There are several brands of coral / rock work epoxy on the market and now there is another option called CoralCrete from Seachem. Seachem CoralCrete™ is two-part epoxy putty that can be used to secure coral to rock work or fuse rocks together for a more stable aquascape structure. Like most epoxies, CoralCrete has a working time of 5 minutes before it begins to harden to the point where it is not usable. CoralCrete™ is ideal for working with larger colonies of branching coral, many large polyp corals or adhering plating corals (like Montipora caps) to rock work. It is safe for aquarium inhabitants when used as directed. MORE

Our goal is to not only educate saltwater aquarium hobbyists, but also bring them aquarium related news, product information, equipment reviews, and livestock care tips. We cover industry related events and share hundreds of photos and videos of anything and everything related to this great hobby.

 The IceCap Gyre 3K update came at us a little under the radar but as a pleasant surprise. Last week we installed a second IceCap 3K on one of our farm tanks to increase flow and get things growing faster. Upon opening the Gyre 3K box we spied an entirely different controller. What is this newfangled sorcery, we thought? As it turns out, the new controller is a nice upgrade to the very popular Gyre flow pumps. The updated controller features 5 different water flow options with a 24 hour program cycle. The display is much easier to read and programing it is very simple. The magnets are strong enough to hold on tightly to our 1″ thick acrylic farm tanks and they also add little to no discernible noise.MORE

Our goal is to not only educate saltwater aquarium hobbyists, but also bring them aquarium related news, product information, equipment reviews, and livestock care tips. We cover industry related events and share hundreds of photos and videos of anything and everything related to this great hobby.

With MACNA 2018 just around the corner, new product announcements are popping out on an almost daily basis, and today we have some good news from Fauna Marin. I just received a media package of a brand new addition to the company’s catalog and I’m happy to break the news to you. It is called Red X and, in Fauna Marin’s own words, it’s a liquid tonic for algae control in saltwater aquariums. It targets a variety of different types of algae, including: 

• green and red cyanobacteria
• dinoflagellate ( Ostreopsissp., sp., Amphidinium sp., Prorocentrum sp., Coolia sp., Symbiodinium and others)
• gold and armor algae (I’m assuming Chrysophytes)
• Diatoms

  Red X contains no antibiotics and it’s safe to use in tanks hosting corals, fish, and all kinds of invertebrates. The product will come in two sizes, 250ml and 500ml bottles, and the recommended dosing is 10ml per 100 liters (26 US gal) of aquarium water.  Red X will hit the shelves at the beginning of September, so if you are having problems with nuance algae and want to try something that’s safe around your reef dwellers, the remedy is coming soon! Please visit https://www.faunamarin.de/en/ for more info and stay tuned for more product announcements.

Marcin Smok is a reefer, photographer, traveler, SCUBA diver and and avid DIY-er. He has been keeping freshwater fish tanks since he was 9 years old and saltwater tanks for the past 10 years. Check his photography site at www.travelibn.com and follow his Facebook profile https://www.facebook.com/photoreef/

 Seachem has packed all the same great features into the popular Tidal Power Filter lineup and now there is a new model for smaller aquariums. TheTidal™ 35 Power Filter is designed to deliver the highest water quality possible with maximum versatility and ease of use…all in a smaller footprint for up to 35 US Gallon (130 L) aquariums. Tidal 35 Features: Highest Flow Rate in Class 130 US GPH (500 L/H) High Capacity Filter Basket with Matrix™ Bio-Media Self-Cleaning Impeller Maintenance Alert Feature Surface Skimmer Flow Regulations We have been using a Tidal 50 filter on a 16 gallon soft coral tank and we couldn’t be more pleased with this setup. The water is crystal clear and a protein skimmer was too much of an eyesore for this particular tank MORE

Our goal is to not only educate saltwater aquarium hobbyists, but also bring them aquarium related news, product information, equipment reviews, and livestock care tips. We cover industry related events and share hundreds of photos and videos of anything and everything related to this great hobby.

AqAdvisor is a livestock calculator adapted for aquarium use. It is a tool that can be used by both beginner aquarists and experienced alike. This website does provide small information about almost every fish species that you can add in a freshwater aquarium.

How it works? What it does?

The main feature of AqAdvisor is to calculate your aquarium population and to help you manage it the proper way in order to ensure a healthy and good-looking aquarium. It provides a enormous list of aquarium fish species; there are almost 1000 species in their database right now and they are working on improving it every day.

They also let you chose your aquarium dimensions or they provide you with a list of premade aquariums from different brands that you can chose from (this list is not complete and it is mostly for people living in the United States, since some of the brands may not be available in Europe or Asia). By using the dimensions (length, width, height) the website passes them through a simple calculation algorithm that will determine the approximate volume of your tank. Are those calculations accurate? Yes, they are! The website does provide a correct approximation of the aquarium water volume using its dimensions as reference.

The fish database

AqAdvisor has an integrated fish database consisting of almost 1000 freshwater aquarium fish species. There is short information about each species, but for someone that is familiar or knows well the fish he is looking for, that won’t be a problem. In the eyes of a beginner however, the information provided is quite insufficient and it makes him go to other freshwater aquarium related sites for more information.

We think that by enhancing the amount of information given to the user, this site will be perfect. The small 2-3 phrases information is not quire relevant, why relate only to that when there are entire books written about a single fish species (take a look at Betas, Danios, Guppies). Shortage of information is quite a downside.

But is this website all about fish information? Of course not! AqAdvisor is more of a livestock calculator for your aquarium.

The calculation algorithm

AqAdvisor is a great site to use if you want to have an initial image of your aquarium even before you start building it. But you don’t have to stop or only use AqAdvisor. Use your imagination! You build something that you like, something that you will enjoy more and more as the time passes, something that you may even leave as a legacy.

