sump to cover for siphoned water. The “Fill to here” sticker is so that my tank sitter knows how much water to replenish when I am away.
Siphon breaks are just as important to Sump reefers as lighting is. It is a protective measure that everyone running a sump should look into and use. I created my siphon breaks on my 46gallon reef tank by drilling holes into my return line U tube under the water line right before the water from my sump is discharged into the tank. When the water level in the main tank drops due to a power faluire the holes in these tubes will start sucking air and break the siphon.
The above and below pictures are of the U tubes that I drilled to create siphon breaks. Notice on the bottom picture that the siphon break is about an 1″ under water when the tank is filled.
Another method to preventing siphons are PVC check Valves. These are great if your return lines are constructed of hard PVC pipes and if your handy enough for vinyl tubing as well. They make these PVC check valves in many different sizes and threading.
