The weekend of September
27-29, 2002, represented a rebirth of sorts for the Marine
Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA). After last
year's MACNA XIII left the Marine Aquarium Society of
North America (MASNA) deeply in debt and unable to continue
sponsoring the annual MACNA conference, the Dallas/Forth
Worth Marine Aquarium Society took a chance and bet that
they could make the conference financially viable (and,
just as importantly), a popular success with its target
audience - marine hobbyists. By all accounts, from exceeding
the contractual minimum number of hotel rooms sold, to
the sold-out banquet, to the well-attended presentations,
MACNA XIV was a great success.
My intention in this article
is to provide a brief overview of the conference, with
summaries of the presentations and descriptions of some
of the other events that occurred. Although you may not
have been able to attend, I hope to convey some of the
flavor and spirit of the conference.
Trace Metals: The Toxic
Time Bomb In Marine Reef Aquaria - Dr. Ronald Shimek
It's Friday at 3 pm, and
Dr. Shimek starts the conference with something most aquarists
would rather not hear: the water in our tanks has higher
levels of toxic heavy metals than EPA-identified "superfund"
sites! Dr. Shimek began by briefly reviewing his earlier
studies; the food content study (information available
at Aquarium
Fish Magazine) and the tank water study (information
available in Volume 1, Issue 3 of Reefkeeping
Magazine). These two studies indicated that hobbyists
are adding a great deal more of certain substances, especially
potentially toxic heavy metals, than what is found in
natural seawater (NSW).
He then proceeded to discuss
an analysis of various methods of nutrient export to determine
what was being removed. Shimek was provided samples of
Caulerpa, skimmate, skimmer sludge (that thick
slime that forms inside the skimmer uplift tube), and
Xenia by various hobbyists who participated in
this study. These hobbyists also paid for the samples
to be tested at a laboratory utilizing Inductively Coupled
Plasma (ICP) Emission Spectrometry to determine the element
contents of the export.
The study showed that
skimmers are almost useless at removing these potentially
toxic heavy metals. Xenia and Caulerpa did
a better job of removing these metals, but the average
hobbyist would have to remove inordinately high amounts
for this to be an effective method of controlling these
elements (in the neighborhood of several pounds of Caulerpa
per day). Since artificial saltwater mixes also contain
high amounts of these metals, water changes would also
be an ineffective means of removal.
Since it doesn't appear
the average hobbyist is removing these elements, and since
every tank doesn't crash, Dr. Shimek proposed the following
as possible means of detoxification of the heavy metals:
inorganic precipitation in live rock and sediments, adsorption
of elements on live rock and sand, iron hydroxide complexes,
and binding with organic materials (such as humic acids).
The iron hydroxide complexes represent a real possibility
for effective removal, since hobbyists add high levels
of iron to their tanks (primarily through feeding), and
yet none of the tank water samples tested showed iron
present.
Dr. Shimek's conclusion
was that "old tank syndrome" may be an artifact
of these toxic heavy metal levels, either due to the accumulation
of so much of this toxic material that the system is no
longer able to detoxify it, or through some precipitating
event (such as a pH crash). Further study is necessary
to answer many of the questions raised by Dr. Shimek's
work, and the information gathered in the full study will
be released in an upcoming issue of Reefkeeping
Magazine.
Sea Squirts in
the Reef Aquarium and a Three Zone Natural Filtration
System - Steve Tyree
Steve Tyree began the
second presentation with a description of tunicate biology.
Tunicates have a mucous mesh in their interior with which
they capture appropriately-sized prey. Tunicates were
found to digest 75-92% of phytoplankton passed through
this mucous mesh. Additionally, they uptake particulate
matter (around 40% is consumed), as well as large bacterial
cells, and have the ability to absorb dissolved organics
directly from the water. Tunicates can filter between
three and 323 gallons of water per day, and Tyree is investigating
using these animals in a biological filtration setup for
aquariums.
