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Closed Loop Circulation - What?s That Then
2007-10-03 13:00:00
After water quality and then lighting water circulation, in my opinion comes next. Not just any water circulation though - you can?t just chuck powerheads left right and centre into the aquarium and turn it into a washing machine - you have to create the right water flow.
More About: Loop , Closed , Then

To Use A UV Filter Glass Or Not To Use A UV Filter Glass - Now That Is The
2007-10-02 13:00:00
A UV filter glass is normally used on a metal halide lighting unit. The reason for this is that it prevents any harmful rays from ?hurting? the corals. However do you really need to use one?
More About: Glass , Filter , Not to Us

Purchasing Saltwater Livestock Online - Do You Know What To Look Out For
2007-09-26 22:20:00
I started writing this post but before long it got far too long - so I made it into a PDF which you can download and read if you so wish. For a long time now people have been purchasing saltwater equipment online, however a lot of people nowadays also purchase their saltwater fish, corals etc on the internet.
More About: Online , Livestock , Twater

Water Testing - And Not Just The Water In The Aquarium
2007-09-25 14:29:00
There is an area which I belive at lot of aquarists either do not know they need to do or in some case forget to do. Aquarists should test the water in the aquarium on a regular basis to ensure that everything is correct and stability is mainteined, however there is another area which needs to be tested periodically.
More About: Aquarium , Testing , Water

Yellow Aquarium Water - It?s Not Like ?Yellow Snow?
2007-09-24 21:56:00
I know, I know I was trying to be humerous with the title to this post and yes I know - it didn't work! Anyway, yellow aquarium water - what's that all about then?
More About: Aquarium , Water , Snow , Yellow , Yello

Starting The Siphon When Doing A Water Change
2007-09-23 21:19:00
If you are like me and do not have an aquarium system with an auto drain facility then you will need to siphon the water out manually. This actually is very simple.
More About: Change , Water , Doing , Chang , Chan

Holiday Time For Me And My Reef Aquarium
2007-09-20 23:17:00
That time of year has arrived again. My wife and I are going on holiday. All the preparations - packing etc - are nearly complete, thanks to my wife. Among other things, I?ve been paying some attention to my reef aquarium.
More About: Holiday , Aquarium , Time , Reef

Aquariums Are So Relaxing
2007-09-18 23:21:00
I have to admit that I have had an absolutely atrocious day at work today. So much to do, so little time. Everyone wanting something doing and I have to try and prioritise what to do first and for whom. It was no surprise that I was glad when the time came for me to leave the office and go home.
More About: Relaxing , Xing

Our Gallery Has Been Attacked!
2007-09-17 21:51:00
Yesterday we noticed in the gallery that we had been attacked by a lot of spam comments. These spam comments were not nice, in fact they were wuite sickening - these people disgust me.
More About: Gallery , Attacked , Been , Attack , Has Been

Stocking The Saltwater Aquarium - Part 1
2007-09-17 21:44:00
In Part 1 a fish only aquarium will be covered. In Part 2 the reef aquarium will be looked at. It is assumed that the aquarium is fully set up with all necessary equipment running and checked, and the filtration is initially mature.
More About: Aquarium , Stocking , Twater

DIY Hang-On Aquarium Filtration To Assist Water Quality
2007-09-15 22:59:00
Water quality is at the top of reef aquarium requirements, and also important for fish only aquariums. In any text, emphasis is always given to the need for excellent water parameters. Aquarists take care to ensure that this quality is as high as it can be and the level is maintained. At the same time one of the fears of the marine aquarist is the appearance of algae. Certain algae are welcome, they enhance the appearance of the reef considerably. Others are certainly not welcome, such as green hair algae, or dark algae creeping over rocks and sand suffocating life if allowed to continue.
More About: Aquarium , Water , Quality , Hang , Assist

Aquarists Online Goes All Web 2.0
2007-09-14 22:43:00
I don?t know if you have or not but there is a buzz word on the internet at the moment and that buzz word is web 2.0. So what is web 2.0 and how can we have gone ?all web 2.0?? Well for those of you that have not heard of web 2.0 well it is all about socialising, being part of a community and well taking part.
More About: Online , Goes

