EMeyer

After struggling to get enough live rock for a project, I suddenly find myself with a little more than I need. This weighs in at 3.5 lbs but is low density so it takes up more space than the weight would suggest. I'd sell this rock for $40 or trade for coral frags. This is imported from Tonga, shipped damp, and has been stored in good conditions since arrival (underwater with good circulation). Its very low density and porous, being more or less hollow coral branches. Its got a lot of good coralline growth. The size would be appropriate for a nano. I have no place to put this currently except in a sump, and it seems to pretty for a sump so I figured I'd see if anyone else needs nano rock...

Sure, message me your email address and I'll send you details for a kit. In your case, I'll also ship the kit itself (the others already received their kits).

I see Sean's order now too, so that makes 5. Thanks!

Hi all, I've received 4 orders and mailed you shipping envelopes (Greg, Nate, Eric, and Mike). Everyone else who received a sampling kit, please register and place a (free!) order when you have a chance, or message me if you are having any difficulties. Thanks again, -Eli

Thanks - yeah, you were on the "I misread your email address list". I tracked down correct addresses and resent the emails just now, so please let me know if you don't get it soon.

You can sample anytime you like, and store the sample in the sterile sample bag until the shipping envelope arrives. The fixed samples are fine for a few days at room temperature. For longer storage, a standard household freezer is fine (usually ~ -10 to -20­°C). I mailed your shipping envelope out today. (This is a useful test of my shipping system, and so far it looks like its working with automated labels and tracking numbers etc. I'll be grateful to hear any feedback on this stuff. I am an e-commerce noob) I've seen 3 orders so far.. if anyone else is having any difficulties with the website or if you got a sample kit but not an email, please don't hesitate to contact me. -Eli

Hi all, It was great meeting a bunch of you at today's PNWMAS meeting at The Premium Aquarium. Thanks again to Garrett, Robert, and Andy for giving me the chance to introduce the company and recruit your participation in this project. I'm making this post as a central place to distribute information about the free microbiome analysis kits many of you received today. I've also sent this information in an email. If you got one of these kits, here are the next steps: 1. Register an account at https://aquabiomics.com/login/ 2. Order a free "Snapshot" analysis (analysis of a single sample) at https://aquabiomics.com/order-snapshot/ . This will enable me to automatically send you a correctly addressed prepaid shipping envelope. Important: during checkout, make sure to enter the coupon code I sent by email. This will make it free, so you don't even need to enter financial info. 3. Sample your aquarium using the kit I gave you today. There are instructions in the kit, and at https://aquabiomics.com/sampling-instructions/ 4. Register your sample in the online database, at https://aquabiomics.com/register-sample/ 5. When your prepaid shipping envelope arrives in the mail, send your sample back to me by mail and I will contact you when the results are ready. Thank you again for participating in this project. I'll post updates here as it develops. -Eli

Hi all, Anyone got bryopsis? I got some from zoa frags a while back, and bought some lettuce sea slugs to eradicate it. They did such a good job that I now worry they may starve. So I'm looking to grow some bryopsis as food... but the little buggers ate all mine. So, anyone got a chunk you can sell? Thanks!

Thank you, sorry for lack of clarity. I am trying to upgrade my existing 29 gal (30") with something larger that is still no more than 30" x 18". I've seen 37 and 40 gallon tanks listed with that footprint but never in real life, only on the internet. Thanks!

Yeah, breeders don't fit. I have read about 40 talls that fit but never actually found one.

I definitely agree that paying attention to the health of your animals is more important than numbers. And I'm not taking any stand on what spectrum or PAR is needed for coral health. I have too much still to learn in this area. That said, the reason I like PAR meters is blue light. This is the one area where we specifically cannot trust our eyes. Tanks lit with heavily blue spectra look so dim to my eyes, but then I throw a PAR meter on and realize its >200, instead of the <50 it looked like.

Hi all, I'm looking for a tank no more than 33" long and no more than 22" wide. I have read about some 37, 36 bowfront, and 40 gallon tanks in this size range but never found one for sale. Anyone have a tank in this size range you'd like to sell? Thanks, -Eli [edited to clarify dimensions and volumes]

Yeah, with all the money spent on lights I'm always surprised and a little frustrated by discussions about what % to dial in. I think we'd do a lot better if we could compare PAR. (I know LEDs require some correction factors for PAR readings but Apogee has a really nice page describing this for each LED chip. And regardless of correction factors its always gonna be a lot more accurate than just talking about % on dimmer switches)

Thats a great question. Important because the populations that matter most for nutrient processing are associated with surfaces, rather than being truly free-living bacterioplankton. We know that in nature there is some exchange between surface associated bacteria and free-living bacterioplankton. Unfortunately I'm unaware of any studies that address this in recirculating aquariums. If I spot anything I'll post it here. My gut says that with constant recirculation of water through live rock in the sump, and the vigorous mixing inside the display tank, bacteria are constantly sloughing off from surfaces and getting suspended in the water. This is definitely a good question to test in our first batch of samples... thanks! This is a great example of something I want from this community -- if there are questions in your mind about the use of this technology for reef tanks, I'd love to hear them so we can address them early.

