Albert J. Thiel
Note: Continuation of the transcripts of the interviews with Dana Riddle of The Aquatic Wildlife Company, in Cleveland, TN. AWC can be reached at (423) 559 9000.Care upon arrival of fragments
AWC (The Aquatic Wildlife Company) has a very short shipping time to you on SPS frags, and uses Fedex for all their shipments. They do not pack early in the day and have the boxes sit there until they go to Fedex.
They pack as late as possible so that the amount of time that the corals are actually in bags, and en route, is minimized. This is accomplished by getting all staff switched to bagging and shipment at a certain time of the day so that all efforts are then focused on getting orders out.
As soon as the frags arrive, they should be removed from the bags and added to the tank. Dana does not suggest that you acclimate them, as they come from tank conditions that should be fairly similar to those in your tank as long as your water quality is high.
This is an important observation and we should not miss this as we casually read this transcript.
The water in the grow-out tanks at AWC's facilities is basically tank water quality type water. It is not NSW (natural seawater). The conditions in the grow-out tanks, and the tanks in which grown corals or frags are kept, are the same as what your tank should be kept at: generally recommended water quality levels for reef aquariums.
Because AWC ensures that the quality of the water in their tanks is high, if your tank has a high water quality too, the difference between the two will be minimal and you will not have to acclimate your frags when they arrive. Just place them in your tank in an area where there is good water movement (the need for water movement actually increases as the coral fragments grow and become individual corals themselves).
Because SPS corals do not have as much fleshy material as LPS corals it is more difficult to gauge if enough current actually exists in the areas where you are going to place the coral.
Dana suggests testing it out by placing an LPS coral in the area where you plan to place the SPS coral first and observing whether the coral polyp is moving well and in different directions. If this is the case you know that you will have enough current for your coral. If the LPS coral does not appear to be waving, as Dana called it, then more current should be created before placing the SPS frag there, or another location should be found.
As the coral fragments grow and become adult colonies themselves, water movement, the amount of lighting and quality of lighting in terms of PAR (see document on lighting in this series of interviews with Dana Riddle on our site) need, more than likely to be upgraded.
Indeed, states Dana, the corals will require far more attention to these two parameters as they grow. Keep this in mind, as what may be sufficient when the fragment arrives, will not be after the coral starts to grow.
Providing adequate current and PAR acceptable lighting is very important he stresses, and determines the success rate that hobbyists will have.
As indicated in the article on Lighting and PAR (photosynthetically active radiation), 6500 Kelvin degree bulbs are preferred.
In terms of additives or supplements that the hobbyist should add to the aquarium, Dana points out that, based on what he heard at the Western Marine Conference, he now recommends against the use of Lugol's solution and suggests that we use potassium iodine supplements only.
Calcium is of course required in some form or another to maintain adequate Ca++ levels in the tank. Adequate being 380-480 ppm depending on who's recommendations you follow. AWC maintains around 420-450 ppm in their systems.
There are several manners in which to introduce calcium to the aquarium. This will be covered in another article in this series. AWC uses the Kalkwasser (limewater) addition method. It also uses small Kalkreactors to maintain an adequate alkalinity. (Ed. note: 8 to 12 dKH depending on whether you wish to grow, or not to grow, coralline algae. Use the low number if you do not, the higher one if you do). AWC maintains their systems at a dKH of around 10 (3.6 meq/L).
Strontium should be added until such time as there is evidence that it is not required. It is present in natural seawater at a rather high concentration and maintaining that same concentration in the tank is, therefore, recommended.
I believe I pointed this out, as one of the first writers on reef aquariums and that the company that I then owned, marketed a strontium-containing supplement called " KSM " as early as 1988. In the interim many companies have introduced strontium additives and you now have a wide choice of either powdered or liquid supplements.
The addition of a general supplement containing trace elements and vitamins seems to be of benefit with certain animals, for instance Xenia, but with SPS coral frags we have not seen a need for it.
Since the corals will more than likely end up in a tank with a variety of corals, it seems to make sense to indeed add such a complete supplement as there will be animals in that aquarium that will require such supplementation. If the aquarium is SPS coral only though, I do not see a real need for them (note that water changes replace trace elements on a regular basis and that Dana recommends water changes, as described in other articles in this series of the interviews with Dana).
As the last recommendation Dana states that one should be real careful in selecting the space where to place the newly acquired fragments. Do not place it in a particular location just because there is an empty space there right now. Select an area that provides the optimal conditions for the animal that will be added to the tank. If you do not know these, read up on the animal and ask questions of the supplier you use. In this respect, AWC will be more than pleased to give you recommendations.
Although hobbyists can be successful in mixing LPS and SPS corals in one tank, it requires a great deal of knowledge on their part on the requirements of all the animals they have. They must then apply those to the aquarium and the placement of the corals, the lighting conditions, the water movement in various areas, additives used and so on, as we discussed earlier.
I think, states Dana, that we shall see the appearance of biotope tanks in the near future, segregating LPS corals from SPS corals to allow for better care of each type. We have seen this for fish in freshwater, and I think we will see this too for corals.
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