THE MARINE BIOSYSTEM

The successful maintenance of a marine biosystem requires an understanding of certain basic scientific principles. The more deeply one considers the problems of designing and running a life-support system for the more delicate creatures of the coral reef, such as living corals, certain plants, and the Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus), the deeper becomes ones involvement in fundamental physics, chemistry and biology. PHYSICAL FACTORS Salinity The density of sea water is greater than that of pure water that is, the weight of a given volume of sea water is greater than that of the same volume of pure water because it contains dissolved salts. The higher the salt concentration of the water the greater is its density; measurement of water density thus provides an indication of salinity. The density of a substance is usually expressed as its specific gravity the ratio of the weight of a fixed volume of the substance to the weight of the same volume of pure water. The specific gravity can be measured simply and directly with a hydrometer. For sea water typical values of specific gravity are in the region of 1.020. Salinity is important because it influences the exchange of salts and water which takes place between marine animals and their surroundings. Most marine fishes have body fluids which are less concentrated than the sea water in which they live. The intake of salt water through the mouth and the loss of fluid through the skin and kidney creates a tendency for the fishs body fluid to become as concentrated as the sea water. It is obvious that the intake of sea water will raise the fishs salt content. The loss of fluid through the skin and kidney results in a net loss of water because these organs are selective barriers to the movement of salt and water: molecules of water move across them with relatively greater ease than do the molecules of salts and other substances in the body fluids. At the skin, therefore, water moves out of the fish leaving salts behind in preference to an inward movement of salts from the sea. This movement of water from a region of low solute concentration into a region of high solute concentration across a barrier which selectively restricts movement of solute is called osmosis. One can alternatively think of the fishes body fluid as having a higher concentration of water than the surrounding sea. At the kidney the restriction to salt movement is relatively less severe; the urine is nevertheless a weaker solution than the blood from which it is formed and so represents a further net loss of water. In order to balance the tendency towards increased salt concentration marine fishes have salt-secreting cells located in the gills. In effect fishes take in salt water and remove the excess salt from their body fluids. The energy expended by the fish in maintaining the concentration of its body fluids at an appropriate level is directly related to the difference in concentration between the fish and its environment, the higher the salt concentration of sea water, the heavier the load on the salt-secreting cells. There is a limit to the ability of the fish to hold its internal environment constant and it is most important not to allow the specific gravity of the water to rise significantly above the preferred level. Most coral fishes should be kept in water of specific gravity 1.020. For fishes from the Red Sea the specific gravity should be 1.022. In either case the limits of acceptability are 0.002. Any genuine deviation from acceptability is probably due to failure to make good evaporation losses or to topping up the water incorrectly. As water evaporates from the tank leaving the salts behind, the salinity, and hence the density, of the aquarium water rises. The loss should therefore be made good with pure water to bring the specific gravity back down to an acceptable level. Topping up with salt water will not work. Readings outside the preferred range may result from incorrect use of the hydrometer or from the use of a faulty hydro- meter. Both the hydrometer and the sea water must be clean; the hydrometer must be calibrated at the water temperature of the aquarium; the hydrometer must be a good instrument accurate to within 0.001.

Temperature The fishes and the invertebrate

inhabitants of a marine aquarium have little ability to regulate their own body temperature as mammals and birds do. They are poikilothermic and their body temperature tends to follow that of their environment. The rates of all metabolic processes are highly dependent upon temperature and the creatures in a particular marine environment are adapted to life within a narrow temperature range. The sea is a thermally stable environment, much less subject to temperature variation than fresh water. Typical water temperatures range from 75-78F (24-26C) for tropical marine species.

Lighting Correct lighting of the marine aquarium is

essential to healthy plant growth. The presence of photosynthesizing algae is an important feature in the chemical cycle of the system. Algae use up carbon dioxide dissolved in the water and convert it into oxygen. They also take up nitrates from the water to build their own cellular protein, which may in turn be eaten by the animals in the aquarium.

