snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
Edit: This is just a rough draft. There are quite a few errors in this particular draft which will be corrected in the update. It will also be better organized into sections and subcategories.
So, in no specific order, I have compiled a helpful list of random tips and techniques that everyone should know. A few tips have to do with freshwater aquariums, because I am using the list for something else too. So, bear with me, and away we go....
Lighting is very important in a reef aquarium. It should be one of your main investments when starting a reef tank. There are a variety of different lighting options, but the good standby's remain the same. Metal halides give a shimmer look and high PAR values which SPS corals need to thrive. Low light soft corals such as mushrooms and xenia are well suited for 4 watts per gallon of lighting (with the exclusion of LEDs.)
When using carbon in a saltwater aquarium, replace the carbon every 30 days or else you risk dissolved organic nutrients and other toxins being leached back into the aquarium water, defeating the purpose of using carbon in the first place.
Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) when used properly, can prevent toxins from chemical warfare between corals disturbing the entire system and creating a problem for the rest of the corals and fish. Some invertebrates, such as sea apples create deadly toxins which can "nuke" an aquarium. For this reason, it is HIGHLY recommended to use a lot of carbon.
Carbon is not needed all of the time. When you notice that your corals are looking out of the ordinary, perform a 20-50% water change and add carbon. The water change will balance out the pH and alkalinity and replenish trace elements needed. A water change also reduces nitrates and phosphates in the water column.
Metal Halide lighting, including both HQI double ended bulbs and socket bulbs should be replaced once a year every year to maintain color spectrum and light intensity. Over time, all light bulbs turn more towards the red end of the spectrum of light and loose PAR value. Old bulbs retard your corals growth, change their colors, and promote algal growth with sufficient nitrate and phosphate levels
Lets talk about cycling. Cycling is a chemical process by which ammonia created by dead organisms, decaying food particals and other dead organic matter is converted into a less harmful chemical called Nitrite. Nitrite is converted by aerobic bacteria into a much less harmful Nitrate. Nitrate is still harmful to fish in sufficient quantities, therefore without adequate natural filtration, frequent water changes are a must.
Cycling a freshwater aquarium takes on average 3 days to complete before adding your first fish or two. This is because the aquarium contains little to no ammonia upon startup. A saltwater aquarium started with live rock takes around 30 days to cycle. This is because of the dead organisms on the live rock that cause a large ammonia spike.
When a saltwater aquarium is in the cycling process, it undergoes different successions of algal growth. Usually the first stage of algal growth is the diatom stage. The less you do about the problem, the quicker it will go away. The second stage is filimentous algae and slime algae. These stages will pass as well with water changes and a clean up crew consisting of herbivorous invertebrates.
When selecting a clean up crew, consider your aquarium size. Small tanks do not require as many snails and hermits as large tanks. However, they do require the same diversity. By buying an assortment of snails, hermits, brittle stars, and crabs, you ensure that your tank will have a diversity of species to handle algae.
Not all snails are equil! Nassarious snails typically do a great job of staying at or underneath the sandbed, and quickly eat up any excess food particles left over on the aquarium substrate. Astrina snails are great herbivores that will eat excess filimentous algaes, but will not eat hair algae. Cerith snails do a great job at making small areas spotless. Do not buy margarita snails unless you have a cold water tank.
Not all hermit crabs are the same! Blue leg hermit crabs seem to be more active in foraging for food and algaes, while red leg hermits tend to sit in one spot and graze for a long period of time. This goes for white legs and green legs too. Although, again, having a diverse array of hermits in one aquarium will typically be a good thing.
Always provide extra shells for hermits to move into. If you don't, they will kill a snail to steal it's shell.
Do your research when buying new livestock! This goes for freshwater and saltwater organisms. By researching, you will save yourself time, money and headache down the road. Research is key to a happy and successfull aquarium.
Find a forum and stick to it. Some forums have more helpful members while others do not. The best place that I have found is www.saltwaterfish.com where it's members are very knowledgeable and very accommodating for beginners. My handle on there is SnakeBlitz33, and I am happy to help anytime it's needed.
When you have thousands of dollars invested in your aquarium, you need to have emergency backups. Generators are very nice for this. During a prolonged power outage, it is necessary to fire up the generator to keep necessities on an aquarium running such as powerheads, return pumps and heaters. Battary operated air pumps and powerheads are another viable option. Always have extra battaries on hand.
If you have thousands of dollars in your tank, it's wise to have an emergency backup kit. This includes but not limited to a generator, battary back up power supplys, battary powered air pumps, battary powered powerheads, dechlorinators, emergency test kits, a container ready with pre-mixed saltwater, extra back up return pump(s), extra fish food, extra rubbermaid containers available for fish, live rock and corals incase of the rare tank leak.
Bulkheads should have the two rings on the gasket pointed towards the glass for the best seal. Bulkheads need to be finger tightened and then a channelock used to tighten the nut 1/8th of a turn. Too much and you risk cracking the nut. Not enough and you may not get the best seal.
There are many different types of overflows. The two most typical are the internal overflow "reef ready" setup and an external overflow for non-drilled aquariums. If at all possible when purchasing an aquarium for coral display, order a "reef ready" tank. If you already have an aquarium that is not reef read, an external overflow matched with the proper sized pump is a viable option.
To match the proper external overflow to the proper pump, take the maximum gph of the overflow and find a pump that has the same maximum gph flow as 0 foot of head. This will give you the ideal balance of pump to overflow ratio.
If your return pump is too small for your external overflow, bubbles will form in the siphon tube and cause the overflow to loose siphon. If you have the right sized pump, the bubbles will automatically be pushed through the siphon tube and will not accumulate.
There are many ways to accomplish the same goals in aquaria. From freshwater aquariums to saltwater aquariums, there are many different ways to set it up. You as a hobbyist need to decide for yourself what you want to keep and then model your aquarium after successful tanks, while having a full basic knowledge of your chosen water type.
Not all protein skimmers are created equal! Stay away from Seaclone protein skimmers. There are much better protein skimmers out there for the same price. Decent brands include Coralife Super Skimmers, Tunze, Octopus, Eshopps and SWC. Research your protein skimmer before you purchase. It will save you money, time and heartache.
Not all saltwater aquariums need a protein skimmer! Protein skimmers are extremely useful in highly stocked fish only and fish only with live rock aquariums. They are very helpful in large reef systems as well (240+g). For small reef aquariums with low bioloads and plenty of live rock, protein skimmer usage is debateable.
Algae scrubbers can be used in both freshwater and saltwater applications. They can even be used in outdoor ponds! Algae scrubbers use a roughed up plastic canvas screen, water flow and light to grow algae that removes nitrate and phosphate from the water column. It keeps the pH stable, keeps alkalinity high, removes toxins, pollutants, heavy metals, and saturates the water with oxygen.
Algae scrubbers are being used on SPS dominated reef tanks as the only form of filtration! Algae scrubbers remove nitrate and phosphate from a reef system, while growing copepods and increasing the amount of coral food. (detritus, zooplankton, copepods, bacteria, coral mucus, forams, etc.)
A coralline algae recipe! Keep nitrates below 3ppm, keep phosphates below 0.03ppm, keep calcium at 460ppm and alkalinity at 10dKh. Keep your temperature stable and your pH stable at 8.2 by using an algae scrubber or a refugium. To get good growth, add extra flow to a live rock that has extra coralline algae growing on it. Use a pick or new scrub brush on the rock and you will see new coralline algae growth over the rest of the tank.
Buy a light timer. You may not be around or not able to turn on your aquariums lights when they need to be on. Having your aquariums on a light timer will give your fish and corals a natural day to day rhythm which will help them from being stressed. Plus it has the added advantage of set and forget!
