General Saltwater Aquarium

This is a controversial topic in the reefing community and often draws fervent responses from reefers supporting one method or the other. In this article, we are going to examine some of the claims made by both camps, highlight the main differences, and help you make up your mind. Manual...

What is it that drives an average person to go and buy a glass box, fill it full of water, rock, and sand and turn it into a marine aquarium? Of course the aesthetics of seeing a tank in person, a reef tank for that matter, strikes in some of us some kind of primordial-DNA urge to have that in...

A few days ago, we published an article on Choosing an LFS. After that article was published, @Mr Fishface asked if we could do a follow-up article on choosing an online vendor. Well, here it is. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For inspiration: a beautiful mature reef tank. This photo is from the...

Note from the Editor: David Kimutai (@Davidangelfish) had the good fortune to connect with a major livestock supplier based in Africa for the marine aquarium trade. Below is David's interview with Kenya Tropical Sealife LTD, and all photos included in the article are courtesy of René Jorgensen...

One of the first things that new members of the forum will learn is that we generally advise new aquarists not to rely solely on what their LFS* tells them. Note: LFS is a reef acronym for "local fish store" or the store where you can buy aquarium supplies for your saltwater tank. Sometimes...

Introduction: When we think of public aquariums, we usually think of someplace interesting and educational, a destination to take your kids for an afternoon. However, more and more, public aquariums are contributing to the scientific knowledge base. They are often affiliated with institutions...

A few months ago, on April 4, 2019, Reef2Reef published an article called "Depression in Fish". Although the article was well researched, and I personally fact-checked it, we received from our readers a lot of pushback to the article's premise that, yes, fish can and do suffer from depression...

A mature reef tank for inspiration. This photo is from the Reef2Reef archives, courtesy of @Cannedfish ©2019 All Rights Reserved. Note From the Editor: This article, below, and several future ones by the same author were originally part of several presentations made to a local aquarium club...

Note from the Editor: These profiles are only possible with the help and participation of aquarists willing to talk about their tanks and practices and answer a long stream of questions. Reef2Reef thanks @HotRocks for letting us profile him. It's always interesting for readers to get to know...

Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean Photo is courtesy of @Seawitch ©2019, All Rights Reserved. Hardcover: 360 pages Publisher: Trinity University Press; 1st Edition edition (January 31, 2017) Language: English ISBN-10: 1595348050 ISBN-13: 978-1595348050 These are the prizes the book...

Note From the Editor: This is a companion article to the one we did on copepods a couple of weeks ago. Aquarists tend to refer to copepods, amphipods, and isopods in one breath, yet they are actually quite different creatures. Amphipods share the same kingdom, phylum, and subphylum, Crustacea...

Part 3 (You can read the previous articles here: Part 1 & Part 2) So we left off in the last discussion having talked about time and money which leaves us with these two questions about your goals and knowledge. 1. Just what do you want from this hobby and is it a realistic goal? Just a tank...

Note from the Editor: This article, Part 1 of which appears today, was originally published in Marine Fish Monthly some years ago. It is published again here with permission from the author. While some of it may feel dated, the article is as interesting now as it was then. The photos herein are...

[FLOAT_RIGHT] [/FLOAT_RIGHT] Note from the Editor: These profiles are only possible with the help and participation of aquarists willing to talk about their tanks and practices and answer a long stream of questions. Reef2Reef thanks @4FordFamily for letting us profile him. It's always...

Part 2 and the conclusion of Decisions, Decisions, Decisions. (You can read the first article in this series here: Part 1) Money So just how much do you think a saltwater aquarium is going to cost? When I first started I bought a used 30g tank and stand for $35 at a garage sale in my...

Part 1 So we left off in the last section (HERE) by asking these questions. So where should you start? The very first issues you need to consider are: 1. How much of your time are you willing to commit to keeping a marine aquarium? 2. How much money are you willing to spend, both up front to...

Reef aquarists frequently talk about copepods. They are generally viewed as a positive thing for a saltwater tank, and they are an important food source for many fish, most notably the mandarin fish, seahorses and some crabs. Today we'll take a deep dive into the world of copepods, no pun...

This article is my attempt to make considering getting into a saltwater marine aquarium as clear as possible, and then to try and explain what you’ll need to know to make it all work. Make no mistake, the saltwater aquarium hobby can be an expensive, annoying, time-consuming and frustrating...

In November of 2018, we published an article on some of the initial questions that aquarists ask before starting a saltwater tank. In case you're one of those people still hesitating about whether you want to have a reef tank, here we're going to try to explain some of the major differences...