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COVER AND INDEX
LAST MONTHS ISSUE | HOME | FEBRUARY ISSUE PAGE 1| FEBRUARY ISSUE PAGE 3

GORGONIANS WIN AWARD
NEWEST ARAGOCRETETM AND GLUE REEF AQUARIUM
ROCK CURING UPDATE #1

Reef Aquarium Farming News
Online Newsletter for Reef Aquarium Propagation Research

ISSUE # 14 page 2 FEBRUARY 1998

Reef Aquarium Aquaculture Products Testing Laboratory

Reef Aquarium Aquaculture Products Testing Laboratory Consumer Reports

THIS PHOTO SHOWS THE GORGONIANS SALLY JO GREW
FROM SMALL CUTTINGS
TWO YEARS AGO.
Sally Jo's gorgonians

purple gorgonianThese Gorgonians were some of the first captive grown corals we purchased. They have been very hardy and they all grew into large show corals. I have been watching these Gorgonians for several months and I have wondered where they came from. I moved several small cuttings into my new reef aquariums and they have all grown much better than any of the wild gorgonians we have purchased. Last month I asked Sally Jo where they came from and she told me they were in one of the shipments..

These gorgonians are great for decorating a reef because they have a nice purple color and they are thin enough that they move with the currents. All of these gorgonians thrive in bright light without feeding. We have made many cuttings from these gorgonians.

These Gorgonians came in last week..Aquaculture has produced a winning group of stunning Gorgonians. They are available in two sizes. These are the show size and they add a different form and color that can not be duplicated. We have mixed these Gorgonians with all types of Soft and Stony corals.

The plume shaped Gorgonian on the left is my favorite because the purple color shows up very well even when the polyps are fully extented. This Gorgonian has some of the largest polyps I have seen in this family.

4 gorgonians

One of the nicest things about these corals is that the wild Gorgonians do not grow as well as these captive raised ones. These corals do not go through the shock that sets back so many of the collected Gorgonians.

We make our cuttings by drilling a small hole for the Gorgonian to fit into. Almost 100 percent of these cuttings grow when we place them in good water flow.
detail plume gorgonian2 gorgonians
This photo shows the great extension that these Gorgonian polyps have. This makes for a very showy coral that sells very well. Small cuttings will grow rapidly if they are fed rotifers or baby brine shrimp. All of these corals do best if they are grown in aquariums with good water flow. These types of Gorgonian grow on one plane like a sea fan. This form is one that is missing in many reefs.The flow seems to cause them to expand their polyps more.

You can grow these corals under standard fluorescent lights, but they do much better under VHO or halide lights. These Gorgonians often grow in shallow brightly illuminated areas that have strong wave action.

polyp detail gorgonian
gorgonianThis photo shows and extra Visi Jet 1200 that we added to the 55 gallon aquarium that we are using for the collection of show Gorgonians. We are going to add a third power head that will turn on and off each 1/2 hour. Good water flow is one of the most important things that we have found to increase the growth of these rare thin branched Gorgonians.

We have been adding extra power heads to many of our grow out aquariums. We use a timer that has pins you can pull out so the pumps turn on and off at any time you want. We set most of them so they stay on for 30 minutes and then go off for the same amount of time.

Notice the hand made base rock that these Gorgonians are growing on. The grower makes these natural shaped bases heavy enough to hold the Gorgonian up in a strong current. The base has a hole in it for the cutting. Many of these corals have come in with nice species of coralline algae growing on the base rocks.

The pictures below show how nice the Gorgonians look in the reef aquarium.

Sally Jo's gorgonians
We have used these Gorgonians in many of our display
reef aquariums and they have thrived for over two years.
When you order these corals be sure to purchase at least one of
each type. It is very hard to pick one that is the very best.

gorgonia

THIS GORGONIAN HAS THE BEST LOOKING POLYPS
OF ALL THE LARGE ONES WE GROW. IT EXPANDS
UNTIL IT LOOKS LIKE A SOFT CORAL SUCH AS SINULARIA.

large gorgonian

.polyp detail

FREE INFORMATION ABOUT PURCHASING

CAPTIVE GROWN GORGONIANS

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IT WAS HARD TO CHOOSE A BEST OF THE TEST GORGONIAN, BUT THIS ONE IS JUST DIFFERENT ENOUGH FROM ANYTHING IN THE GENETIC BANK TO WIN THE AWARD.

