You knew you should have declined. But someone in the reef club was selling a huge stack of live rock for a super cheap price. A super good deal. Right when you were already preparing to set up and stock that old empty system. But this time you were going to try starting with dry …
Beginners Education
Captive Bred Livestock and Aquarium Biosecurity
Aquarium disease sucks. And that’s to say the least, because frustration with recurring maladies is the single biggest reason people leave the hobby. It's probably been that way for many generations of aquarium enthusiasts. While it creates a tiny market for medications, the impact on the aquarium livestock trade is substantial. Everyone can get hit …
Why You Need a Quarantine Tank
Most of us invest a lot into our aquarium systems. Some of us invest a whole lot. The best means of protecting your growing livestock collection (i.e. investment) is a rigorously maintained and monitored system of quarantine. But we all already know that, right? A quarantine (QT) tank is that one thing we should have. …
Beginners Guide to Maintaining a Saltwater Aquarium
A major component of reefing and keeping saltwater aquariums that deters people from the hobby is the maintenance that is required to upkeep them. It may feel like reefing requires too much work, but it may also be that you have an uncertainty on how to maintain a saltwater aquarium. Luckily for you, this article …
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All About Saltwater Snails
They are found in freshwater, saltwater, and on land; they are called snails! Hobbyists have found saltwater snails to be one of the best critters for reef aquarium algae control. There is a saltwater snail for almost every kind of algae. For this reason, It is not surprising that they are one of the most …
Power Outage Preparedness
Some aspects of this hobby are often overlooked until problems actually arise. Marine aquariums require a lot of time and dedication, so it is easy to understand how small things may be missed. But, sometimes small things can snowball into a disaster. If the aquarist had been prepared sooner and had the proper equipment on …
Macroalgae for Beginners
Macroalgae is a large type of algae that is mostly beneficial and is used mainly to fight nutrient levels and microalgae growth. It is most commonly found in refugiums in the sump area of a tank. Unlike GFO or protein skimming, using microalgae to combat algae growth and nutrient export is completely natural and cheap. …
Quarantine and Dip Treatment Method
Anyone can agree that having a tank wiped out by disease is a terrible experience and having to treat a reef system for ich or marine velvet is a lot of frustrating work. The best thing a hobbyist can do is avoid the issue from the start. There are generally two ways of treatment for …
Common Saltwater Fish Diseases
Across all organisms on Earth, disease is a large factor in preventing the successful survival of creatures. Fish in the saltwater aquarium hobby are no exception to this. It is not rare to see a whole aquarium system devoured by a disease. You will often see fishes at the place you buy your fish infected …
Aquarium Water Testing for Beginners
An idea that I have heard often within the reef community is that you are not caring for corals or fish, but rather you are caring for the water that these organisms live in day to day. When caring for this water that your fish and corals are living in, you need to test it …
Nitrate Management in Your Saltwater Aquarium
When setting up new aquariums, most people worry about and focus on ammonia and nitrites. Everyone knows that cycling a tank with fish is dangerous because of these two compounds, as they burn the gills and body of the fish as the tank matures. But, once these get to zero, most people are satisfied and …
Eliminating Detritus in the Refugium
Ever feel like no matter how much time you spend cleaning your tank, it can never really ever get clean? Detritus build-ups can be especially frustrating as they seem to come from nowhere and seriously compromise the healthy and natural appearance of an otherwise beautiful exhibit. One solution is to construct the system in such …
Manipulating Nutrient Levels to Control Algal Growth
Ahhhh… A freshly set up and (just now) fully cycled marine aquarium. No algae. No slime. Clean, shiny, beautiful. Two weeks later? Maybe three? Algae. Slime. All over. You want your “old” tank back. Particularly in newer set ups, these issues are pretty typical. Some aquarists believe something is wrong if they don’t encounter a …
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A Sump AND a Refugium?
Our aquarium systems grow over time. It’s almost inevitable. It’s well-nigh organic. And we surely all hope that as they grow, they get better. One proven way to dramatically improve the functionality of an existing system is with the addition of a sump or refugium. The conventional overflow-with-sump/refugium plumbing design (we can call it a …
A Clean Start: The Benefits of Using Dry Base Rock
Considering that it serves as both aquascape material and biofilter medium, it’s safe to say that live rock is pretty important. We want it to look and “behave” as naturally as possible. Really, truly “live” rock can only be as good as the base you build it on. For reef aquaria, the best substructure is …
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The Anti-Aiptasia Trifecta: Decimating Glass Anemones with Peppermint Shrimp, Molly Millers and Aiptasia-Eating Filefish.
A lot of us are pretty careful to avoid introducing pests when building and adding to a reef aquarium or refugium. This effort indeed pays off tremendously in the long run. As in so many cases, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Still, the occasional unwelcome critter will slip through the …
Cultivating Ogo and Sea Lettuce for Your Tangs
These days, it seems that most marine aquarists are reef aquarists. And reef aquaria almost always house one or more tangs. This should seem reasonable enough, as representatives of this sizeable fish family (Acanthuridae) are found in abundance in pretty much every shallow water coral reef ecosystem on Earth. But their strong presence in the …
Phytoplankton
The first link in a food chain is always a primary producer (i.e. algae, plants, various types of bacteria). This is because all other living things—consumers—are incapable of synthesizing organic substances from inorganic ones. Primary producers rely on inorganic sources of energy (sometimes chemical, but usually from light). Using this energy, they take substances such …
Phytoplankton, Macroalgae, or BOTH?
As marine aquarists, we might think of algae as being divided into three (maybe four) distinct categories: the benthic (i.e. bottom-dwelling) microalgae, the open-water microalgae and the macroalgae. The first group consists of the film/turf-formers, the second group consists of the phytoplankton and the third group consists of the larger, plant-like seaweeds. The first group …
Feeding the Mandarinfish with a Mix of Live and Prepared Foods
For so many aquarists, the green mandarin fish (Synchiropus splendidus) is a must-have species. Its endearing personality, exquisite finnage and intense coloration rarely fail to impress. Given these highly desirable traits, it has for long been among the most popular marine aquarium fishes. Thus, many thousands of specimens of this species are sold in the …
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