Here’s A List Of Active Aquarium Forums

Having a marine aquarium of whatever type is a wonderful individual hobby. It’s also really good to have someone to talk to about it, exchanging ideas, opinions and stories.

The very best way is to have local friends who are aquarists. They ideally are marine enthusiasts, but could be keepers of brackish or fresh water systems.

If there aren’t any friends about who are also aquarists, there’s sometimes a club or society where sitting and gossiping over a coffee or something a little stronger can take place.

Then of course there’s the communication channel available to very nearly everyone, the internet. There’s a wealth of information available. However, searching for specifics can sometimes be quite long winded so there’s an alternative, and that is the forum where questions can be asked. There’s one on this website.

There are plenty of forums available and finding one that is suitable and liked is great. One or two deal in advanced subjects, but the majority have specific discussion areas for various topics.

Here are some forums listed, with thanks to ‘Muzzy’s Reef’.

http://www.muzzys-reef.co.uk/reef-forums.htm

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Tags: aquarium, aquarium-articles, aquarium-forum, aquarium-information, home-aquarium, marine-aquarium

Introducing - Aquarists Online Articles

Both John and I are exceptionally pleased to announce the introduction of a new service to Aquarists Online, a service called Aquarists Online Articles.

We have recently been asked on a number of occasions if any of our articles could be used on other sites, newsletters etc. Something which we either agreed/disagreed on a request by request basis.

This did get the two of us thinking though so John and I sat down a short while ago and tried to work out what we believe people are looking for when it comes to the marine aquarium hobby. Below is what we believe this to be:

• Information
• New Equipment
• Used Equipment

Quite a simple list but believe it not it actually took us some time to come up with such a simple list especially for the information aspect as we felt this could be advice, reviews, questions etc etc.

We feel that these are now all dealt with via Aquarists Online. We feel that new equipment is covered by our sister site Aqua Compare which is effectively a price comparison site purely for the aquarium hobby. Used equipment again we believe is covered by the Aquarists Online Store which is a feed into EBay which has to be the ultimate place to purchase second hand items from.

Information is a different beast altogether and it is a term which covers such a broad area. We have the forum on aquarists online where people can ask/answer questions, the social area where a community can be built using information based upon pictures, videos etc. We have two aquarium guides that we have written - one for people interested in starting a reef tank and another for people who are interested in starting a fish only aquarium. These guides are stuffed with information - basically myseld and John dumped our brains, experiences etc down into these guides and then finally we have the blog.

The blog is where we post our thoughts, advice etc for others to read and hopefully enjoy and find beneficial. The blog is where we are the most active and we attempt to post on a daily basis. John does post more than I do as I take more of an active role behind the scenes making sure that everything is working as it should do, looking for enhancements, attemping to promote Aquarists Online etc.

One of the things we also both appreciate is that there is a lot of information available in this hobby and whilst we had a simple articles section on the site which linked to some of our articles which we felt would be beneficial we did not think this was enough. There is a lot of information available the internet is a very valued place when it comes to information. This is an area which we had not covered - we only dealt with our own articles. What was needed was a resource where all of this information could be gathered so it could be read by anyone interested and also important was the ability for this information to be shared. On top of this neither John or myself wanted the responsibility to be able to find this information ourselves. We wanted a solution where other authors could submit the information themselves.

Hence Aquarists Online Articles was born…..

Aquarists Online Articles is basically an area where important articles, reference material etc can be stored in a categorised format.

This area can be used in three ways:

1. For the hobbyist searching for information

All hobbyists have a passion for learning more and sharing information about the hobby they are involved in and the aquarium hobby is no exception. As an aquarists I am sure that there are areas which you would like to learn more about.

With Aquarists Online Articles this will over time become a resource where lots of information is held. The good thing about this is that all this information will not be from the same people - in Aquarists Online’s case John and I. There are many ways to do things in this hobby and each method may work dependent upon the configuration of the aquarium. No information, other than the ridiculous is useless information. Every little bit you learn will help you as you move along with your aquarium.

Reading information from various people in my opinion is important as you can then make up your own mind as to what is best for yourself and your aquarium based upon the information you have learnt.

Basically we believe that this area will become an area which has an abundance of information in which will be beneficial to lots of people.

2. For the author

Perhaps you own a website, are a passionate hobbyist or just want to share what you want with others. For the author of aquarium articles Aquarists Online Articles is a fantastic resource for you to use.

What you can do is sign up (free of charge of course) and submit your article to Aquarists Online Articles. You can select which category you would like your article to appear in add some text about yourself, your website etc and click submit.

