• Do you have any advice for starting a marine aquarium?
• How much will it cost to start a marine aquarium?
• Red Planaria: How to get rid of them?
• Red Planaria: What are they?
• Aiptasia: How to get rid of them?
• Aiptasia: what are they?
• My tank runs very hot, especially in the summer, how can I keep it cooler?
• What is the "red tide"?
• Where can I get ocean water for my tank?
• Where can I refill my C02 cylinder in San Diego and how much should I expect to pay?
• Where is the best place in San Diego to shop for marine aquarium supplies?

Do you have any advice for starting a marine aquarium?
Read a lot about reef aquaria. And then read some more. There are a lot of good quality books available to the hobbyist. Ask friends, club members, or you're local fish shop for advice on the best book to start with. And then keep reading. Most of our club members usually start with some of the following books, which give a good overview of marine aquariums for the hobbyist:

• The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner
• The Reef Aquarium by J. Charles Delbeek et al.
• The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium (Vol. 1) (The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium) by Svein A. Fossa, Alf Jacob Nilsen.
• Aquarium Corals : Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History by Eric H. Borneman, Scott W. Michael, Janine Cairns-Michael
• Marine Fishes : 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species by Scott W. Michael
• Corals: A Quick Reference Guide by Julian Sprung

After reading one of these books, you should be able to find other books that can answer your more specific needs, be it breeding fish, keeping octopus or whatever appeals to you.

In addition, try searching the internet. Use a search engine for specific topics, or visit our links page for some web sites we've found useful.

Plan the whole system out well. Think about what critters you want to be able to keep, and learn what their requirements are. Want clams and SPS corals? You better have plenty of metal halide lights, and probably a chiller. Want to have big showy fish? Invest in a hearty skimmer. Got your heart set on a mandarin? Plan on a big tank, lots of live rock, a refugium, and very few other fish. Shop around, especially if you've never won the lottery. You can buy a used aquarium for a song. If you keep an eye out, you can buy a whole reef setup from someone who is moving out of town or whatever for a fraction of what you would pay for a new one. Members occasionally sell their used equipment on our mailing list.

Finally (particularly if you live in San Diego) join your local Marine Aquarium Society.

How much will it cost to start a marine aquarium?
Costs vary subject to many things, but most significantly on how big your aquarium is and what you intend to keep in it.

A simple fish aquarium would be on the cheaper end of the scale while keeping corals, clams and some other inverts will substantially increase the cost. As a rough rule of thumb I would allow between $10 and $20 per gallon to set up a typical tank.

A common mistake starting out is to buy a small tank. The bigger the tank you buy the better your experience is likely to be: most credible authors recommend you start with at least a 50-gallon tank. Larger tanks are more stable, more tolerant of their keeper.s mistakes and inattention, and less prone to crashes.

Before starting we recommend you take the time to read some of the excellent books listed above. With a good understanding of the needs of the animals, which all the recommended books provide, keeping a successful marine aquarium need not be difficult.

Where is the best place in San Diego to shop for marine aquarium supplies?
San Diego has numerous aquarium stores. A good selection of shops is good for competition and helps raise the standard of all the aquarium stores in the area. We recommend that you visit them all to see what each one has to offer, get quotes on the equipment you want and shop where you feel most comfortable.

Where can I refill my C02 cylinder in San Diego and how much should I expect to pay?
In a recent survey of the club's members found the following locations:

• Pacific Welding Supplies, 8493 Olive Dr.
• Parsons AirGas, 9010 Clairemont Mesa Bl.
• San Diego Welders Supply, 8025 Arjons Dr 858-578-1900

Prices seem to average $13 for a 10lb cylinder, and $17 for a 20lb cylinder. See mailing list for more information. . 

Where can I get ocean water for my tank?
While the synthetic salt mixes that are now available are of excellent quality and from the perspective of marine husbandry are as good as ocean water, many hobbyists use natural ocean water both for convenience and to save money.

The best place to collect ocean water locally is from the Scripps Pier in La Jolla, CA. The pier is accessible from La Jolla Scenic Drive and a tap at the head of the pier supplies ocean water that has been filtered by several sets of natural sand filters.

