Reef Daily

Biologists in Indonesia have discovered an octopus that uses coconuts for cover — and travels the ocean floor using the shell for shelter!

The incredible video is believed to be the first evidence of tool use by an invertebrate … if you don’t include Spongebob and his pineapple under the sea.

I found this video on YouTube. A quick look at the time spent, and steps taken to move a larger sized fully stocked reef aquarium.




I enjoyed watching. I found it funny how many different people stop by the check out the progress of the move. Being in the reef service business, that’s a very common occurrence when moving tanks.

Over the summer the BBC released an incredible series called ‘Fragile Paradise’ about the South Pacific. If you missed it, check out this clip which highlights the coral restoration efforts of the Corals For Conservation program which began in Fiji in 1999. The growth on the hard corals is stunning and you should start drooling by the 2 minute mark. ‘As part of the coral program, we trim bits and pieces off of rare, and where possible temperature tolerant corals, and then grow them to several hundred times the original fragment size to create “mother corals”.’




‘Two-year-old mother corals are then trimmed to produce coral seed fragments that the communities grow in the coral farms and restoration sites. All of the coral farms thus produce only second and third generation corals, completely avoiding the negative impact of wild harvesting of corals.’ From Matt Rogers’ 3Reef thread. Click here to view the thread.

Reef Daily would like to take the time to wish all of our viewers a happy Thanksgiving. We hope all of you enjoy your evening.

We have been busy this past week with the holiday but we will be back to posting numerous blogs daily after the holiday weekend.

Take care!

Ones perspective on keeping reef aquariums in China.
By Steve Wright

Personal history:
• I have kept aquariums of one form or another for almost 30 years now, with only 2 short breaks during this period – marriage break up in 1992 ( 6 months sorting myself out and started again) and 1998 – moved to China semi permanent ,but due to less frequent visits home, had to get rid of 2 x reef tanks that I had run for over 5 years in UK and it took me a couple of years to re establish myself in the hobby in China – with FW , progressing to breeding Discus and eventually in 2007 decided to start a SW fish tank

• Obstacles – In 2007 , there where no LFS that dealt in Salt water, in 2009 there is 1 establishment , which I do use infrequently and this shops choices on dry goods is very limited , although the live stock it carries is reasonably well looked after and they do have 30 or so SW tanks Read the rest of this entry »

Activated carbon is a popular and beneficial filter media choice for both marine and freshwater aquarists. The most common form is granulated activated carbon (GAC), a coal based form resembling small pebbles or rocks. GAC comes in two varieties, bituminous and lignite. Bituminous is a higher quality version, and that is the one most commonly used in aquariums. It is referred to as “activated” because it has undergone a process that makes millions of tiny holes in the carbon, making it very porous and conducive to growing bacteria for better chemical reactions.

How Activated Carbon Works

The ocean is large enough to recycle organic waste naturally, but aquariums need our help to keep the water healthy and clean. This is where activated carbon comes in. In addition to protein skimmers and other filter media, activated carbon is a useful tool to help maintain healthy and crystal clear aquarium water.

Activated carbon relies on three chemical principles to work; adsorption, absorption, and chemisorption. When placed in aquarium water, activated carbon relies on a law of physics called van der Waals to draw or absorb the harmful pollutants and organics (adsorbents) into the porous carbon. Two things then occur, bacteria then begin to colonize on the surface of the carbon and consume the adsorbents transferred there, and chemical reactions take place within the carbon to detoxify the trapped pollutants. The final stage, chemisorption, keeps the trapped pollutants contained inside the carbon until the carbon is ready to be replaced.

Benefits and Considerations

Activated carbon removes a variety of pollutants from your aquarium water, including copper, chlorine, dissolved proteins, and other organic and inorganic compounds, such as gelbstoff (organic compounds that yellow aquarium water).

To ensure optimal activated carbon performance replace the carbon in your system every 4-5 weeks or sooner if needed.

Marineland is taking advantage of the recent explosion of LED lighting for the marine aquarium, and it’s going to be BIG! Using LEDs on a reef aquarium makes perfect sense. The LEDs that are used are very high output, creating perfect lighting for just about any coral. LEDs use low energy and produce a very low amount of heat.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hydor has been showing off it’s new version of the well liked Koralias power-heads in various marine and reef magazines. The advertisement for the new Koralias that I saw stated that this new series is “better than ever before”.  How much better? Well, they will be smaller, use less energy, and put out a higher flow rate.

• energy saving: 50% less energy used

• higer efficiency: up to 20% more water flow

• pumps are designed to be placed on timers

• the pump will be smaller, taking up less viewing space in your aquarium

• the impeller gets a new design as well, allowing for more efficient water movement

• still mounted the same, magnetic suction cup on each side of the glass

Be careful when handling or working near zoanthids. Today while maintaining an aquarium, I accidentally touched a colony of zoanthids. I have always known some were toxic but for some reason I never really thought much about it. I completed the service, and about an hour later I happened to notice my finger felt odd, I then looked at it and saw how swollen it was. I quickly ran to the internet to find out more about the toxin contained in zoanthids.
Apparently zoanthids contain one of the deadliest naturally occurring toxins called palytoxin. In all of my research I found stories of warriors smearing their arrow heads and spear heads in zoas because such a small amount of the palytoxin can be fatal to humans.