by Saltwater Smarts | Oct 23, 2015 | Corals, Equipment, Science
It’s easy to cheap out on aquarium cleaning brushes, but it makes sense to spend a bit more for qualityWhile there are certainly sexier marine aquarium topics I could be writing about, I’d like to dedicate today’s post to one of the more mundane, albeit essential, elements of our hobby—aquarium brushes. This subject came to mind recently after I threw my ten-thousandth brush kit into the trash because, once again, the brushes had begun to fall apart. Now, I’m a well-known cheapskate (or as Caribbean Chris is fond of pointing out, I’m “a whole rink full of cheapskates”), but even I understand—and often preach—that buying the least expensive aquarium equipment often ends up costing you more in the long run. Still, for some inexplicable reason, I continue to cheap out on everyday tools like aquarium brushes, scrapers, tongs, algae magnets, and the like. This has not served me well.A quick, completely informal audit of aquarium brushes sold online revealed prices ranging anywhere from well under $5.00 for three- to five-piece assortments from various manufacturers to over $16.00 for a five-piece Tunze kit. There might be higher-priced kits out there as well, but as I said, this was a quick audit. So, is it really worth paying the long dollar for something as commonplace as a set of aquarium brushes by Saltwater Smarts | Oct 22, 2015 | Fish, Science, Tanks
For me, it is about a healthy ecosystem, a learning experience, a pastime or hobbyThis is an easy question. Our tanks can be as good looking as we want. Of course, we can always throw more time and money into our tanks to make them look even better—but better looking to whom? And why? Do we want to have dynamite-looking tanks so we can win TOTM and tell everyone how much we dose, what types of lights we have and their PAR rating, where we keep our parameters, how often we perform water changes, what our quarantine practices are, which pests we’ve dealt with, and how much time and money we’ve invested? Or do we just want a tank that we can sit in front of and enjoy?It’s a hobby, not a beauty pageant (supermodels notwithstanding) For me, that’s easy too. I think my tank looks okay, but that is not why I have a tank. Unlike my interest in supermodels, my fascination with aquariums has nothing to do with looks. by Saltwater Smarts | Oct 2, 2015 | Corals, Fish, Science
Activated carbon and carbon dosing – similar sounding, but different techniques for improving water qualityAs if our hobby weren’t perplexing enough to the average beginner given all the oddball jargon we toss around, things can get doubly befuddling for novices when they come across two or more similar-sounding terms that actually apply to very different concepts. Such confusion could easily arise, for example, when newcomers are first confronted with the concepts of carbon use for chemical filtration and carbon dosing for nitrate/phosphate reduction. So, to help clarify these sound-alike terms, let’s define what they are and how each is used to maximize water quality in a marine aquarium:Chemical filtration with activated carbon Likely, activated carbon is what comes to mind for many new hobbyists when they first hear or read about carbon use in marine aquaria, especially if they have a background in freshwater fishkeeping where activated carbon use is a long-established practice. Activated carbon (aka activated charcoal) is a highly porous medium, typically sold in granular or pelletized form, that is used to remove dissolved organic compounds (DOCs) from aquarium water. It’s considered a chemical filtration medium because the DOC molecules it removes actually form a bond with the surface of the carbon—a process known as adsorption. DOCs are what cause the yellowing of aquarium water, so their removal with activated carbon helps keep the water crystal clear. Activated carbon can also be used to eliminate various toxins and contaminants from the water, for example the noxious chemicals many corals and other sessile organisms release to prevent neighbors from encroaching on their real estate, medications used to treat fish, residual ozone exiting an ozone reactor, etc. There are various ways to place the carbon granules or pellets in a system. by Saltwater Smarts | Sep 24, 2015 | Corals, Equipment, Fish, Invertebrates, Opinion, Science, Technology
Virtually since the advent of the internet, there’s been a tendency in our hobby to rate the reliability and trustworthiness of online content beneath that of print-format materials—books, magazines, and so forth. But is this assessment really fair?The general premises behind this viewpoint are: Anyone with a computer and internet connection can post anything they want online, whether or not he or she has the requisite expertise to expound on the subject. Online articles and posts are seldom given professional editorial treatment and/or subjected to peer review, so you can’t trust that they’ve been vetted properly for accuracy. There tends to be an “echo-chamber effect” online, so inaccurate or outright fallacious information appearing on one site can be picked up immediately by others and repeated ad nauseam, creating the false impression of consensus on the information/viewpoint. Now, there’s truth to each of these arguments, but as someone who’s made his living as a writer/editor for nearly 20 years (primarily in print format) and once served on an editorial committee that reviewed book submissions for a major retail pet chain, I can say with some confidence that print materials have their limitations as reference sources, too. Among them: Just as with online materials, print books and magazines are no more reliable or accurate than the writers and editors who produce them. You can’t assume that just because someone went to the effort to produce something in hardcopy, the information it contains was properly vetted. by Saltwater Smarts | Sep 16, 2015 | Corals, Equipment, Science
Skimmer maintenance and light bulb or tube replacement are both important aspects of marine aquarium maintenanceKeeping a marine aquarium healthy and thriving requires a significant level of maintenance. For the most part, we hobbyists are pretty good at tackling chores in a timely manner, but in some cases we’re a little more prone to procrastination—usually in situations where “out of sight means out of mind.” Here are 5 critical marine aquarium maintenance chores that are all too easily overlooked but can have a dramatic impact on the health of your livestock, the functional life of your equipment, and/or the enjoyment you derive from your system:1. Cleaning the neck of your protein skimmer No one likes to touch that grimy, slimy, stinky coating that accumulates around the neck of a protein skimmer, but don’t postpone this important task! That nasty buildup of gunk is not only unsightly, but it also greatly impedes your skimmer’s foam production, which, in turn, greatly reduces the collection of skimmate. Simply wiping the neck clean as often as needed—at the very least, once a week—is the best thing you can do to keep your skimmer functioning at peak efficiency. 2. Cleaning pumps and powerheads Pumps and powerheads are essential elements of a marine aquarium’s “circulatory system” that quietly (or sometimes not so quietly) go about the business of creating currents and moving water wherever it’s needed. But over time, these pumps can become clogged with coralline algae, sponges, vermetid snails, etc