Before collecting water, we recommend you check for known sewage spills by checking with the following agencies:

• San Diego Life Guards 619.221.8824
• San Diego Enviromental Health: 619.338.2073

What is the "red tide"?
Typically in the spring, there is a period during which large populations of algae (dinoflagellates... Gonyaulax, Gymnodinium spp. ) are present in the ocean water. The algae are principally surface/epipelagic but enough of these single cells and their chemical metabolite does make it to the depths of the two intakes at the end of the pier from where scrips water is drawn. If this water is introduced into a closed aquarium it can result in general toxicity and consequent interference with fish respiration/electron transport... "cascade" effect with other biota

Can the algae be killed with UV or other water filtration? In a matter of time, yes, but there is more at play here than live algae. It is better to store in the dark for a couple of weeks, then bleach, dechlorinate, decant or diatom filter (and UV, aerate, ozonize if you want) inbetween storage and actual use.

My tank runs very hot, especially in the summer, how can I keep it cooler?
Ah! The downside of living in San Diego (there had to be one!) Most books recommend that you run your tank at about 76ºF-80ºF. Depending on your livestock it may be possible to run your tank at temperatures above this. Typically clams are the most temperature sensitive creatures in the aquarium and temperatures as low as 82ºF may be enough to harm a young clam. Larger clams will survive higher temperatures. Some corals are also very sensitive to temperature swings. Typically corals from the family Acropora are the first to show stress symptoms if the tank temperature rises.

There are several things you can do in order control your tank's temperature. In order of increasing expense:

Check your photo period. The aquarium lights are a major factor affecting your aquarium's temperature. Typically the tank's temperature will start rising as soon as your lights go on, and continue rising until the lights go off. Reducing the period some or all of your lights are on can reduce the temperature your tank rises to. You can also consider shifting the time your lights come on so that your lights are not heating the tank during the hottest part of the day. (Even if this doesn't work it will help California's power situation).

If you have a stand/canopy that is enclosed, opening them up allows more circulation so that hot air doesn't become stagnant in the area. While much of the heat gain is from radiation, some is from the conduction of the hot air in your hood coming in contact with the water surface. Cool down the air, and you may cool down the water.

You can use fans that blow directly across the water surface - both the tank and the sump. This will increase your evaporation in the tank thereby aiding "evaporative cooling." Many people have great success with aiming small fans at the surface of their tank and sump. This greatly increases evaporation, and reduces tank temperatures by several degrees. You could put them on a timer or an X10 module, and only run them during the day so you don't get big diurnal temperature swings. Another benefit of increased evaporation is that you can add more kalkwasser, and help out your Ca level.

Also tank design is a major factor influencing the temperature. Consensus opinion is that glass tanks run cooler than acrylic tanks, and that smaller tanks run cooler than larger tanks.

For those with $500 or more to spare, buying a chiller is typically a cure-all.

Aiptasia: what are they?
Aiptasia pallida and Aiptasia pulchella are the most commonly seen 'pest' anemones in the reef tank. They are generally dark brown to translucent in color and are usually less than 2 inches tall with an oral disk of about 1/2 inch (although there are reports of Aiptasia to be as big as 4 inches tall)! They have long tapered tentacles and have nematocysts that have a toxin that is more potent than that of the majority of corals kept by hobbyist. They are usually introduced as hitchhikers on live rock, since they are very common in shallow, nutrient rich water. They can also reproduce quickly. Aiptasia generally reproduce via pedal laceration. Thus, when an Aiptasia moves, a small piece of the base tissue is left behind, which grows in to another Aiptasia. Even a severely damaged piece of Aiptasia can regenerate in to a fully functional anemone. For this reason DO NOT try to scrape the anemone off or try to crush it, instead of killing it, you will just end up with many more. . 

