If you’ve been watching the news lately, you may have heard about the massive Microcystis algae outbreak that is currently affecting the western basin of Lake Erie and, from this past Friday until around 9:30 this morning, rendered the tap water in Toledo, Ohio and many surrounding communities unsafe to drink. Toledo just happens to be home to yours truly, and “Caribbean Chris” just happens to live in one of those surrounding communities.
我和我的妻子首先在我们在佛罗里达州度假的尾声中得知这种最不寻常的水紧急情况。我们十几岁的儿子和女儿现在已经太老了,无法与爸爸妈妈一起旅行,他们通过短信打破了新闻。My first thought was, “Thank heaven we’ve stockpiled plenty of clean drinking water that the kids can use (I guess you could say we’re preppers of a sort—though not the wild-eyed, catapult-building, planning-for-Armageddon type). My second thought was, “Hmm, I wonder what this means for my aquariums.” The same question occurred to Chris.
这么多问题,很少的答案
对国内外(微胞藻属产生的毒素)harmful to marine fish and/or invertebrates? We really don’t know. Can the toxin be removed from tap water before using it for水变化or top offs? News reports indicated that microcystin cannot be removed by filtration, but does that apply to the multi-stage reverse-osmosis/deionization units popular with reefkeepers or just your basic carbon filters or mechanical filters? We can’t say. If the toxin does make it into an aquarium, will a good蛋白质撇油器pull it out? Again, we don’t know for sure.
Update:我们与Saltwater Smarts的贡献者Jay Hemdal联系了他对这种情况的看法。他跟进了下面的照片和声明。
我的猜测是,海洋鱼类和无脊椎动物对水中的微囊蛋白比淡水鱼更敏感 - 因为海洋鱼类需要连续喝才能维持渗透平衡,而淡水鱼则没有。这部分是由湖中的鱼类出现的 - 通常不会被微囊蛋白杀死,而是由于夜间低溶解的氧气区域,它们倾向于迁出这些藻类区域。
I don’t know if protein skimmers will remove appreciable amounts of toxins, but I tend to doubt it, as they are best at removing particulate organic carbon, and larger organic molecules. My understanding is that microcystin is a peptide.
Carbon filtration, ozone and high chlorine levels seem to work. Authorities have not really been recommending RO, probably because they are thinking of household drinking units. RO/DI with carbon filtration seems to be workable, according to some things I read (CDC?).
它需要准备
尽管这一奇怪的情节使我和克里斯的问题多于答案,但它表明我们在海洋水族馆保持方面,但要有点像预先的。虽然当地的水限制到位了,而我和我的妻子仍然不在城里,但我建议我的孩子们用储存的饮用水来顶上水箱,而不是使用可能含有危险毒素的水来抓住机会。当然,瓶装水可能不像RO/DI-treated stuff, but it presented a very workable short-term solution.
大地震动的那一天
最近的紧急情况让我想到了另一场不寻常的事件,发生在2008年,可能会对我的水族馆造成灾难性的后果。尽管俄亥俄州并不是您所说的易于地震的状态,但我和我的妻子在一个清晨被震颤震撼了窗户并猛烈地摇了床几秒钟。5.4级地震的震中实际上在伊利诺伊州西塞勒姆附近,但在俄亥俄州几个和肯塔基州的城市也感到。
When the shaking stopped, visions of my two aquariums shattering and collectively dumping 200 gallons of salt water onto the floor downstairs filled my head. Gratefully, both tanks were still completely intact (though the fish looked a little freaked out), but if the shaking had gone on a bit longer, who’s to say what the consequences would have been? How much of that kind of abuse can a glass aquarium withstand?
正如我提到的那样,地震并不是托尔多安的计划。除了我在这里居住的近46年中几乎看不见的震颤之外,2008年伊利诺伊州地震是我唯一值得注意的震颤。我当然什至从未考虑过我的任何水族馆进行“地震”,甚至这样做。
你最疯狂的偶然性是什么?
这两种情况中的任何一个是否使您想起了类似的意外事件,这些事件给您的水族馆带来了问题吗?如果是这样,请在下面的评论部分中告诉我们。而且,如果有关于如何处理微囊蛋白的见解,我们也很想收到您的来信!