A Tour of Austin Aqua Farms
The Internet has provided for an explosion of online retailers in the coral market. And one of the best is right here in my back yard, Austin Aqua Farms.
In this episode of Mr. Saltwater Tank TV, I tour Austin Aqua Farms and get to see what makes this place so [...]

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler 2 Comments »

There was a great post on ReefBuilders on Friday about how to neglect your reef when other things are more important. In the case of the author, his newborn baby girl (Congrats) became the focal point of his life and he knew he’d have less time to devote to this tank.
The post raised some good [...]

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler No Comments »

When money is no object (like $750,000 for a tank and $1000/mo for maintainence) why not go over the top?
Read more here (nytimes.com)

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler 2 Comments »

Sunday morning after my bike ride is my time I set aside every week for tank maintenance – water changes, gluing frags. etc. Yesterday, I decided I was going to remove a piece of rock to scrape off some bubble algae and I removed it, and here’s what happened:
My whole top center of my tank [...]

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I talked earlier this week about how being cheap in the saltwater tank world never pays and spending a little money to do preventative maintenance can go a long, long way towards a healthy tank.
It’s the same premise for changing your vehicle’s oil (you do change it don’t you?) – before there is a problem, [...]

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler No Comments »

Everybody likes to save a dollar, but keeping a saltwater tank is a hobby where it never pays to be cheap.
Here’s an example of a common place people try to cut corners: The use of grocery store items as supplements in place of buying name brand supplements.
Money saved…a couple of dollars.
Potential disaster to your tank [...]

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler 2 Comments »

Lately, I’ve seen 2 really nice, established reef junkie tanks come down and both owners made the same mistake.
Both of these tanks had additional live rock added to them after the tank was already up and running and 100% cycled.
What happened next?
Green hair algae outbreaks, mini-cycles, and bleached corals. Oh, then owners then got [...]

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler 2 Comments »

If there is one mistake that I see saltwater tank owners make more than any other (besides not knowing their tank personality) is that they choose a path for their tank, then switch.
Here’s an example.
A reef keeping friend of mine was battling bleaching SPS corals so decided he wanted to start dosing the Zeovit system. [...]

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler No Comments »

A Reef Junkie’s life revolves around their tank. The tank is part of the family and they are proud of it.
In this episode of Mr. Saltwater Tank TV, I go to my friend Mike’s house, a die-hard reef junkie, to check out his 120G tank and all the glory that goes with [...]

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler No Comments »

I’ve talked about having a backup plan in case anything goes wrong with your tank and this week it was put to the test with a fellow reef keeping friend of mine.
While on vacation last weekend, my friend John was riding 4 wheelers when his 4 wheeler flipped over on him, breaking his hip and [...]

Posted in Reef Enthusiast, Reef Junkie, Tank Dabbler No Comments »