Shane Graber

I thought these pictures might interest both lists. Last night my bristleworms decided that it was time for a mass spawn. I grabbed the Sony Mavica and got some pretty good shots of the action. The pictures are posted here

http://liquidreef.freeservers.com/inverts.htm

Also, I am wondering about my sandbed. Every time I notice a cyanobacteria problem on my sandbed I find that I have localized detritus buildup just below the sandbed surface. I have a lot of bristleworms and nassarius snails to clean up the excess food that's fed to the tank daily. Does this localized buildup of detritus about 1/4" to 1/2" below the surface of the sandbed mean that my sandbed needs recharged? Does it need more nassarius (I have about 1 dozen currently)? Would a small tigertail cuke help things out? I'd appreciate some input. Dr Ron? Rob Toonen?

Ron Shimek

Nice photos of a spawn. Lotsa food for filter feeder's......

Does this localized buildup of detritus about 1/4" to 1/2" below the surface of the sandbed mean that my sandbed needs recharged?

Yes.

Does it need more nassarius (I have about 1 dozen currently)? Would a small tigertail cuke help things out?

No and no.

What you need are some more in-sand worms.

I would suggest getting a recharge kit of some sort from either IPSF or Inland Aquatics. If it were me, I'd get something from both to double the fun, and give myself more diversity.

Shane Graber

Dr. Shimek thank you for the reply. What in-sand worms would you suggest? I've got bristleworms out the yingyang. I'm not "up" on my worms as I should be...

Also, could you enlighten me as to why a tigertail cuke and/or nassarius would not help out the situation?

Also, any idea *why* they decided to mass spawn? The only thing I did was blow out the sandbed a little w/ my turkey baster...

Ron Shimek

What in-sand worms would you suggest? I've got bristleworms out the yingyang. I'm not "up" on my worms as I should be...

What you call bristle worms are probably Eurythoe companata , one species of common scavenging fireworm. However you need a wide diversity of other "bristle worms" in the sediments for your sand bed to work as an efficient processor of nutrients. Here are a couple of URL's for information about worms.

http//www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/may/wb/default.asp

http//www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/june/wb/default.asp

Also, could you enlighten me as to why a tigertail cuke and/or nassarius would not help out the situation?

They have all ready "helped" you out. In the broad scheme of things they help process detritus and excess food from the top of the sediments and move the nutrients into the sediment bed for organisms there to process it further. It is those infaunal worms that you have in short supply.

Also, any idea *why* they decided to mass spawn? The only thing I did was blow out the sandbed a little w/ my turkey baster...

You didn't do anything except provide them with a good home. I suspect they cued on the time of day and possibly something in the water.

Shane Graber

Thank you! One final thing Dr. Shimek Would you be worried that peppermint shrimp would feed off of these newly added in-sand worms? I've had to add a couple to my tank as I have a nasty case of craiptasia infesting my 40 gal tank right now...

Ron Shimek

Yes, peppermint shrimp are rather a plague unto themselves. They will eat the worms, but they also eat small polyps, small snails, and corals, sooo....

I would put the worms in some place away from the shrimp's hiding spaces. Given a chance to get buried they may do all right.

Steven

While my reef is a little over a year and a half old, I very rarely see any worms in/on my sand bed In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually observed a worm in my reef.

Shouldn't worm sightings be more common in/on a 3 - 4" sand bed of this age???

The "live" sand, which was purchased from Tampa Bay Saltwater Farms (and shipped submerged), was installed when the reef was established. I do see lots of tiny critters, like mini-stars, copods, etc. a few hours after the lights have been off but never any worms.

Scott Fleming

What about on the sides of the glass? Meaning, between the sand and the aquarium sides.

I see lots of worm trails. After the lights go out, I can pull a flash light out, red lenses covering it, and see them moving about.

I do not necessarily see them on the top of the sand. That is reserved for other creatures of the night I guess...

Ron Shimek

While my reef is a little over a year and a half old, I very rarely see any worms in/on my sand bed. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually observed a worm in my reef.

As Scott said, look for trails in the sand next to the glass, or often I can see worms there. After dark you may see tentacles projecting up from the sand.

Shouldn't worm sightings be more common in/on a 3 - 4" sand bed of this age???

Yes. The worms should be common, particularly if other things are present, as you say they are.

Steven

Occasionally I see a trail but I should be seeing a lot more...

Ron Shimek

As a rule of thumb, I would say that in any 10 cm stretch of sediment against the wall of the aquarium, if you see between 5 and 10 trails your bed is in good shape.

Steven

WOW.... I probably should have been investigating this awhile ago because I just don't see any... maybe a couple in the front but that's about it.

Dr. Ron, What would happen to a reef that didn't have the proper number of worms?? I mean, what type of "problems" would you expect to see, if any???

Ron Shimek

What would happen to a reef that didn't have the proper number of worms??

Well, this is an interesting question and relates to each tank individually. Our tanks function as "microcosms" - small equivalents of ecosystems. Energy and material passes through ecosystems by any number of pathways. The worm component of most natural marine ecosystems, and of our small artificial ecosystems, functions to breakdown detritus eventually to soluable nutrients. Now, there are a lot of other things that happen concomittently, and I have written a lot of verbage about that, so I won't go into that here.

However the bottom line is that they are part of the group of organisms that takes foods and breaks them down so that bacteria may utilize them.

I mean, what type of "problems" would you expect to see, if any???

If the population of such animals was insufficient - AND - there were no other pathways to accomplish the same thing, I would expect to see a build up of nutrients relatively rapidly in the sediments, and then blooms of cyanobacteria, and maybe dinoflagellates. Also I would expect the phosphate levels in the system to rise, possibly leading to some reduced growth of corals. Generally the system will get a lot more eutrophic. You will see a lot of problem algal growth I suppose, the sediments will be mostly brownish or algal covered at the surface.

In some systems there are alternative pathways for this material to take. I have had and have seen systems that did well with few polychaetes in the sediments. Upon microscopic examination, I found those systems to be dominated by very small (1/50 in across) brittle stars and many minute sediment dwelling gastropods.

These systems had clean sediment surfaces and a lack of problem algal blooms, although they were all growing algae as means to export excess nutrients.

Steven

Thanks very much for the reply...

This is exactly what my reef is beginning to experience.

I am starting to see green hair algae on the upper most layers of my sand bed. It's spotty, but it is starting to grow. This reef has been remarkably free of hair algae. I have NEVER had a problem with it.

Also, green algae is growing on top of the coralline algae that lines the side and back glass panels.

Now, I don't want to rush to judgment here as this reef has gone through a 6 - 7 hour power failure in the past 3 weeks, so it could very well be that.

I just tested both phosphate and nitrate and both levels are well within limits...less than a trace for each.

Ron Shimek

I just tested both phosphate and nitrate and both levels are well within limits...less than a trace for each.

These are real funny nutrients biologically. Most bacteria and algae are adapted to suck these up really fast. If you measure any, that is a surplus...

Also we can't really measure dissolved organic phosphates and they are very important biologically,. so it is hard telling what you have.

The brief power outage would not have effected your sediment fauna in the slightest. The situation is more long-term than that.