It seems that when we take two steps forward we often have to take one step back. Such is the case with the success we have had in the hobby. In the early days of the hobby, we were preoccupied…
Mechanical and Chemical Filtration
Back when I started keeping fish, filtration consisted of angel hair or glass wool as the mechanical filtration and charcoal as the chemical filtration. Now there are a multitude of ways to perform these types of filtration, but rarely are…
Why Flow is So Critical in a Reef Aquarium
If you shut off your skimmer for a day or two there is usually no problem. I have also shut off all my lights for four days to kill algae and again there was no issue with the corals. But…
How To Get Rid Of Vermetid Snails
In the early days of the hobby when we were just happy keeping anything alive, our next greatest joy was when we got something to reproduce. It could have been Caulerpa, Aiptasia, and then finally something like Xenia. Regardless of…
Paletta on Protein Skimming
Through the years I have seen marine aquarium filtration go from under gravel filters through canister filters and then trickle filters, all producing various levels of success. But the only filtration method that truly changed filtration was when the hobby…
Understanding lighting
While planning and choosing the right tank and selecting a stand are all important aspects of setting up a tank, they are not sexy and probably seemed kind of obvious. Understanding lighting and choosing proper lighting, however, is where things…
Improving Carbon Dioxide and pH Management
During the early years of the hobby, some of the factors that were most intently looked at were calcium levels, pH, and salinity. Over time these have kind of faded from being thought of as critical and have been replaced…
What you need to know about Refugia
A reef tank is different from other types of tanks in a lot of ways, with one of the biggest being that most reef tanks utilize a sump to hold the equipment and to add volume to the system. An…
What you need to know about Sumps and Overflows
For any of you that are coming from the world of freshwater tanks and have only had experience with a “standard” tank, that is one with all of the equipment either inside of the tank or hanging on the back,…
Managing Tissue Necrosis
While we have come a long way in the hobby and have improved our husbandry skills for keeping corals immeasurably over the past four decades, we still have much to learn, especially in the area of coral diseases. Having worked…