Steve Tyree - Letters to Publications

From: Steve Tyree             To:Reader Mail/Editors at Marine Fish Monthly
Date: July, 4th 1997

Dear Marine Fish Monthly,

 I would like to begin by stating that I enjoy your magazine and have read many 
very good articles over the years by Stanley Brown and Dana Riddle. Recently
however, quite a few people have brought a particular article to my attention 
that appeared in your July 1997 issue. The article was "A Few Friends, A Few 
Miles" by Chris Quinn. This article appears to be a light hearted account of a 
group of avid reefkeepers travelling to Brooklyn to see me speak to the Brooklyn 
Aquarium Society. Unfortunately, many people think the last half of the article 
where Chris comments on my presentation, seemed to miss the mark. After reading the
article myself, I have to agree that the accuracy of many of Chris's accounts of 
the presentation were not factual. The entire presentation was video taped and
I was sent a copy just a week after the talk was given. I reviewed this tape after
recieving it and also reviewed it again prior to sending this letter. It appears 
that Chris did not obtain this video copy of the presentation prior to writing
his article. It can be acquired from Seth Kohker at the Brooklyn Aquarium Society 
for those interested. Let me also note that I was extremelly impressed by the BAS 
group of people and had a very enjoyable experience. This was the largest crowd 
that I have ever been the only speaker for. The main motivation I have for writing 
this article is that some of the inaccurate accounts of my specific presentation 
topics might actually cause problems for reefkeepers. Additionally, I would like 
to establish some standards for when lecturers are reviewed in the future.

 Chris wrote the following
".. the noticeable absence of any fish in any of Steve's slides."
and then assumed that my reefs lacked fish.

 The absence of fish in the slides, in no way implies that fish are lacking in the
reefs. I use very long exposures when shooting corals and if any fish were to swim 
by they would end up as streaks or blurs. These reefs contained quite a few large 
tangs, but I only snap photos when the fish are not in the field of view.

 Also, I have never professed myself to be the "West Coast Coral Breeder". I have 
not professed, but have established myself as a "Coral Breeder" by growing and 
shipping 1000's of captive fragments. We actually refer to this now as Coral Farming.

 Let me clarify a few things concerning the reef equipment I use. UV sterlization is
used for disease control. The ozone unit is utilized for water clarity while the 
protien skimmer for gas exchange and dissolved organic removal. I recommend all 
except the ozone (optional) to people setting up reefs designed to maintain dense 
SPS corals. Carbon can be used by those not wanting to use ozone.

 Chris also wrote that
"Steve displayed a number of slides on basic lighting requirements which can
easily be found in currently popular reef books."

 In fact - I displayed 7 slides or charts concerning lighting physics and the utilization
of light by corals. The first one can be found in Martin Moe's Aquarium Reference.
The second and third one were extracted from scientific articles and may have also 
appeared in _The Modern Reef Aquarium_ (Nilsen and Fossa). The fourth one was
a table extracted from a scientific article that has never appeared in any popular
literature. It listed all the individual pigments found in zooxanthellae. The 5th slide
was a composite I made from multiple scientific articles and has never been published
in any books. The 6th slide was also extracted from scientific articles and may have
appeared in _The Modern Reef Aquarium_. The seventh slide was a composite I made from 
multiple scientific sources. It was concerning photoinhibition and has never been 
published in any books. I only consider the first slide basic while all the rest were 
intermediate or advanced. Before showing these techinical slides, I asked how many 
advanced people were in the audience. Only about 25-30 % raised their hands. The talk
referencing the slides was delivered at an intermediate level due to this. 

 Chris then wrote
"He talked about the benefits of the U.V. "A" spectrum and stimulating the S-320
pigments which protect the zooxanthellae"

 No where did I state that stimulating the S-320 pigments was something the aquarist
wanted to do. In fact I stated just the opposite. I stated the following
"The coral uses S320 to protect itself from UVB"
 "The coral has a substance that is clear and absorbs UVB. There's really no reason
to put UVB over your corals to bring out color. Because your just going to increase the
creation of this substance [S320] which is clear."
"Basically I recommend to people you dont want this UVB, you dont want UVB over
your corals, because your only going to create this substance [S320], which will take
away from the corals energy budget."

 He was correct in stating that I did mention some positive aspects of upper UV-A, but 
neglected to mention I warned about photoinhibition from lower UV-A. His statement
that I talked about stimulating the S320 pigments, is not true. I noted more than once 
that we did not want them stimulated.

 Chris also wrote
"..several corals he showed did not appear to my eyes to be remotely of the coloration
that he claimed. Steve declared that one coral was orange when it really looked brown
to me."

 I displayed 4 slides where the coral had some orange color in it naturally. In every
instance I noted that orange was difficult to capture on film. Here are my exact words.
 "This coral is actually fluorescent orange, and I have yet to be able to figure out
how to capture that color. But if you can, just imagine this coral being solid fluores-
cent orange with pink edges."
 "..this one actually is orange and green. Again its really hard to capture fluorescent
orange on the film."
"It is very hard to capture fluorescent orange, at least with the techniques I am
 using"

This phenomenon has also been pointed out by Dana Riddle at the Northwestern Conference.
He stated that orange in SPS corals was hard to capture on film. There is one point
I would like to make here though. I have showed the same slides to 4 clubs this 
year. The quality of the color shown on the screen varied at each club due to the
quality of the projector. The best reproduction, oddly enough, occurred at a small
meeting in Los Angeles. The projected image size was small, the room was very dark and 
people were close to the image. There were many "oohs" and "ahs". I began this slide show 
in Brooklyn as I begin every slide show. I showed the slide that was used for the picture 
of my reef that was published in _The Reef Aquarium_. I have yet to see a reef slide 
with more color and I use this to know at the beginning the quality of the projected
image in that particular environment. This environment was not showing the slides in
true color. But it was fairly good as I could point out some pigments on the corals.

Chris also wrote
"Steve was evasive on certain topics during the Q and A period such as sharing the
specific bulbs, which he uses to attain certain coloration and to grow and propagate
his corals."

 Here is the only light question given to me and my response. I am repeating the 
question here for the audience.
"What temperature kelvin light bulbs am I using right now?"
"I am using 5500, 6000, 6500, 10 K, 20 K and thats it, right now. Hows that for 
being political" [laughter]
"If your after a shallow environment where you want to see a lot of yellow porites,
and you want to see a lot of real maroon colored, purple colored Acropora, I would
recommend going with like a 6500 400 watter. If on the other hand, youve got that
blue porites [shown earlier], or want to go for that blue purple look, then the 20
K's do real well. Now the potential problem I see with the 10 K 400 watter, is to
me it may be too similar to the 6500 K and that does not justify its price increase 
of twice. Whereas the 20 K has some specific differences that do justify almost twice
the price."

 That does not appear evasive to me. The quality of the bulbs, their affects on coral
and even their pricing were analyzed.
 
 In conclusion, I would like to point out that many of us that do presentations for
clubs spend a lot of time researching and organizing the material. We typically
convey a lot of information in a short amount of time. Anyone attempting to do a
review of a presentation, should at least tape the presentation or get a copy of 
the video tape. Every single one of my presentations this year have been taped.
The review would have carried more weight if the speaker was quoted and quoted
accurately. This would also help prevent inaccurate information from getting into 
the popular media and also help protect the speakers integrity.

 Steve Tyree