When attempting to identify
whether an in-tank mass is a sponge or a colonial tunicate,
he suggested taking a look at the spacing of the openings
in the surface of the animal. Equidistant spacing of these
openings is indicative that your animal is a tunicate
and not a sponge. Tyree discussed various tunicates available
in the hobby, and recommended that hobbyists avoid the
large Polycarpa aurata - a white tunicate with
blue/purple veining and yellow/orange coloration around
the inhalant and exhalant openings, as this tunicate is
extremely difficult to maintain.
Along with providing many
interesting and beautiful photos of tunicates, Tyree then
moved on to the second part of his presentation - Trizonal
Tropical Reef Filtration. He showed an aquarium utilizing
three microhabitats: 1) the exposed zone; 2) the filter-feeding
zone (combining the semi-exposed and semi-cryptic zones
of a natural reef); and 3) the cryptic zone. The exposed
zone reflects the average hobbyist's tank - heavy lighting
and high flow rates. The filter-feeding zone was immediately
behind the reef wall created by the exposed zone, and
has heavy water flow with little-to-no lighting. Finally,
the cryptic zone is a larger area behind the filter-feeding
zone, with much lower water flow and finer particulates
provide the major feeding input. The sample aquarium was
set up with these zones progressing left-to-right across
the aquarium, so it isn't the manner in which most hobbyists
would set up a display tank, but it was certainly innovative
and may represent a step forward in creating a more natural
biosphere in our tanks which may possibly allow the maintenance
of some of the more difficult-to-keep filter-feeding invertebrates.
Reef Aquarium Lighting
- Lighting Basics and Test of Metal Halide Lamps, Ballasts
& Reflectors - Sanjay Joshi
Sanjay Joshi closed the
Friday evening presentations with a discussion of a subject
near and dear to all reef hobbyists' hearts: lighting.
Dr. Joshi measured the photosynthetic photon flux density
(PPFD), also known as PAR, of various metal halide bulbs
when combined with different ballasts. The Ushio 400 watt
10,000K bulb produced a low value of 117.3 PPFD on a pulse
start ballast; using an HQI ballast from Taiwan, it produced
a high of 167.1 PPFD. The Aqualine Buske 400 watt 10,000K
bulb produced a low of 94.7 PPFD when combined with a
standard M59 ballast, yet resulted in a higher output
of 140 PPFD on the HQI ballast from Taiwan. In all cases,
higher PPFD correlated with higher power consumption.
Dr. Joshi also tested
150 watt DE (double-ended) bulbs. When testing these bulbs
without their UV shields, he found that the Aqualine Buske
bulb produced the highest PPFD (77.2) with the Sylvania
Aqua Arc coming in a close second (77.2). The Ushio 10,000K
bulb produced 72.1 PPFD, while the IceCap™
10,000K bulb resulted in a reading of 63.9 PPFD.
When the shields were used, Dr. Joshi found that the shields
did, in fact, reduce UV light, but also resulted in an
average 20% loss in PPFD. He then combined the various
bulbs with different ballasts and presented those results.
An interesting note here was that the "Hello Lights"
ballast produced the highest PPFD readings, but also resulted
in a noticeable flicker with at least two of the bulbs.
The above PPFD tests were
conducted without the benefit of a reflector. So, the
second part of Dr. Joshi's presentation centered around
reflector testing. For mogul reflectors, the Diamond Light
Lumen Arc III produced the best results, with the PFO
parallel reflector placing second, and the SpiderLight™
reflector third (out of three tested). An important side-note
to the reflector testing was that there was a 50% decrease
in intensity when moving the sensor from six inches to
nine inches from the bulb, and another 50% decrease when
moving from nine inches to twelve inches from the bulb.
You can achieve greater coverage by moving the bulbs upward,
but you pay for it in intensity!
The complete results of
Sanjay Joshi's testing will be presented in the November
or December edition of Advanced
Aquarist's Online Magazine.
Friday Evening
Activity - Book Signing
After Friday's final presentation,
MACNA XIV participants were invited to a book signing
sponsored by Aquarium Fish Magazine held at the hotel's
pool. Free nachos were provided with a cash bar nearby
to provide sustenance while hobbyists mixed. Dr. Ron Shimek,
Eric Borneman, Julian Sprung, Steve Tyree, Bob Fenner,
Scott Michael, Martin Moe, Dana Riddle and Anthony Calfo
signed books and chatted. Nature threw a curve at the
authors as the pool area was very dark (lit only by the
lights in the pool and tiki torches), so I'm sure apologies
go out from the authors if their comments and signatures
were not as legible as they otherwise might have been.