There are a lot of DIY projects out there that you can do for your aquarium. If you do not feel like DIY projects are for you, either get someone to do them for you or buy a properly made commercial unit. DIY projects include but are not limited to retrofit lighting systems, turf algae scrubbers, surge tanks, kalkwasser dosers, phytoplankton dosers, phytoplankton culturing, Rotifer culturing etc. etc. etc.
Algae scrubbers can cost as little as $50 to make and are just as powerful at removing nitrate and phosphate from aquariums as some high end protein skimmers (saltwater). Most hobbyists have the materials already laying around. It has the added benefit of not removing coral food!
Microbubbles can sometimes be a problem in aquariums with sumps. Sumps should contain baffles that have an "under, over, under" style. "Long runs" also give bubbles time to rise to the surface and pop. Filter floss is also a good way to remove some bubbles from the system.
When building a sump, do not place the baffles closer than 3/4" apart. 1" is recommended for larger tanks, and even up to 1 1/2" in even larger sumps.
When building your own sump with glass, use aquarium grade silicone. If that is not available, use a silicone that is NOT mold and mildew resistant. For a clean look, use masking tape to make your edges and peel them the tape off before the silicone has dried. You can also hold your baffles in place with masking tape while you are siliconing them together. Use CD cases or styrofoam blocks to achieve your desired height on the "under" baffles.
A sump is a container of water underneath an aquarium that contains all of the equipment necessary to filter and purify water before it is returned to the display tank. A sump basically hides all of the equipment necessary for running your aquarium. A sump is not completely necessary, but does add additional oxygen exchange, increases room in your aquarium for livestock, and allows better filtration control overall.
A refugium is a container of water that holds live rock and macro algaes and is a "refuge" for copepods and amphipods to reproduce so that they may be returned back into the display tank for fish and coral food. A refugium utilizes light to grow macro algaes for nutrient export. An algae scrubber is a verticle refugium. A variation of a refugium is the xenia refugium. Xenia corals utilize a lot of dissolved organic nutrients like nitrates and phosphates to survive.
Great beginner corals for low light tanks include but is not limited to mushrooms, zoanthids, xenia, protopalythoa, plate coral (fungia) anthellia and leather corals. Leather corals, however, do need somewhat higher lighting. Mushrooms do not do well under metal halide lights.
As a hobbyist, it is better to know what livestock you like and want to keep first, then find out what is required to keep them, before you buy your first tank or product. The more you know about the livestock you want to keep, the better you can acommodate their needs.
Do not get talked into buying a coral or a fish that you think looks sick. Even if you buy the fish or coral and quarantine it, it may still not survive and then you would be out the money. Live fish stores are not responsible for livestock after it leaves the door. It is up to you, the hobbyist, to know what livestock you are buying and what their requirements are and if you know you can meet those requirements.
A quarantine tank is a necessity if you have a large aquarium. This prevents disease from entering into your main display tank. It gives you a period to view your new livestock and assess their health and overall well-being. If you purchase a fish or coral that has a disease and you put it directly into your display tank, you risk infecting the entire tank with the disease.
Hyposalinity is the process by which salinity in an aquarium is brought down to 1.009 to kill ich. This takes several hours to do and should not be rushed by any means. Ich can also be treated with copper in a quarantine tank for fish only. Copper will kill corals and inverts. Some ich medications will drastically alter the pH of the water and kill the fish unintentionally. Stay away from "organic" remedies for ich.
There is research to show that feeding garlic based foods to your fish will increase their health and immune systems. Adding garlic to home made fish food for saltwater fish will only benefit their overall health and well-being. Garlic is also been shown to reduce and help fish with ich.
Some marine fish such as moorish idols and cleaner wrasses belong in the ocean and not in our tanks. We can not, as hobbyists, provide abundant sources of food for these fish to live long and healthy lives. Only 50% of cleaner wrasses will regularly accept frozen foods.
Mandarin gobies, while very pretty, require an abundant source of copepods in order to survive. Without them, they will slowly starve to death. Mandarins require a mature tank with a refugium or algae scrubber and a lot of live rock with hiding spaces for copepods to be a successful marine fish.
Sea Hares, while very useful for hair algae outbreaks, will starve to death once the algae is gone. There are better ways of dealing with hair algae than buying a living animal that you know is going to eventually die.
The number one bit of advice that I can give you is do not dose a chemical for which you can not accurately test for.
Hair algae - a constant source of nusance to many saltwater enthusiasts. There are several ways to get rid of hair algae, which will be discussed over a few tips. The first and major thing you can do is to reduce your nitrates and phosphates by water changes, rinsing your frozen foods, decrease your lighting to 8 hours or less per day, run an algae scrubber, increase your internal water flow.
If you have a hair algae problem and you test for nitrate and phosphate, your tests will most likely be false negatives. This is because the hair algae sucks up the nitrate and phosphate from the water column. This is also the reason why an algae scrubber is so effective, because it uses hair algae to remove nutrients from your system.
Hair algae can be controlled with turbo snails to some extent. I've seen Mexican turbo snails mow over it clean. However, if you add too many turbo snails to the tank and the algae disappears, your snails might disappear along with it!
Another way to control hair algae is to increase your magnesium level to 1600ppm. At this level, hair algae seems to disappear. Keep in mind though that this is a temporary fix and does not prevent it from growing long term. Proper water changes and nutrient export are the best ways to deal with the problem. Once again, do not add a supplement to your water that you can not test for.
API makes great beginner test kits for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and high range pH. Salifert makes great test kits for calcium, magnesium and alkalinity. When setting up a new aquarium, start with an API test kit. When you move on to a coral reef aquarium, invest in Salifert.
If you still don't know how to spell "anemone" you haven't done enough research to keep one. Anemones require large water volume, a mature tank, frequent feedings, stable and clean water conditions, and a lot of light. 90-95% of all wild anemones die within the first year of captivity. Keep this in mind before you buy.
Tangs need at least a six foot long tank in order to be happy and healthy. Tangs are long distance swimmers, and therefore need a lot of room to move around. Tangs are also pretty agressive and establish a pecking order quickly. Add tangs last to your tank.
Clownfish are so cute! They belong to the damsel family. They are hardy fish and well suited for a saltwater aquarium. There are many different types of clownfish, some are not compatable with others. Most will host in corals instead of anemones. It is best to add your clownfish at the same time, so that they will be "buddies."
Clownfish have known to regularly spawn in home aquaria. You will sometimes be able to see their eggs at the base of rocks. In the home aquarium, raising the fry is almost impossible unless you are extremely prepared for it. Read a good book!
There are many great books out there available for purchase! Bulletin boards are great for every day advice, but do not have the ability to be clear, concise, scientific and provide accurate sources of information. If you are a new aquarist, I highly suggest buying or renting a good book to read. If you ask, I'm sure someone will tell you a few.
All corals need four things: light, food, clean water and adequate flow. It's up to you, the aquarist, to find out specifics and adapt your aquariums equipment to meet their needs.
On all aquariums, use two smaller heaters instead of one oversized one. If the large one goes out or short circuits, your tank could overheat or get way too cold.
Always, no matter what, use proper safety procedures when setting up a new aquarium. For one, install a GFCI power outlet. It could save your life! Use drip loops for all of your electrical cords, and if possible, install a titanium grounding probe in your display tank or sump to eliminate any stray voltage.
Automatic feeders are great for vacations, but not every day use. Automatic feeders have a tendancy to overfeed and cause algae and water quality problems. Also, you tend to forget to keep putting food in there and end up starving your fish.
