The IceCap Pro Turf Scrubber is a new line of in-sump ATS with one of the cleanest designs we’ve seen in this rapidly growing product category. The first detail of the ‘Pro’ version of IceCap’s algae turf scrubber that caught…
Algae Scrubbers, How We Grow Massive Amounts of Chaetomorpha
Managing nutrients is one of the most important aspects to keeping a healthy, balanced reef aquarium free from unwanted algae. Curiously, one of the best ways to do this is to actually encourage algae to grow in a separate part…
We Made a Hypnotic Spinning Barrel of Macroalgae
Pretty much as long as reef tanks have been around, mini reef keepers have employed algae in its various forms to control and reduce nutrients of the aquarium water. The popularity of using micro or macroalgae for this purpose has…
New Macroalgae Reactor Coming Soon From Tunze
Tunze has a new Macroalgae reactor in the works but it’s not the two models we showed you back in May. Unlike the two we saw at InterZoo in Germany, the new Tunze Macroalgae reactor has a lot more refinements which…
How Much Waste Does a Filter Roll Remove?
Since the advent of automatic filter rolls, no one has been more keen on this approach to mechanical filtration making it to consumer grade than us. Since 2010 we’ve watched as automatic filter rolls have gotten smaller, cheaper, and more…
Signs You May Need to Lower Your Reef Tank’s Bioload
The bioload in a reef aquarium increases through both the acquisition of new specimens as well as the growth/reproduction of established livestock. So, unless fish and corals are dying in significant numbers (which they shouldn’t be unless there’s a major…
Inappropriate Feeding—Not Just Overfeeding—Kills Marine Fish
“We lose a lot more fish to overfeeding than we do to underfeeding.” I’ve read or written that sentence—or some variation upon it—more times than I can recollect. While I still consider this statement to be true on balance, I…
What a Difference a (Good) Protein Skimmer Makes!
Here at Saltwater Smarts, we’re not, generally speaking, in the business of writing product reviews. But when we have positive personal experiences with products that we think can make your life easier—and are available at a reasonable cost—we want to…
Marine Aquarium Terminology: “Nutrient Export” Defined
Among the myriad mysterious terms that might give neophyte marine aquarists a migraine (okay, I’ll stop with the gratuitous alliteration now) is “nutrient export.” What does this term mean? Is it just a fancy way of saying “filtration”? Well, not…
The Many Means of Nutrient Export in Marine Aquariums
Dissolved nutrients. Sounds like a good thing, right? After all, every organism needs nutrients in one form or another in order to grow and stay in good health. So why are marine aquarium hobbyists—particularly reefkeepers—seemingly so fixated on keeping the…
