Coralline algae is surprisingly easy to grow, and if taken good care of, can grow relatively fast in FOWLR tanks (fish only with live rock). How? Well, let’s look at the things that really effect coralline algae growth. In terms of water chemistry, coralline requires only a few things different than your fish do. Like […]

There are various forms of brown algae. Diatom algae is probably the most common source of brown algae. It shows up as a thick film on the glass, sand and rocks. It is a translucent brown/tan, and is common in almost all aquariums to a lesser or greater degree than in your tank. Diatoms, like […]

Our aquarium inhabitants rely on us for almost everything. Stable conditions including the water temperature within the tank are very important to a successful tank. With summer fast approaching we need to start watching for rising temperatures within our tanks and starting thinking about how we are going to deal with them. There are many […]

Thanks for the question! There is actually no simple answer to your question. Local beaches are often contaminated with sewage, run off, various parasites, organisms, and etc. The water chemistry in your neck of the ocean could also vary slightly from the chemistry that is preferred by the animals that you are keeping. So collecting […]

There is actually great debate surrounding sand and substrate choices– live sand included. You can find a wonderful article discussing the merits of various sand bed types here: Great Substrate Debate. So… What is live sand and what does it do? “Live sand” is a loosely used term to describe fine, usually aragonite based sand that […]

When considering setting up a reef aquarium, it is important to get a starting list of items that will be needed to properly set up the aquarium.  There are many items that are needed for a tank to be properly set up and some that are not needed, but are nice to have for the tank.  We […]

When considering setting up a marine fish aquarium, it is important to get a starting list of items that will be needed to properly set up the aquarium.  There are many items that are needed for a tank to be properly set up and some that are not needed, but are nice to have for the […]

Now that you have all the supplies that you need to set up your saltwater fish tank where do you begin to set it up?  In this article we will go over in a step by step format of how to set up your aquarium.  This will be a general guideline and you may need to adjust […]

People start keeping aquariums for various reasons. Some are motivated by the beauty of a well managed tank with the motion of various colored pretty fish, after seeing one in either a pet store, or on display at a friend’s house, simply as a pretty picture. The main first motivator for 99% of all hobbyists […]

There is a seemingly limitless amount if information available today to help the new aquarist in their effort to set up an aquarium. My first recommendation to anyone considering setting up an aquarium for their first time is to buy a good book structured towards the entry level aquarist. A quick read before you make […]