Phytoplankton is the basis for all marine life. Phytoplankton provides a food source for bacteria, filterfeeders, sponges, and corals. In home aquaria, it will increase the abundance of zooplankton which is beneficial to your marine inhabitants. Live home grown phytoplankton is better than any phyto you can buy at the store.
Stay away from bottled and preserved foods. They only add nitrates and phosphates to your aquarium. They contain no live food and end up polluting your tank. The best food sources are live food sources. DT's phytoplankton uses a blend of three different algaes that go dormant when refrigerated. Once fed, they become active again. Always follow the directions on the bottle.
When using an algae scrubber, it is necessary to dose iron once a week. Iron is quickly depleted in a closed system and must be added to support algal growth got your screen. More algae grown on your screen = more nutrients exported from your system.
A perfect home aquarium for a reef tank to start with is a 75g reef ready tank with a 20g sump. It provides enough room for fish to swim in, it is wide and deep enough to aquascape in and has enough water volume for a beginner to manage.
Plastic food grade trash cans is an awesome container to use for storing RO/DI water and mixing salt in. You can also easily put bulkheads in them for easier access to water. They are also easily transportable.
Use a small powerhead or pump to do water changes. There is no need to break your back carrying all of that water. The best place for used freshwater is your garden or front/back lawn. The best place to discard of saltwater is down your toilet.
Tidal surge tanks are easy to make. A simple design by Eric Borneman that uses a plastic container and a toilet flushing system and a pump is the absolute easiest to make and best performing design out there for the home aquarist. To find directions on how to build it, do a simple Google search.
Tidal surge tanks add chaotic flow to a reef aquarium, which keeps your tanks inhabitants happy and healthy. Especially SPS corals. One tip, however, is to allow your sump enough extra room for the amount of water that is flushed into your display tank from the surge tank. Make sure also that your overflow can handle that much drainage at one time.
One of the best plumbing tips that I can provide is to drill a 1/8" diameter hole at the water line of your display tank on your return pumps plumbing. Once the return pump stops, the hole will suck in air and prevent your return pump from siphoning excess water.
Kalkwasser is a viable way to add both calcium and alkalinity to your reef tank. 2 table spoons of kalkwasser per 1 gallon of water. stir/shake well in a water jug. Wait a minimum of 2-6 hours for the solids to precipitate to the bottom, then drip in only the clear water at a rate of 4-6 drops per second after your lights go out.
Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime is a viable alternative to expensive kalkwasser. Keep in mind, however, that Mrs. Wages does contain additional phosphates that an aquarium grade kalkwasser mix may not have. On both kalkwasser and Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime, the label says "Contains approximately 50% calcium hydroxide."
Alkalinity is the measure of your waters ability to neutralize acid. Alkalinity and pH are very closely tied together. When pH is low, you bet that your alkalinity is also low. A pH buffer also buffers alkalinity. However, a pH buffer does NOT permanently increase your pH. OTher methods should be used to raise your pH and alkalinity.
If your calcium is high and your alkalinity is low, calcium precipitation may occur. You may see what looks like marine snow start to form in your water column. This is not a good thing. To immediately get your alkalinity up, add 1tbsp of baking soda per quart of fresh pure water, stir it up and very slowly add it to your aquarium. At the same time, get a fresh batch of saltwater mixing.
A simple water change balances all of your aquariums chemicals out, including pH, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. It also replenishes trace elements and reduces nitrates and phosphates.
If your calcium is low and your alkalinity is high, add a calcium based product other then kalkwasser to increase your calcium level. If you dose kalkwasser, you are also increasing your alkalinity, therefore defeating the purpose.
When your pH, calcium and alkalinity is low, drip kalkwasser or do a water change. SPS and LPS corals and coralline algae regularly use calcium and alkalinity, so your levels may be reduced over time without proper water changes or supplementation.
Baking soda is a viable alternative to an alkalinity buffer. If you look at an aquarium grade alkalinity buffer bottle the ingredients says "Sodium Bicarbonate." It's baking soda. 2 table spoons of baking soda per one quart of fresh ro/di water will increase alkalinity by 1dKh per 100g.
Every time you go to your tank, do a head count. Count your fish, count your corals, count what inverts you can see. This is a good husbandry practice.
SPS corals require a lot of light, a lot of flow, and stable, clean water conditions. They also require a relatively high amount of calcium, magnesium and alkalinity to thrive. Good SPS starter corals will be all aquacultured livestock. The best SPS species to start off with is Montipora and Stylophora.
Corals are more than just pretty ornaments. They are living creatures that could easily out live you with proper care and maintenance. They are animals, just like a dog and a cat, that need certain requirements to live and thrive. You wouldn't buy a dog if you didn't take the time to feed it, clean it, and walk it, would you? Don't buy a coral and then not take care of it. If you do, then you are killing a living creature who would have been better off staying in the ocean.
RO/DI units are must haves for saltwater aquarium hobbyists. Clean, pure fresh water is essential for top offs and water changes. RO means Reverse Osmosis, by which dissolved solids are unable to pass through a semi-permeable membrane. DI means DeIonized, which pulls out phosphates and other ionized particles. A good unit costs around $175 and is worth every penny.
A TDS meter is a handheld device that reads the Total Dissolved Solids in freshwater. In reef aquariums, a TDS of no more than 5 is acceptable. A TDS meter is a must for an owner of a RO/DI Unit because it allows the user to judge the best time to replace the filters or membrane.
If your aquarium is used to natural sea salt mixes and you use it for years and then switch to a synthetic salt mix, you risk killing microbial organisms that may end up killing the rest of your livestock. Same with switching from synthetic to natural if you have used it for a long period of time. If you regularly switch between natural and synthetic salts between every water change then there is absolutely no problem.
Sea apples, when they die, completely destroy tanks because of the toxins they release. It is a good idea to house them in a species only tank.
The ideal water chemistry for a saltwater tank is: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate less than 5ppm, Phosphate less than 0.03ppm, Temp constant at 78F, ph 8.2 constant, Alkalinity 10dKh, Calcium 460ppm, Magnesium 1450. That is absolutely ideal, and I believe what we might all be striving for.
Cyanobacteria! Cyanobacteria is actually a blue green algae. It grows because of excess light, excess nutrients, and too little flow. Cut your lighting down to 6 hour a day (8 for a reef), perform many water changes and siphon out what cyanobacteria you can. Add another powerhead or two to get your internal water flow up to 15-20x the water volume of your display tank. As a last case scenerio, use red slime remover. Follow all of the directions to the letter and have pre-mixed saltwater on hand for a 50% water change.
You must have powerheads or a closed loop system in a saltwater aquarium to provide enough water flow for your tank to be healthy and promote gas exchange. Water flow carries away waste, detritus and coral mucus, while providing nutrients and food to corals. It is recommended to have at minimum 10x the amount of volume of your display tank in internal water flow. I personally recommend at minimum 20x your tank volume. Internal water flow does not include flow from your return pump, protein skimmer or filters.
If you have absolutely no experience with saltwater aquariums, stay away from anemones, sea apples, sea horses, pipe fish, leaf fish, angler fish, sting rays, sharks, rhinopias, lionfish, sea hares, corals in general, batfish, moorish idols, bannerfish, skates, hamlets, lookdowns, mandarin gobys, scooter blennies, and butterflys. This is strongly my opinion.
Closed loop systems are ideal for large tanks, 180g+ because of the use of one pump to provide flow for the entire aquarium, thereby reducing pump heat in the water column. Combined with an oceans motions 4 way unit, custom flow control is amazing. Closed loop systems provide flow rates, without powerheads, so that you have a nice, cleaner and more professional look.