The Creation Of A Marine Aquarist
2007-09-14 14:12:00
Phase 1. I had to go down to town today. There?s this pet shop, thought if I have time I?ll pop in for a look when the car?s fixed. As it happened I had loads of time, so had a long look round. It was quite interesting. For sale were a lot of aquariums of many different sizes and shapes. Expensive though, the ones with equipment on. Had a look at the fish too. Wow! The colours and shapes were amazing. A salesman asked if he could help, said I was just looking round. He said the fish were tropical marine fish. He also showed me corals. I never knew these were available at all.
More About: Marine , Creation , Mari

The Nano Reef Tank - Should You Keep Fish In Them
2007-09-11 13:55:00
The answer to this question depends upon your definition of a nano reef tank? To me a nano reef tank is an aquarium which is less than 20 gallons in size. There are some people which define a nano reef tank as being less than 55 gallons, personally I would classify these as micro reefs. For the purpose of this post I will base the definition of a nano tank as being less than 20 gallons in size.
More About: Fish , Tank , Reef , Nano

A Big Welcome To This Algae
2007-09-11 09:54:00
Overall, marine aquarists are a happy lot. It?s not surprising really, the hobby can be quite challenging, is certainly fascinating, and, after a period of just sitting looking at the aquarium, calming. Unless of course the aquarist notices something that is wrong. Action is quickly taken to put it right. If there is potential to harm the inmates of the aquarium then calming it certainly isn?t.

Water Circulation In The Aquarium - Why Is It So Important
2007-09-10 21:53:00
The provision of water circulation in the saltwater aquarium is dependant upon what filtration method you are using and ultimately the life you are keeping in the aquarium. A few methods as to how to create water movement has been detailed in some previous posts, however I realised that I have never actually gone into depth as to why water circulation is so important. This is something I hope to rectify with this post.
More About: Aquarium , Water , Import

Coral Reefs In The News
2007-09-02 14:40:00
Fishers warned of coral reef fin fish restrictions - ABC Online 30 Aug 2007 at 5:52pm Fishers warned of coral reef fin fish restrictions ABC Online, Australia - Aug 30, 2007 Fines of up to $75000 will soon apply to those caught fishing coral reef fin fish...
More About: News , In the News , Coral , The News , Coral Reefs

Aquascaping Designs - Be Creative
2007-09-02 11:34:00
When it comes to the time when you are ready to aquascape your aquarium you will have to make your mind up as to which design you would like to make. Quite often people, and I have seen it a lot, place the rock into the aquarium and basically create a wall of rock. Although this type of design may be appealing to some people it is not that appealing to me. In my opinion they do not look that attractive and to be fair not that natural.
More About: Creative , Designs

Tap Water - Is It Ok To Be Used
2007-09-01 23:56:00
The new or not so new aquarist may be puzzled by the repeated advice to use purified tap water. So tap water is purified, use that. No. The water coming out of the tap is purified by the local water authority. Regulations advise the amount of additional substances that are permitted, and, hopefully, the water authority meets that criteria. However, this is for human consumption. We can tolerate an amount of nitrate, phosphate, heavy metal such as copper etc. Obviously we can, we drink it, and clean our teeth with it. Our children do likewise. So what is this need for purification of the tap water for use in a salt water aquarium?
More About: Water

The Wall Mounted Aquarium - A Living Picture
2007-08-31 22:17:00
There are two types of wall mounted aquarium. One is the type which you hang on the wall much like a picture - not great for a saltwater aquarium and to be honest I am not sure I like the look of them. Not a great deal of room for the fish to move about, what about the filtration, lighting etc - not for me thank you. And then there is the other - a full size aquarium which is fitted into the wall so that only the front glass is visble on the front.
More About: Living , Aquarium , Picture , Wall , Mount

Buying A New Marine Fish
2007-08-31 11:05:00
All aquarists need to buy livestock, and the majority of livestock purchases are from a local fish shop (LFS). There are certain points that need to be watched for when the livestock is selected. The aquarist may just be ready to start introducing marine fish, and the first action is to consider the type of fish to be stocked. Is the aquarium fish only of reef? If fish only there is more general freedom in choice, but eventual size, territoriality/aggression, and compatibility with tank mates has to be considered. It will not be very pleasing if one fish finds another fish a tasty meal, or fish fight. So the aquarist needs to consider the type of fish only aquarium, be it big fish, small fish, aggressive fish etc. Great care needs to be taken at this stage. Before going to the LFS, research should be done and a list of possible candidates drawn up. All the fish may not be available, but the plan is there.
More About: Buying , Fish , Marine , Mari

