Support (208)344-6163
E-mail leroy@garf.org 1726 Merrill St. St, Boise, ID, 83705
|
Orders (800)600-6163 Support (208)344-6163 E-mail leroy@garf.org 1726 Merrill St. St, Boise, ID, 83705 |
|
|
LAST MONTHS ISSUE | HOME | SEPTEMBER ISSUE PAGE 2 | SEPTEMBER ISSUE PAGE 3  
ISSUE # 9 page 1 SEPTEMBER 97 BASE ROCK TEST RESULTS | AQUACULTURE PUMP TEST RESULTS The Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation, Inc. is proud to announce a new two year research project. During this research we will be purchasing as many types of aquacultured reef aquarium products as we can. We will also conduct surveys both on the internet and in several magazines. These surveys will collect data from as many people who have purchased aquacultured reef products as possible. The third part of this research will consist of creating a data base that lists as many sources as possible of captive raised aquaculture products. During this research we will award several best of the test awards in many catagories. The first of these awards are presented on this page.
THE 1997 SUMMER BEST OF TEST AWARD We have tested several types of Florida aquaculture Live Rock this season. The finest rock that we received came from SEA CRITTERS in the Tampa area. The Herdons have been growing this live rock for several years. I saw some of the Honey Comb base rock as it was being planted in 1994. This base rock is full of holes and it has very good shapes. The most exciting thing that came in on this rock is the wonderful colonies of Stony Corals. These corals have grown in all of our test tanks. They have been growing in several reefs with 40 watt Tritons and Blue Moons, and they are doing very well under 450 watt halides. The most valuable animals that came in on this rock for our land based aquaculture project is the collection of colored hardy sponges. We are now growing purple, yellow, and red sponges in many of our research reefs that came from these rocks.
THESE COLORED SPONGES HAVE
Mission Statement: It is our goal to establish a lasting relationship with our customers. Sea Critters is actively involved in the aquaculture of live rock and the propagation of marine life. This effort is being made to secure the future of our marine environment for generations to come. You can order some of this fine coral polyp rock and many other types of Caribbean products from;
SEA CRITTERS
THE 1997 SUMMER BEST OF TEST AWARD Dick Perrin is the owner of Tropicorium, Inc. in Romulus, MI. and he grows the finest sps coral frags we tested this year! We are conducting these tests by purchasing the aquaculture products at retail using a students address. We have several people in other states who are involved in this project. We ordered Dick Perrins sps coral special that is advertised in FAMA magazine. This special has 10 mixed sps frags and 2 giant clams. All of the corals were larger than any of the corals in the other orders we purchased from several coral farms. The bases of these frags were set in bud vases. All of the frags were grown down onto the lids of the bud vases. We used super glue to attach these corals to 2 AragocreteTM sand molded live rocks. These corals have all thrived in our 150 gallon reef. We received these coral 4 weeks ago and they have colored up very well. We have been able to frag almost all of new corals.  This special included several different colored- tip Acroporas, a very nice Seriatopora, a large Pocillapora, and a great Pavona cactus. We are happy to award our first Aquaculture SPS Coral BEST OF THE TEST AWARD to this fine product. This special costs only $150.00 and we will purchase it again soon. Dick Perrin can be reached for this special and many other captive raised animals at;
Tropicoium, Inc.
The next part of our research will consist of testing Reef Aquarium products and supplies for their use in Reef aquaculture. BEST CORALLINE ALGAE GROWTH - Red Lava , this low cost rock surprised everyone who tested it in their system. It recruited and grew all types of coralline algae very well. This lava has great texture and shape. BEST OCEAN ROCK - Honey Comb base rock, the majority of the commercial aquacultured live rock from Florida is this type of rock. It is full of holes and it recruits marine life very well. BEST REEF AQUARIUM ROCK - AragocreteTM made with cement and Carib SeaTM brand aragonite gravel. You can make this rock any shape you want. EQUIPMENT TEST RESULTS - SUMMER 1997PUMPS AND POWER HEADSWe have been testing many types of water pumps for use in reef aquaculture systems. I tried to pick one pump that has worked the best in the systems I operate at three locations in Idaho and I ended up picking three different pumps that do three different jobs.BEST OF TEST - SMALL POWER HEAD - MAXI-JET 1000 BEST OF TEST - LARGE POWER HEAD - RIO 1700 BEST OF TEST - LARGE WATER PUMP - GEMINI
BEST SMALL POWER HEAD - VISI-JET 1000We have used 25 of these pumps for two years in our base rock research tanks and only two of them have ever stopped working. One of these problems was our fault because there were many times when the 150 gallon make up water system would run out of water and the MAXI-JET 1000 would run dry for several hours. This pump did fine for about a year and then it just stopped. We did NOT think that was very bad because every other power head we tested would have burned up after the first time. If you have a need for a powerful small pump that will not quit or clog up this is the one to buy. Many of our systems are so full of base rock that we are testing that we just bury the power heads in rock as we fill the systems. These systems are not emptied for 18 months. The MAXI-JET 1000 is the only pump I would trust to still be pumping at the end of the experiments. The MAXI-JET 1000 WINS BEST OF THE TEST AWARD FOR SMALL POWER HEADS and I have used them all!
