Once the live rock has been cured and cycled one of the most fun aspects, at least to me, of setting up a new reef tank has finally arrived. Aquascaping a tank, that is designing and positioning the live rock…
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How to Cure Live Rock
Up until now, everything that has been necessary to do has been relatively easy. This next step in setting up a reef tank properly is what starts to separate those who will be successful long-term from those who will not.…
FAQs on Phytoplankton Part 1
You wanna know how Phytoplankton really works in your aquarium? We asked Phycologist Taras V Pleskun. Which reef aquarium corals and other animals can ingest, and benefit from Phytoplankton? Microalgae are the nutritional foundation of all marine ecosystems. They are…
The History and Evolution of Live Rock
When Georg Smit and Alf Nilsen introduced live rock to American hobbyists in the 1980’s the keeping of saltwater animals changed forever. Up until this time, undergravel filters were the main means for biological filtration and most tanks were decorated…
How to Control Reef Tank Temperature and Excess Humidity
In terms of simple things about the hobby, at first glance, it would appear that understanding temperature would be at the top of the list. It is simple, in that since the average temperature on natural coral reefs ranges from…
How to Select a Reef Salt
When someone finds out that I keep saltwater aquariums they often ask where I get the saltwater from. Obviously, since I do not live by the ocean it is not from there, so they are surprised when I tell them…
How to Overcome a Total Tank Wipeout
We hate to hear about it happening to someone. We hate to see it when someone posts about it happening to them. But more than anything we hate to experience it. Sadly, almost everyone I know who has been in…
How to Set Up a Nano Reef Tank
We’ve really been feeling it lately for nano tanks. We run much larger tanks for surgeonfish, but while we’re waiting for our Acros to grow in those we like to have some low-cost fun and set up nano tanks as…
The importance of pH in the reef tank
Over the years a number of different aspects of reefkeeping have either become a hot topic or have been forgotten by the hobby. When I was starting out one of the parameters that was focused on was pH, which stands…
How to take Corals on a USA Domestic Flight
If you’re like me, then you try to be as streamlined as possible when flying. The idea of flying to an aquarium conference, buying coral, and transporting it back home seems a bit intense. Why complicate an already arduous process?…