AqAdvisor makes used of its freshwater fish database and all information related to fish that are available to it. It allows you to select how many fish you want in the tank, how many species, the sex ratio of the fish and so on. A great feature is that it tells you how many individuals of the same species can be added. We tested the website with a couple of species that we knew are pretty hard to keep in large numbers, for example we made a test aquarium using AqAdvisor of about 950 us gallons and we filled it with 50 Red Bellied Piranha. From the start the website gave us a warning that there were too many individuals of the same species and that they cant live together in a aquarium that is that small. Also what was very interesting was the fact that it gave accurate information on how many individuals can be kept, in the case of Red Bellied Piranha, it told us not to keep more than 2 individuals and also that 2 of them was more than enough since they are very aggressive fish.

Ease of use

On the first sight, AqAdvisor is a simple website (when talking about the visual experience), plain buttons and text boxes are spread across the main page. There are no striking visuals there, only a plain and simple HTML construction. The warning texts are delivered in a bold red color, making sure that you will not miss them.

When it comes to information and facts they are delivered with a pleasant to read font and written in a very good format.

There are no fuzzy scrips or any flash requiring addons on the website. It is simple and easy to use, and we like that about it. It also has a nice section about which fish was most popular in a certain month and it stretches for a couple of years. How is that information gathered? Simple! If there are a couple hundred users that use the website to build an aquarium in May, and all of them will chose to fill their aquariums with Guppies and Neons, the website will keep track of that choice and rank Guppies and Neons higher on the ladderboard for that month. Plain and simple, just like we like it.

Final thoughts on AqAdvisor

AqAdvisor does what its name says it does, it gives advice, in some manner to aquarium enthusiasts. The plain and simple interface of the website makes it very easy to be used and the tools provided are great. But AqAdvisor does not limit itself to freshwater aquariums only, it also has a marine saltwater tanks section that is similar to the freshwater one but it lacks in diversity and functionality (it doesn’t have the add/remove filter option and the fish species are limited only to a roughly 70 individuals, this thing can be improved).

What can make AqAdvisor even better? Maybe they should incorporate a section about aquatic plants. Plants play an important role in every aquarium and they should not be missed out, especially that there are species of fish that may not be compatible with certain plants (they may eat them like goldfish do or they may not like plants at all, like sand dweller cichlids).

But in the end, AqAdvisor is a great tool and it proves useful to beginner aquarists and even to experienced ones. We strongly recommend that you give it a try.

The real pleasures of an aquarium are often overshadowed by the struggle of upkeep. Worse yet, aquatic animals are unnecessarily sacrificed every day when parameters like temperature drift into lethal ranges due to failed equipment or other mishaps. A proper monitoring and control system for your aquarium addresses both these problems. And while the Apex has been out for years, Neptune Systems realized there was a void in their product offering. Creating a more affordable, entry-level next generation model was needed, and now the need is filled with the ApexEL. The ApexEL makes keeping your aquarium easier while also monitoring key parameters such as temperature, pH, and the health of your connected equipment, for under $500.00. APEXel Features – THE ENTRY LEVEL APEX  Lower cost version of MORE

Our goal is to not only educate saltwater aquarium hobbyists, but also bring them aquarium related news, product information, equipment reviews, and livestock care tips. We cover industry related events and share hundreds of photos and videos of anything and everything related to this great hobby.

 Casco is back in the news again with another new product simply called Pure. Pure Media is a biological media similar to the Fauna Marin Bacto Balls but it has a much larger form factor for very large aquariums or retail store fish systems. Pure Media is almost the size of a tennis ball whereas Bacto Balls are about the size of a standard marble. The media is simple to use. To use the media, simply place it in the sump of filtration area where it will slowly dissolve as it goes to work. After 1 month drop in a new sphere of Pure Media and the process begins again. Casco MORE

Our goal is to not only educate saltwater aquarium hobbyists, but also bring them aquarium related news, product information, equipment reviews, and livestock care tips. We cover industry related events and share hundreds of photos and videos of anything and everything related to this great hobby.

  Casco Pet has been working on a new filter system designed to work on retail fish systems and now it is available to retail stores. The filter promises to decrease fish mortality by up to 80%. We are not sure how they came up with “up to 80%” but we are all for it if it can decrease fish mortality even in the slightest. According to Casco, the system never needs to be cleaned and the media doesn’t need to be replaced for the foreseeable future, making this a major labor and cost saver for retail shops. The filter is basically a Bio Media Reactor with a design twist. A typical  K1 or Kaldness media filter tumbles media continuously throughout the day as nitrifying MORE

Tags:

  bio-media, kaldness

Our goal is to not only educate saltwater aquarium hobbyists, but also bring them aquarium related news, product information, equipment reviews, and livestock care tips. We cover industry related events and share hundreds of photos and videos of anything and everything related to this great hobby.

 Choosing the proper tool for fragging different types of corals can be challenging but not with BioTek Marine’s new Signature Series Frag Tools. These tools include about everything you need to frag almost any coral. The BioTek Marine Signature Series Frag Tool Kit comes with all tools needed to frag many LPS, Soft and SPS corals. The tool kit can be purchased with or without Bob Smith Industries IC Gel. The BioTek Marine Signature Series tool kit is stainless steel with an attractive black finish. Each Signature Series tool is laser engraved with the BioTek Marine name. The tool kit also comes with a convenient zippered case that will protect your tools when not in use. The BioTek Marine Signature Series Frag Tool Kit ($32.99) includes MORE

Our goal is to not only educate saltwater aquarium hobbyists, but also bring them aquarium related news, product information, equipment reviews, and livestock care tips. We cover industry related events and share hundreds of photos and videos of anything and everything related to this great hobby.