Nat's Wondrous Aquarium Blog

Reef Tank: Cyanobacteria Defeated

2010-01-26T09:56:00.004-05:00

After a battle spanning most of 2009, I am happy to report that the cyanobacteria plaguing my reef aquarium has finally been beat. I've been holding off on this post for most of the month of January, waiting to see if a relapse might occur. As it hasn't, I'm ready to summarize a struggle that occupied most of 2009 and how I finally won the war.The biggest problem with a major algae outbreak in

Video: Beach Crab

2009-10-13T12:38:00.002-04:00

An internet buddy got a great video of a crab hanging out on the beach. At first curious, he turns surly around the 1:50 mark and kicks sand into the camera. This sort of behavior should be familiar to most aquarium hobbyists.

Reef Tank: Recent Photos

2009-10-11T15:02:00.004-04:00

Battling cyanobacteria for six months can really drain the enthusiasm for aquarium photography, but with some careful cropping I was able to get a few decent shots recently.

Reef Tank: Chaetomorpha

2009-10-11T14:49:00.003-04:00

As a follow up to a post in April, I recently converted the Aquaclear filter into an algae tumbler. Stocked with a small amount of live rock rubble and a large ball of Chaetomorpha algae, lit by a 15 watt compact fluorescent light. After adding this Algae on Thursday, testing for nitrates has indicated that the algae is effective: test results dropped to <5ppm from 20ppm last weekend.If this

Quick Note: Trigger Fish on Summer Vacation

2009-09-01T09:41:00.003-04:00

My father teaches marine biology and oceanography at a college in Maine (an obvious gateway to this hobby), and something interesting is always happening in his lab. This week a friend brought in a species not generally considered native to the Gulf of Maine, a Balistes capriscus, the gray triggerfish.It is a gray triggerfish, Balistes capriscus, and is about 12" long. They have a wide diet

Links: Fluval G Filter Teaser Video

2009-08-12T12:35:00.001-04:00

Just came in my email. A little cheesy and does absolutely nothing to tell me about the features, but it sure caught my interest. I'm really hoping this turns out to be something useful for the sumpless reef keeper!Check it out here: http://www.fluval-g.com

Links: Inside Live Aquaria

2009-07-27T09:43:00.003-04:00

Reef Builders appears to be on an enviable field trip to Live Aquaria's coral facility in Wisconsin. Having grown up around various aquaculture initiatives that my dad was involved with, I've got an appreciative eye for the fish lab. And you don't get much more high tech than Live Aquaria's coral setup.Like the smart bloggers that they are, the trip has been broken up into a half-dozen bite sized

Reef Tank: Moar Filtration

2009-07-23T13:50:00.004-04:00

I have made some small progress against the cyanobacteria, primarily through manual removal. And by manual, I mean scrubbing things with a tooth brush. The scarlet hermit crabs added recently showed absolutely no interest in consuming cyano, so I think we can safely say they are not to be considered an effective solution for those dealing with this problem. The snails that I added are doing well

Reef Tank: Bringing in Reinforcements

2009-07-09T10:07:00.003-04:00

The algae war in my reef tank continues. Despite some recent success, specifically in taming a rise in nitrates, the nuisance persists. Dosing AlgaeFix has greatly reduced forms of green algae on the rock and tank walls, but cyanobacteria continues to be an issue. Cyanobacteria from my freswater planted tankAlso known as 'red slime', cyanobacteria is an obnoxious problem within the aquarium. It

Reef Tank: Algae War Continues

2009-06-18T20:48:00.003-04:00

Tonight I tested some algae-specific parameters for the first time since changing my filtration strategy. The good news: nitrates dropped from 40ppm to 0. Phosphate remains at zero as always. Looks like the Seachem Purigen was a success.The bad news is that I still have algae. After two weeks of doing the API Algaefix, I noticed it was growing back slower after a cleaning, and that some of the

Links: EcoTech Marine has a great site too

2009-06-14T10:47:00.003-04:00

Like everything else in my tank as of late, the Vortech MP20 is growing itself a fine outer layer of green algae in addition to the usual assortment of encrusting worms. Today I took it apart for a warm water and vinegar dip to loosen some of this stuff. For a refresher course on disassembly (actually very easy), I stopped by the EcoTech website.I was pleased to see that at some point in the

Links: Beautiful Tanks, Beautiful Sites

2009-06-04T09:53:00.004-04:00

Two of my favorite reef aquarium blogs, Glassbox Design and Reef Builders have recently been showcasing some exceptional aquariums. I hope this trend continues, as it is a nice alternative to the usual gadget press releases, and it is a much more convenient method of finding beautiful and successful tanks than trying to parse the large forums.Three tank profiles of note:• Yasuhiro's Blue Lagoon,

Reef Tank: Filtration Update

2009-06-03T09:41:00.003-04:00

In light of my continued issues with nitrates (~40ppm) and the resulting algae, I've decided to make a few changes to the filtration mediums used in the filter. Up until now I've been running two bags of carbon along with some live rock rubble. Carbon is great for polishing the water, but it isn't actively helping with an accumulation of organics. The live rock has proven a good breeding ground

