Hi everyone, I’m a marine biologist at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and I’m hoping for some help with our upcoming projects. We study the effects of climate change on corals and the coral symbiosis, and to do that we use everyone’s favorite tank pest, Aiptasia. They are a great model organism for experiments because they’re small, tough, grow quickly, and are easily handled in the lab. For some upcoming experiments, though, we need a lot of Aiptasia.
Thousands. I know there are some expert Aiptasia farmers on ReefCentral (intentionally or not!) and I’m looking for advice for building a world-class Aiptasia farm.
Here is our current, very basic tank setup: Tanks (~40L/10G each) are half-filled with natural filtered seawater, with no substrate, live rock or other livestock. Each has a small heater (25C/77F) and powerhead with acrylic lids (not pictured) to reduce evaporation. Lighting is provided by standard T12 fluorescents, and some tanks have additional exposure to natural sunlight. There is no filtration, but the water is changed (50-75%) weekly. The anemones are fed 2-3 times per week with live brine shrimp. I am aware that they're pretty ugly and bare-bones, but it's all about function over form!
One example setup:
Interior shots:
Why now?
We will soon be moving our laboratory to a brand new building, and we have the opportunity and some funding to build a new, larger, Aiptasia farm system. We need to be able to grow as many Aiptasia as we can, as quickly as we can.
We need your ideas to make it better.
Our requirements:
-We can’t take any new Aiptasia from elsewhere. Ours are all genetic clones descended from one individual Aiptasia years ago, and to make sure the experiments are consistent we are only using this particular strain. Sorry, no donations!
-No substrate, live rock or other livestock. We can’t introduce any hitchhikers into the tanks for experimental reasons, and it’s important that it be bare glass so we can easily remove Aiptasia with a razor blade for experiments.
-Small tanks, easily cleaned, with multiple separate systems for backup. We may be able to plumb multiple tanks to the same sump, but we'll still need multiple parallel tank systems.
-We use natural seawater for cost reasons.
- Simpler is better.
Our current problems:
-Biofilm algae! It grows very quickly, smothers the smallest Aiptasia and, if left uncleaned, seems to become toxic to the adult Aiptasia.
-Too much time scrubbing tanks!
-No filtration! There is no nutrient export from these tanks, only water changes, leading us to the next problem:
-Too much seawater usage! It’s a lot of work for us to collect filtered seawater, so any ways to reduce the need for water changes would be helpful.
Any ideas?
Any advice would be appreciated. I have experience with home coral tanks in the past, but the needs of this system are pretty different. I’m currently exploring adding GFO and some artificial liverock substitutes (e.g. Seachem Matrix) in a canister/hang on filter to reduce the nutrient load between water changes. A protein skimmer might be helpful but it's difficult with these small tanks.
I'll post any updates. I’m also happy to answer any questions about the work we do and how we’ll be using the Aiptasia!