Old Tank Syndrome - Update
2007-08-22 00:39:00
A while ago my reef showed clear signs of a sizeable reduction in the tiny creatures that inhabited the deep sand bed (DSB) and also the reef rocks. I noticed this most at night. I wondered if this might be the so called 'Old Tank Syndrome .' See 'Old Tank Syndrome'
More About: Update

Aquascaping Your Aquarium
2007-08-20 21:40:00
It does not matter if you have chosen live rock or 'dead' rock for your aquarium. There is one simple thing that you must do and that is 'aquascaping'. What this basically means is installing the rock into the aquarium so that it is stable, open and aesthetically pleasing. The rock needs to be stable so that, funnily enough it does not fall over. If it is not built stable then the entire structure could fall over. At best you would have to rescape it. The worst scenario is that you could kill one of your aquarium inhabitants or even worse crack the aquarium!
More About: Aquarium

Denitrator, Where?s The Flow Gone? Update
2007-08-20 20:52:00
I run a sulphur based denitrator on my reef. It has been running continuously for years without problem, though it has needed some adjustment of flow from time to time. That is to be expected. However, a while ago the flow went wrong, it slowed down considerably. There isn?t a lot of flow anyway on a denitrator, so the flow became almost non existent.
More About: Update , Flow

Reef Gardening - Coral Propagation
2007-08-16 20:17:00
A reef aquarium is a delight. Hard or soft corals healthy and growing. Fish cruising about, in and out of the rocks, hoping to find something edible. Beautiful coralline algae growing on rocks and on the rear glass. Tiny life forms going about their business. Just as on the wild reef. Except this is a captive reef, assisted and maintained by an aquarist and supported by nature. The aquarist is proud of the creation, and rightly so. He/she has expended a lot of time on research, and money on equipment and livestock. Time is also spent on maintenance, such as cleaning the glass of unwanted algae, ensuring the reef structure is safe, and checking and removing unwanted items from the sand and/or rocks. Seawater parameters are maintained, with additives where necessary.
More About: Gardening , Coral , Reef , Oral , Prop

Aquarium Temperature - How To Control It
2007-08-14 13:22:00
The aquarist has a responsibility in his/her aquarium to maintain stable water conditions, and this applies for fish only systems and also particularly for reef systems. The stability referred to here is the continuing maintenance of appropriate levels of pH, alkalinity, calcium and the like, and also the maintenance of appropriately low levels of phosphate and nitrate. What must also be included in water parameter stability is temperature.
More About: Temperature , Aquarium , Control , Aqua , Temp

Coralline Algae - Love It Or Hate It
2007-08-13 20:49:00
Coralline algae (which is a red algae with a calcerous based skeleton), in my opinion adds colour to the aquarium. Once it starts to cover the live rock numerous shades of red add a certain different aspect to the rocks. You have probably seen aquariums like this either in person or in pictures. Coralline on the glass though - it is a different opinion - at least for me it is.
More About: Love , Hate , Love it , Oral

Aquarium Additives and Soft Corals
2007-08-02 00:52:00
Keeping a seawater aquarium nowadays is a generally straightforward affair. Provided the design and setting up is satisfactory and the aquarist does the necessary periodic maintenance properly, the aquarium will give pleasure for a long period. Commercial seawater mixes are good overall. The mix will provide adequate levels of elements in the seawater, but checks should still be made, particularly when the aquarium is matured and settling and onwards, to ensure that important parameters are as they should be.
More About: Aquarium , Soft , Corals , Aqua , Oral

Aquarium Safety - This Post Is Very Important
2007-07-31 00:02:00
As aquarists we strive to ensure that the life placed in our care is maintained to the best of our abilities. I'm not just talking about salt water aquariums but any aquarium - cold water, tropical, marine, ponds etc etc. All aquariums have one thing in common - they all have water in them. The majority of aquariums require items to ensure that the life can be maintained correctly - the majority of which require elecricity to operate - you can see where I am going with this can't you.
More About: Safety , Aquarium , Post , Aqua , Import

Problematic Algae - The Reefkeepers Nightmare.
2007-07-29 23:23:00
Algae is a problem for most salt water aquarium keepers at some point in their adventure, the secret with algae is having the knowledge as to why it grows and how to actually prevent it. Of course not all algae is problematic, for example corraline algae can be quite pleasant to the eye. It is a nice colour, spreads over the rocks giving them a nice appearance - until it starts to grow on the glass, then it can become a nightmare.
More About: Nightmare , Mare