Like equipment maintenance, water changes, quarantining animals, and cleaning the glass, water testing is an unglamorous task that nonetheless is one of the most crucial aspects for having long-term success in the hobby. I don’t care how good your lights…
advice
How to Move a Reef Tank and Cabinet
We reefkeepers are a fickle bunch. We achieve a thriving healthy tank full of corals and then we break the tank down so we can go bigger as we never seem to have enough. I say this from experience as…
The Role of Nutrients in a Reef Tank
One aspect of this hobby that may help some to stay interested in it is that there is almost constant debate as to what is the best way to do anything in a reef tank. Whether it is halides versus…
The Basics of Minor Trace Elements in Reef Aquariums
As the hobby has continued to expand and the knowledge to be successful with it, some aspects have been found to be more important than originally thought. Foremost among these is water chemistry and specifically minor trace elements. While the…
The Importance of Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium in a Reef Tank
There are many aspects of the hobby that for one reason or another are controversial. But one of the few that isn’t is the need to manage the big three: Calcium Alkalinity and Magnesium. That is everyone agrees that it…
Water Chemistry Part 1: Salinity and Temperature
There are a lot of sexy aspects of having a reef tank including planning and setting it up, aquascaping it, and then selecting the fish and corals to go in it. And you can also get excited about choosing the…
What Ozone and UV do on a Reef Tank
When you are starting a new tank there are always a lot of lists of different things. There is a definite need to have a list that includes things like a protein skimmer, lights, etc. Then there is a list…
Goniopora-eating nudibranchs: A Goni Gardener’s Worst Nightmare!
As if reefkeeping wasn’t hard enough at times, and keeping Goniopora spp. Flowerpot corals in particular, we must now treat Gonis like we would treat Zoanthus or Montipora, and treat, and inspect them for predatory nudibranchs. Goniopora naturally inhabits turbid,…
How to Care for Your Reef Tank while On Vacation
There are many terms that we reefers have come to fear: RTN, Montipora eating nudibranchs, wife seeing the credit card bill, and Fedex losing the box. Unfortunately, many of us have come to fear something that we should look forward…
Electricity, Safety, and Reef Tanks
I have been stung, cut, poisoned, and punctured by my tank’s inhabitants and the equipment on it. But the pain I’ve gotten in those instances pales in comparison to the countless times I have been shocked, or nearly electrocuted from…