What this does is submit it to our article review area where either myself or John will review to make sure that it is acceptable to be listed. Once reviewed it will become active and others can read it and benefit from it. The reason we have chosen to review all submitted articles is two-fold. Firstly for spam which I personally believe is getting worse and something needs to be done about it and secondly to ensure that the content is actually aquarium related - it would be pointless not to review them and suddenly this area gets flooded with articles which have no relation to aquarium. This would then make this a useless resource.

So, how does this benefit you as an author?

Basically it can help you in many ways. Firstly and in my opinion the most important is that you can feel very good about yourself for helping others. You never know your article could either get someone started in this hobby or prevent them from giving up.

Secondly it can do a great deal for yourself. All posted articles are assigned to yourself and you can have a photo of yourself if you so wish. If you post quality articles to this area then you will build both credibility and trust in yourself. If you own an aquarium related business then this could mean ultimately more sales. The software behind the scenes allows for both articles and authors to be rated, therefore the more quality articles you submit the higher rating you should hopefully get.

If you have a website then this is where the good bit begins. Articles can be a huge source of very important traffic. No matter what type of website you have getting traffic is one of the hardest things to get. With Aquarists Online Articles when you submit an article you can also submit what is called an Author Bio. This area is where you can say a bit about yourself, your website, your business etc. Plus a link can be provided back to your website using either keywords to increase your search engine positions or a standard hyperlink.

Anyone who has a website has the ability to be able to copy your article from Aquarists Online Articles and display it on their website, however they must take the article as it is written and also display the author bio as well. What could happen here is that one quality article which is submitted could be displayed on hundreds of websites perhaps thousands all of which have your author bio on it. With this having a link back to your website more traffic could come as well as a hopefully increase in the search engines.

With the author bio also detailing information about yourself, the author this also helps to build your name, your brand as you are gaining more exposure to a lot more people.

As said the article cannot be modified in anyway be this the title, the content or the author bio therefore you should always be given full credit for the article - something which I believe is very important.

3. For the website owner

An amount of what can be done for the website owner has been covered in the above section in relation to increasing your brand name, exposure by submitting articles to Aquarists Online Articles, submitting an author bio and allowing others to use the article on their site.

A very useful tactic to increase both exposure and traffic.

But what about the website owner who does not want to write articles but wants to display some useful quality content on their site.

Again Aquarists Online Articles can help.

Any articles can be re-printed from this section and displayed on your website. It is very important to note that none of article can be modified in any way. The copyright of the article belongs to the author plus the author must always be credited with the creation of the article.

If there is an article or more that you would like to display then simply copy and paste it from this area to your website ensuring that nothing is changed and the authors bio is shown.

This allows for more content to be made available for your visitors as well as the search engines seeing more content on your site when they visit. The more content you have the better the search engines should see you and your rankings over time should increase.

It does not need to be actually on a website however. Perhaps you have a newsletter which you distribute. Content can be used from this area in your newsletter as long as the article is not modified and the authors bio is also displayed.

It is a win-win situation. Your readers get more information to read and you get more content to use.

So there we go - Aquarists Online Articles.

We both hope that you will find this new area beneficial and hopefully you will submit some of your articles into this area. We have loaded some of our articles up and will continue to do so over time. You never know this time next year there may be thousands of articles in there - what a huge resource of useful information that would be!

Aquarists Online Articles

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Tags: aquarium, aquarium questions, aquarium-articles, aquarium-information, home-aquarium, marine-aquarium

An Excellent Online Reference

Dependable reference points for the marine aquarist’s livestock are of great value, whether this is during research for livestock that is being considered for purchase or stock that is already kept. High quality photographs are necessary so that the appearance of say, a coral can be seen pre-purchase or to check the appearance/identity of one already held.

Following is a link to such a reference. It is of value to any aquarist - fish only, corals only or mixed reef, as fish, corals and mobile invertebrates can be checked. In addition there is a lot of useful information on the website. It’s really good.

http://www.reefpedia.com

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Tags: aquarium reference, aquarium-information, marine-aquarium, reef-tank

Don’t Try To Learn Everything At Once - Take Your Time

Keeping marine life is fascinating. This is supported by the fact that the hobby has expanded tremendously over the last decade or so.

Not so long ago keeping a marine aquarium seemed more simple, and the decisions to be made were also simple as there wasn’t as much choice. The all glass/silicone aquarium superseded the metal frame ones a long time ago. So the glass aquarium was chosen to fit the available space. Then the choice was generally - shall I keep fish, fish or fish? The lighting was fluorescent, and only a couple of tubes were required - no symbiotic algae to be concerned about, as the decoration was rock and dead white coral. Salinity was usually 1.022, so no problem there. Protein skimmers, fairly basic , were used, as were activated carbon and canister or under-gravel filters. The fish lived reasonable lives, but the aquarium couldn’t be described as natural.