Aquarium Systems
LARGE POWER HEAD - RIO 1700We have tested these pumps for one year now and they have lived up to their claims of being a dependable, powerful pump. We are now using these pumps in any systems that are over 100 gallons. They DO move a large amount of water. We are very interested in any report you can send us on their other products. Please fill in the easy to use form and E-mail it by just clicking the send button.
The RIO 1700 WINS BEST OF THE TEST AWARD FOR LARGE POWER HEADS.
TAAM Inc. We look forward to testing some more of these products during the next two years.
BEST OF TEST - LARGE WATER PUMP - GEMINIThis is the finest pump for any large reef aquarium or grow - out system. If you need a pump that will work for years on a wave maker then this is the only one for the job. This pump moves over 900 gallons per hour. I use this pump on all of my Sps coral brood stock tanks. The motor is above the water line so the heat does not go into the system.This pump is easy to use - you put the bottom in the water and plug it in. We use 9 of these pumps in our systems and they are trouble free. The GEMINI WINS BEST OF THE TEST AWARD FOR LARGE PUMP.
I would write more about this pump, but it just a big simple tool that really does it's job. Remember PROPAGATE AND EDUCATE.
We want to share as much information as possible with you. If you have ordered any aquacultured live rock or tank raised corals please help with this research! We will continue to provide the most current data on reef farming for both education and profit.
ALL DATA AND NAMES ARE CONFIDENTIAL - YOU WILL NEVER RECEIVE E- MAIL FROM ANYONE OUTSIDE OUR OFFICE!
SALLY JO'S SEPTEMBER REEF UPDATEHi Everyone! So many of you wrote us and expressed your appreciation for our newsletter, I want to thank you for your positive response! Since the last newsletter a lot has taken place. I want to thank all of you who have reached in your pocket books and became members of our Foundation, it truly helps us continue with our Research.
I started with a young friend of mine who is only seven years old. This young man has had a special spot in my heart since the day he was born. Last year for halloween I decided to buy him a sea monkey kit instead of candy. He enjoyed this so much until the day his cat discovered them. Yep you guessed it the sea monkeys did not survive the cat attack.
Every time I go to visit him I bring him a few new surprises. The one thing I want to stress to all parents who choose to do this for their child is remember to let them be involved with it. When the mother started calling me up asking me if we had certain animals I looked at LeRoy and said it sounds like this tank is no longer Ryans. I found out from the Grandmother that he called her because they didn't let him setup the rock the way he wanted it. There is a great space for a 135 gallon in the family room:) LeRoy When involving children in our research projects I constantly hear new ideas and such creativity. The children are our future and we need to spend time reaching out to them so that we can find ways to preserve this valuable resource. We will begin setting up the new site entitled KIDSREEF.com after we complete the Oct. reef tour and seminar. I hope that we can show Dana and Steve strong support. I will be inviting all Science teachers to the reef tour for free in hopes that they will take this into their classroom. Any of you who are interested in helping us with the project please send in your comments and suggestions. The next new development for my 1 1/2 year old aquarium is I had (the word 'had' is important) a very slight problem with an algae called Bryopisis. It never spread but on some of my rocks it would grow quite long and I was nerves that it might spread throughout my system. I did a lot of research and tried many things including patience, with no success. Then I met an individual who told me that if I could find a RED SEA sailfin tang it would munch it away. I do not like to take the risk of purchasing a sick fish so I go to our pet store to buy my fish. I went in one day and asked him if he would order me a RED SEA sailfin tang. He said he never heard of one but would look into it for me. By this time my patience was getting pretty slim. It took about a month and LeRoy told me to get into the car he had a surprise for me. We went to our pet store and there he was $89.00 worth (for one fish). I had serious doubt whether or not this fish would do the trick. I must have watched his every move for the first week (LeRoy tells me if they live for a week you can name them). I had this fish in my tank about two days before he glued his mouth shut. I had to rescue him and pull the glue from his mouth. He seemed as interested in everything I put in my tank as I was with him. I decided to name him Max a Million. He seems to like this name.
I want to take a moment and stress the fact that you need to get the right balance in your closed system. I do not even have to clean my glass anymore. The Janitors taking on all the responsibility for me. They get in all the impossible places to reach and make my job simple. Take care and see if you have enough janitors before you get any problems. It is so hard to catch up when the algaes get ahead of you. Having three aquariums running simultaneously I need all the help I can get and these special janitors do it all for me. This picture is of my month old tank and as promised I would show you my rock man He is starting to grow green star polp hair. I decided to try an experiment with this tank. I used very low light to encourage the coralline algae to grow faster. I started with 1 - 40 watt Triton and 1 40 watt Blue Moon. I seeded the tank with GARF Grunge and you would not believe the amount of coralline algae that is spreading everywhere. In my humble opinion you need to use low lighting at first for the coralline to establish itself. If you start out right and let the coralline algae grow your chances of having an algae bloom later is much less. 
