How to Articles

I haven’t been involved in this hobby very long compared to other folks but learned very quickly how much of a pain it can be to eradicate, or try to eradicate pests such as Aiptasia, Majanos, Bubble Algae, zoa eating asterinas, and Marine Ich. When I started, I did what I’m sure all of us have done at one time or another: just drop things in the tank and hope for the best. I recently upgraded from a 70g to a 260g tank and decided never again! Unfortunately, everything I found online regarding QT setups mainly dealt with fish only setups, bare bones systems, or that were more of a temporary solution. ...

When a Club Hosts a Speaker
by Steven Pro

As an aquarium society grows, they inevitably want to bring in out of town experts to educate their membership. The first thing that the club leadership needs to determine is, what would the members like to hear about? Do they want to hear the latest on reef aquarium lighting or would they prefer to discover the most recent breakthroughs in marine fish breeding? Some clubs prefer hands-on workshops on things like coral fragmentation, aquarium photography, aquascaping, fish necropsy, or acrylic and PVC fabrication. While other clubs might prefer more formal, educational lectures or picture heavy travelogues. Once it has been decided what the club is looking for, finding a speaker to fill that niche is much easier.

The Marine Aquarium Society of North America (www.masna.org) provides a database of speakers, their contact information, and their specific requests to provide lectures and/or workshops to their member clubs. I urge you to take advantage of this resource, but if there are speakers not listed, do not hesitate to ask the board so that they can assist in locating and contacting the speaker. MASNA is also pleased to make suggestions ...

My reef uses two Dart pumps. One is used as a return pump, the other as a means to feed all equipment with a manifold of valves. The return pump started making noise about a week before I had to fly to MACNA 2011. Swapping the noisy pump out with my back up Dart pump wasn't an option; that one leaked at the seal so the noisy one was re-installed.



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Bulkheads are a necessary part of a drilled tank to drain water down to the sump. They also are used on sumps running external pumps. A bulkhead is a plastic fitting with a flange, rubber gasket and retaining nut. They come in many sizes, both in Schedule 40 (standard) and Schedule 80 (beefy/sturdy). These are purchased at your local fish store (LFS) or online from various e-tailers. You won't find them at Home Depot or Lowes, but some smaller chains like Elliott's Hardware have some in inventory. Plumbing supplies won't have them usually.
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For many years, I have received hundreds if not thousands of requests for help with plumbing. An article is what was needed, and at last you will get your wish. The first thing you need to know is that there are many ways of accomplishing the same thing, and the most often reason for this is a lack of available parts. Even with a clear plan in mind, sometimes it requires buying alternate pieces to get the same results. The trick is knowing what is available to use, ...

There is always someone who is just starting in this hobby and may not know some of the things we take for granted. I'm all about documenting step-by-step instructions for just about anything and everything I do so that one day, someone can google it, and find a reassuring article on what they are about to venture forth and do. Having said that, I had to rinse out and reuse my old sand from my 150-gallon tank. This sand had sat in a large 50 gallon trash can on the side of my parents house for over 18 months. Open to the elements and rain. But, hey why not make use of it for the next tank!?
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