Shown here a vendor sells aquacultured corals. Coral propagation and farming is so successful that some stores are now helping to establish coral propagation facilities in several South Pacific island countries.

This issue of Reef Ramblings will touch on the several mini subjects. Thanks to some suggestions from our readers I’m going to introduce several facets of coral propagation. Hopefully from here the discussions will begin and we can all learn and share together.

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Welcome to Reef Ramblings. I started writing this column back in the early 1990’s and now over a decade later here we are. Old versions of Reef Ramblings can be found at www.ReefRamblings.com. It is my pleasure to inform you that the new issues of Reef Ramblings will be first published here on Reef Builders. What can you expect? The same as always. These articles will provide insight into some random aspect of the marine hobby. I hope that these articles will educate and share knowledge, but more importantly foster discussion and dialogue within the marine community. So with that, happy reefing…

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1.0 Water
1.1 Source Water - City Mains Water Is Not Good Enough
1.1.1 Background
U.S. EPA requirements for water quality from municipal sources are insufficiently pure for reef tank usage. For instance, the EPA standard for Nitrate (as NO3-N) is 10.0 mg/l, over twice the recommended maximum level. Extremely toxic (to inverts) heavy metals such as copper are allowed at levels as high as 1 mg/l. Most public water supplies have contaminants well below the EPA levels and some reef tanks have done fine on some public supplies. In general, however, it is recommended that some form of post processing be performed on public water before it is introduced into the reef tank.
Although some people have access to distilled, de-ionized or reverse osmosis water from public sources, most will use a home sized system to produce their tank water. The two most common systems used are de-ionization resins, and reverse osmosis membranes.

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Discussing the 4 most common mistakes made by new reef keepers and narrowing it down to four was a challenge. Most of you advanced aquarists out there should already know these common mistakes. Nevertheless, it is a great review for those of us that are reef veterans. Even better for those of you just starting out, learn from our mistakes.

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For years now I’ve been a bit perturbed by the hobbyist view of a coral reef. Some of this is just unfortunate circumstance in that the vast majority of hobbyists will never experience seeing and interacting with a real coral reef. Secondly, those who are fortunate enough are often distracted by the colors of the sea to really observe what is there.
This article is part of a series I have conducted (along with numerous research partners) on several reefs around the world. I’m using Fiji as an example here because of the important role this small nation of islands plays in the hobby. As you all know a large portion of our corals/fishes/invertebrates are found and collected in Fiji. This area serves as a template for most reefscapes in the hobby.

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