The Marine Multi
Environment Aquarium System - Martin Moe
On the following day,
8:30 A.M. came far too early, but Martin Moe revived the
interests of the conference participants by presenting
the details of his own multi-habitat aquarium design.
The diagram below shows the basics of Mr. Moe's design.
Water enters the right side of the containment area through
a surge system. This side of the tank remains filled and
is much like an average hobbyist's tank. Water from this
side of the tank overflows a diagonally placed solid glass
plate. Live rock is stacked against this plate to form
a wall. Water flowing over and through this wall from
the containment area fills the variable level area.
A U-shaped siphon tube
drains this area. This U-shaped siphon tube is formed
by filling a length of PVC pipe with sand, capping it,
then heating the middle and bending the pipe. The sand
prevents the pipe from collapsing completely at the point
of the bend. The "U" portion of the pipe is
flattened and made narrow. This allows the siphon to start
automatically via water pressure. The recurring sequence
of events within the system is thus: water from the containment
area overflows into the variable level area with each
surge; the variable level area fills and eventually rises
above the level of the "U" on the siphon; water
pressure starts the siphon; water drains from the variable
level area at a steady rate, and is replenished by the
surge. If the surge inflow is slower than the siphon outflow,
the variable level area water level drops in a step-wise
fashion until it finally reaches the open end of the U-tube
and breaks the siphon; with the siphon broken, the surges
slowly fill the containment area until it again reaches
the top of the U-tube and restarts the siphon. This variable
level area provides a rocky shore habitat, and can include
containers to simulate tide pools. Additionally, Mr. Moe
included a horizontal glass shelf (covered with rockwork)
to simulate a cave habitat.
Early Developmental
Stages of Soft Corals: Crucial Adaptations for Survival
- Dr. Yehuda (Hudi) Benayahu
Dr. Benayahu gave participants
a review of octocoral biology, then discussed his research
with Dendronephthya hemprichii and Heteroxenia
fuscescens. Areas explored included: modes of sexual
reproduction, settlement of planulae and methods of zooxanthellae
transmission; either directly from the mother colony (known
as vertical acquisition), or acquisition from the environment
(known as horizontal acquisition).
Dr. Benayahu then showed
a National Geographic documentary on his work investigating
the timeline for the development and growth of man-made
reefs by researching shipwreck sites in the Sinai with
known sinking dates. Israel controls less than a two mile
stretch of the Red Sea, yet this area receives several
million visitors a year, placing a severe strain on this
natural resource. He hopes to develop longitudinal data
on man-made reef development that may help ease human
pressure (primarily tourism) on the natural reefs in the
area, and which may be applied to impacted reefs in other
areas of the world as well.
New Directions
in Understanding What Makes Corals "Tick" -
Eric Borneman
Eric Borneman spent the
first portion of his presentation "straightening
out" the classification of some corals. It seems
there has been quite a bit of restructuring going on in
the name game: a new family was created, Euphyllidae,
to contain Euphyllia, Cataphyllia, Plerogyra,
Physogyra, and Nemenzophyllia; Colt Corals
are now Klyxum (Alcyonium now only contains
sub-tropical and temperate species); and Star Polyps are
now Briareum (Pachyclavularia is no more).
The second portion of
Borneman's discussion concerned zooxanthellae. Recent
investigations have shown that some corals are more flexible
than others and have (or can have) more than one species
of zooxanthellae. There are currently six clades of zooxanthellae
and many species. He then discussed pigmentation in zooxanthellate
corals. Numerous non-green pigments, called fluorescing
proteins (formerly known as pocilloporins), have been
discovered. These fluorescing proteins appear to perform
a dual role: providing photo-protection in high light
situations (blocking light transmission to the zooxanthellae);
and photo-enhancement in low light environments (reflecting
light back to the zooxanthellae).