BEST OF THE TEST GORGONIAN
plume gorgonian

DURING THE NEXT FEW MONTHS WE WILL BE PURCHASING MORE CORALS FROM ANY NEW SOURCES WE CAN FIND. IF YOU CAN REPORT ANY NEW GROWERS IN YOUR AREA WE WILL SEND THEM AN ORDER SO WE CAN CONTINUE TO REPORT THE RESULTS.

JOIN THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION

You can support our research and learn more about reef aquariums and wetlands

All memberships help with all of our educational programs
as well as our ongoing research.

All you have to do is make a check out to GARF
make sure you put a note that it is for membership.

Mail it to GARF
1421 Warm Springs Boise, ID
83705.

BECOME A MEMBER NOW

REMEMBER THAT THIS IS A HOBBY AND HAVE FUN!!!!

Take care and... "Save a reef... Grow your own!"

NEWEST 100 PERCENT ARAGOCRETETM AND SUPER GLUE REEF AQUARIUM

During the next year we will be reporting on the progress of this 120 gallon reef aquarium. This tank has been set up using 18 pieces of ARAGOCRETETM and GARF Grunge. We have placed about 10 lbs. of Coralline Eggs in this reef to start the coralline growing. The bottom of the aquarium has a BIOSAND plenum that covers the back one half. The BIOSAND plenum has a black plastic mesh that holds the sand that falls into it apart and stops any animals from digging into this layer. The front one half of this reef has a sloping layer of aragonite live sand. This layer is 4 inches thick at the plenum and tapers to one inch thick at the front glass. The plenum has two Maxi-jet 1000 power heads drawing water from under the plenum. This water flow through the gravel is allowing many sand stirring invertebrates to grow in the gravel. The flow through the gravel will be stopped as soon as the reef is well aged.

THIS SHOWS THE REEF AFTER ONE DAY. WE ADDED THE GRAVEL, GRUNGE, AND ARAGOCRETE AND THEN TURNED ON THE POWERHEADS.
120 gallon day one

THE TANK WAS CRYSTAL CLEAR THE NEXT MORNING AND WE STARTED ADDING CORALS THAT AFTERNOON.

120 gallon day 8

We will not use a skimmer on this reef until the coralline algae has covered over 75 percent of the rock. We are using 2 - 40 watt - four foot bulbs on the tank. We will slowly increase the light as the coralline starts to grow. We are certain that many people have trouble growing coralline because they use too bright of light at first. We believe that skimming removes many of the coralline spores before they have a chance to settle on the rocks and other structures in the aquarium.

As we add pictures of this aquarium I will try to remember to link back to these photos so you can see how this type of captive grown reef progresses. We now have several of these reefs in our lab. Sally Jo's 55 gallon reefs are the oldest at 2 years, 1 year and 7 months. My 150 gallon SPS coral brood stock reef will be one year old in March. I will attemp to find and link as many photos of these reef as I can for a future issue.

KEEP WATCHING THIS FEATURE TO SEE THIS TANK MATURE INTO A STONEY CORAL FOREST.

ROCK CURING UPDATE #1
We have had some discussions the last month or so as to the required times needed to test our Aragocrete rocks that we make, and the others, white sand, oyster shell and my own 'rock a roni' rocks made with pasta in the mix.

On Thurs 1/29, I made 3 small batches of rocks, some of the mini-cubes, and some 7' dia 'cookies' to test different cure methods and times.

I made a stiff mix of #3 Portland cement, with oyster shells, no pasta or other fillings. The oyster shell will give a slightly higher pH then the Aragocrete, or silica sand will which is why I used it. I spooned a heaping teaspoon full into plastic ice cube trays, making 8 mini-cubes for each of the batches to be tested.

I then spooned out 8 heaping teaspoon fulls to make each 7" dia cookie, about 1-2" high, rough surfaced and somewhat irregular in shapes.

The mini-cubes will be used to put cuttings onto which will be super glued onto rocks and the 'cookies' will be used to make our medium colony sale rocks.

After they had set up for two days on my kitchen counter I placed them in plastic milk jugs, cutting the tops off, I had labeled the jugs, 1,2,and 3. The cookies on the bottom and the mini-cubes on top. #1 was filled with plain tap water, and put back on the counter to sit for a week. #2 was filled with scalding hot water from the tea kettle, and a cup of very hot vinegar added to it, and placed on the counter. #3 was filled with cold tap water, and one cup of vinegar, unheated, and placed on the counter.

