Nano Reef Aquarium

So it’s a cold winters morning your frozen to the bone, you jump into your vauxhall vivaro and turn the heaters on, it doesn’t work. In this article I will explain how to repair. There are commonly three things that can go wrong and it true to be said with most vehicles. These are the fuse, the motor, and or the heater resister. These should be checked in this order. Not only to keep costs down but is a good methodical way to solve the problem. A little contradictory but before you do anything just check if the motor works on any speeds at all. If it does, particularly the fastest speed. It safe to say the fuse and motor are working fine, and would probably mean that heater resister if faulty. If this doesn’t do anything you should grab the owners manual and locate the fuse. This can be checked visually by removing and looking at the fuse element or the use of a power probe and checking a power at both sides of the element. If the heater still doesn’t work, remove the motor a...

The rising cost of energy could be enough to consider closing down your Aquarium but there are a couple of really simple ways you can reduce this by approximately 40%. The first won’t cost anything and can be completed in no time at all. Changing your utility supplier every 12 months is highly recommended  and can save you a reasonable amount of cash. You may not realise but after twelve months your current supplier will increase your tariff. You can call them to see if you can get a better deal or change. As of publishing this I have found a supplier producing green energy at a great rate called bulb . Check them out for latest deals. Plus you will get £50 cash back. Take a look! The second method. Requires a little financial Outlay but will be made back in approximately 2 years. The method is the use of a Tado Smart Thermostat . This links to your phone and uses something called geolocation. Basically put this means when you’re not home you’re heating is reduced. Then upo...

The Deep Hull Aquarium in the United Kingdom is a great day out for anyone including families and reef keepers too. Maybe you have already been if so please leave a comment below of your experience. This place certainly has the wow factor. Plenty to see including to really big fish that will blow you away. What’s more you can pay a little extra and get s season pass to see it all again and maybe see a few things you missed. The building centres around a large central aquarium that is very large and deep giving zones of where various fish live. The perimeter then has many levels with different viewing windows right from the shallows to the deep. Really fascinating to see. There are also many other areas with smaller aquariums with different types of themes including tropical and marine themes. 

We all know the feeling of being at the end of your tether, not knowing what to to or how to do something. There are so many ways to find information, ideas and inspiration. Obviously there’s blogs like this but there’s many resources on google that includes photos, you tube videos and obviously google search. I have listed on this blog a few websites.  Forums or great for information and methods. Many may not know but Facebook has many groups. Just search reef related searches. You will be amazed at what you can find out and achieve. 

It has been some time since I posted on this blog. But with most things everything goes in cycles and though I should keep it going maybe not reef related but a great opportunity to save money and get cash back in a great fun way to spend on your reef keeping hobby.   TopCashback   allows you to shop as normal but currently at time of publishing this post eBay are giving 4% cashback. All you need to to is click the  TopCashback  link  join and before making a purchase click through the cash back link on TopCashback and the money accumulates in your account. You then withdraw and spend it on whatever you like. There are hundreds of different shops and stores. It really doesn’t take long to accumulate. Some very well known businesses/brands give really good rates. You really could be buying those new lights, aquarium, pumps before you realised. And it’s probably most likely things you will be buying anyway. You can learn more about this on my new blo...

It has been some time since I posted on this blog. But with most things everything goes in cycles and though I should keep it going maybe not reef related but a great opportunity to save money and get cash back in a great fun way.   TopCashback   allows you to shop as normal but currently at time of publishing this post eBay are giving 4% cashback. All you need to to is click the  TopCashback  link  join and before making a purchase click through the cash back link on TopCashback and the money accumulates in your account. You then withdraw and spend it on whatever you like. There are hundreds of different shops and stores. It really doesn’t take long to accumulate. Some very well known businesses/brands give really good rates. You really could be buying those new lights, aquarium, pumps before you realised. And it’s probably most likely things you will be buying anyway. 