Metal halide lights provide high intensity lighting for corals and have a "shimmer" effect on the substrate. T5HO lights also have close to the same intensity as metal halides do, but they do not have the shimmer effect. CFL bulbs do not have the shimmer effect. LED lights do have the shimmer effect.
LED lights have come a long way in recent years for lighting reef systems. They are expensive, and the best ones are custom made. They are intense lights, but so far do not out perform metal halides in intensity or PAR values. However, they have been successfully used to grow SPS corals, and are great for dimming and customized applications.
If you are interested in what your aquarium is up to at night, take a flashlight and put a red, opaque plastic over it and shine it into your aquarium. Inverts can't see the red spectrum and will not shy away from the light. You will find many interesting organisms like this. Your aquarium is teeming with life, and you will only see a tiny fraction of it during the daytime.
Most corals feed at night, with their polyps extended for feeding. The best time to feed live cultures of phytoplankton is right before the tanks bedtime. If a coral is trying to feed during the daytime, it is most likely very hungry and trying to take advantage of the other corals by feeding during the day.
Corals have three ways of defending themselves from one another. The first way is by sweeper tentacles, which sting other corals near it. The second is by releasing chemical toxins in hopes that it will kill the coral next to it. The third way is simply by out growing the coral next to it and shading it out. Get to know each corals defenses and arrange accordingly.
If you have high intensity lighting such as metal halides, it is sometimes necessary to photoacclimate a new coral to the tank. A couple screens of screens of mosquito mesh laid over egg crate on the top of your tank will provide enough shade. After a week, take one screen off, after another, take another screen off until you only have the egg crate on top of the tank.
Another way to photoacclimate a coral is by placing the coral on the substrate of the tank and then slowly over a period of a few weeks, bring it up closer to the light. Some corals need more lights then others, and it is your job as an aquarist to know your corals lighting needs.
When setting up a new tank, budget for it. After you know what organisms you want to keep and what size tank it requires, set up a budget plan and a time frame so you will have less problems in the future with purchases. The biggest expense when setting up a new reef tank is lighting.
When setting up a new tank, I recommend to use 1 pound to 1 1/2 pounds of live rock per gallon of display tank volume. If all live rock is out of your budget, then using a 50% live, 50% dry base is absolutely fine. The live rock will over time seed the base rock with algaes, microfauna and flora and an assortment of invertebrates. However, keep in mind that the more base rock you have, the more problems you will have with algae in the first few months that your aquarium is set up.
For a new saltwater aquarium, I recommend using a minimum of 1 1/2" sandbed. The sand used can be a mixture of oolite, medium and course sands to give it texture. A shallow sand bed can be used that is under 1", or a deep sand bed over 4" can be used. Also another alternative to a sandbed is to go "Bare Bottom."
If you drip kalkwasser into your tank, drip it only six days a week. On the 7th day, do not drip kalkwasser but add a pH buffer to keep your alkalinity/pH stable while excess calcium is being used.
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There is a whole array of different equipment that can be used in a saltwater aquarium. Research each piece of equipment before buying. There are some different types of equipment that simply aren't necessary or don't even do anything at all. Make sure you don't fall into this trap.
UV Sterilizers do not kill ich parasites on fish.
Every maintenance period on a saltwater fish tank check your pH, salinity, and nitrate. On a reef tank, you will need to check your pH, Salinity, nitrate, phosphate, alkalinity and calcium. If needed, you may also need to check your magnesium levels too. Do not dose what you can not test for.
Every maintenance period, perform a head count, water test, do a water change if needed, clean your scrubber, clean your skimmer cup, make sure you auto top off unit is clean and working, dose any chemicals necessary to maintain levels, feed your fish maybe, make new home made fish food.
If you make your own home made fish food regularly, I suggest getting your own blender or food processor. This will keep your significant other happy, and you don't have to worry about eating fish food.
To make a good quality fish food, use a blend of shrimp, oysters, some flake food, scallops, a few shrimp shells, nori or dried hair algae, mysis or enriched brine, phytoplankton and try out a few different ingredients to get it the way you want it. A good recipe was created by Eric Borneman, which can be found by doing a simple Google search.
A great ingredient to add to fish food is Selcon. Selcon is a product that contains Vitamins and minerals that regular flake food and other foods may not contain.
When feeding frozen foods such as mysis and brine shrimp, let them thaw in the sink and easily wash them in a fine mesh strainer. The excess liquids from the food have been known to cause phosphate problems / water quality issues.
Some people vodka dose their aquariums. This is basically adding a form of carbon to the tank to promote bacterial growth which reduces nitrates. Thoroughly read up on the subject before venturing into this application.
Some people dose Vitamin C, or crushed Vitamin C tablets at a rate of 1000mg per day and have seen growth rates increase in corals and healthier fish. This also is a carbon source and promotes bacterial growth necessary to reduce nitrates. Basically, Vitamin C is a very good thing, something of which is not regularly produced in our closed systems.
Fluidized sand bed filters are great for heavily stocked aquariums in live fish stores and overstocked home aquariums. Fluidized sand bed filters harness the power of aerobic bacteria to brake massive ammounts of ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate. Fluidized sand bed filters do NOT remove nitrate from the water column.
Phosphate reactors are specifically designed to fluidize phosphate absorbing media. If you put phosphate absorbing media is a mesh bag or in a canister filter, it does not do as good of a job removing phosphate from the system as it would be if it were fluidized properly.
Poly filter pads are a great way to remove organic waste and heavy metals from the system. Although, they cost an arm and a leg. An algae scrubber, in my opinon, would cost much less to run over time.
In my opinion, it is best to run a saltwater reef aquarium as closely as nature intended it. Utilizing natural forms of filtration such as plenty of live rock, deep sand beds, a lot of internal flow, a low bioload of fish, a refugium for refuge and extra water volume and an algae scrubber. I have had plenty of success with this method, however there are many different ways to achieve the same goals. It's up to you, the hobbyist, to decide what is right for you.
Quarantine tanks can be set up with old water from your display tank and an old filter from your display tank. This will automatically establish and cycle your quarantine tank to get it ready for your livestock that you want to quarantine. A quarantine tank needs a place for fish to hide, so use pieces of PVC or coffee mugs for the fish to swim behind. A quarantine does not need any substrate to be successful. After quarantining, do not add quarantine water back to the display tank.
Mangroves are very poor nutrient exporters. They grow into mini-trees and are fun to watch, but get big over time and aren't worth the effort keeping them.
Chaetomorpha algae is one of the main macro algaes used in refugiums for nutrient export. Mainly because it is easy to harvest, and has little chance of reproducing sexually. Chaetomorpha algae likes to be "tumbled" for maximum light penetration and growth.
Caulerpa macroalgaes get a bad wrap because they tend to "go sexual" meaning they release their sperm and gametes back into the water column if the water is too sterile of nitrate and phosphate. It basically will produce it's own fertilizer and nuke the tank. However, if you always harvest it and feed your fish properly you shouldn't have any problems keeping it.
Aiptasia or glass anemone is a pest anemone because it stings near by corals and reproduces quite quickly in a closed system. If a tentacle is cut or removed and floats away, wherever it lands will produce another anemone. Aiptasia is taken care of with a syringe of Joes Juice or Vinegar. Boiling hot water also works. Certain peppermint shrimp have been known to regularly eat them.
Fragging corals is simply taking a small piece from a mother coral and letting it grow into it's own adult coral. Fragging can be done by cutting a coral up into small pieces or by breaking off a piece of it and gluing it to a plug. There are many different ways to frag corals.
You can stick coral frags to your live rock by rubber bands, fish net, fishing line, super glue gel or even aquarium safe epoxy putty. Stony corals respond better with super glue gel while coralimorphs and leathers do better with fishing line and rubber bands. For a complete book on fragging techniques, read a book called "coral propagation" by Anthony Calfo.
