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Change of Address

We have a New Shipping Address

We’ve changed our address for returning samples. Instead of a PO Box, we’re now receiving samples directly at the lab. This reduces delays and gets your samples into our hands more quickly. 

Unfortunately USPS mail forwarding is very slow, much slower than they said it would be. If you ship your sample to our old address, it’ll still get to us… but it turns out this takes way too long. 

So please: ship your samples to our new address instead!

AquaBiomics LLC
620 Holly St
Junction City, OR 97448

Check your shipping envelope

Does it already have the new address? In that case you don’t need to do anything special, just drop it in the mail. 

Need a new shipping label?

Just send us an email (contact@aquabiomics.com). We can email you a new label with just a few clicks. This is the easiest way to make sure your sample gets to us on time. 

Already returned your sample?

Let us know if you recently shipped us your sample but haven’t gotten confirmation of arrival yet. Some samples may be stuck in mail forwarding – please let us know if thats you, and we can ship a replacement kit. 

Samples are returning to the new address faster than ever, so in the long run this will benefit everyone by reducing turnaround times. Thanks for your patience during this transition. 

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Introducing Aquacultured Live Reef Rubble

Aquacultured Live Reef Rubble

Here’s something we’ve had cooking in the background for over a year, and its finally ready to release: a brand new, fully aquacultured version of Live Reef Rubble. 

Old-school natural live rock was great – but its increasingly hard to find, and it always carried the risk of hitchhikers. Here’s the new solution for modern reef-keeping: a defined microbial community. All the diversity, all the nitrifying microbes, none of the pathogens, parasites, or hitchhikers. 

We started with clean, dry, coral rubble – 100% coral derived material, shipped dry from the exporters to us. We cleaned and sterilized it again just to be sure. 

Then we inoculated it with natural microbial communities from clean sources we had tested ourselves. We cultured it in low light and plenty of nutrients – for over a year. 

And this is the result. A really excellent microbial community similar to what you’d find in a mature reef tank. But absolutely ZERO pathogens, and ZERO parasites. And no surprise – this material has never been in a tank with fish. 

979

different kinds of microbes

4

Families of nitrifying microbes

0

pathogens or parasites

0

pests

 

Its not just diversity – this material has the right kinds of microbes. A community similar to what we find in mature, healthy reef tanks. 

FamilyNumber of types
Alteromonadaceae13
Flavobacteriaceae6
Oceanospirillaceae2
Pelagibacteraceae2
Rhodobacteraceae10

It took a long time to grow but we’re really happy with the final result. This is simply one of the best communities we’ve seen in any material we’ve tested. 

Start your reef tank with a known source of microbial diversity, avoiding the risks of natural live rock from untested sources. Check out our Aquacultured Live Reef Rubble today!

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About the price increase

Why did the price go up?

If you notice this price has gone up a little, you’re right.

At this point you’ve probably noticed the price of everything from eggs to gasoline has gone up over the past few years. In our case, the cost of shipping has increasedby more than 20%, while the cost of our base material for the Live Reef Rubble has more than doubled (>100% increase!)

Throughout that whole time, we havent raised our prices by a cent. It was always a volume business with a small profit margin, but lately we’ve watched that margin get whittled away to nothing. This price increase only brings us back to our original margins.

While we don’t like raising prices, we have to remain above water in order to continue providing our services and products to the reefkeeping community. 

Thanks for your understanding!

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What’s in a Microbiome Report?

What's in a Microbiome Report?

The Microbiome Test provides a detailed picture of the microbial community in your tank, by identifying DNA from any prokaryotes in your sample. The report includes information on

  • Diversity and composition of the community in your sample
  • Beneficial microbes like the Nitrifying community
  • Harmful pathogens that contribute to fish and coral disease

To view a complete example report, click here.

