Are Salt Brands All the Same?
I found myself in a discussion among a group of saltwater aquarium keepers and a local fish store owner, and the topic was salt. Someone brought up the question, “Isn’t salt just that, salt?”. The topic eventually boiled down to whether or not expensive salts were better than the less expensive brands. The general consensus [...]
Vertex Pro-Bio Pellets
Vertex Aquaristik, a company that has absolutely exploded onto the aquarium products market, has released their own version of the Bio Pellets. The pelletized carbon source has recently become a very popular aquarium item. The pellets are placed into a media reactor and allowed to tumble gently in the water flow. The polymer-based pellets degrade [...]
Hurricane Season Ramping Up, Eyes Gulf of Mexico
There’s another storm heading toward the Gulf Coast, and this time it will hit US soil. We were fortunate to miss the last storm, which hit in Mexico, but the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico must brace for a direct hit. All of the forecast maps are predicting that Tropical Storm Bonnie will hit [...]
Changing sediment and carbon filters on RO/DI units
I changed the sediment filter and carbon on my RO/DI unit recently, and I’m always amazed at how gross they can get. These are the cheapest cartridges in the water filtration sequence, about half the cost of DI resin or an RO membrane. Looking at the state of this filter, I know I definitely should [...]
First Hurricane of the Season, Prepare for Alex
The first hurricane of the season is here. Hurricane Alex, which became a hurricane Tuesday, made landfall yesterday just south of the Texas-Mexico border. While this storm doesn’t affect us directly, it surely reminds many of storms from recent years. During Hurricane Ike, the Texas-Louisiana coast was pounded hard, costing billions of dollars in damage [...]
AquaGenesis RoboSnail in Action
Here’s a video of the AquaGenesis RoboSnail doing what it does best…cleaning an aquarium all by itself. This nifty little device can sense the edges of the aquarium and clean the glass or acrylic wall, successfully removing even the toughest of algae. The expected price for this unit will be somewhere around $125, which is [...]
AquaGenesis RoboSnail Automated Glass Cleaner
Here’s an interesting piece of aquarium equipment, a robotic glass and acrylic scraper. The RoboSnail from AquaGenesis is a robotic snail that cruising your glass or acrylic aquarium scraping algae off of the viewing panes. The robotic snail senses the top, left, and right edges of the aquarium and calculates the appropriate cleaning pattern so [...]
Hurricane Season is Back…Are You Ready?
It’s that time of year again to break out the hurricane tracking charts, stockpile gasoline, buy a generator, get the plywood ready, and prepare for the worst case scenario. That’s right, Hurricane Season starts today and will last for the next six months. We can all remember the last major hurricane to wreak havoc on [...]
Setting Up an Aquarium at the Office
My boss approached me yesterday, understanding my obsession with and knowledge of this wonderful hobby, and asked me to set up an aquarium at the office. I was immediately surprised with the proposition and set off to find the ideal location. There are really only a handful of suitable places for an aquarium and my [...]
A Couple of New Toys
In setting up my frag tank and future aquarium, I’ve accumulated quite a bit of equipment. I scoured ReefCentral for good deals, and for some reason I’ve been crazy for calcium reactors. Initially, I was going to have a 225-gallon aquarium so I found and purchased a GEO 624 calcium reactor. It is rated for [...]