So, in no specific order, I have compiled a helpful list of random tips and techniques that everyone should know. A few tips have to do with freshwater aquariums, because I am using the list for something else too. So, bear with me, and away we go....
Lighting is very important in a reef aquarium. It should be one of your main investments when starting a reef tank. There are a variety of different lighting options, but the good standby's remain the same. Metal halides give a shimmer look and high PAR values which SPS corals need to thrive. Low light soft corals such as mushrooms and xenia are well suited for 4 watts per gallon of lighting (with the exclusion of LEDs.)
When using carbon in a saltwater aquarium, replace the carbon every 30 days or else you risk dissolved organic nutrients and other toxins being leached back into the aquarium water, defeating the purpose of using carbon in the first place.
Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) when used properly, can prevent toxins from chemical warfare between corals disturbing the entire system and creating a problem for the rest of the corals and fish. Some invertebrates, such as sea apples create deadly toxins which can "nuke" an aquarium. For this reason, it is HIGHLY recommended to use a lot of carbon.
Carbon is not needed all of the time. When you notice that your corals are looking out of the ordinary, perform a 20-50% water change and add carbon. The water change will balance out the pH and alkalinity and replenish trace elements needed. A water change also reduces nitrates and phosphates in the water column.
Metal Halide lighting, including both HQI double ended bulbs and socket bulbs should be replaced once a year every year to maintain color spectrum and light intensity. Over time, all light bulbs turn more towards the red end of the spectrum of light and loose PAR value. Old bulbs retard your corals growth, change their colors, and promote algal growth with sufficient nitrate and phosphate levels
Lets talk about cycling. Cycling is a chemical process by which ammonia created by dead organisms, decaying food particals and other dead organic matter is converted into a less harmful chemical called Nitrite. Nitrite is converted by aerobic bacteria into a much less harmful Nitrate. Nitrate is still harmful to fish in sufficient quantities, therefore without adequate natural filtration, frequent water changes are a must.
Cycling a freshwater aquarium takes on average 3 days to complete before adding your first fish or two. This is because the aquarium contains little to no ammonia upon startup. A saltwater aquarium started with live rock takes around 30 days to cycle. This is because of the dead organisms on the live rock that cause a large ammonia spike.
When a saltwater aquarium is in the cycling process, it undergoes different successions of algal growth. Usually the first stage of algal growth is the diatom stage. The less you do about the problem, the quicker it will go away. The second stage is filimentous algae and slime algae. These stages will pass as well with water changes and a clean up crew consisting of herbivorous invertebrates.
When selecting a clean up crew, consider your aquarium size. Small tanks do not require as many snails and hermits as large tanks. However, they do require the same diversity. By buying an assortment of snails, hermits, brittle stars, and crabs, you ensure that your tank will have a diversity of species to handle algae.
Not all snails are equil! Nassarious snails typically do a great job of staying at or underneath the sandbed, and quickly eat up any excess food particles left over on the aquarium substrate. Astrina snails are great herbivores that will eat excess filimentous algaes, but will not eat hair algae. Cerith snails do a great job at making small areas spotless. Do not buy margarita snails unless you have a cold water tank.
Not all hermit crabs are the same! Blue leg hermit crabs seem to be more active in foraging for food and algaes, while red leg hermits tend to sit in one spot and graze for a long period of time. This goes for white legs and green legs too. Although, again, having a diverse array of hermits in one aquarium will typically be a good thing.
Always provide extra shells for hermits to move into. If you don't, they will kill a snail to steal it's shell.
Do your research when buying new livestock! This goes for freshwater and saltwater organisms. By researching, you will save yourself time, money and headache down the road. Research is key to a happy and successfull aquarium.
Find a forum and stick to it. Some forums have more helpful members while others do not. The best place that I have found is www.saltwaterfish.com where it's members are very knowledgeable and very accommodating for beginners. My handle on there is SnakeBlitz33, and I am happy to help anytime it's needed.
When you have thousands of dollars invested in your aquarium, you need to have emergency backups. Generators are very nice for this. During a prolonged power outage, it is necessary to fire up the generator to keep necessities on an aquarium running such as powerheads, return pumps and heaters. Battary operated air pumps and powerheads are another viable option. Always have extra battaries on hand.
If you have thousands of dollars in your tank, it's wise to have an emergency backup kit. This includes but not limited to a generator, battary back up power supplys, battary powered air pumps, battary powered powerheads, dechlorinators, emergency test kits, a container ready with pre-mixed saltwater, extra back up return pump(s), extra fish food, extra rubbermaid containers available for fish, live rock and corals incase of the rare tank leak.
Bulkheads should have the two rings on the gasket pointed towards the glass for the best seal. Bulkheads need to be finger tightened and then a channelock used to tighten the nut 1/8th of a turn. Too much and you risk cracking the nut. Not enough and you may not get the best seal.
There are many different types of overflows. The two most typical are the internal overflow "reef ready" setup and an external overflow for non-drilled aquariums. If at all possible when purchasing an aquarium for coral display, order a "reef ready" tank. If you already have an aquarium that is not reef read, an external overflow matched with the proper sized pump is a viable option.
To match the proper external overflow to the proper pump, take the maximum gph of the overflow and find a pump that has the same maximum gph flow as 0 foot of head. This will give you the ideal balance of pump to overflow ratio.
If your return pump is too small for your external overflow, bubbles will form in the siphon tube and cause the overflow to loose siphon. If you have the right sized pump, the bubbles will automatically be pushed through the siphon tube and will not accumulate.
There are many ways to accomplish the same goals in aquaria. From freshwater aquariums to saltwater aquariums, there are many different ways to set it up. You as a hobbyist need to decide for yourself what you want to keep and then model your aquarium after successful tanks, while having a full basic knowledge of your chosen water type.
Not all protein skimmers are created equal! Stay away from Seaclone protein skimmers. There are much better protein skimmers out there for the same price. Decent brands include Coralife Super Skimmers, Tunze, Octopus, Eshopps and SWC. Research your protein skimmer before you purchase. It will save you money, time and heartache.
Not all saltwater aquariums need a protein skimmer! Protein skimmers are extremely useful in highly stocked fish only and fish only with live rock aquariums. They are very helpful in large reef systems as well (240+g). For small reef aquariums with low bioloads and plenty of live rock, protein skimmer usage is debateable.
Algae scrubbers can be used in both freshwater and saltwater applications. They can even be used in outdoor ponds! Algae scrubbers use a roughed up plastic canvas screen, water flow and light to grow algae that removes nitrate and phosphate from the water column. It keeps the pH stable, keeps alkalinity high, removes toxins, pollutants, heavy metals, and saturates the water with oxygen.
Algae scrubbers are being used on SPS dominated reef tanks as the only form of filtration! Algae scrubbers remove nitrate and phosphate from a reef system, while growing copepods and increasing the amount of coral food. (detritus, zooplankton, copepods, bacteria, coral mucus, forams, etc.)
A coralline algae recipe! Keep nitrates below 3ppm, keep phosphates below 0.03ppm, keep calcium at 460ppm and alkalinity at 10dKh. Keep your temperature stable and your pH stable at 8.2 by using an algae scrubber or a refugium. To get good growth, add extra flow to a live rock that has extra coralline algae growing on it. Use a pick or new scrub brush on the rock and you will see new coralline algae growth over the rest of the tank.
Buy a light timer. You may not be around or not able to turn on your aquariums lights when they need to be on. Having your aquariums on a light timer will give your fish and corals a natural day to day rhythm which will help them from being stressed. Plus it has the added advantage of set and forget!