Ever notice how many of our tasks in saltwater aquarium husbandry all come down to adjusting the bacterial community? Carbon dosing, Live rock, Protein skimmers, a hundred different flavors of Bacteria in a bottle, Probiotics, the list goes on and on. Did you ever wonder what these things are actually doing to the bacteria in your tank? Ever seen a tank where everything you can measure appears correct, but fish or corals aren't doing well? Ever get the sense there was something important you weren't able to measure? Its often been said we shouldn't dose what we don't measure, but who has the ability to identify and measure the bacteria in your tank? Until now, these tools were limited to scientists at research universities. This spring that is changing. I am launching a new company, AquaBiomics, bringing research-grade tools to the aquarium hobbyist community. Sample your aquarium using our custom sampling kit, and I'll tell you Which bacteria live in your tank, and the abundance of each type How your tank's microbiome compares to other reef tanks What do those bacteria do in natural ecosystems? This technology is mature and ready to use, but biologists have been so fixated on studying corals in nature that frustratingly little is known about the microbiome of saltwater aquariums. That is about to change. My new lab has two parts: A molecular lab for analyzing DNA from client's tanks. This is where I take your sample and prepare it to be loaded onto a DNA sequencing machine. An aquarium lab where I'm running rigorous, properly-replicated experiments to test the effects of maintenance or dosing practices on the microbiome. Together, we will learn how to adjust the bacterial communities in our tanks, reducing the detrimental microbes and promoting the beneficial microbes. My business model is built around data, not snake oil. In fact, I plan to directly test many of the products some reefers criticize as snake oil. Because of this, at my initial launch, my claims are modest. I can identify and quantify the bacteria in your tank, and compare it with other tanks. As I gather experimental evidence in my new lab, I'll bring this evidence directly to the hobbyist community. As we gather data, I'll be able to offer increasingly practical advice for doing something about the microbiome in your tank. I have some exciting experiments beginning this month, and pledge to only provide recommendations when we have evidence to support them. So watch this space for interesting developments as the data come in... Thanks Andy for setting this up, and everyone for the warm welcome. In the near future I'll be inviting a few reefkeepers in the region to sample their tanks for free, in order to build the database... so if anyone is interested in a free analysis of your tank, stay tuned! -Eli

Thank you - yes, I am actually sitting on 25 lbs of that currently (Marine Depot) and just need another 5 lbs for the experimental setup. They don't seem to offer it in smaller increments. I can attest, it is the real deal: very old dead dried coral skeletons with occasional other dead stuff. Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I need some dry Fiji or Pukani for a new project. All the online suppliers are either out or are trying to pass off some synthetic/mined stuff as dry live rock. Anyone have some dry Fiji or Pukani sitting around taking up space? I'm buying (anywhere from 5-20 lbs would be useful, and the smaller the pieces the better) Thanks!

Ancient post - is this still available by any chance? (I know sales sometimes fall through)

Looking for a 75 or 90 gallon in the Albany - Eugene area. Anyone got a spare taking up space in your garage?

Really interesting, thanks for the photos. That definitely looks like the flashlight is exciting coral FPs. Either the flashlight has a spectrum that bleeds over into the excitation wavelengths of the proteins, or the proteins have broader excitation peaks in the living animal than they do as purified proteins in a tube... Looking more closely at the spectra from the paper I linked, many of them do have a small secondary excitation peak in the UV range... so maybe not so unexpected after all. Blue should still produce brighter fluorescence, but apparently UV does enough to put on a show too

<1% of marine microbes can be cultured. Focusing on culturable species only is incredibly limiting, which is why modern research has stopped focusing on them and now uses DNA sequencing to study all the bugs instead. Obviously there is huge value in working with the culturable strains, for functional studies, but the huge and growing field of microbiomics now uses DNA sequencing for most work. Here are some of my questions: Does adding bacteria in a bottle actually change the microbiome of your tank? Does starting with live rock lead to a more diverse microbiome? How do commonly used aquarium supplements affect the microbiome? Could probiotics (bacterial food) be used to deliberately increase microbial diversity? Instead of asking whether my new tank is cycled in an indirect way, by measuring nutrient levels with terribly inaccurate hobbyist kits, can we use direct measurements of the microbiome? And I share the interest in the question already brought up -- how does my tank's microbiome compare to that of a wildly successful SPS reef tank? What else would people be curious to ask using this technology, if it were to suddenly one day become available for the aquarium hobby?

Fluorescence in UV is probably mostly coming from other sources than coral's fluorescent proteins, which is where corals get nearly all of their color. Photosynthetic and accessory pigments are excited in that range. So are a lot of other fluorescent small molecules. So I guess its not surprising something would fluoresce, out of all the animal, protist, and bacterial cells in a coral... I'm curious now, gonna have to find a UV source and see what lights up...

Good question. Nope, modern methods for studying microbial diversity don't rely on plating or culturing at all. We directly extract DNA from the sample, amplify the genetic markers with PCR, and sequence the resulting DNA millions of reads at a time. The results are not perfectly quantitative for comparing between different bugs, but very good for comparing frequency of a partciular bug between samples. And theyre not affected by culturability.

Absolutely. I think both hobbyist reef tanks and coral aquaculture tanks will be interesting comparisons. Thanks, thats exactly the kind of question I'm looking for.

Hi everyone, Researchers analyze the microbial communities of animals or aquariums using DNA sequencing. If you, as a hobbyist, had access to a service that could measure the microbiome in your tank: what question would you be most curious in asking, with this test? We have some serious reef keeping expertise on this forum and I'm curious to hear your perspective on applications for a test like this. Thanks for any insights you can share. -Eli