by Afishionado | Sep 17, 2017 | Equipment, MACNA, Video
How do you improve a skimmer? Especially when it’s considered to be one of the best in the industry? Add Accessories? Make things prettier? For this video, we met up with Carlos of Coralvue to talk about their newest skimmer from Reef Octopus.… by Marcin Smok | Sep 10, 2017 | Equipment, MACNA, Technology
Eshopps treated this year’s MACNA attendees with a bunch of interesting new products. About half of this Southern California-based company’s booth was occupied with an extensive display of the brand new line-up of protein skimmers, which the manufacturer came up with... by Afishionado | May 23, 2017 | Equipment
Spend a little time in this hobby and you’ll learn two truths: First, the current gold standard and center of many tank filtration systems is the aptly-named protein skimmer; and second, many of said skimmers are notoriously finicky and often difficult to dial... by Saltwater Smarts | Feb 5, 2017 | Reef, Science
Ignoring a protein skimmer in need of maintenance could make you pay later! Regular SWS readers know that CC and I always emphasize the importance of staying on top of routine maintenance chores so small problems don’t develop into big ones. Great advice for a hobby in which only bad things happen quickly, right? Unfortunately, my recent failure to follow my own “sage” advice nearly led to disaster. Allow me to set the stage: Over the holidays, my wife, Melissa, and I had to ready our house for a large family get-together. Because we’re generally messy and disorganized people who like to procrastinate, that meant major cleaning and decluttering in the last few days prior to the gathering. On the first day of our cleaning odyssey, I was vacuuming around my reef system (situated in the living room) and noticed that the protein skimmer was in need of a tear-down and cleaning. Specifically, the volume of water discharging from the skimmer was greater than usual and the water level in the reaction chamber was higher than normal—both tell-tale signs that the air-intake was getting clogged. by Saltwater Smarts | Feb 5, 2016 | Corals, Equipment, Fish, Industry, Photography, Reef, Science, Tanks, Technology
Actinic lighting was developed and used in other industries before reef aquariumsWe marine aquarists use a variety of tools to help keep our tanks healthy by either changing or removing the waste products of the animals we keep. But did you know virtually all of the devices we use were originally designed for other industries? OzoneFor instance, ozone is a naturally forming gas found in our atmosphere that helps protect us from the damaging effects of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. It was discovered in 1839 by Christian Friedrich Schönbein. Ozone was originally used to purify drinking water and as a health-giving gas. Unfortunately, that health idea produced just the opposite result because the oxidizing effect we can use to purify certain things will also oxidize us, especially our lungs.
