advice

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…

TOMLOV DM602 is the Perfect All-Around Microscope for Reefkeeping

Microscopes are cool and have lots of uses for reefkeeping: looking at the critters in the sand, looking at the details of a coral’s surface, trying to ID pests, and more. But picking a microscope can be daunting. There are…

Automatic Top-Off Systems, Reservoirs, and Dehumidifiers

One of the crucial aspects of having a successful reef tank is having the tank be as stable as possible and this is especially true in terms of salinity. But when setting up a new system, one of the aspects…

How to keep your Reef Tank Cool in Summer Heatwaves and Hot Weather

Summertime, wildfires, and the return of El Nino mean it’s time to think not about how we heat our reef aquariums, but how we keep them cool. We need to keep our tanks at a steady 25C/77F with few exceptions,…

How to properly Treat and Dip Newly Acquired Corals

As we have gotten better at keeping our corals and especially propagating them, we have also gotten better at recognizing the many pests that feed on them. As a result, it is now necessary to manage these pests lest they…