Each section in the report includes a diagnosis of your sample, with a link to suggestions for correcting any deficiencies we find.
The report compares the composition of your community with the typical reef tank community.
If your sample contains any bacterial families at higher than usual levels, the report provides extensive details on the composition of these families in your sample, and across our database of reef tank samples.
The report links to our Reef Tank Microbes DB, providing detailed information on each of these families of microbes. The example shown here is from our page on the common Bacterial family Vibrionaceae.
In many cases, the report includes specific recommendations for adjusting the levels of excess or deficienct families.
The report provides detailed information on your Nitrifying Community. This is one of the most important factors in establishing a new tank, and a surprisingly large fraction of tanks struggle with deficient Nitrifying communities (especially the Nitrite Oxidizing Bacteria).
We screen your sample for dozens of different pathogens of fish and corals, and if any are detected, the report highlights these and provides links to information about each group.

The bottom line: our Microbiome Test provides an unprecedented level of detail on the microbial community in your tank, including both beneficial microbes that are crucial to the success of a reef tank, and harmful pathogens that can kill fish or corals. 

Want to learn more? Click here to view a complete example report. 

Seen enough? Click here to order your sampling kit today and find out whats growing in your tank!

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What’s in a TankDNa Report?

What's in a TankDNA Report?

The TankDNA test identifies DNA from any eukaryotes in your sample. The main goal of this test is to screen for eukaryotic parasites that contribute to fish and coral diseases in the reef tank. To view a complete example report, click here.

If your sample contains DNA from known parasites, these are highlighted in your report.
The report links to detailed resources for the most common kinds of parasites. This example shows a details from the page on the fish disease Uronema. To learn more, click here.
The TankDNA test also captures DNA from micro algae like diatoms and dinoflagellates that can become a nuisance in the aquarium. If your sample contains high levels of either group, this is flagged in the report.

Along with parasites and algae, the TankDNA test identifies DNA from the whole reef tank community. The test results typically include DNA from:

  • Livestock like fish, corals, and other invertebrates
  • Cryptic animals like sponges, worms, and copepods
  • Micro eukaryotes like ciliates, dinoflagellates, and amoeba
  • Coralline algae
  • Macro algae 
This figure shows the diversity of different DNA sources in your sample.
You can dig deeper into each of these groups in the Complete Table at the end of the report, where we list the specific types found in each group.

The bottom line: our TankDNA Test provides an unprecedented level of detail on the community in your tank, including cryptic and microscopic communities that are not visible to the naked eye.

Want to learn more? Click here to view a complete example report. 

Seen enough? Click here to order your sampling kit today and find out whats growing in your tank!

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Holiday Shipping Schedule

We do not ship any live products during the week before or after Christmas (Dec 18 – Jan 3), because shipping during the holidays is often delayed, and it’s cold out there. 

Any live products ordered during this period will ship out the first week in January. 

Sampling kits for our Microbiome, tankDNA, and Oceamo water chemistry tests will ship as usual throughout this period, since shipping delays aren’t a problem for these kits. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

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DNA testing for fish parasites is here

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DNA testing for fish parasites is here!

Over the past year we’ve offered free DNA testing for parasites to all Microbiome Testing clients, as we developed the tankDNA Test. 

Today we’re happy to announce we’ve finished development and are ready to launch the tankDNA Test. Any clients who participated in the beta testing may be interested to know that we’ve improved the sampling protocol for even higher sensitivity than the version they used. 

For any Microbiome Tests purchased from this point forward, the tankDNA test will no longer be offered as a free service, since we’ve worked out the bugs and consider it ready for production. 

Instead, clients can purchase the tankDNA Test as a standalone service here. 

If you purchased your Microbiome Test prior to today (Aug 7, 2021) and are still holding the sampling kit, we will still honor our previous offer and provide tankDNA Testing on those samples free of charge. 

We ask any clients in that category please return your samples by Oct 31, 2021 to take advantage of this offer. 

Please feel free to contact us by email with any questions. Thanks for your continued support!

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