Equipment: Tunze Nano Skimmer Followup

2009-05-30T12:38:00.003-04:00

In February I swapped the noisy and unreliable Coralife 65 skimmer I had been running for a Tunze Nano skimmer. As noted in the post, initial impressions were positive. The skimmer is virtually silent, began skimming with no break in period, and was a massive aesthetic upgrade for the tank. But like anything in an aquarium, the real test is time. Maintenance, reliability, and skimming performance

Photo: Geometric pygmy hawkfish

2009-05-05T10:08:00.003-04:00

This fish has remained quite shy since I acquired it in March. It will tolerate viewers sitting quietly in front of the tank, but any rapid movements or strange behaviors, specifically related to cameras, send it hiding amongst the rocks. I was finally able to get a half decent picture, by sneaking up like National Geographic nature photographer.Despite the shyness, this is a great species for

Links: Start at the Source

2009-04-21T11:07:00.002-04:00

Here I am prattling on about my nitrates rising, completely oblivious to the aging to do item "Buy RO filters for aquarium". Thankfully Ocean@Home posted a reminder that parameter issues often start at the source, the water you put into your tank. Doing frequent water changes to combat nitrates isn't going to help if the tap water is the source of your nitrates. Tonight I'll test my tap and RO

Reef Tank: Shopping for Algae

2009-04-14T13:03:00.007-04:00

Crazy idea of the day: adding a whole lot of macro algae to my tank, making it a "planted" reef.• Motivator 1: I miss having a planted tank.• Motivator 2: Algae would make the tank more diverse.• Motivator 3: Having a unique tank look.• Motivator 4: Potentially would take up some nutrients.The real thought process trigger was this recent post on the Glass Box, with a video of a Japanese tank. The

Open Question: Dealing with Nitrates

2009-04-06T14:39:00.005-04:00

Over the preceding two months I've noticed the nitrate levels in my reef tank creeping up from unmeasurable to 20ppm. I blame this squarely on a Glassbox post about fish being fed enough; worried that I was compelling my fish to be "coralexic", my tank has since become an all you can eat Chinese buffet. I believe the elevated nitrate level is responsible for some of my corals browning out. Also

Video: Trained Lumpfish

2009-04-01T13:21:00.003-04:00

The less informed may be inclined to think of this as an April Fools joke, but you can in fact train fish to perform daring stunts such as wriggling through a soft rubber hoop. I got my dad the official Fish Training Kit thinking it would make for a good joke, but as the video below shows, fish training is in fact serious business:The trainer and her star lumpfish (Cyclopteridae one of my

Video: Boris and Friends

2009-03-30T21:24:00.001-04:00

I've never really tried out the video function on my camera, and that is reprehensible. So here is a quick shot of Boris and a few of his friends, partying it up as is their custom.

Blog: New Skin in Progress

2009-03-30T17:17:00.007-04:00

Taking advantage of some project downtime, I'm trying to put a custom skin on this old blog. Apologies in advance to IE6 users, your browser is just too much work to bother with for someone who has a limited knowledge of CSS. Update: Something came up, so I've rolled back to the old template for now. Update 2: Simplified the design so I wouldn't hate it the morning after. I've only tested in

Links: Stunning Aquarium Video

2009-03-25T14:00:00.003-04:00

Eye Candy v2 from Greg Rothschild on Vimeo.I would like to say that seeing an aquarium of this quality fills me with jealousy or a sense of failure regarding my own tank, but who has time for petty emotions when a video like this is playing. You could film a Planet Earth episode in this tank.

Reef Tank: Boris the Destroyer

2009-03-24T23:01:00.004-04:00

This post was supposed to be an update on the new corals and fish I added a week ago, but first I'd like to introduce you to Boris the Destroyer, a superglue eating hermit crab:The first inhabitants to take up residence in my tank were hermit crabs and snails, including Boris here. While the rest of the hermits are fairly mild-mannered, Boris is a special individual. At some point in the past

Reef Tank: New Livestock

2009-03-18T11:32:00.004-04:00

Fresh off a plane ride from the Live Aquaria facility in Wisconsin:Plectranthias inermis (Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish)I have been following the Diver's Den RSS feed for a few months, waiting for a unique fish suited to a smaller reef aquarium, and I'm hoping this will be it. Given my recent issues with nitrates, likely from heavy feeding, this will probably be the last fish I introduce into the tank

Turtle Aquarium: Step 3 - Finishing Touches

2009-03-16T22:04:00.002-04:00

After allowing the silicone seals holding the shelf installation to cure overnight, the final step in this project was to finish the landscaping. I began with the back wall above the land area, which I wanted to cover with cork. This required cutting three pieces, including a notched middle piece to sit over the divider between land and beach areas.By doing some fine tuning with a jig saw, I was