The latest edition in the popular Paul Humann series of marine life books. First published in , this guide has been significantly expanded in a new 3rd edition. Author : Gerald R.
Download ». Get BOOK. Author : J. Achieving a harmonious reef means balancing many livestock and equipment choices. Keith walks you through this process here.
Learn her secrets in this illuminating tank write-up. Jim Adelberg is a veteran reefer and the executive editor of RHM. Dissolved-oxygen levels impact the health of every living thing in your reef tank. Read this article and expand the scope of your thinking on this critical parameter. Are Blastomussa species the perfect corals? Jared thinks so, and you might agree after reading this spotlight. Wish there were a freshwater magazine like RHM? Now there is! Care to share your reefing, fragging, breeding, or husbandry success with the world?
Contact us through our website with your article ideas! You will receive an alert when a new issue is released and get full access to archives on our website. You can also sign up for a hard-copy subscription for home delivery. We educate hobbyists on new products, husbandry techniques, and livestock. Plus, we never publish e-tailer ads! All Seas Marine — www. Bettas and goldfish were very exciting at that age.
As my interest grew, so did the number and size of my aquariums. I started keeping saltwater aquariums at age My systems ranged from 10 to 55 gallons. I kept aquariums with aggressive moray eels, lionfish, puffers, triggerfish, and groupers for many years. My previous reef was a standard gallon aquarium. I learned many lessons from that system, which I carried over to the current tank, but the biggest lesson was to have an emergency plan.
When Hurricane Sandy hit Connecticut, it hit very hard, and we lost power for 5 days. Luckily, I was able to save the reef, but it was a challenge. This current gallon cube aquarium is affectionately known as the Tesseract. Many of the corals and anemones in this display have been with me for almost 13 years. This includes the large Bubble Coral, carpet anemone, Blastomussa sp. This tank was purchased used, and I am its third owner.
The previous owner made the stand and gallon sump. It has Starphire glass on the front panel for clear viewing. I placed it in a long room attached to my kitchen so we can see it from the dinner table. I drilled through the floor to run hoses to my water-change and topoff reservoirs, which are in the basement directly below the tank.
Lighting was a big consideration when planning this system. I had experimented with metal halides, LEDs, and T5s on my previous. They all have their pros and cons. On this system, I chose two LED units: one in front and one in back. My front fixture is a Galaxyhydro, and the rear one is a MarsAqua. Both are watt units. The actinics run from 7 a. Between these two fixtures is a watt metal halide with a 20, K Ushio bulb. This runs from 12 p. I have found that metal halides are excellent for coral health and growth.
My protein skimmer is a Bubble Magus. Choosing a high-quality skimmer was very important because I have a unique method of nitrate control. I use a product called AZ-NO3. It is a liquid that is added daily through an automatic doser. AZ-NO3 combines with nitrates to make a bigger particle that can be removed through protein skimming. I have used this method for many years with great success.
I also use a bio-bead reactor, and this helps with the nitrates as well. In my sump is a simple mesh basket filled with chaeto macroalgae. I aim to keep my nitrate level around 5 ppm. I find that my corals have their best color when the nitrate level is between 5 and 10 ppm.
A mesh bag with GFO granular ferric oxide is also routinely used in my sump. This keeps my phosphates low and undesirable algae to a minimum. Water flow is a key consideration in this tank. My return pump Swallowtail Angelfish. The large powerhead in the back is capable of huge flow 3, gph , but I only run it at 33 percent. The placement of this powerhead is important.
It is in the rear of the tank on the right, on the bottom third of the tank pointing up and to the left. I have it on a pulsed setting. The water flows up and over my large Pocillopora and Stylophora corals and toward my other SPS and gorgonians in the middle and left of the tank. These large corals are so close to the surface that the powerhead creates a wave going over them. I had to add another gph powerhead, pointing from right to left.
