by AquaNerd | Oct 21, 2013 | Equipment, Invertebrates, Tanks
In recent months, I’ve been toiling away at the nano aquarium, following a rigorous water change and maintenance schedule, and stocking it mostly with a few high end Zoanthids. The goal for this aquarium has been simplicity, since my work and personal schedules are both so hectic. Unfortunately, I couldn’t resist adding a rose bubble tip anemone, which isn’t exactly a difficult invertebrate even for a nano aquarium, but coupled with the type of equipment in the tank, housing the RBTA could (and did) lead to disaster. From the anemone’s introduction, I knew that it could wander all over the tank at will. I was also very aware that it could crawl into my VorTech MP10w water pump. Still, I pressed on. As a precaution, I did reduce the speed of the pump to just a fraction of what it normally operates at. I waited a few days, let the anemone settle in, then ramped up the speed of the pump. Of course, I monitored the anemone’s actions, mostly looking for any sort of movement. The anemone stayed in place, not moving an inch…until one random evening by AquaNerd | Oct 15, 2013 | Equipment
AVAST Marine Works is looking to shake things up a bit in the world of zeolite use with the release of their new Vibe media reactor. Because zeolites have to be agitated daily, many hobbyists simply avoid the nutrient control system altogether, favoring less time intensive methods instead. That attitude might change for some with this new reactor, which automatically agitates the media throgh the use of “Amplitude Resonance Reactor” technology. The Vibe works by using a special vibration-inducing assembly to agitate the media gently and for short periods of time. The media jumps around and rotates, knocking off layers of bacterial film (called mulm) that often accumulate on the surface of the zeolite stones. In addition to agitating zeolites, the Vibe also works well for other media like carbon, GFO, and calcium carbonate. The “correctly calibrated vibration frequency and amplitude” agitate the media enough to break up channeling and to knock of any buildup, while at the same time being gentle enough to not grind up any friable media. Priced at $379.99, the Vibe has a footprint of 9.5″ around, with an overall height of 15.5″. It can house roughly 10 cups (2.5L) of various media by AquaNerd | Oct 14, 2013 | Corals, Equipment, Opinion, Tanks
If you truly value any of your corals, especially the rare and expensive ones, you should give them away for free. What?!? Does that really make sense? Sure it does, if you follow this reasoning. If you have some rare coral and don’t spread it around to your closest friends, then you run the risk of never seeing it again if you encounter some catastrophic aquarium wipeout. By giving out free frags, you ensure that the coral strain will continue on despite your success with your own aquarium. While it may not make a whole lot of sense to give away something you could make a little cash on, you ensure that you don’t lose out on a coral entirely. So many times, we’ve heard of stunning tanks taking a quick nose dive with one of a kind livestock going with them. For big, mature tanks that have been around for a while, chances are there are frags of each of those corals somewhere in the local community. And chances are, if a tank like that goes down, the locals would be more than willing to help restock that setup by AquaNerd | Oct 11, 2013 | Equipment
One of the many goodies we got from Vertex a few weeks ago was a Vectra and Vectra Lid to go with our Omega 150 protein skimmer. This device is one of the many accessories designed to make the day-to-day life of the average hobbyists a bit easier, as it is designed to keep the neck of the skimmer clean so that it can operate at maximum efficiency for as long as possible. It does this by rotating a silicone blade on the inside of the neck and collection cup, knocking significant amounts of crud that has built up in the skimmer. So how do we like the Vectra from Vertex Aquaristik? Well, if our unboxing is any indication of how things will go during our long term tests, then we expect it to be a solid performer. The Vectra is well built, with extra care given to protect all of the sensitive electronic components to keep them high and dry. by AquaNerd | Oct 7, 2013 | Equipment, Industry
This may or may not be news to everyone, but it is certainly news to us. The US distributor for Aquarium Technik BURIAN has either lost their exclusive distributorship of the ATB brand, or has gone out of business altogether. We were doing our usual perusal of the aquarium forums when we happened upon a post on Reef Central by someone claiming that they were told that ATB USA had gone out of business when contacting them for service repairs. Not wanting to take that at face value, as many rumors are generated on forums that end up not being true, we went to the ATB website. To our surprise, ATB USA was not listed anywhere. Instead, the list names Tenji as the distributors for the US. We are a bit surprised by this news, but given ATB’s seemingly diminished presence in the hobby as of late, it really shouldn’t come as one. ATB has lost significant ground in the last two years to all of the other brands that have adopted the cone shape. This isn’t to say that the quality of the ATB skimmers has declined, but hobbyists want to spend less for that quality and there are tons of other options available. We don’t exactly know when ATB USA went out of business, since nothing has been publicly announced.
