maintenance

I hate putting my hands in my tank.... not because I am not clean or scared of it, its more of a general rule I have that nothing goes in my tank. The only thing that enters my tank on a regular basis is a pipette I use to feed my fish. So i got tired of the vac i use in my tank for rocks and...

For those of you with a sandbed, how do you clean it?

We have a fairly large tank at work (250g display, 50g sump) and the current caretaker is leaving for somewhere between a year and forever. I've helped a lot with the tank, especially livestock selection, aesthetics, etc, but I don't really do any of the "work" I guess. You know, just the fun...

Hello! I am Emma and I am completely new to the saltwater tank life. I would love to get some tips and advice on how to successfully setup and finish cycling my brand new 38 gallon tank. Here are the specs: Marineland 38 gallon bow front biowheel tank kit The filter is a penguin biowheel...

Hows it going TRT'ers? I have a 55g with a 15g sump, stocked with a clown, coral beauty, pink dottyback, blue chromis, scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp, and 4 snails. The tank is ~9 months old. For some time now i have had this "red algae" (I'm not entirely sure what it's called) growing on the...

VIDEO: Restore a Neglected Tank If your aquarium maintenance schedule has been derailed by summer fun, watch this video for step-by-step instructions on how to get things back on track.

A recent addition is a 90 gal mixed reef. It's very early in the process. Something new to me is I've done this tank with a sand bed. All my others have been florida crushed coral for that "caribbean" feel. I certainly like the sand bed and all that it brings but have two questions. 1) With...

I have a pondmaster return pump. I have had it running for probably 6 months now and was just wondering what type of maintenance everyone does on their return pumps as well as the return line. I have never cleaned mine or anything. Is this something I should do?

So after almost 3yrs it's pretty safe to say I have a well established thriving reef tank. Trips to the store for "necessary" items that were overlooked in the prebuild are over and now it's down to livestock and basic upkeep. While there are still some minor annoyances (bubble algae....ugh) I...

I am getting a cat shark of some kind, but I am not sure which. I am considering the black-banded cat shark, but the site I am looking at gives not one, not two, but three different maximum sizes for it. Maximum Length :14.9 inches a little bit of text later; The Black Banded Cat Shark...

I recently ordered ordered a Magnum 350 canister that I had planned running when doing maintenance/cleaning LR in hopes that the micron cartridge would help pick up the debris from the water column. After placing the order, I started thinking whether there are any attachments that could be...

hello, i currently have a 35 gallon hexagon tank with about 35 pounds of live rock and 4 small fish. i have a fluval 405 canister filter on it right now. Its only been a little over a month and I'm just wondering how often i should change things in the filter or give it a cleaning.

I battled algae for probably 4 months in my 29G softie reef tank. I haves lawn,peer blend, cardinal fish, and a fire fish, with a few hermits. I fed every 2 days usually. I have a HOB skimmer for filtration, and was changing 5 gallons of water twice a week to get rid of it. My son came a month...

Hoping some more experienced reefers may be able to offer advice on keeping a quarantine tank. This is my first QT. It's a 29g, 30x13x18, no rock or sand, just some PVC parts for fish to hide in (ABS floats I found out). I added a single 200W heater and a 550GPH powerhead. Filtration is a Rena...

I havent been able to access the general forums all week. I use my cellphone and the dailey maintenance has shown up all week. I just looked into the forum list and see everyone else is getting in I see a post from yesterday. As soon as I click on general reef it shows the dailey maintenance.

Hello all Does anyone know of any apps/programs/maintenance tools that keeps track of your tanks records and projects optimal activity logs? Like a app that you enter your tanks test results, fish introductions, feeding times, lighting times, etc. ? That then projects best breeding times per...

I have recently set up a 135g saltwater reef tank in a school. We are at present patiently waiting for the ammonia levels to rise. I have to create a reasonable budget for a years worth of maintenance supplies (so absolutely everything that I will definitely need and maybe a little cushion in...

Haven't been around for awhile...Had another major power outage that caused a lot of issues and lost all my LPS and most of the fish. Needless to say, this caused issued with water quality. The time required to dedicate to recover immediately wasn't available, which led to larger issues with...

A couple of questions: 1. Do you rinse your frozen food with RO/DI before feeding, or just let it melt, then serve? 2. Do you rinse your Media, and or Sponges with RO/DI, or do you use tap to rinse, since the water pressure from your tap will remove build up better then pouring a jug of RO...

I need to buy a new testing kit. I had an API, but honestly I have not used it for a while and it needs to be replaced. I haven't tested because things were going well and everybody always talks about how unreliable these kits are. Anyway, now I have hair algae so bad I had to give my snails...