It has been some time since I posted on this blog. But with most things everything goes in cycles and though I should keep it going maybe not reef related but a great opportunity to save money and get cash back in a great fun way.   TopCashback   allows you to shop as normal but currently at time of publishing this post eBay are giving 4% cashback. All you need to to is click the  TopCashback  link  join and before making a purchase click through the cash back link on TopCashback and the money accumulates in your account. You then withdraw and spend it on whatever you like. There are hundreds of different shops and stores. It really doesn’t take long to accumulate. Some very well known businesses/brands give really good rates. You really could be buying those new lights, aquarium, pumps before you realised. And it’s probably most likely things you will be buying anyway. 

It has been some time since I posted on this blog. But with most things everything goes in cycles and though I should keep it going maybe not reef related but a great opportunity to save money and get cash back in a great fun way.   TopCashback   allows you to shop as normal but currently at time of publishing this post eBay are giving 4% cashback. All you need to to is click the  TopCashback  link  join and before making a purchase click through the cash back link on TopCashback and the money accumulates in your account. You then withdraw and spend it on whatever you like. There are hundreds of different shops and stores. It really doesn’t take long to accumulate. Some very well known businesses/brands give really good rates. You really could be buying those new lights, aquarium, pumps before you realised. And it’s probably most likely things you will be buying anyway. 

My last post informed you of my temporary end to my reef aquarium. There are a couple of ways to close a reef aquarium both have advantages. This post explains selling as a complete aquarium.  The first is to sell as a complete unit with everything in one go. A job lot so to speak. The good thing about this is, everything can be gone all in one go including a few items you may have struggled to sell. It's also much quicker and much less stressful. But this way may be enjoyable for some. Reasons such as a sudden house move for example may spur this method on.  This method also has disadvantages. You won't get as much of a return on your investment, you may struggle selling your aquarium because your setup does not fulfill your buyers needs. Then they may start asking if you will split items. Shipping can become either. You will only have one shipping fee if you decide to ship which I would not recommend. I would sell on a collection only basis.  In my next post I will expl...

After much time thinking and debating it has become time for me to close down my reef aquarium.  Having two children, a full time job and many other hobbies something had to give. I feel my commitment at the moment to my reef is not as it should be.   Don't get me wrong I still love this hobby but feel it right for the conservation of animals and my commitment to my family it be right to take a break.  My plan is to sell everything for now. When ready I will at that time in the future purchase the latest technology and  adopt the latest techniques with maybe a custom built aquarium.  So what will happen with my reef blog? My reef blog will remain and I will still be spending time on forums and the internet  reefing sites. More importantly trying more to keep readers of this blog up to date with what is happening in the reefing world.  I would love for the comments to keep coming, keeping the blog alive. Proving to me this blog helps its readers. ...

As promised a while back I would review this auto top up unit. All I can can say is it is faultless, works with no problems. Just set and forget!! Just remember to keep your top up reserve tank topped every week or so, depending on it's capacity. The only indication of it been there is the small hum from the pump when it is activated. I would say though this top up unit would only be suitable for nano style aquariums and maybe a little bigger. For big aquariums maybe you would need something with a bigger, better pump.

After needing an auto top up unit for some time, with quite high costs for a unit that function seems very minimal. I have always been put off until now. Whilst reading ultra marine I saw a review and advertisements for the TMC V2 auto top up and more surprising is it's very affordable price tag. After further investigation it seems to have really good reviews on forums and blogs. I have to say it is a real good, easy to set up and cheap unit that functions perfectly. This should give me more stability and time to enjoy the aquarium.I will in a few weeks report back any improvements that it will hopefully make.

