As marine aquarium hobbyists, we can buy a lot of things to make our experience better and easier, but when it comes to long-term reefkeeping success, the “right stuff” doesn’t come from a store. In addition to a genuine love…
Ask Yourself These Questions Before Starting Your First Saltwater Aquarium
One of our primary goals here at Saltwater Smarts is to give budding marine aquarists all the insights and information they need to embark upon this challenging hobby with their eyes wide open. Encouraging prior research on techniques, equipment, and…
Is the Internet a Viable Resource for Marine Aquarium Research?
Virtually since the advent of the internet, there’s been a tendency in our hobby to rate the reliability and trustworthiness of online content beneath that of print-format materials—books, magazines, and so forth. But is this assessment really fair? The general…
Failure to Launch: 5 Reasons New Marine Aquarium Hobbyists “Crash and Burn”
It’s a tale as old as the hobby itself: A novice marine aquarist sets up his or her first system, runs headlong into every conceivable obstacle and pitfall, responds with a series of misguided decisions, loses a whole tank’s worth…
What Scuba Diving Has Taught Me About Keeping Marine Aquariums
While sitting here contemplating how long it’s been since I’ve gone scuba diving (answer: way too long), it occurred to me that one can draw many parallels between the avocations of scuba diving and marine aquarium keeping. I’m not referring…
How to Estimate the Right Aquarium Size for Any Given Fish Species
There is no hard-and-fast rule regarding the space requirements for fish in captivity. Indeed, this value varies greatly from one species to the next. However, instead of relying on guesswork, try the following method to accurately assess the space needs…
Special floating lab studies “Aliens of the Sea” to unlock answers about marine biodiversity
A unique project is taking a closer look at one of the many marvels from the sea — the comb jelly. Led by University of Florida neurobiologist Leonid Moroz, the research team has developed a unique floating lab that includes…
9 Tips to Maintain a Healthy Marine Fish Aquarium
There’s no better teacher than experience, and with nearly a half century of saltwater aquarium keeping under his belt, Richard “Dick” Hilgers certainly has plenty of experiences to share! Currently the owner of The Cultured Reef, a coral-aquaculture facility located…
Research Your New Saltwater Aquarium. Don’t Gamble with Success!
You’ve, no doubt, heard the old saying, “Nothing succeeds like success.” Nowhere is this adage more true than in the saltwater aquarium hobby. Trust us when we say that learning the fundamentals of saltwater aquarium keeping before heading to your…
New research shows live coral trade could actually help preserve reefs
As hobbyists, we’ve used to the perception that importing live coral specimens from the wild has a negative impact on coral reef ecosystems in the wild, but new research is actually showing the hobby is actually having a positive impact…