 An exciting piece of news is that I submitted my first manuscript to FAMA and it has been accepted for print sometime soon. LeRoy has also submitted an article to Marine Fish Monthly that has also been accepted. Now we are striving to reach the readers of the National Geographic. The one thing money can't buy is time and thats what you need to have a tank like mine. It started out slow and progressed over time. Everyone tells me my tank is full and it is, it is full of love. Having the right amount of janitors I can focus all of my time propagating and moving animals to their proper placement.
If you haven't already purchased Julian Sprungs and Charles Delbeek's second book I encourage you to do so. We feel pretty special because we where mentioned in it five different times. It is our understanding that Albert Theil is coming out with a new book as well. This is so exciting to read and expand our knowledge for the incredible life that lives under the ocean. Several of you have written us asking us if we sell any of our animals. We do, however we are stocking up for the Seminar and Reef tour. Some of you might have to wait until after October to purchase some of these animals. The other day I spent several hours propagating animals from my tank. I looked at it after I finished and found that there was a second layer of life under the first. I hope that you enjoy following the progress of my system and I will continue to share in its development.
This tour and seminar is a strong financial committment on our part to take part in the International Year of the Reef. Those of you who are coming will walk away with so much knowledge and can purchase on site some of our babies. LeRoy and I cannot thank you enough for your letters and comments. |
We are a non-profit organization dedicated to this mission statement:
Some questions from the mail box
This is LeRoy -I love to get mail at 4:00AM because most of it is from overseas like this one.
--------
>FromUser: Rickie Leung
>Subject: Red-puprle algae covering everything
>CommentType: Problem
>MessageText: HI Sally Jo,
>Your web site is one of the most special reef web I encoutered. I raise my own
corals and live rocks by using lava rocks bought locally, and seedling rocks
collected in nearby beach. That beach is full of corals and diverse live form
(including sharks).
>Everything works fine until the suspected cyanobacteria spreaded. Everything
in my tank was covering by a slim like red-purple film, coralline algae,
macroalgae and corals started to die because of the extensive coverage. Even my
camel shrimp's back are covered by this algae.
>As a result, I tear down the whole tank, removing all stones/sands. Add new
lava stones and sands. I was waiting to see if any algae before add the seedlings
rocks again. Unfortunately, that !@$#@!!
>comes back and covering everything again.
>Can you help me? I already have a CPR BakPak skimmer running long before
the algae boom.
>
>frustrated by algae,
>
>rickie
Dear Rickie,
Thank you so much for writing us and sharing your insite about your reef.
You need to check your phosphate, nitrate and silicate. It sounds like you may
have some decaying matter in your system. Snails and small hermits will eat your
problem away.
Some other advise for you to consider is if you are feeding, stop. If you place
another powerhead in your system that will help. Protein skimming is very
important make sure it is working right and that it is removing waste. It
comes from dissolved organic compounds, most system have it, but it becomes
a problem when it causes algae blooms.
Do some water changes and get some reef janitors, they truly work!
Remember one must attack the problem at the root and I can not stress how
important skimming is to resolve this problem. Please check your phosphate
levels as well as your nitrate and silicate.
Don't give up, you just need to find the perfect balance and the snails and
hermits will help provide that.
Thank you again for your support of our research project and we hope to hear
from you again soon.
Sincerely,
Sally Jo Headlee
Delivered-To: algae-garf-leroy@garf.org
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 1997 15:33:06 +0800 (HKT)
From: Ricky
To: leroy@garf.org
Subject: Re: aragocrete
Sally,
Thanks for your previous post about fighting the purple algae. It is so great
that they are under control now, after following your precious suggestion.
I added ten hermit crabs and everything slime in the bottom has been cleared.
Now, the cynaobacteria is under control, perhaps I should introduce some
macro algae to out-compete the slime later on.
I am thinking of starting some hand made live rock craft, rather than using
the lava stone. Is it possible to use cement to creat porus structure live
coral rocks? And also, is the cement you use the "white cemet" or the usual
gray cement? I wish I could order some cement from your research org. but the
mail cost is unrealistics from States to Hong Kong.
Again, thanks for helping me to get rid of the purple slime.
With best regards,
Rickie Leung
P.S. I also find that the Camel shrimps and the monkey shrimps will also
eat the slime algae when starving. However, they ain't as useful
when comparing to the hermit crab.
Dear Ricky,
Thanks so much for your reply! It makes us happy to hear back from others and
now it is time for you to have fun with your reef.
We hope that you will make some rock although you do have to use the greyish
color cement. You can find rock to break up that does have a purple tint to it. You
can use crushed corals or beach sand that will add different shapes as well as color.
Perhaps the dry lava rock could be broke up and mixed in. This will work really well if the lava rock is light.
Sincerely,
Sally Jo Headlee
Use this site to solve your reef aquarium algae problems, and help support our research!!!
LOW COST BULLET PROOF REEF AQUARIUM Learn to start an inexpensive reef aquarium
55 GALLON INSTA REEF Visit Rachel's 12 week old Bullet Proof Reef Aquarium
MORE PICTURES OF THIS REEF AQUARIUM
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
