Articles

Red bugs (Tegastes acroporanus) are small flea-like beasts that can infest smooth-skinned acropora sp.   Some reefers have gone out of their way to eliminate them from their reef tank, but that is not the purpose of this article. I've seen them in my tank on occasion, but never worried much about them. Maybe if they did more damage, I'd be more concerned. Still, whatever coral I saw them on, the coral wasn't as happy as it could be, because these guys are like little blood-suckers.

Do you practice safe reefkeeping? No matter where you go, no matter how much money is in your bank account, when you see that new coral you just have to have, there’s no chance you’ll let it elude your collection.  This time of year, many clubs hold Frag Swaps where coral fragments are sold or traded with other hobbyists.  What concerns me is what happens next.  In my club, I see pictures posted – within mere hours of the event -- of the new acquisitions in their display tanks.   Dipping new corals in iodine for 10 minutes, then placing them in a tank is not what I consider

What is the difference between a whelk and a Nassarius snail?  In the picture below, the creature on the left is a Nassarius snail, the one on the right is a whelk. Whelks get much larger, while Nassarius don't. At least Nassarius vibex, that is.  And all the images at the top of this article are Whelks, an unwanted snail in a reef system. Read on...

Ein Closed-Loop-System für ein Becken ohne Bohrungen  

English version here: http://www.melevsreef.com/tanks/29g-closed-loop-in-an-undrilled-tank

Feeding an aquarium seems simple enough. Buy a jar of flake food, and toss some in, right? Actually, that really isn’t a good idea for a variety of reasons. Hopefully you’ll find the following information helpful for your own specific needs. Foods come in many forms, including sheets, flakes, pellets, frozen, refrigerated, liquid, and live.

You just got that new {insert item here}, is it safe to put it in your tank?

The short answer is no. No matter what new thing you purchase, it may have something on or in it that could become a real problem in your reef. Whenever you acquire a new coral, fish, or invertebrate, the most wise move you can make is to NOT put it in your reef. For someone new to the hobby, this seems like a huge hassle, but to any one of us that have been in the hobby for a while, we know that the risk is simply too great. Why does the seasoned reef keeper know this? Ha! Because we've learned the hard way that anything impulsive usually is folly, and results in hours, weeks, or months of heartache.

This is a very old page I compiled way back in 2004 to help organize a lengthy thread about a DIY calcium reactor. I'm reposting it because all of the included pictures, but I'm not offering up any other support or answers. This is simply documentation - learn from it, build your own, that's all up to you. :)

You need to break out the Yellow Pages and look up "plastics"... call one up that seems near you, and ask if they sell AcryLite to the public. Most do. You want acrylic, not plexiglas - the stuff Home Depot sells. Plexiglas ages, turns yellow, gets brittle, and cracks. Acrylic is harder, and you can buy various thicknesses.

Green Hair Algae (abbreviated as GHA for this article) - Derbesia - is a form of algae that looks like its name. It is usually dark green, grows quite long if left unattended and spreads across your tank rapidly. Once this problem has begun, it can get out of hand in a matter of weeks. And soon you start to look at your tank in disgust, thinking “Why me? What did I do to deserve this plague?”

4/24/08: For years, I've heard from many of my online friends about the various corals they'd order online. I'd think about the money they spent on their exotic frags, and go about my business. To me, it is much more fun to go to the local fish store (LFS) and browse for the perfect new addition to my tank. I can study it closely, consider how it looks from all angles, and if I like it, buy it on the spot. Within the hour, it is acclimating in my quarantine tank, where it will be treated, dipped and later placed in my reef.