Nowadays there is a greater choice. The aquarium itself can be had in all sorts of shapes, constructed in glass or acrylic Aquariums can be fish only (FO), fish only with live rock (FOWLR), or reef. They can have a sump or not. Lighting is varied. There is discussion over seawater salinity. There are seawater additives of all sorts. Protein skimmers have advanced a long way, and there are many types of other equipment available. Filtration is varied. Fish and coral availability is high. Food for livestock is varied and plentiful and in various forms.

No wonder the newcomer finds it all apparently complex and confusing. Where to start? What to have? What to buy?

The way to deal with the situation is to keep it simple by learning in steps. One item can interact with another, so if an attempt is made to learn too much confusion is likely to arise.

The initial and straightforward decisions are what size of aquarium can be fitted and will a sump be with it. Next, what kind of aquarium is desired. An absolute newcomer could decide to have a FO, or a FOWLR. The point is, once the decision is made to go for a particular type of system, the decisions follow on from there.

Once the above decision is made, a list can be made of necessary equipment. This requires some research, from books or the internet (such as this site). There is a huge amount of information available.

Take the research one step at a time. Filtration could be live rock, with or without a sump, or canister filter, or trickle filter. There are ‘best’ and ‘less desirable’ depending on the type of system chosen, but there are choices. Lighting also, a FO system can use two fluorescent tubes, a reef needs considerably more. Protein skimmers are required by all systems, as are heaters. All the information is available, just do it in steps.

The reason for the suggestion to list rather than just start buying is the cost. A reef system, with its lighting and filtration demands, live rock etc is expensive to set up and the most expensive to run. The costs can be added up and if excessive then changes can be made - perhaps have a FO rather than a reef. All aquarium systems can be changed or expanded in the future if required.

So the marine hobby is not complicated or difficult. There are basic guidelines to assist with good practices. As said, all the information is there, it can just seem that there is so much of it.

Take it step by step, learning the basics of each step as it is reached - filtration, lighting, heating etc. It will be more effective and more fun. Using patience and taking time to basically understand each step is the foundation for a successful marine aquarist.

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Tags: aquarium, aquarium-information, home-aquarium, marine-aquarium, saltwater-aquarium

As Well As Our Aquarium Forum We Have Also Revamped Our Aquarium News Area

Over the Christmas period we merged our gallery with the forum and added lots of new features to turn the forum into more of a community area.

We have also been looking at our ‘news’ area of the website and given this a bit of a spruce up.

We have enabled a messaging system, a buddy system, a new profile and lots more to this area of the Aquarists Online website.

Most of all though we have given the news area a completely new look.

So what is the news area for and how can it help you?

There is a term on the internet which has been talked about for quite a while now - this term is Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a term which effectively stands for community, sharing and interaction. This is a priciple which we have tried to follow on the entire Aquarists Online website. We allow and actively promote comments on the blog, we run a forum which is based upon discussion, the gallery in the forum has a rating and comments system and the news area enable submission, voting and comments.

As we all know the internet is a huge place with lots of information, articles and news available to read - both good and bad.

The news area is a location where you can submit information, articles, news etc which you have found to be good - effectively you are sharing this information with others.

It’s like a centralised location of useful information if you like.

What you can do on this is you can read the submissions which other people have submitted and if you like it then you can vote or it. The more votes a submission gets the more popular it is and therefore is more useful.

The more votes a story/submission gets the longer it stays on the first page of the relevant category for. The submissions which receive no or little votes do not stay on the first page.

Therefore this means that this area of the website allows for easy access to informative information, information which is submitted by you and voted on by you.

Another bonus is that if you have an aquarium related website yourself then you can submit your content onto this site if you feel it is useful and informative where it can be viewed and rated by Aquarists all around the world. This will also give you the benefit over time of increased visibility as well as potentially increased traffic. Something all webmasters aspire for.

Personally I believe that this is a valuable addition to the Aquarists Online website. I hope that you will find it useful and am absolutely positive that over time it will become a centralised location of aquarium related news, information and articles.

If you are interested in finding out more about this service then visit the link below, register as a member and start submitting and voting.

http://www.aquaristsonline.com/news/

Let the submitting and voting begin!

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Tags: aquarium-articles, aquarium-information, aquarium-news, saltwater-aquarium.-marine-aquarium