Aiptasia: How to get rid of them?
As you already suspected, there is no perfect answer but, basically you can approach the problem in two different ways. A chemical approach: Various manufacturers have developed various products to eliminate Aptasia that hobbyists have reported different degrees of success using. The simplest and most popular method is mixing two parts of water to one part of kalwasser (Calcium Hydroxide). Place this paste in a large bore syringe and place a blob of this paste right in the mouth of the Aiptasia. REMEMBER, this is a highly caustic paste so care must be taken in handling this mixture. Within minutes of ingestion of the paste, the Aiptasia begins to dissolve and can be removed with a small bore siphon. Products such as Aiptasia Stop and Joe's Juice will also work if you don't want to mix your own paste. Of course if a small part of the Aiptasia remains behind, there will be more Aiptasia coming back. Which leads to the second approach of Aiptasia management: Natural approach in Aiptasia control: Three different species - one fish, one shrimp and one Nudibranch have been successfully used as natural control for Aiptasia. The Copperband Butterfly (Chelmon rostratus) is known to eagerly devour Aiptasia, but hobbyists have had trouble keeping this fish, so we do not recommend it. More promising is the Peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) - they also eagerly devour Aiptasia and will feed on flake food, so they are easy to keep. There are reports that they will also eat other corals, but this is not typical. Rhynchocinetidae sp., also sold as Peppermint shrimp by pet stores for control of Aiptasia may fuel these rumours. The newest found predator and perhaps the one with the best potential is the Nudibranch species Berghia verrucicornis. (See: Carrol and Kempf "On Aiptasia eating Nudibranch" Biol. Bull. 179: 243-253 [1990]) The major drawback for these Nudibranchs is that they will eat Aiptasia, but nothing else. Once there are no Aiptasia left or so few that the Nudibranchs have trouble finding them, they will starve to death. One suggested alternative to having these Nudibranch starve to death is passing the Nudibranch from hobbyist to hobbyist tanks (works well in organized Marine Aquarium Clubs) or have a small 10 gallon tank set up and culture (!) Aiptasia to feed these Nudibranchs. . 

Red Planaria: What are they?
Commonly called red planaria, the name is not very descriptive as these flat worms are neither red, nor are they planaria. Convolutriloba sp. are small (about 5 millimeters in length), typically brown, and nearly rectangular in shape. These flatworms are photosynthetic, reproduce asexually by fission, and can thrive in the strong lighting of a typical reef aquarium, rapidly becoming a plague species that covers all available surfaces. The planaria are generally harmless in the aquarium, although they can be toxic to fishes. In addition planaria populations typically explode and then crash, potentially releasing significant amounts of toxins into the aquarium.

Red Planaria: How to get rid of them?
There are several approaches that can help combat planaria.

As your granny probably told you, prevention is the best form of treatment. Good marine husbandry techniques (particularly use of a quarantine tank and dips) are typically helpful in stopping this pest (and many others) ever making it in to your aquarium. Planaria can sneak into the aquarium as a stow away on live rock, live sand, corals, clams and other live materials introduced to the aquarium. If the worst happens and you find Planaria in your tank it is not all over - flatworms can be removed physically, biologically, or chemically.

Products such as Flatworm Exit can almost instantly kill off most or all flatwroms in your aquarium. Dying flatworms are toxic, so please be sure to read the instructions carefully - siphon out as many flatworms as possible before dosing the recommended amount.

The sea slugs of the family Chelidomura, sometimes called the head shield nudibranch can offer another biological solution. Although difficult to find through the aquarium trade, Chelidomura are obligate flatworm feeders, and will combat planaria. Reports of success are mixed. Chelidomura are frequently the victims of pump intakes and overflow drains. Those that survive are reported as successful in the eradication of planaria populations. Once all the planaria are consumed you will need to find a new home for the Chelidomura.

You can also use a siphon to remove the critters. This can be combined with regular water changes, or if your tank has a sump and an overflow you could use your siphon with a micron bag. Place the micron bag in your sump to catch the overflow water and Use the siphon to suck the planaria from the nooks and crannies and divert the water with the planaria down your overflow. If using this approach do use active carbon to combat the potential release of toxins. Once finished take the micron bag and wash in fresh water. The planaria are extremely sensitive to fresh water and are killed almost instantly and completely dissolve within a few seconds.