The aquarium facility consists of now around 60 tropical aquaria with a total operating volume of ca. 6500 L. It is located at the ICBM Terramare in Wilhelmshaven. 30 x 100 L tanks are used for different experimental setups: Long and short term coral experiments, fish feeding assays and chemical ecological experiments with corals, algae or sponges. Larger tanks are used to produce fragments and coral polyps for laboratory experiments, e.g. in an ecotoxicological context.

Temperature and pH can be controlled individually. All aquaria usually run in a recirculating system although tanks and individual rows can be run independently if needed.

The system is run with artificial seawater (Tropic Marin® Pro Reef) and the classic Balling supply system, supplemented with trace element dosing (Tropic Marin® A & K elements) as well as Kalkwasser dosing at night. A 5 % water change per week is conducted. Alkalinity is kept at around 7-7.5 °dKH, phosphate at around 0.08-0.15 mg/L. ICP-OES analyses to monitor particularly the trace elements is conducted at least every 2 weeks. If deemed necessary, elements such as trace metals (Ni, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu, V, Mo) and halogens (i.e. fluorine, iodine, bromine) are manually supplemented. Aside from regular feeding with a liquid food (consisting of a blend of fish, molluscs, crustaceans, algal concentrates and particulate phosphate (Tropic Marin® Phos Feed)), dissolved organics and amino acids are supplemented (Tropic Marin® Amino Organic) as well as ammonium chloride to supplement nitrogen. The main aquarium is on a 12/12 circadian rhythm and a temperature of 26 °C. We use lights (EcoTech Marine Radion G4 Pro and G6 Pro), as well as T5 fluorescent bulbs (Aqua Medic Reef White and Reef blue) at an intensity of 100-150 PAR.

The Aquarium is run by Samuel Nietzer.

We woud like to thank Tropic Marin for donating salt and additives to support our research, EcoTech Marine & CoralSands for giving us good deals for the Radions.