After mixing fauna Marin balling lite mixes for some time with confusion and no simple reference guide I have decided to add a small article to help me and fellow reefers. To simplify matters for all I am publishing this information in grams per litre not the confusing unit as used by fauna Marin. This is because myself and many others mix using smaller amounts. Magnesium mix = magnesium chloride hexahydrate diluted to 500 grams per RO litre. Alkalinity mix = Sodium Bicarbonate diluted to 125 grams per RO litre with 12ml of iodine added. A little tip to help dilute salts is to heat RO water in the microwave for a few minutes. Calcium mix = Calcium chloride dehydrate diluted to 500 grams per litre with 12 ml of heavy metal complex and 12 ml strontium/barium complex. Warning, when mixing calcium it gets very hot very quickly, this is normal. Just be careful. When mixing place half the amount of RO water needed into container then add balling salts to the container , then top up t...

Google have created a new interface for it's users to vote/like websites or blogs. I felt it only right to integrate this to this blog and give you the opportunity to vote if you so wish to do so. The add on is found in the right hand user column. Don't forget to vote for all your other favourite sites and help other hobbyist find these great websites much easier.

Well after a few months of introducing this poll to this blog it appears that led lighting is becoming the norm when selecting a lighting option for a nano reef tank. It's surprising that this option is used as much as T5's. Metal halide appears to be used very little maybe this is due to the cost of energy bills? Please post your thoughts and opinions as always.

Christmas has just been and i decided to treat myself. As you may well know from previous posts. One of my to buys, was a new skimmer. After reading reviews and comments posted on reefing forums i decided to buy a Deltec MCE skimmer.  It's awesome, running at just 10 watts it produces loads of micro bubbles. It is producing much more waste than my old TMC V2 500 skimmer and this was running from a ocean runner 2500 pump using 50 watts of power. so this should save me some money to help with the purchase of a auto top up unit. Not only is it cheaper to run it is much quieter and tidier. This in turn has got rid of all the piping running to the storage cabinet underneath and as given me the chance to tidy the cabinet up and make things much more accessible. Here you can see it in operation. This shows how much tidier it is. And the cabinet Comments welcome.

With all the lighting options available. LED, Metel halide, T5's. What is your preffered option? For the very first time i have added a poll for all blog readers to let everyone collectively know. You can enter your option on the top of this page. lets see what reefers use and prefer. All comments welcome in this blog post. 

Upon the desisson to adopt metal halide with my current led setup. I may now be changing my mind again. The news of big aquarium manufacturers such as ecotech and D&D, utilising the new Cree LED lighting technology  is making me listen.  Metal halide performance is becoming achievable with led lighting with many advatages, such as reduced heat, lower running costs, and much more it has to be the way to go. The Ecotech Radion XR30 has 24 cree XP lights totaling 130 watts. these consist of blue, white and green bulbs. the unit is upgradable and its customisable functionalitly allows users to exchange firmware online. Like most things Ecotech is utilisers the 'w' wire less technology  to sync with pumps to create variouse weather conditions. More information is available at ecotechmarine  . D&Ds equivalant the A1 SOL has 24 cree LED's, 16 white and 8 blue totalling 75 watts claiming high enough output to keep many SPS...

For some time now i have used the Vortech MP10 power head for water movement and i am really happy with it's performance, even more so from reading articles about there underrated flow rates. These power heads produce much more flow than stated on there specification sheet, leaving other competing brands behind with rated turn over/flow. Regular readers of this blog will know about my battle with algae, well it as started again but in a different form (unsure of name). The thing is the algae is only on the right hand side of the reef aquarium. From my photos you will see my aquarium is approx 90cm wide, 40cm depth and 60cm deep, with a tall rock formation on the left hand side and of cause the location of my MP10. I feel this is reducing flow to the right hand side where the algae is growing and i consider this to be the cause. My options to solve this problem are to purchase another Vortech MP10 but feel this to be a costly solution. the more favo...

The challenge of keeping LPS and SPS is demanding enough just maintaining good stable parameters but many say they cant thrive under LED lighting. I have to disagree, below are some growth shots for you take a look at. I know colouration is'nt great but these corals have almost doubled in size in the last 12 months. Before Now Before Now