I have many plating corals, and without this added flow, detritus accumulates on them. She will not allow other fish near her anemone and will even bite my hand if it comes too close. The Melanarus Wrasse was added to deal with Montipora-eating nudibranchs. They were a big problem, and no chemical treatments worked for me. The Melanarus Wrasse handled the problem completely. The Yellow Tang is a favorite, and I have had one in every tank since I began saltwater fishkeeping. My Blue Hippo Tang is named Cathy.
My daughter picked her out and named her 8 years ago. The most difficult fish for me to acquire was my Swallowtail Angelfish. I wanted an angelfish but not one that would pick at my corals and clams. The Swallowtail is beautiful and a model citizen so far. I feed these fish slow-sinking pellet food once per day. Stocking my corals and invertebrates was a whole other ballgame.
I am like a kid in a candy store when it comes to corals. My favorites are plating-style corals. So plating Montipora spp. So make sure you consider your search terms carefully.
You can also add yourself to their newsletter no charge there and receive news and updates that way. Some of the reef magazines straddle the line between an internet and print presence. It gives you options. But the online version is free. You can also go through the archives to search for older articles.
They cover everything from fish and corals to products. It gives you something new to consider every time you pop over. Besides, where else can you find reef magazines AND blogs in the same location — all with no charge? The reef magazine produced look slick and arrive on your doorstep or into your inbox; they offer digital copies, too.
However, the folks are also kind enough to provide content-only no ads versions for free on the site. My recommendation for lighting a macroalgae tank is to use full-spectrum 6, K lighting, which is what I use for all my macroalgae tanks. This type of lighting is used more regularly in freshwater planted tanks, so there are more lighting options to choose from on the freshwater side of the hobby. Just note, some red macroalgae will actually look better with less lighting intensity.
Filtration is another area where macroalgae-dominant tanks differ from traditional reef tanks, in that less is oftentimes more. My most recent 5-gallon macroalgae tank with over a dozen species of macroalgae. I rely heavily on biological filtration from my live rock and biomedia for all my macroalgae tanks.
I typically run a filter with only filter floss for mechanical filtration as well. But compared to traditional reef tanks, the equipment list for a macroalgae tank is comparatively simple. In addition, while macroalgae are not technically plants, they still have similar needs in terms of nutrient demands and will even utilize bicarbonate in salt water as a carbon source for photosynthesis. The nutrients macroalgae require to thrive are nitrates, phosphates, iodine, iron, potassium, and other trace elements.
For calcified macroalgae, such as Halimeda species, calcium will be used to a greater extent, so it will be important to dose calcium for those types of macroalgae. While some will recommend using tap water or overfeeding fish in the tank to satisfy nutrient demands, I dose nitrates, phosphates, and fertilizer daily to ensure that my macroalgae have sufficient nutrients to thrive.
I specifically use Brightwell Aquatics NeoNitro nitrates , NeoPhos phosphates , and ChaetoGro other trace elements such as iron and potassium, among others. Weekly water changes also help to ensure that other minor elements not found in my dosing solutions are replenished. I dose calcium daily for my calcified macroalgae. Whatever method you use, I strongly recommend regular testing to ensure that you. Testing for other elements such as iron and iodine would also be beneficial to ensure a thriving macroalgae tank.
Another difference from keeping a more traditional coral reef tank is the need to frequently and regularly trim your marine plants. Macroalgae grow much faster than corals and require constant pruning to prevent them from taking over the tank.
Overgrown macroalgae will also impede circulation in the tank and consume more nutrients as they grow, and increased consumption of nutrients without the appropriate upward adjustment of nutrient dosing may cause macroalgae to go sexual. Macroalgae going sexual is probably the most feared aspect of keeping macroalgae for many reef hobbyists. While Caulerpa species are the most likely to go sexual, all macroalgae are capable of doing it.
This is a survival mechanism in response to insufficient nutrients, lighting, or other deficiencies in their habitat, where the macroalgae release all of their spores in hopes of regrowing elsewhere. The main issue with macroalgae going sexual is that such an event results in the sudden release of all of the nutrients and whatever other impurities the macro removed from the water, which will result in a nutrient spike.
