Articles

A lovely full tank shot for inspiration. Photo is from the Reef2Reef archives, courtesy of @DLHDesign, ©2019 All Rights Reserved. Reef2Reef has a very busy forum. So busy, in fact, that if I post something in the morning, I have to do a big search for it in the afternoon to find my thread because there have been so many other posts since then. In spite of having a busy forum, there are lots of people who just "lurk" or read content without joining the forum. This article is for you because...

For inspiration, here is a beautiful 93-gallon cube tank belonging to @vetteguy53081. Photo is from the Reef2Reef archives, courtesy of @vetteguy53081, ©2019, All Rights Reserved. And now we come to Part 3, Powerhead Placement. Everyone is waiting anxiously to hear about powerhead placement; and I hate to disappoint you, but I don't have any magic answers. Everyone's tank has different dimensions and a different aquascape, so it's impossible to make too many generalizations. Here are the...

This 400-gallon tank belongs to @maroun.c, a Reef2Reef staff member. It has a tank turnover of 21,000 gallons per hour. This photo is from the Reef2Reef archives, courtesy of @maroun.c, ©2019, All Rights Reserved. So, last time, in Part 1, we talked about water flow, why you need it in a reef tank, and tank turnover. Now let's talk about powerheads, which move the water around in your tank. I'm not going to talk about pumps bringing water back into your display tank from a sump because...

This 180-gallon display tank has 15,000 gallons per hour total tank turnover. This tank belongs to, and the photo is courtesy of @fabutahoun, ©2019, All Rights Reserved. This is an article that I’ve been wanting to write (or get someone else to write) for quite a while. Tank turnover is something that is not well understood by beginners, and there is a lot of confusion about it. Furthermore, beginners are often reluctant to ask questions about topics that they perceive that everyone else...

The article below is a brief introduction to soft corals for beginner aquarists. This is, by no means, an exhaustive treatment of soft coral husbandry. Example of soft coral: mushroom coral. Photo is from the Reef2Reef archives, courtesy of @John3 ©2019, All Rights Reserved. Soft corals, commonly known as Softies, are the easiest type of coral to get started with when starting out in the world of Reef Aquariums. And while they are one of the best to get started with, like any living...

A photo for inspiration: a shot of Michael J. Cuttone's Reef2Reef January 2019 Reef of the Month. This photo is from the Reef2Reef archives, courtesy of Michael J. Cuttone, ©2019, All Rights Reserved. Some time ago, I asked forum members about their feeding routines. I was interested to see if there was a pattern. Perhaps my sample of replies is too small to generalize, but the answers were so interesting that I decided to compile everything into an article. It seems that how people feed...

10,000L, 5-year-old, display tank at the Maritime Museum & Aquarium. A build thread for this tank is linked in my profile & at the bottom of this article. Photo is courtesy of @Sallstrom, ©2019, All Rights Reserved. Running a reef tank might be a walk in the park for some, but for others it’s a real challenge. I’m somewhere in the middle of that scale, but I always want to improve my husbandry skills. Working at a small public aquarium, maintaining, starting up and rebuilding reef tanks...

This article is sponsored by @Triquatics Images are courtesy of @Triquatics. ©2019, All Rights Reserved. The Nitrogen Cycle, as it applies to the greater natural world, is a series of chemical reactions that support all life on earth. Through these reactions, non-reactive nitrogen gas (N) and molecular nitrogen (N2) undergo a series of complex metabolic process in plants and bacteria to produce nitrates (NO3), which are usable to organisms like you and I in the production of essential...

15 Steps to Starting a Saltwater Aquarium: The Lasse Method Display Tank. Photos are all courtesy of Lasse Forsberg. ©2019, All Rights Reserved. INTRODUCTION There are many methods to start a saltwater aquarium--each major aquarium product manufacturer has its own. Common to most, however, is that they focus on keeping difficult and demanding corals--especially SPS. Are you looking for a method-specific SPS aquarium? If yes, then maybe you should choose a method from one of that group...

Note from the Editor: Some time ago, our resident electrical guru, @Brew12, wrote a good article on the forum at the beginning of a discussion thread about using ground probes for your aquarium. As soon as I saw the article, I recognized that this deserved top billing. So, here, below, is our resident electrical guru's suggestions on ground probes in his own words. Hint: You need one. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels Why is it that some people refuse to put a...