I will change the waters after one week, replace with fresh tap water, and check the pH of the new water after a 24 hour wait. I will repeat this procedure weekly for six weeks, and keep track of the pH levels for each reading. I will report the results of this little test in my March 98 article.

My tap water is very hard, comes out of the tap right at a pH of 8. This has its pros and cons, it does grow good coralline, a little hard for friends who have freshwater acidic- water loving fish.

I chose this format for testing as it is similar to the manner in which my associate Joe Woods and I cure our rocks, but, I make them with the pasta so assume it is going to take a bit longer to cure. For now in the winter we are curing in Joes basement. We have some 50 gal rubbermaid containers set up, one on top of the other on a rack, the tubs have 'air breathe holes' in the handles and the top one is opened out a bit more for water to run out of it. A small pump brings water from the bottom tub to the upper one which flows out the handle air holes and keeps a circulation going, we change the water about weekly, and the first week add a gallon of vinegar to the tub. The first couple of weeks there is a LOT of foaming, from the pasta but that lets off.

So, stay tuned, more coming on this in march! I would like to hear your thoughts, impressions, and suggestions on your ideas of making and curing rocks. lets hear em!

We are happy to announce that Tim L. Weidauer has purchased the famous GREEN WATER AND ROTIFER SOURCE Wasatch Aquaculture in Salt Lake City. His green water may be the most hardy culture in the hobby. We have frozen and thawed these cultures over 30 times during the past month, and the green water is still thriving. We have just thawed his Rotifer cultures and they are now producing strong populations. These strains allow us to freeze 1/2 of the orders we receive every two weeks. Please visit Tim's web sites.

Tim L. Weidauer OWNER- Wasatch Aquaculture -http://www.rotifer.com - "Live Plankton!"

President - Wasatch Marine Aquarium Society - Salt Lake, Utah

INDEX OF OUR RESEARCH

ALGAE CONTROL CENTRAL
REEF JANITORS ALGAE CONTROL CENTRAL

Use this site to solve your reef aquarium algae problems, and help support our research!!!

JOIN THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION You can support our research and learn more about reef aquariums and wetlands
1997 WINTER - SPRING NEWSLETTER Our foundation is growing - Please visit our Newsletter
REEF AQUARIUM FARMING NEWS Newest information on reef aquarium farming

CORALLINE ALGAE PROPAGATION Learn to grow coralline algae on your reef aquarium live rocks
COMBINATION ROCK PROPAGATION Learn to grow combination reef aquarium live rocks
COMBINATION ROCK BASE ROCK SELECTION Learn about base rock for combination reef aquarium live rocks
COMBINATION ROCK SPECIES SELECTION Learn about selecting species for combination reef aquarium live rocks

LOW COST BULLET PROOF REEF AQUARIUM Learn to start an inexpensive reef aquarium
55 GALLON INSTA REEF Visit Rache's 12 week old Bullet Proof Reef Aquarium
MORE PICTURES OF THIS REEF AQUARIUM

Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation,Inc. online tour Learn why we call it Geothermal
GARF RESEARCH HOME PAGE Learn about the other research we are doing
Super glue research page We teach you the Super Glue method of invertebrate propagation
Super Glue evaluation page Our researchers rate many brands of super glue
Geothermal Aquculture Research Foundation Feed Back page E-mail input so we can make these pages better
Natural Algae Control Reef Janitor Order Page - red leg hermits, snails, grunge.

NEW

Research page for Xenia and related soft coral propagation Learn to propagate xenia. Please enter any data you have about these corals.
Soft Coral Propagation Page Pictures and details of soft coral propagation
Stony Coral Propagation Page Pictures and details of small polyp stony corals
Mushroom Anemone Propagation Page Pictures and details of mushroom propagation
Zoanthid and palythoa Anemone Propagation Page Pictures and details of Sea mat propagation
Learn to construct a 140 gallon plywood and epoxy reef tank

Image Page for Zoanthids and Palythoa

WETLANDS SAVE THE WORLDS REEFS FROM ALGAE DESTRUCTION
LEARN ABOUT OUR WETLAND RESEARCH

Boise Wetland pond tour 97 Pictures and details of wildlife pond tour

Email: leroy@garf.org

COVER AND INDEX
LAST MONTHS ISSUE | HOME | FEBRUARY ISSUE PAGE 1| FEBRUARY ISSUE PAGE 3

SCIENTIFIC CORALS - GORGONIANS WINS AWARD
NEWEST ARAGOCRETETM AND GLUE REEF AQUARIUM
ROCK CURING UPDATE #1

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