<no subject>

[Julian Sprung]

Dear Juan,

Sometimes observers confuse bleaching and tissue loss, and sometimes one
leads into the other. Would you say the corals are just getting pale or are
they dying? When you say "no luck" it sounds like they are dying- that's not
bleaching, or at last not just bleaching.

If your corals are losing tissue after a few days this may be attributed to
bacteria, some other pathogen, and/or a stress response by the coral. That
being an oversimplification perhaps.

Are the corals placed on a white sand/gravel bottom or are they on rocks?
The difference can have a dramatic impact on the light field for the coral.

You are likely to have better luck with them in any case if you maintain a
temperature below 82 degrees F. This will reduce the incidence of problems
with bacterial pathogens and slow their progress if they occur. Therefore a
chiller may help. Place it on a re-circulating loop and feed new seawater
into the exhibit at a slow rate.

Check the oxygen level in your system at night. It may be getting low
(depending on the amount of aeration, circulation, and substrate thickness).
When you say that the tanks have running seawater do you mean open system?
If you are using sand filters, discontinue doing so. No need for them for
this set up, and they may be developing hydrogen sulfide pockets that would
affect oxygen levels, and possibly produce problems with pathogenic
bacteria.

Julian Sprung

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-coral-list at aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:owner-coral-list at aoml.noaa.gov]On Behalf Of Juan Torres
Sent: 24. februar 2003 20:59
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Acropora cervicornis in aquariums

Dear coral-listers:
I am trying to mantain Acropora cervicornis colonies in outdoor aquariums
for an UV enhanced experiment. Yet, so far I haven't had any luck even
though the aquariums have running seawater, aereation, are being fed, and
the temperature is mantained similar to the one at the reef where the
colonies were removed. All the colonies were removed from less than two feet
of water. When they are put in the aquariums they begin to bleach between
2-4 days after even though the physical conditions remain the same. This is
about the fourth time we try without any luck at all. The seawater is
filtered all the time with sand and UV filters. Do anyone have any
suggestions regarding the maintenance of this species in outdoor aquariums
like these? Any info will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Juan L. Torres
University of PR
Dept. of Marine Sciences

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