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"Aquarist
of the Year" - Eric Borneman.
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Borneman next moved on
to discuss toxic secretions of corals. However, what was
most remarkable was that he wasn't discussing soft corals,
but stonies! Newer research indicates that stony corals
produce a wide variety of potent metabolites similar to
those found in soft corals. Goniopora was found
to be particularly toxic. These chemicals are believed
to function as antibiotics, anti-predation agents, anti-fouling
agents, reproductive cues, allelopaths important in space
competition, and fulfill a role in the self-recognition
and immunity mechanisms of corals.
Borneman then discussed
the bacterial symbiosis between corals and their surface
bacteria. Bacterial colonies on a coral's surface may
act as an antibiotic, help maintain metabolic homeostasis,
assist in nutrient acquisition or act as food. Unfortunately,
bacteria can also have a role in coral diseases. Recent
research indicates that there are far more types of bacteria
present in diseased coral tissue than was originally thought.
Past bacterial culturing techniques used to determine
what bacteria were present missed the vast majority of
bacterial strains which were not culturable, and more
research is definitely needed in this area. Finally, he
discussed briefly the recent aquarist issues of Montipora-eating
nudibranchs, dyed corals, red Acropora-associated
amphipods, and asexual reproduction in aquarium corals
by tissue flows.
My Favorite Fishes!
- Scott Michael
Scott Michael provided
beautiful photograph after beautiful photograph of his
favorite fish. These fish included Dragon morays, frogfish,
scorpionfish, Ghost pipefish, Anthias, dottybacks,
hawkfish, Fairy and Flasher wrasses and gobies. He even
showed a picture of Banggai cardinals, but only because
they seem to be everyone else's favorite fish. After the
wealth of information provided in Eric Borneman's presentation,
it took many in the audience a long time to realize that
Scott was introducing each and every fish
as his absolute favorite, but eventually
they came to realize that any fish that was "fuzzy"
or "funky" looking, or included the term "devil's"
in its common name was going to be included in the list.
For the fish lovers in the audience (and who isn't one
at a marine aquarium conference?), this wonderful eye-candy
presentation was not only very entertaining, but also
highly informative.
Lighting and Water
Movement For Closed Ecosystems - Round Table Discussion
Dana Riddle, Eric Borneman,
Julian Sprung, Martin Moe and Sanjay Joshi were present
for what was supposed to be a discussion of lighting and
water movement. However, after the first question or two,
the discussion swirled off into a discussion of plenums
vs. deep sand beds, hydrogen sulfide - dangerous or not,
and the long term impact and sustainability of our hobby.
Banquet
Saturday night's focus
was the banquet, where the participants were treated to
good food, good company, and hobby-related conversation.
Eric Borneman was presented the 2002 "Marine Aquarist
of the Year" award, and he seemed genuinely surprised
and deeply touched by the honor. After the meal, Walt
Smith presented an outstanding slide and video show entitled
"Coral Farming For Our Future," which illustrated
many of the steps he has taken to make coral fragment
farming and aquaculturing live rock, a viable and valuable
industry to the Fijian people. A candid question and answer
period was followed by a giveaway of several of his hand-picked
aquacultured SPS corals.
Nano-Nano: Physical,
Chemical, and Technical Aspects of the Modern Micro-Aquarium
- Julian Sprung
Julian Sprung discussed
the physical limitations in dealing with nano aquariums.
For purposes of this discussion, Sprung considered tanks
smaller than 20 gallons as falling into this category,
and addressed issues such as temperature maintenance,
gas exchange, and evaporation. Suitable livestock for
nanosystems, as well as a number of specimens that Sprung
has personally maintained, were shown. Extensive pictorial
examples of nanosystems from around the world, including
public aquariums, were presented.
Coral Farming…
Home Grown Jewels of the Sea - Anthony Calfo
Anything you ever wanted
to know about fragmenting corals was discussed in Anthony
Calfo's entertaining presentation and follow-up question
and answer session. Tips presented included: light acclimation
of new arrivals using and then slowly removing multiple
layers of fly screen, attaching newly separated stony
frags tip downward (growth tip down promotes faster encrusting
of the base, and having the newly cut area facing up promotes
quicker healing), and performing all fragmentation in
a separate container of tank water to avoid contamination
of other corals by excess mucus (caused by the stress
of fragmentation). If you have any coral propagation questions
for Anthony, he can be reached through the Wet
Web Media website.
