Reef Mentoring: Part 8 – Two Month Update

Preface: This Reef Mentoring article series is to document my recommendations to a hobbyist I have been mentoring. I am basically building a reef tank with his setup at my house and maintaining it for a year with weekly hands on...

Best Method For Keeping SPS: Ca Reactor or 2-Part?

It is always good to have options and in reef keeping there are usually many available to run and maintain a reef tank.  For instance, you do have choices when it comes to keeping up with the calcium and alkalinity demands of a reef aquarium, especially one that is SPS dominant. SPS require some form of calcium and alkalinity supplementation since they have calcium skeletons that demand a lot of these elements to grow and do well in a tank. Calcium Reactor vs. Two-Part When I started to keep reef tanks, I kept mostly soft corals and began to experiment with SPS only after achieving success with those corals. I used a two-part calcium and alkalinity supplement from ESV and it worked great. As I

Nothing Good Happens Fast in a Reef Tank

Perhaps you have heard the saying that nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. It is so true. Patience is a key ingredient for success in this hobby, on a number of fronts. Avoid Instant Gratification Let’s start by talking about instant gratification. A “new” reef tank can look very sparse with a lot of open space. You scope out a beautiful mature reef and you want to get to the same happy place with your tank sooner rather than later. Big mistake. Instant gratification can be a killer in this hobby so the best tactic is to practice patience and take things slow.     When you start a reef you begin the cycling process by adding rock and, in some cases, sand and bottled bacteria. You