AquaNerd

Have an all-in-one aquarium that has a hood or some other type of top on it that you are considering removing in favor of a higher intensity lighting? Before you make the big jump, consider how much evaporation your tank will likely give off. Because all-in-one tanks usually have small return sections, they are very quickly affected by evaporation, even if the rate is one gallon a week. The loss of water will require that you top-off with freshwater every pretty frequently, which may become a... Read Full Story

Riding off the success of their products over larger aquarium setups, Ecoxotic is giving their popular Panorama Pro LED fixture a cute little brother. The new 18″ Panorama Pro features the same great modules as the 24″ version, with the only exception being that there are three individual modules instead of five, making the fixture perfect for aquariums with a little less volume and a smaller footprint. The 18″ fixture sports three adjustable and customizable 19watt Panorama Pro Modules, each... Read Full Story

A couple of days ago, we posted an image of a rather astonishing dark blue plate coral that was being shown off by an online vendor. While the coral was unique in its own right, its colors were definitely being enhanced by intense actinic blue lighting. This enhancement was evident by glowing tentacles on the coral, as well as a blue hue being cast on the black eggcrate below it. That didn’t stop us from drooling all over the plate coral, which was not for sale by the way, but the image did... Read Full Story

Proaquatix , a company that specializes in breeding clownfish and several other marine ornamentals, is adding yet another captive-bred fish to their ever growing offering. The latest release is actually another clownfish called the “Blacker Ice” Ocellaris clownfish. This new color morph is the result of crossing a Black Ice Snowflake, which actually has a great deal of orange coloration, with an all-black Ocellaris. The resulting offspring are basically black Snowflake clowns. The Blacker Ice... Read Full Story

A few of weeks ago, I got to sit in on a MASNA Live talk centered around the anti-aquarium activists in Hawaii. It was discussed, at length, about what organization or individual might potentially take the reins of the fight and become the face of the aquarium industry. A few suggestions were tossed into the mix by participants of the talk, and the entire discussion had me thinking about one individual that we eventually wrote a piece on, Ret Talbot . Ret has made such an impact in the fight... Read Full Story

When prepping for a water change, it’s a good idea to clean the mixing container before filling it with a fresh batch of saltwater. The leftover dust-like material that coats the inside of the container from your last water change can dissolve back into the new water, causing it to be dirty or throw off the delicate chemical balance of pH, calcium, and alkalinity in the newly mixed water. While most suggest cleaning the container with bleach, vinegar, or sequential cleanings by each, you... Read Full Story

Let’s face it, there’s a different color morph for almost every species of clownfish available in the aquarium trade. But with a majority of the hobby having an obsession with all of the weird morphs being teased out of the genetics of Ocellaris ( Amphiprion ocellaris ) and Percula ( A. percula ) clownish, we don’t often get to see aberrant forms of the maroon clownfish ( Premnas biaculeatus ). People just don’t breed them with the same regularity of the two aforementioned species, so we have... Read Full Story

We’ve been making some real progress on the office aquarium, and we’re happy to report that it is officially up and running. As can be seen in the teaser image above, the sand and rocks have all been put in place, the tank has been filled with water, and now we’re cycling. While that’s not really exciting news, we figured with the tank being functionally relevant in our lives now, it was a good time to expand a little further on the objectives of the setup and describe some of the equipment... Read Full Story

Today’s AquaNerd Tip of the Day is actually a reader submitted tip, and it’s one we couldn’t agree more with. Scott DeWalt (aka Texanreef) suggests: Tape-on thermometers. Put one of these on the outside of your sump where it is easy to see. No, you won’t be making decision solely on the readings but they work as a nice, easy to read verification of what your digital counterpart is reporting. Surprisingly accurate and with no major parts that might fail, these very inexpensive liquid-crystal... Read Full Story

Aquarium keepers have an unquenchable thirst for over the top, insanely colored corals, and looking at the latest gem from Roc Citi Coralz , we can certainly understand why. The guys at this New York based coral vendor got their hands on the sickest plate coral that we’ve ever seen and were showing it off over on their Reef2Reef page . The plate sports a deep blue, almost black, base color with bright yellow tentacles and a glowing orange mouth. It truly is one of a kind and the Roc Citi... Read Full Story