“Easy Blade is a must have!!!”

Easy Blade

I read a review of Easy Blade and decided to give it a try.  The concept seemed great: attache a sharp metal blade to my existing MagFloat and it would be easier to clean my glass.

When I got the package through the mail, I was surprised by it’s small size and simplicity. The directions were easy enough – just Super Glue the plastic handle to the back of the glass magnet cleaner.  I did this in just a few minutes. After the glue dried, I put the blade on and then  the small plastic cover,  screwed it together and gave it a try.

Wow! What a time saver!

Easy Blade

This products is absolutely Great! This simple little product will save me hours and hours every year. Also I won’t have work nearly as hard to clean my glass.  Fantastic!

The one thing you have to do after you are done is take the blade out and dry it as it is metal and if left in the tank will rust.

You could not invest your money better in any tank maintenance product. A must have!

Our experience at the New Jersey 2008 Frag Swap

Frag Swap 2008

The concept of a frag swap is fantastic. Members and guests exchange information and hear experts speak about corals and coral propagation. Reefers can take corals that they have grown in their own tanks and trade them. These exchanges not only help the hobbyist, but also are very green for the environment as wild corals are not removed from their environment.

Looking forward to Frag Swap 2008 in Secaucus, New Jersey, my oldest son and I packed up a Styrofoam container with 7 beautiful Australian Acathastrea frags and went to see what we could get. When we arrived, we found the entrance well manned and well organized.

Frag Swap corals for sale

When we first got in we were asked by a fellow reefer “what do you got?” We opened up our container and started showing our corals to each other. Then, two workers helping to organize the swap came up to us.

“You really shouldn’t do that here,” said the people working at the Swap.

“Well, where is the trading area?” I asked.

“There is none” replied the man in purple.

“Isn’t this a frag swap?” I asked. The worker replied, “All these vendors paid $200 a table, and they are selling corals, so we really don’t want the other people competing right in front of them.”

Trying to be on my best behavior in front of my older son, I calmly pointed out that if this was the case the event should be called a ”Frag Buy” instead of a Frag Swap. Also we paid $30 to get in the door, and although it was not $200, it should afford us some rights to do what the event advertises.

Drawing for prizes

This encounter did not hinder us from trading. We were able to get some beautiful Acroproa, pink Stylophora and green Favia. What we found really interesting, is that most of the trading we did was with people who had the booths!

The action on the floor

The speaker that we heard had some very interesting points about breading corals being a more efficient way to propogate corals than fragging. The raffle was a great concept, with many chances to win many useful products. Even the lunch was good: it was next door so you didn’t have to waist time leaving the hotel.

corals and clams

All in all, it was a great show and we look forward to going back next year. However, I hope the New Jersey Reefers Society adheres to their charter stated in their pamphlet of “To provide a forum for sharing resources and information among local aquarium enthusiasts”  instead of being turned by the all mighty dollar.

Like New!

after cleaning

Stains are gone! Make the old new! Works better than new! Will take you kids to school, walk the dog, cook you dinner and floss your teeth all for three easy payments of $19.95!!!

What are we talking about here?

The hot new cleaner on the market? The can’t miss must have new product? No! We are talking about plain, boaring white vinigar. And it doesn’t even cost $19.95 or even close! Just get it at your local suppermarket for under a couple of bucks and you are ready to start cleaning your pumps.

before cleaning

Let it soak!

Please note the before and after pictures. This represents about 1 1/2 years of use as these two pumps are covered in purple and green algae. We have been extremely happy with these two SEIO M820 – they have been true workhorses. However, even though we have cleaned the interior several times, we have never really tried to do anything about the exterior, until now.

We poured 1/2 a bottle of white vinigar into a bucket, and the hottest tap water possible and let the pump soak for five hours. Although it was slow going, most of the algae came off using a scrapper, toothbrush and sponge.

Not only are the pumps more pleasing to look at, but this will help their efficiency as well. Thank you to Scott Grossclose at Aquarium Specialty ( who also distributes The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide) for this tip, as when I asked him to sell me a product, he told us to just use the old white vinegar and hot water as he feels it works as well as anything you could buy.

The Free Tank!

The Free Tank!!!

