The Environmental Gradient Cryptic Sponge and Sea Squirt Filtration Models, 2d ed.

Steve Tyree continues in this updated version in his CMAT (Captive Maintenance Advanced Techniques) to, in his own words, "examine the leading edge and advanced techniques utilized to maintain captive ocean organisms". As a completely self-produced work (writing, images, graphics, lay-out…) this is an admirable work of some new and important ideas in aquarium set-up and operation. Contents: This is an account of Steve's personal odyssey in keeping and culturing attempts with different groups (cnidarians, sponges, ascidians) utilizing simple, readily available gear and tools. To his credit he has pursued and developed his concepts through experimentation and delving into the scientific and engineering literature. What we have here is a historical relating of Steve’s attempts (not always successful) at devising and understanding the utility and processes of cryptic organisms (particularly poriferans/sponges and tunicates/sea squirts) in the wild and in captivity. The Good: Even casual divers and folks handling live rock can tell you of the prominence of these cryptic organisms and their biotopes. The living component/matter of so-called Live Rock is made up more of Sponge material than any other phylum of life. Some places in the oceans the Sea Squirts are obviously populous, though most are inconspicuous or hidden under dark spaces. There are speculations that in the tropical West Atlantic, that the sponge life passes about the entire volume of water through their bodies every few days. That their presence is important in living systems in situ and captivity should come as no surprise. Steve makes a plausible argument that instead of Berlin Systems, utilizing Live Rock and skimmers, that folks might instead be better off using heterotrophs as and associated with sponge and sea squirt life, as these use the "same" organics as skimmers remove. You have an inkling of the failure of current trickle filter designs? Good, Steve and I do too. Somehow George Smit et al.s designs from the mid eighties lost their purposeful denitrators. This is covered here. The Not-so-Good: Steve needs an editor, big time… he reminds me of so many of my "educated-derelict" friends from college it’s painful. He has good ideas, an enterprising mind… but the sentence structure, spelling and word usage here is atrocious. The relating of experiments… designs, results shines… it’s the trying to understand the sentences that will bother many readers. Some general statements are unsupportably sloppy: p.34: "The water is kept anoxic with 1 ppm oxygen and is not allowed to become completely devoid of oxygen". The term "anoxic" needs replacing with "hypoxic". The books layout, introduction and logical presentation of concepts is laudable, and illustrations nice, but the photographs and their reproduction here on the cover and the books middle are terrible. Conclusive Remarks: The basic premise here of the importance of cryptic organisms and their potential as overall moderators, maintainers of water quality in captive systems cannot (at least not by me) be disputed. Steve does a good job of making his arguments on this point, but would do well to have a good editor assisting in making them clearer. Steve states: "This book contains the foundation for a new zonal approach to maintaining tropical reef organisms. Captive reef aquarist(s) and reef scientist(s) can utilize this zonal approach to enhance the diversity of organisms maintained within captive reef systems." For the purposes of reviewing filtration methods, seeing how Steve "did it" (trials, tribulations of isolating his cryptic assemblies, keeping the light and predators off of them…" this book and its series are well worth the effort for advanced reef aquarists.

funfishtank.com posted a reply:

Dark room. Lights on in tank.

Use a tripod if you got one.

Experiment!