So, You Want To
Be A MACNA Speaker? - Dana Riddle
Dana Riddle gave the participants
an idea of exactly what it takes to bring a subject to
the MACNA table, including experiments destroyed by a
hurricane and the time and money (to the tune of $12,000)
spent doing the research for a one-and-one-half hour presentation.
Although Riddle's original topic was meant to be water
motion, the obliteration of his experimental man-made
reefs by the hurricane forced him to change his discussion
to a lighting-oriented experiment. In February's
edition of Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine,
Riddle presented his data showing that lamp spectrum does
not affect the amount of photosynthetic activity in Fungia
corals. His experiments showed reflectance of light at
453 nm (blue), and absorption of light near 680 nm (red),
and that water motion had a greater effect on photosynthetic
activity (more water motion resulted in greater activity).
Newer experiments with
LED lights showed that a red LED light caused localized
bleaching in a Pocillopora meandrina, while a blue
LED caused localized coloration. More research is necessary
in this area.
Coral Farming In
Situ & In Home Aquariums - Round Table Discussion
Steve Tyree, Eric Borneman,
Walt Smith, Anthony Calfo and Dana Riddle discussed coral
farming methods and projects, both in the U.S. and abroad.
This time, however, the discussion stayed mainly on topic!
Raffle
The raffle is usually
one of the most anticipated events at every marine conference,
and MACNA XIV's raffle was no exception. Thirty-three
items, including additives, foods, skimmers, calcium reactors
and lights, went on the block for the meager sum of a
dollar a ticket. This year's top prize was a fully-stocked
120 gallon Oceanic
starphire glass tank. By fully-stocked, I mean it came
with a cherry wood canopy and stand, six PC light fixtures,
a sump, an EcoSystem Aquarium Reefugium™,
a large skimmer, an assortment of tank-raised clowns and
dottybacks from ORA, several nicely colored clams, some
coral frags, and about two inches of sand. It was valued
at over $4,000! Chuck Greene was the lucky winner who
took the whole package home. Luckily, he had a full compliment
of friends/club members with him, who efficiently tore
down the tank at the conference's end and loaded it into
Chuck's truck.
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The
Oceanic 120 gallon starphire glass system offered
in the raffle.
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The Atmosphere
& Comradery
After reading my descriptions
of the various presentations, I realize that possibly
I have made the conference sound an awful lot like school.
Nothing could be further from the truth! Yes, the speakers
provided a great deal of information, but you can get
most of that in books. What makes MACNA stand out is the
interaction between the hobbyists, the speakers, and the
vendors. Many attendees were overheard making the comment
of how great it was to connect a face to someone they
had met only over the internet. Not surprisingly, the
vendor's room was a hub of activity every minute it was
open (even when speakers were giving their presentations).
At one booth you could look at the newest D.A.S. aquarium
or calcium reactor, at the next check out the latest Tunze
stream pump, at the next buy a clam or aquacultured coral,
a few steps away ask Anthony Calfo a question about propagating
a coral, and in the evening talk to the Editor of Aquarium
Fish Magazine.
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Where
else, but at MACNA, could you sit down and personally
discuss marine topics with such noted authors as
Dr. Ron Shimek? Here Dr. Ron has an interesting
discussion with Sandra Shoup, a new author for Reefkeeping
Magazine.
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All of the speakers, all
of the vendors, and all of the hobbyists were there for
one purpose - to talk about marine aquariums. It was this
open attitude and willingness to share information that
ultimately made the conference a success. Thanks to the
efforts of the DFWMAS, MACNA has been saved as a national
conference and will continue in 2003. Next year, MACNA
XV will be in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 5th,
6th, and 7th. For further information, visit http://www.lmas.org/.
If MACNA XV is anything like MACNA XIV, it will be an
event not to be missed.