CHEMICAL FACTORS Oxygen All animals and many of the beneficial

microbes in a marine biosystem require oxygen as a condition of life. It is essential to keep the oxygen concentration high by thorough aeration of the water in order to encourage the growth and well being of the organisms present. Flourishing plant growth and suitable lighting also help to oxygenate the tank. Organic pollutants often exert their chief effect by driving vital oxygen out of solution.

proteins and eventually recycled when the plant is eaten or dies. The detoxification of nitrogenous waste is an aerobic process all three groups of bacteria involved require oxygen. The reactions which they bring about can be reversed by bacteria which flourish in anaerobic, acid conditions. Promotion of the activity of beneficial micro-organisms is essential to good water management. In a clinical system aerobic bacteria will form colonies on the strands of filter wool and on the granulated charcoal much of the protein waste will in any case be dealt with by the protein skimmer and never become subject to decomposition. In a natural system the bacteria colonize the available surfaces of the aquarium walls, rocks and other objects.

pH The acidity of the marine environment, like the

temperature and oxygen concentration, is a determinant of the metabolism of micro-organisms. Too great an acidity encourages the activity of harmful anaerobic bacteria and this will ultimately affect all the inhabitants of the aquarium. In physical terms the acidity is a function of the concentration of hydrogen ions. This concentration is most conveniently expressed on the logarithmic pH scale. The pH of 7.0 obtained for distilled water is taken as neutral; a lower value is acidic while a higher one is alkaline. Natural sea water varies from pH 7.8 to pH 8.4 depending upon locality, time of day, season of year and depth. The aquarium should be kept at this slightly alkaline pH. Methods of measuring pH with indicator dyes are dealt with in the fresh water section.

Toxicity Apart from the introduction of uncured or

dirty gravel, rocks, corals or shells, all organic material entering the aquarium does so as food or as living creatures which eventually die. Organic matter is decomposed by bacteria into chemically simpler compounds, some of which are extremely toxic. Nitrogenous waste (food and excreta) is rapidly attacked by certain bacteria known as gelatine liquefiers and converted into ammonium compounds. These are poisonous to marine life even in small quantities. Nitrosomonas bacteria are responsible for oxidizing ammonium compounds to nitrites still toxic to animal life. In the next stage of the sequence Nitrobacter bacteria effect the further oxidation of nitrites to nitrates. Nitrates are relatively harmless and can be taken up by green plants, incorporated into

STABILITY AND MATURATION

It will be evident upon consideration of what has been said already, that the integrity of a well-kept marine

aquarium depends not simply on a number of separate factors acting independently but on an interaction of conditions affecting and affected by the activities of living organisms. Because temperature alters metabolic rates of activity it may also alter the levels of biological decay products and ultimately the pH and oxygen concentration. There is in any case a direct relation between oxygen tension and temperature since oxygen is less soluble in warmer water. Similarly lighting may have far reaching effects through its influence growth. The delicate balance existing in a stable system is not arrived at suddenly. The accompanying graph shows the kind of changes which occur in a newly established, maturing aquarium. The time to maturity will obviously vary considerably: it may even be as rapid as 26 days if the starting conditions (stocking, feeding, filtration rate,

temperature, etc.) coincide particularly well. Normally, maturation will be a matter of several weeks and this entails some risk to the animals present in view of the high levels of ammonium and nitrite compounds obtaining in the earlier stages. Biological maturation can be speeded by maintaining fierce aeration and rapid filtration turnover, by keeping stocking and, the amount of food down to a minimum, by keeping the temperature as high as the animals are accustomed to, and by stocking with hardy species. It is above all important never to disturb the conditions in the aquarium suddenly. The effects of sharp change on such a complex balanced system are unpredictable and most likely to be harmful. Even if conditions are clearly abnormal the situation must be rectified carefully and slowly.