There will also be an increase in respiration, which will result in fluctuations in carbon dioxide and Reef Hobbyist Magazine. Regular and frequent trimming is necessary when maintaining a macroalgae display my second macroalgae tank shown here. As long as you act fast, much of the detrimental effect of such an event can be minimized. My final pitch for a macroalgae display tank is sustainability. Given the fast growth of macroalgae and the ease with which they can be harvested from the wild and ultimately aquacultured , I believe keeping macroalgae to be a more sustainable form of reefkeeping than a coral-dominated tank.
Although collection and sale of macroalgae are very limited now, with an increased interest in. If done responsibly, macroalgae tanks could be a more ecologically friendly alternative to traditional reef tanks. Moreover, we have really only scratched the surface with respect to the types of macroalgae available in the hobby. Macroalgae can be found in a variety of remarkable shapes and colors, with a full range of green, red, yellow, and even blue. It may be surprising to many, but keeping a marine planted tank can be just as rewarding and colorful as keeping a coral reef tank.
Why not give this new form of reefkeeping a try? If you have any questions about keeping macroalgae, please feel free to reach out to me via Instagram tigahboy. I kept fresh water until and then had to pause when my family moved to another town. During that time, I had already developed an interest in saltwater fish because they looked so colorful. However, all I heard about keeping saltwater fish back then was that it was very challenging, hence I never had the courage to try.
After a year break from aquariums, in , I decided to finally start a saltwater tank. My first saltwater tank was a gallon large-polyp stony LPS coral tank with a canister filter. In , the tank was upgraded to a gallon tank. I considered it a bold move, jumping from a nano to a big tank. However, I believe the bigger the tank, the easier it is to maintain stable water parameters. In , I learned a valuable lesson the hard way.
It wiped out all my fish in 3 days. Since then, I do strict quarantine for all new fish for at least 6 weeks. For me, the biggest challenge of keeping a reef tank is being patient. I learned nothing good comes if you rush. A peninsula tank has been on my wish list for quite a long time.
Having a tank with a height greater than 20 inches makes it difficult to reach the bottom of the tank during regular maintenance. To have a successful saltwater tank, you need to have knowledge of water chemistry, know how to develop a mature filtration system, and keep everything as simple as possible. My family always had an aquarium in the house ever since I was born. For the most part, they kept fairly simple freshwater aquariums with a variety of fish and some plants.
The whole family enjoyed them, but I personally became very interested and asked for a larger tank for myself a few years back. I am 18 years old now, and I have grown from one freshwater tank to a total of nine aquariums in the house.
Most of them are saltwater aquariums, and my favorite aquarium is most definitely my non-photosynthetic NPS reef. After I realized how challenging that coral was to keep compared to my other corals , I decided to set up a gallon, NPS-dedicated. I enjoyed keeping NPS corals so much that I continued to acquire more, and I quickly ran out of room in that tank. I then reset my gallon tank and turned it into a full-blown deep-water NPS reef.
This tank has been up and running for just over a year now. I am blessed to have many avenues of help as I continue my journey through the world of NPS corals. Reef Nutrition is one of my sponsors, and they help me out tremendously by providing a lot of the food that these corals need.
I am also privileged to have some good chats with the one and only Julian Sprung, and he helps me with the identification of certain species in my aquarium that are not so common. He has guided me and helped me on numerous occasions when I had questions or concerns. The corals in this tank eat a wide variety of different foods. Most of the soft corals, including the Dendronephthya sp. Most of my gorgonians enjoy the same foods except for the larger-polyp gorgonians that also enjoy the smaller pellets of TDO and R.
I recommend broadcast feeding for all the softies, octocorals, black corals, and hydrocorals. Careful placement of the different corals throughout the tank and pristine water parameters are both key factors in successful NPS keeping.
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