What is a Reef Aquarium?©
A reef aquarium is a small scale model of the tropical reef that can
be maintained in the home or office to provide continuing visual enjoyment
for many years. It is a community containing a large variety of colorful
organisms that are constantly in motion and constantly growing.
All of the organisms interact in the simulated ecosystem. Some provide a
habitat, others provide food, and some, such as clown fish and cleaner shrimp,
even provide services.
The reef is provided with strong lighting to simulate a 24 hour cycle of
sunrise to sunset, even moonlight. Strong water movement causes motion of
the inhabitants, which adds to the beauty of the system, but the water also serves to move oxygen, nutrients, and microorganisms around, increasing the health of the invertebrates and fish. Stability of the environment is caused by light, water movement, and the reef itself, which is a major filter and producer of oxygen for the system.
Once the system is balanced, very little
maintenance is required.
THE REEF COMMUNITY
A reef aquarium is built on a base of natural coral rock that is covered
by a wide variety of marine organisms - pink-purple coralline algae, encrusting corals, soft corals,
anemones, and fan worms. These organisms form a colorful background and a living
space for even more marine invertebrates - clams, snails, shrimp, and starfish.
Moving freely among the coral network are brightly colored fish - a few
large ones, or a lot of smaller species. While some, such as the Purple
Tang, feed on the algae growing on the reef, and others, such as the Mandarin
Goby, feed on small crustaceans that live on the reef, others feed on the bits of organic material that fall to the bottom of the
tank.
Although some fish are predators or grazers on the reef, most reef fish require supplemental feeding and quickly learn to swarm to
the front of the tank when you offer them their daily ration.
While ocean water is usually impractical to use in the reef, an excellent
substitute is made by dissolving special formulations of "sea salts",
which contain most of the chemicals found in the ocean, in deionized water.
LIGHTING
Solar energy is the ultimate driving force in the coral reef ecosystem.
Without proper light photosynthesis cannot occur; photosynthesis is the
cornerstone of food production on the tropical marine coral reef.
Most varieties of soft and hard corals, and some clams, have photosynthetic marine algae
living in their tissues. These algae provide the colors for the hosts and, by photosynthesis, produce food and oxygen which
support the host coral. High levels of light (16,000 to 24,000
lux) produce very good conditions for most reef corals. Some corals rely
entirely on this source of energy for survival while others utilize nutrients
that they remove from the water column by filtration.
Lighting is controlled to match the cycle in the reef: soon after "daybreak",
the invertebrates expand to catch the sun and fish become active. After
"sunset" a "moon" light stimulates some of the invertebrates
to reproduce, producing more reef inhabitants.
Although the majority of this light serves to power the system, special
lamps are used to accentuate the fluorescent colors of many marine organisms,
increasing the visual pleasure of the reef owner.
MOTION
A tropical reef is shallow (5-40 feet deep) and constantly washed by
strong currents and wave surges.
In a reef aquarium a pump with numerous jets circulates 8 to 15 times
the aquarium's volume per hour creating strong water movement in the reef
aquarium. This causes a pleasing to-and-fro movement of corals and transports
nutrients, food particles, and oxygen throughout the tank.
STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM
Constancy is a characteristic of a tropical reef. Temperature is maintained
at 76 to 78 degrees,
pH (acidity) is about 8.4, and
salinity is about 1.021 specific gravity (350 ppm).
pH and water quality vary little due to the way in which the reef inhabitants interact.
Any living system produces toxic wastes, especially from the metabolism of proteins, which contain nitrogen. This is removed from the reef system by two means. One is a mechanical filter called a "protein skimmer" (foam fractionater) which removes proteins and others pollutants by passing a cloud of tiny air bubbles through a column of water. Substances stick to the air bubbles and are floated out the top of the skimmer and collected to be removed.
The biological filter in the reef is the porous coral rock which contains nitrogen-eating bacteria. The more rock you have in the reef, the more filtration it provides. The algae living in the coral tissues remove carbon dioxide and dissolved substances such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and other chemical elements.
Salinity in the aquarium is controlled by replacing water lost
to evaporation with fresh pure water and making water changes with freshly mixed sea water of the
optimum salinity level.
In very warm climates keeping the aquarium temperatures in the optimum range
may require a refrigeration unit. In some cases, if the tank is not covered, evaporation will help cool the tank, but this will require more "makeup" (replacement) water.
MAINTENANCE
In a properly designed reef aquarium, little maintenance is required,
leaving more time to enjoy the system.
Lighting, filtration, and pumping functions are controlled by timers.
Evaporation losses are replaced with fresh water weekly and can be done automatically.
Since the reef receives a high level of light, unwanted algae quickly grow
on the tank surfaces and usually are removed by a brief "algae scrub"
twice a week. A variety of animals, such as snails, crabs, shrimp, and sea cucumbers can help with the cleanup by eating algae off the walls of the tank and reef and stirring up the substrate.
If pollutants aren't totally removed, the concentrations of nitrates and phosphates increase and may cause large growths of "slime" algae (cyanobacteria) or fast-growing hair algae which can smother more desirable organisms. The concentrations of pollutants can be reduced by "water changes," replacing a portion (5-20%) of the water with fresh sea water mix. If the water used in these water changes is already high in harmful substances (nitrate, phosphate, silicate, etc.), water changes (or replacement of water evaporated from the system) must be made with water purified by deionization, reverse osmosis or both.
Periodically supplements containing minor chemical elements are added to
improve the health of some of the invertebrates.
A wide variety of equipment is available, some very reliable, other "faddish" and expensive, but unnecessary.
Lighting systems utilize energy-efficient ballasts and long-lasting (3,000
to 20,000 hours) bulbs.
Small-scale water treatment systems can economically provide high quality water for the aquarium or for drinking.
The following pages will show you what some of our reef aquariums and reef organisms look like. What Does a Reef Aquarium Look Like?
* Corals - Fish - Systems
*
Reef Fish
Return to
661-834-8516 - Email