Articles

Live rock. This photo is a royalty-free image courtesy of Adrianna Calvo from Pexels This is an article for beginners. Since I didn’t see a sticky or article on this topic, I decided to tackle it myself. There are lots of differing opinions on how to cure live rock, and I’m going to explore here as many as I can find. I will include in the body of the article some common questions. Where appropriate, I have included some comments from forum members noted in red. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This...

Beginner Series #2: How and Why Do Water Changes Work? What Happens If They Don't Work? Or How to Attain Majchrzak Status This article is to provide beginners with baseline knowledge of why and how water changes work and when they fail in restoring critical water parameters, so that dosing alternatives might be employed. I will also address many misconceptions about water changes. Image 1: Junior's Reef by Gary Majchrzak. A system that the author has always emulated. Photo is used with...

Clown Triggerfish, Balistoides conspicillum. Photo is from the Reef2Reef archives, courtesy of @Darryl, ©2019, All Rights Reserved. If you're new to online discussion forums or just new to Reef2Reef, this article is for you. Much of the information that I'm going to give you, here, is already published on the forum. However, it's not all in one place, and if you're not very fluent in forum usage, the information is not always the easiest to find. Forums are fun. And the R2R forum is...

The author's 90G reef aquarium. Photo is from the Reef2Reef archives and courtesy of Greg Gdowski, ©2019, All Rights Reserved. We put a lot of chemicals into our tanks. Many manufacturers tell you to base additions of these chemicals on your tank's volume – but what is that anyway? What is your tank volume? In the beginning, this won’t matter that much. Most of us just add up the stated volume of all of our components. In my case, I have a 90-gallon tank, a 60-gallon refugium, and a...

Water This photo is a royalty-free image from Pixabay. “Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. For the benefit of beginners, I think it's time for a Water Change FAQ. I consulted with forum members to get their opinions, and I will include some of them where appropriate. This is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject. The comments in red are quotes from...

Inspiration for beginners: A "before" photo of a new 70G. Photo courtesy of @Mal1124, ©2018, All Rights Reserved. Inspiration for beginners: An "after" photo of the same 70G, 21 months later. Photo courtesy of @Mal1124, ©2018, All Rights Reserved. When most beginners decide to set up an aquarium, they choose the aquarium first and then figure out what to put inside it. With saltwater, it’s much better to decide first what you hope to have someday in your tank, and then choose the...

This tank was Reef of the Month in January 2018. Pretty spectacular, eh? Photo from the Reef2Reef archives courtesy of forum member robert s. b. ©2018, All Rights Reserved. At R2R, we suspect there are plenty of freshwater aquarists contemplating a change to saltwater. There are likely hobbyists who are lurking but are reluctant to ask freshwater questions. The R2R forum, however, is a warm and friendly place. You should feel free to ask anything. There are many questions we get in the...

So, here's our first crossword. I recommend printing it out and enlarging it if possible, both the puzzle and the clues. If you see two numbers in a box, separated by a dash (-), the first number is across and the second number is down. The puzzle was started with a simple (free) crossword compiler, but due to its limitations, I did a lot of it freehand in Excel. Next time I'll use a more sophisticated compiler ($$$) so we can get a more professional-looking puzzle. In any case, I think...

The Pacific Ocean Photo is a royalty-free image from Pixabay. Okay, one more time. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. Some years ago, Uninja, with the help of forum members Raggamuffin, Wy Renegade, Swannyson, Skinz78, Tabasco 1, Jordan 3548, fsu1dolfan, Stray40, and Rayzback, prepared a list of acronyms which is a sticky in the beginner forum. ksfulk prepared a more recent list and an article. Links to all of these previous iterations are found at the end. Last month, after I...

Macroalgae in a refugium Photo from the Reef2Reef archives courtesy of AlexG, © 2018, All Rights Reserved In the beginner section of our forum, there is a sticky on top, written by David Hammontree, that's very very good. The article is called, The Supreme Guide to Setting up a Saltwater Reef Aquarium. If you're a beginner, you should read that whole article. Below is an excerpt from the article on cycling the aquarium. I think this particular part on cycling is important for all...