There are a lot of DIY projects out there that you can do for your aquarium. If you do not feel like DIY projects are for you, either get someone to do them for you or buy a properly made commercial unit. DIY projects include but are not limited to retrofit lighting systems, turf algae scrubbers, surge tanks, kalkwasser dosers, phytoplankton dosers, phytoplankton culturing, Rotifer culturing etc. etc. etc.
Algae scrubbers can cost as little as $50 to make and are just as powerful at removing nitrate and phosphate from aquariums as some high end protein skimmers (saltwater). Most hobbyists have the materials already laying around. It has the added benefit of not removing coral food!
Microbubbles can sometimes be a problem in aquariums with sumps. Sumps should contain baffles that have an "under, over, under" style. "Long runs" also give bubbles time to rise to the surface and pop. Filter floss is also a good way to remove some bubbles from the system.
When building a sump, do not place the baffles closer than 3/4" apart. 1" is recommended for larger tanks, and even up to 1 1/2" in even larger sumps.
When building your own sump with glass, use aquarium grade silicone. If that is not available, use a silicone that is NOT mold and mildew resistant. For a clean look, use masking tape to make your edges and peel them the tape off before the silicone has dried. You can also hold your baffles in place with masking tape while you are siliconing them together. Use CD cases or styrofoam blocks to achieve your desired height on the "under" baffles.
A sump is a container of water underneath an aquarium that contains all of the equipment necessary to filter and purify water before it is returned to the display tank. A sump basically hides all of the equipment necessary for running your aquarium. A sump is not completely necessary, but does add additional oxygen exchange, increases room in your aquarium for livestock, and allows better filtration control overall.
A refugium is a container of water that holds live rock and macro algaes and is a "refuge" for copepods and amphipods to reproduce so that they may be returned back into the display tank for fish and coral food. A refugium utilizes light to grow macro algaes for nutrient export. An algae scrubber is a verticle refugium. A variation of a refugium is the xenia refugium. Xenia corals utilize a lot of dissolved organic nutrients like nitrates and phosphates to survive.
Great beginner corals for low light tanks include but is not limited to mushrooms, zoanthids, xenia, protopalythoa, plate coral (fungia) anthellia and leather corals. Leather corals, however, do need somewhat higher lighting. Mushrooms do not do well under metal halide lights.
As a hobbyist, it is better to know what livestock you like and want to keep first, then find out what is required to keep them, before you buy your first tank or product. The more you know about the livestock you want to keep, the better you can acommodate their needs.
Do not get talked into buying a coral or a fish that you think looks sick. Even if you buy the fish or coral and quarantine it, it may still not survive and then you would be out the money. Live fish stores are not responsible for livestock after it leaves the door. It is up to you, the hobbyist, to know what livestock you are buying and what their requirements are and if you know you can meet those requirements.
A quarantine tank is a necessity if you have a large aquarium. This prevents disease from entering into your main display tank. It gives you a period to view your new livestock and assess their health and overall well-being. If you purchase a fish or coral that has a disease and you put it directly into your display tank, you risk infecting the entire tank with the disease.
Hyposalinity is the process by which salinity in an aquarium is brought down to 1.009 to kill ich. This takes several hours to do and should not be rushed by any means. Ich can also be treated with copper in a quarantine tank for fish only. Copper will kill corals and inverts. Some ich medications will drastically alter the pH of the water and kill the fish unintentionally. Stay away from "organic" remedies for ich.
There is research to show that feeding garlic based foods to your fish will increase their health and immune systems. Adding garlic to home made fish food for saltwater fish will only benefit their overall health and well-being. Garlic is also been shown to reduce and help fish with ich.
Some marine fish such as moorish idols and cleaner wrasses belong in the ocean and not in our tanks. We can not, as hobbyists, provide abundant sources of food for these fish to live long and healthy lives. Only 50% of cleaner wrasses will regularly accept frozen foods.
Mandarin gobies, while very pretty, require an abundant source of copepods in order to survive. Without them, they will slowly starve to death. Mandarins require a mature tank with a refugium or algae scrubber and a lot of live rock with hiding spaces for copepods to be a successful marine fish.
Sea Hares, while very useful for hair algae outbreaks, will starve to death once the algae is gone. There are better ways of dealing with hair algae than buying a living animal that you know is going to eventually die.
The number one bit of advice that I can give you is do not dose a chemical for which you can not accurately test for.
Hair algae - a constant source of nusance to many saltwater enthusiasts. There are several ways to get rid of hair algae, which will be discussed over a few tips. The first and major thing you can do is to reduce your nitrates and phosphates by water changes, rinsing your frozen foods, decrease your lighting to 8 hours or less per day, run an algae scrubber, increase your internal water flow.
If you have a hair algae problem and you test for nitrate and phosphate, your tests will most likely be false negatives. This is because the hair algae sucks up the nitrate and phosphate from the water column. This is also the reason why an algae scrubber is so effective, because it uses hair algae to remove nutrients from your system.
Hair algae can be controlled with turbo snails to some extent. I've seen Mexican turbo snails mow over it clean. However, if you add too many turbo snails to the tank and the algae disappears, your snails might disappear along with it!
Another way to control hair algae is to increase your magnesium level to 1600ppm. At this level, hair algae seems to disappear. Keep in mind though that this is a temporary fix and does not prevent it from growing long term. Proper water changes and nutrient export are the best ways to deal with the problem. Once again, do not add a supplement to your water that you can not test for.
API makes great beginner test kits for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and high range pH. Salifert makes great test kits for calcium, magnesium and alkalinity. When setting up a new aquarium, start with an API test kit. When you move on to a coral reef aquarium, invest in Salifert.
If you still don't know how to spell "anemone" you haven't done enough research to keep one. Anemones require large water volume, a mature tank, frequent feedings, stable and clean water conditions, and a lot of light. 90-95% of all wild anemones die within the first year of captivity. Keep this in mind before you buy.
Tangs need at least a six foot long tank in order to be happy and healthy. Tangs are long distance swimmers, and therefore need a lot of room to move around. Tangs are also pretty agressive and establish a pecking order quickly. Add tangs last to your tank.
Clownfish are so cute! They belong to the damsel family. They are hardy fish and well suited for a saltwater aquarium. There are many different types of clownfish, some are not compatable with others. Most will host in corals instead of anemones. It is best to add your clownfish at the same time, so that they will be "buddies."
Clownfish have known to regularly spawn in home aquaria. You will sometimes be able to see their eggs at the base of rocks. In the home aquarium, raising the fry is almost impossible unless you are extremely prepared for it. Read a good book!
There are many great books out there available for purchase! Bulletin boards are great for every day advice, but do not have the ability to be clear, concise, scientific and provide accurate sources of information. If you are a new aquarist, I highly suggest buying or renting a good book to read. If you ask, I'm sure someone will tell you a few.
All corals need four things: light, food, clean water and adequate flow. It's up to you, the aquarist, to find out specifics and adapt your aquariums equipment to meet their needs.
On all aquariums, use two smaller heaters instead of one oversized one. If the large one goes out or short circuits, your tank could overheat or get way too cold.
Always, no matter what, use proper safety procedures when setting up a new aquarium. For one, install a GFCI power outlet. It could save your life! Use drip loops for all of your electrical cords, and if possible, install a titanium grounding probe in your display tank or sump to eliminate any stray voltage.
Automatic feeders are great for vacations, but not every day use. Automatic feeders have a tendancy to overfeed and cause algae and water quality problems. Also, you tend to forget to keep putting food in there and end up starving your fish.
Phytoplankton is the basis for all marine life. Phytoplankton provides a food source for bacteria, filterfeeders, sponges, and corals. In home aquaria, it will increase the abundance of zooplankton which is beneficial to your marine inhabitants. Live home grown phytoplankton is better than any phyto you can buy at the store.
