Nano Reef Aquarium

In one of my early posts i displayed my aquarium levels and addressed that the magnesium was low. I set to increasing this with the use of a fluid additive, and later discovered that this only increased it very slowly and i would need loads to achieve the desired effect. I know have purchased 1.2Kg of seachem advantage magnesium in the form of crystals. I will be adding 10 grams per day over the next 20 days to achieve a desired magnesium level of about 1300ppm following the manufactures instructions. I will post my results in the next couple of weeks. Here is a great resource for reef calculators

One of the best things you can do in a hobby particularly reef keeping is read all about it and learn from people who are already in the know. There is a E-book called Saltwater aquarium advice This can be downloaded and read at your leisure. There is tons of information for the beginner and competent reefer, topics include Water chemistry Common problems breeding Coral propagation conservation making money from reef keeping Plus more great tips, help and advice. Check this link for more information about Saltwater aquarium advice

This weekend my maintenance includes the replacement of my actinic T5's in my Arcadia luminaire . I have put this off for a little while, I know they should be replaced every six months but i ran over a little. Nearly forty pounds for two 24 watt Arcadia 420 tubes seemed really expensive but the expense of loosing invertebrates doesn't bear thinking about. I cant believe the impact these replacement tubes made, The difference in light colour and the impact on the live in the reef. The new life that has come out of the live rock, some of which i have not seen before and the existing inverts appear more colourful and open up more. If you have put replacement tubes off because of cost or whatever reason, the above reasons are more of a reason to replace.

Forget Led's, Get ready for the new plasma light bulbs from luxim. Said to be brighter than LED lighting by over twice the lumens. A led produces about 70 lumens where the new plasma style light will emit about 140 lumens per watt. See all the latest and the short film on the reefbulider website.

Having to purchase marine aquarium additives can become very expensive, so which should you go. In my opinion i have come to the conclusion that Powder is the way to go! why? It's cheaper and seems to make more impact. It just seems to me that with a fluidised additive you are paying for the service of RO mixed to the additives, yes it is easier to use, but is it worth the extra cost? I think not. I would think that the shelf life would be longer also although i can not prove this. Do be careful also when purchasing these additive to the amount they raise for example my magnesium is low, so i went out and purchased a additive that raises this in fluid form. Big mistake as it is really only raises it slightly. If this level was at a satisfactory level then this product would have been fine as i would be a ble to correct it slowly. If i had red the instructions properly and had a better understanding this mistake would not have been made. The lesson i learnt was to properly re...

Not posted recently on my reef blog, So i thought it was about time i posted something. I went to my local fish shop this weekend to get some water and i had a look around the shop and nothing really grabbed me, So i had good think about what would benefit my reef. I decided to get a sand sifting star fish, nothing too great in terms of impact to the look but certainly beneficial to the workings. This should help keep my sand bed in better shape and form and give a little help in the general running in the aquarium.