Goal: Establish coral and tank cleaning protocols for GSO Astrangia

Cleaning of experimental tanks at GSO (Blout 104) should occur at least once a week. To clean each tank, do the following:

1) Fill trays with water and remove coral rack from tank.

Fill two trays with water, remove the coral rack in the dirty tank, and put it in one of the trays. In the other tray, put a clean rack to move the corals to once they are cleaned.

2) Clean corals

Use toothbrush and/or small clippers to remove algae, dirt, seaweed, etc from the coral and its plug. Do not scrub the coral too hard, as that could damange its tissue. Once the coral is clean, put it on the clean rack in the other tray.

3) Once all corals have been cleaned, soak dirty rack in water and 10% bleach over night.

4) To start cleaning tanks, turn off the incoming water flow

Turn the orange handle above the tank so that it is perpendicular with the pipe.

5) Unplug all electronic equipment in the tank

For ambient tanks, unplug chiller (connected to Apex), circulating pump, and chiller pump. For heat tanks, unplug heater (connected to Apex) and circulating pump.

Equipment could break if it is still running and the tank is drained!

6) Drain tank by removing standpipe

Remove standpipe at the back of tank by pulling and twisting it until it comes out. Don’t wiggle the standpipe too much, as that could crack the tank.

7) Once tank is drained, use brushes to scrub dirt from sides of tank. Use rags to wipe inside of tank clean.

8) Read out light/temp Hobo loggers using Hobo Connect app.

Readout protocol can be found in the GSO Daily Measurements markdown, section IV.

9) When the tank is cleaned, put the standpipe back in and turn on the water. Once all equipment (i.e., pumps and heaters) is submerged in the water, everything can be plugged back in.

Check to see that the chiller pump is definitely pumping water through the chiller and adjust tubes and/or pump as needed.

10) Put the clean rack with the clean corals back in the tank.

11) Once all tanks are cleaned, check to see that all equipment is plugged in and running and that there is adequate flow in all tanks. Check the Apex Fusion app to make sure the temperatures in all tanks are in the desired range.

The temperatures on the Apex Fusion app will increase when you are cleaning the tank because the temperature probes are exposed to the warmer air for a period of time. Note the date and time which the tank was cleaned for future reference.