Stay away from bottled and preserved foods. They only add nitrates and phosphates to your aquarium. They contain no live food and end up polluting your tank. The best food sources are live food sources. DT's phytoplankton uses a blend of three different algaes that go dormant when refrigerated. Once fed, they become active again. Always follow the directions on the bottle.
When using an algae scrubber, it is necessary to dose iron once a week. Iron is quickly depleted in a closed system and must be added to support algal growth got your screen. More algae grown on your screen = more nutrients exported from your system.
A perfect home aquarium for a reef tank to start with is a 75g reef ready tank with a 20g sump. It provides enough room for fish to swim in, it is wide and deep enough to aquascape in and has enough water volume for a beginner to manage.
Plastic food grade trash cans is an awesome container to use for storing RO/DI water and mixing salt in. You can also easily put bulkheads in them for easier access to water. They are also easily transportable.
Use a small powerhead or pump to do water changes. There is no need to break your back carrying all of that water. The best place for used freshwater is your garden or front/back lawn. The best place to discard of saltwater is down your toilet.
Tidal surge tanks are easy to make. A simple design by Eric Borneman that uses a plastic container and a toilet flushing system and a pump is the absolute easiest to make and best performing design out there for the home aquarist. To find directions on how to build it, do a simple Google search.
Tidal surge tanks add chaotic flow to a reef aquarium, which keeps your tanks inhabitants happy and healthy. Especially SPS corals. One tip, however, is to allow your sump enough extra room for the amount of water that is flushed into your display tank from the surge tank. Make sure also that your overflow can handle that much drainage at one time.
One of the best plumbing tips that I can provide is to drill a 1/8" diameter hole at the water line of your display tank on your return pumps plumbing. Once the return pump stops, the hole will suck in air and prevent your return pump from siphoning excess water.
Kalkwasser is a viable way to add both calcium and alkalinity to your reef tank. 2 table spoons of kalkwasser per 1 gallon of water. stir/shake well in a water jug. Wait a minimum of 2-6 hours for the solids to precipitate to the bottom, then drip in only the clear water at a rate of 4-6 drops per second after your lights go out.
Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime is a viable alternative to expensive kalkwasser. Keep in mind, however, that Mrs. Wages does contain additional phosphates that an aquarium grade kalkwasser mix may not have. On both kalkwasser and Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime, the label says "Contains approximately 50% calcium hydroxide."
Alkalinity is the measure of your waters ability to neutralize acid. Alkalinity and pH are very closely tied together. When pH is low, you bet that your alkalinity is also low. A pH buffer also buffers alkalinity. However, a pH buffer does NOT permanently increase your pH. OTher methods should be used to raise your pH and alkalinity.
If your calcium is high and your alkalinity is low, calcium precipitation may occur. You may see what looks like marine snow start to form in your water column. This is not a good thing. To immediately get your alkalinity up, add 1tbsp of baking soda per quart of fresh pure water, stir it up and very slowly add it to your aquarium. At the same time, get a fresh batch of saltwater mixing.
A simple water change balances all of your aquariums chemicals out, including pH, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. It also replenishes trace elements and reduces nitrates and phosphates.
If your calcium is low and your alkalinity is high, add a calcium based product other then kalkwasser to increase your calcium level. If you dose kalkwasser, you are also increasing your alkalinity, therefore defeating the purpose.
When your pH, calcium and alkalinity is low, drip kalkwasser or do a water change. SPS and LPS corals and coralline algae regularly use calcium and alkalinity, so your levels may be reduced over time without proper water changes or supplementation.
Baking soda is a viable alternative to an alkalinity buffer. If you look at an aquarium grade alkalinity buffer bottle the ingredients says "Sodium Bicarbonate." It's baking soda. 2 table spoons of baking soda per one quart of fresh ro/di water will increase alkalinity by 1dKh per 100g.
Every time you go to your tank, do a head count. Count your fish, count your corals, count what inverts you can see. This is a good husbandry practice.
SPS corals require a lot of light, a lot of flow, and stable, clean water conditions. They also require a relatively high amount of calcium, magnesium and alkalinity to thrive. Good SPS starter corals will be all aquacultured livestock. The best SPS species to start off with is Montipora and Stylophora.
Corals are more than just pretty ornaments. They are living creatures that could easily out live you with proper care and maintenance. They are animals, just like a dog and a cat, that need certain requirements to live and thrive. You wouldn't buy a dog if you didn't take the time to feed it, clean it, and walk it, would you? Don't buy a coral and then not take care of it. If you do, then you are killing a living creature who would have been better off staying in the ocean.
RO/DI units are must haves for saltwater aquarium hobbyists. Clean, pure fresh water is essential for top offs and water changes. RO means Reverse Osmosis, by which dissolved solids are unable to pass through a semi-permeable membrane. DI means DeIonized, which pulls out phosphates and other ionized particles. A good unit costs around $175 and is worth every penny.
A TDS meter is a handheld device that reads the Total Dissolved Solids in freshwater. In reef aquariums, a TDS of no more than 5 is acceptable. A TDS meter is a must for an owner of a RO/DI Unit because it allows the user to judge the best time to replace the filters or membrane.
If your aquarium is used to natural sea salt mixes and you use it for years and then switch to a synthetic salt mix, you risk killing microbial organisms that may end up killing the rest of your livestock. Same with switching from synthetic to natural if you have used it for a long period of time. If you regularly switch between natural and synthetic salts between every water change then there is absolutely no problem.
Sea apples, when they die, completely destroy tanks because of the toxins they release. It is a good idea to house them in a species only tank.
The ideal water chemistry for a saltwater tank is: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate less than 5ppm, Phosphate less than 0.03ppm, Temp constant at 78F, ph 8.2 constant, Alkalinity 10dKh, Calcium 460ppm, Magnesium 1450. That is absolutely ideal, and I believe what we might all be striving for.
Cyanobacteria! Cyanobacteria is actually a blue green algae. It grows because of excess light, excess nutrients, and too little flow. Cut your lighting down to 6 hour a day (8 for a reef), perform many water changes and siphon out what cyanobacteria you can. Add another powerhead or two to get your internal water flow up to 15-20x the water volume of your display tank. As a last case scenerio, use red slime remover. Follow all of the directions to the letter and have pre-mixed saltwater on hand for a 50% water change.
You must have powerheads or a closed loop system in a saltwater aquarium to provide enough water flow for your tank to be healthy and promote gas exchange. Water flow carries away waste, detritus and coral mucus, while providing nutrients and food to corals. It is recommended to have at minimum 10x the amount of volume of your display tank in internal water flow. I personally recommend at minimum 20x your tank volume. Internal water flow does not include flow from your return pump, protein skimmer or filters.
If you have absolutely no experience with saltwater aquariums, stay away from anemones, sea apples, sea horses, pipe fish, leaf fish, angler fish, sting rays, sharks, rhinopias, lionfish, sea hares, corals in general, batfish, moorish idols, bannerfish, skates, hamlets, lookdowns, mandarin gobys, scooter blennies, and butterflys. This is strongly my opinion.
Closed loop systems are ideal for large tanks, 180g+ because of the use of one pump to provide flow for the entire aquarium, thereby reducing pump heat in the water column. Combined with an oceans motions 4 way unit, custom flow control is amazing. Closed loop systems provide flow rates, without powerheads, so that you have a nice, cleaner and more professional look.
Metal halide lights provide high intensity lighting for corals and have a "shimmer" effect on the substrate. T5HO lights also have close to the same intensity as metal halides do, but they do not have the shimmer effect. CFL bulbs do not have the shimmer effect. LED lights do have the shimmer effect.
