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Amino Acids are quickly becoming one of the most popular additives to any serious reef keeper’s arsenal. There are many different reasons why they are being used and many why I suggest everyone should use them.
Many aquarist’s have been bit by the red bug, or the monti nudibranches or flatworms etc etc. In this article I will explain a few ways to prevent these mishaps.
As an aquarium professional I would like to discuss the pressure our hobby as put on the worlds reefs and what we can do to minimize damage. First and foremost we must promote responsible reef keeping by learning and researching these wild animals we wish to care for out of their natural environment. Management through collector and consumer education as well as captive farming and aquaculture we can make this hobby sustainable.
The seas and oceans cover the majority of the planet surface. Within those seas the wild reefs have grown and all of their needs are met, be that calcium or whatever
Most marine systems are set up to house tropical livestock, which means that attention has to be given to maintaining a moderately high seawater temperature
…..I need a very basic list of needs for the basic marine system There are a lot of individual items about setting up a marine aquarium in the blog and article areas on this website, but nevertheless flicking around locating topics for a beginner who has little idea of the basics could be confusing. So an ‘in a nutshell’ list could be of help. We’re told it will be anyway, so here goes! Remember this is basic. At the end I’ve put article locations which could be of use.
Whatever type of marine system is kept lighting is important. With a fish only aquarium the fish need a day cycle and of course need to see where they are going.
Disease in the aquarium is one of the main fears of aquarists. Once the presence of a disease is known the aquarist’s stress level shoots up and quite understandably so – at the worst there could be a full aquarium wipe-out.
These lovely and strange life forms are very endearing and become a household pet very easily. Children in particular seem to be fascinated by them. The care of seahorses is not to be undertaken lightly. They need very similar maintenance to a fish only marine system, so the requirement to carry out maintenance regularly needs to be accepted.
There is understandably great fascination with some anemones, mainly because of their well known association with clownfish. Seeing these colourful little fish nestling in among what are normally dangerous tentacles is amazing.
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The purpose of acclimatisation is simple - the water that the animal is packaged in may have a different temperature, pH and salinity than that of your aquarium. Aquatic life (especially corals and invertebrates) are very sensitive to minor changes in water parameters therefore acclimatisation is a requirement for success. There are two ways which are recommended to acclimatise your new purchase to your aquarium. Neither of these should be rushed and should both be performed with the aquarium lights off. The lights should also remain off for a further 6 to 12 hours after the animal has been introduced to the quarantine tank, or the main display tank, whichever you are using.
Shrimps are very well known to the marine aquarist. Perhaps the most well known are the cleaner shrimps, which are so interesting and ‘friendly’ - they climb around on the aquarist’s submerged hand without a care, though they’re actually looking for a morsel to eat. The hand must look like a very strange fish, but then there are some very strange looking fish in the wild, just look at frogfish as an example.
For once this is not a mistake of a beginner aquarist. This time it is the aquarist who has been ‘at it’ for a good while. A time period cannot be placed on the problem or its likely occurrence. It could appear after months or a couple of years. More likely it will be longer than that. At the other end, ‘New Tank Syndrome’ is a beginner’s mistake. The aquarium of whatever type was set up and the novice, itching with impatience, started to stock too early. Perhaps the bio-filtration was matured reasonably, but then stocking was too rapid and problems, or even disaster struck.
The fish only aquarium or reef aquarium has a number of devices designed to help maintain the correct parameters, hopefully ensuring healthy livestock with a long life. These are heaters, water level controllers, calcium reactors, lighting controllers etc.
Live rock is very effective and efficient when it comes to saltwater aquarium filtration however dependant upon the size of the aquarium can be quite expensive to purchase. There are, of course other filtration methods you can utilise in the saltwater aquarium. These range from deep sand beds, plenums, canister filters to name just a few. So if you are put off by cost or are looking to utilise another type of filtration then what else can you use inside the aquarium to provide hiding places for fish and places to attach corals to.
Seahorses come in different types and they are all endearing, interesting and super to keep. In the wild they are, unfortunately, under intense pressure from collection. They are gathered by the millions; some are for the aquarium hobby but most are for alleged medicinal purposes or dried souvenirs.
…and I don’t know why. I’ve live rock and everything seems fine at the moment, but I’m worried.. These words are quite understandable. Over and over again mention is made of seawater quality and how important it is - in fact seawater quality is the number one requirement, ahead of lighting (for a reef aquarium). So concerns in this direction are quite correct.
Fresh water is used constantly by the marine aquarist, first when the aquarium is initially filled and then for ongoing routine water changes. Of course, an appropriate amount of dry salt mix is added. Fresh water is also used for evaporation top-ups. On the face of it using tap water seems reasonable - but is it?
A deep sand bed is probably one of the most common additions to live rock filtration utilised within the marine aquarist world at the moment. The other is called a plenum which I will cover in a future post. A lot has been discovered over the years in relation to sand beds perhaps the biggest of which is the importance of the sand particle size and the depth of the bed. Let’s concentrate on the sand particle size first of all.
As an aquarium professional I would like to discuss the pressure our hobby as put on the worlds reefs and what we can do to minimize damage. First and foremost we must promote responsible reef keeping by learning and researching these wild animals we wish to care for out of their natural environment. Management through collector and consumer education as well as captive farming and aquaculture we can make this hobby sustainable.