LED lights have come a long way in recent years for lighting reef systems. They are expensive, and the best ones are custom made. They are intense lights, but so far do not out perform metal halides in intensity or PAR values. However, they have been successfully used to grow SPS corals, and are great for dimming and customized applications.
If you are interested in what your aquarium is up to at night, take a flashlight and put a red, opaque plastic over it and shine it into your aquarium. Inverts can't see the red spectrum and will not shy away from the light. You will find many interesting organisms like this. Your aquarium is teeming with life, and you will only see a tiny fraction of it during the daytime.
Most corals feed at night, with their polyps extended for feeding. The best time to feed live cultures of phytoplankton is right before the tanks bedtime. If a coral is trying to feed during the daytime, it is most likely very hungry and trying to take advantage of the other corals by feeding during the day.
Corals have three ways of defending themselves from one another. The first way is by sweeper tentacles, which sting other corals near it. The second is by releasing chemical toxins in hopes that it will kill the coral next to it. The third way is simply by out growing the coral next to it and shading it out. Get to know each corals defenses and arrange accordingly.
If you have high intensity lighting such as metal halides, it is sometimes necessary to photoacclimate a new coral to the tank. A couple screens of screens of mosquito mesh laid over egg crate on the top of your tank will provide enough shade. After a week, take one screen off, after another, take another screen off until you only have the egg crate on top of the tank.
Another way to photoacclimate a coral is by placing the coral on the substrate of the tank and then slowly over a period of a few weeks, bring it up closer to the light. Some corals need more lights then others, and it is your job as an aquarist to know your corals lighting needs.
When setting up a new tank, budget for it. After you know what organisms you want to keep and what size tank it requires, set up a budget plan and a time frame so you will have less problems in the future with purchases. The biggest expense when setting up a new reef tank is lighting.
When setting up a new tank, I recommend to use 1 pound to 1 1/2 pounds of live rock per gallon of display tank volume. If all live rock is out of your budget, then using a 50% live, 50% dry base is absolutely fine. The live rock will over time seed the base rock with algaes, microfauna and flora and an assortment of invertebrates. However, keep in mind that the more base rock you have, the more problems you will have with algae in the first few months that your aquarium is set up.
For a new saltwater aquarium, I recommend using a minimum of 1 1/2" sandbed. The sand used can be a mixture of oolite, medium and course sands to give it texture. A shallow sand bed can be used that is under 1", or a deep sand bed over 4" can be used. Also another alternative to a sandbed is to go "Bare Bottom."
If you drip kalkwasser into your tank, drip it only six days a week. On the 7th day, do not drip kalkwasser but add a pH buffer to keep your alkalinity/pH stable while excess calcium is being used.
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There is a whole array of different equipment that can be used in a saltwater aquarium. Research each piece of equipment before buying. There are some different types of equipment that simply aren't necessary or don't even do anything at all. Make sure you don't fall into this trap.
UV Sterilizers do not kill ich parasites on fish.
Every maintenance period on a saltwater fish tank check your pH, salinity, and nitrate. On a reef tank, you will need to check your pH, Salinity, nitrate, phosphate, alkalinity and calcium. If needed, you may also need to check your magnesium levels too. Do not dose what you can not test for.
Every maintenance period, perform a head count, water test, do a water change if needed, clean your scrubber, clean your skimmer cup, make sure you auto top off unit is clean and working, dose any chemicals necessary to maintain levels, feed your fish maybe, make new home made fish food.
If you make your own home made fish food regularly, I suggest getting your own blender or food processor. This will keep your significant other happy, and you don't have to worry about eating fish food.
To make a good quality fish food, use a blend of shrimp, oysters, some flake food, scallops, a few shrimp shells, nori or dried hair algae, mysis or enriched brine, phytoplankton and try out a few different ingredients to get it the way you want it. A good recipe was created by Eric Borneman, which can be found by doing a simple Google search.
A great ingredient to add to fish food is Selcon. Selcon is a product that contains Vitamins and minerals that regular flake food and other foods may not contain.
When feeding frozen foods such as mysis and brine shrimp, let them thaw in the sink and easily wash them in a fine mesh strainer. The excess liquids from the food have been known to cause phosphate problems / water quality issues.
Some people vodka dose their aquariums. This is basically adding a form of carbon to the tank to promote bacterial growth which reduces nitrates. Thoroughly read up on the subject before venturing into this application.
Some people dose Vitamin C, or crushed Vitamin C tablets at a rate of 1000mg per day and have seen growth rates increase in corals and healthier fish. This also is a carbon source and promotes bacterial growth necessary to reduce nitrates. Basically, Vitamin C is a very good thing, something of which is not regularly produced in our closed systems.
Fluidized sand bed filters are great for heavily stocked aquariums in live fish stores and overstocked home aquariums. Fluidized sand bed filters harness the power of aerobic bacteria to brake massive ammounts of ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate. Fluidized sand bed filters do NOT remove nitrate from the water column.
Phosphate reactors are specifically designed to fluidize phosphate absorbing media. If you put phosphate absorbing media is a mesh bag or in a canister filter, it does not do as good of a job removing phosphate from the system as it would be if it were fluidized properly.
Poly filter pads are a great way to remove organic waste and heavy metals from the system. Although, they cost an arm and a leg. An algae scrubber, in my opinon, would cost much less to run over time.
In my opinion, it is best to run a saltwater reef aquarium as closely as nature intended it. Utilizing natural forms of filtration such as plenty of live rock, deep sand beds, a lot of internal flow, a low bioload of fish, a refugium for refuge and extra water volume and an algae scrubber. I have had plenty of success with this method, however there are many different ways to achieve the same goals. It's up to you, the hobbyist, to decide what is right for you.
Quarantine tanks can be set up with old water from your display tank and an old filter from your display tank. This will automatically establish and cycle your quarantine tank to get it ready for your livestock that you want to quarantine. A quarantine tank needs a place for fish to hide, so use pieces of PVC or coffee mugs for the fish to swim behind. A quarantine does not need any substrate to be successful. After quarantining, do not add quarantine water back to the display tank.
Mangroves are very poor nutrient exporters. They grow into mini-trees and are fun to watch, but get big over time and aren't worth the effort keeping them.
Chaetomorpha algae is one of the main macro algaes used in refugiums for nutrient export. Mainly because it is easy to harvest, and has little chance of reproducing sexually. Chaetomorpha algae likes to be "tumbled" for maximum light penetration and growth.
Caulerpa macroalgaes get a bad wrap because they tend to "go sexual" meaning they release their sperm and gametes back into the water column if the water is too sterile of nitrate and phosphate. It basically will produce it's own fertilizer and nuke the tank. However, if you always harvest it and feed your fish properly you shouldn't have any problems keeping it.
Aiptasia or glass anemone is a pest anemone because it stings near by corals and reproduces quite quickly in a closed system. If a tentacle is cut or removed and floats away, wherever it lands will produce another anemone. Aiptasia is taken care of with a syringe of Joes Juice or Vinegar. Boiling hot water also works. Certain peppermint shrimp have been known to regularly eat them.
Fragging corals is simply taking a small piece from a mother coral and letting it grow into it's own adult coral. Fragging can be done by cutting a coral up into small pieces or by breaking off a piece of it and gluing it to a plug. There are many different ways to frag corals.
You can stick coral frags to your live rock by rubber bands, fish net, fishing line, super glue gel or even aquarium safe epoxy putty. Stony corals respond better with super glue gel while coralimorphs and leathers do better with fishing line and rubber bands. For a complete book on fragging techniques, read a book called "coral propagation" by Anthony Calfo.