If you stay in the hobby long enough, they will appear – The Free Tank!!! People move, people get busy, people don’t want to look at their dirty tanks anymore. And there you are waiting like the Rock Fish to ambush his prey and sweep up the free tank. Well, maybe not quite so dramatic, but you can get lucky and get some really cool stuff.

new friends

I got lucky a few weeks ago. A friend of Bob’s, the host of The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide,  was moving and did not want to take care of her 14 gallon Bio Cube Nano any more. I had always wanted a nano for my office and when this one came available I jumped at it.

little maroon clown

It needed a good cleaning as the algae had really built up, but as it was only 14 gallons it did not take long at all to clean. I kept all the fish and rock in the tank and just did a 50% water change, making sure the salinity and temperature were the same. In the 210 gallon demo tank, I am not as exacting when doing a water change as I change such a small percentage every week (5%) that the tank will absorb any variation in temperature or salinity.

Bio Cube Protein Skimmer

I added an Oceanic Bio Cube Protein Skimmer. It is not my MTC- HSA-1000, but at least it fits in the tank and I can still close the lid. The jury is still out on other things for the tank that I wish to add. However, it looks like everyone is doing quite well right now. There is a small Yellow Tang, two Blue Green Chromis, two Blennies, a Cardinal, a Cleaner and a Blood shrimp and a Maroon Clown. I thought it would be a little much for the tank, but they are all so small and everyone gets along well.

The Cardinal Rule

Don’t forget my Cardinal Rule! Make sure you know when you get into the hobby, that when you decide you want to get out of the hobby, all the money you spend on your tank will probably go right down the drain. Very few people starting out want to risk their money on a scratched used tank. Thus, resale on used tanks are almost nothing.

“That’s as heavy as a car!”

a lot of support

“That’s as heavy as a car!” is what the architect said when we starting talking to him about the weight of the  demo tank. With the 35 gallon sump and 210 demo tank that was 245 gallons. Multiply by 8.5 to be on the safe side, as water is closer to 8.1 pounds, we have 2,083 pounds. Add 300 pounds of live rock, and 250 pounds of sand, extra water standing by for water changes along with pumps, salt for mixing and everything else you need close by for a successful reef aquarium, we estimated the weight to be about 3,000 pounds.

What the contractor did was rip out the floor boards and run them east/west instead of north/south. This allowed the weight to be distributed on every floor board instead of just the two directly under the tank.

(An interesting aside: this riping out the floor opened up the downstairs floor to the sky. As you can imagine with a contractor, it took a while to close it up. The contractor sent one of his guys to protect our basement floor and he used one piece of plywood flat – no angle – and one little tarp. One night while it was open in the summer, at about 10 PM the skies opened up. I was there waiting with five buckets. At one area next to the window, it poured! It was like someone had turned on three faucets full blast onto the carpet. Fourtunately I had a Pythone and was able to siphone the water out from the 55 gallon garbage can. Needless to say, the contractors named was mentioned several times by the lady of the house in a not too flattering manner…)

We also used two steel beams bolted together (top part of the picture). This steel has kept the floor from sagging and the tank level.

Most tanks will hold up fine with regular construction. We know of a couple of 180 gallon tanks that are on a second floor and doing fine with no added support. But we like to recommend that you use caution and good sense. If you go big, make sure you are safe, because going light for support on a big tank can be a crash worse than anything the stock market can do.

The Vodka Test….

vodka is a trick

About six weeks ago we at The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintanence Guide took a chance with our demo tank. We added 1ml per 20 gallons to our demo tank to see if our nitrates would go down.

Here is the answer – YES!!! Wow, what an amazing additive!

Before we used the vodka, the demo takes nitrates were at 8 mg per liter.  Only one week after we used the vodka, the nitrates dropped to less than 1mg per liter! Since that first week we cut back on the dosing to every other day as the levels were so low so quickly. Even now, six weeks later with every other day dosing,  the nitrates are less than one mg per liter.

Did it hurt the fish? No, we have never seen the fish healthier. There colors are magnificent and they are as healthy as any hobbyist could ever want. The clown fish have even been spawning more often and laying their eggs on the rocks in greater numbers.

Eggs with Vodka

Did it hurt the corals? No, the corals are still growing like crazy.

Did it hurt the anemones? No, the bubble tips keep splitting and the green carpet is now over a foot in circumference with a shocking bright green shade.

What a great find! This seems to me a slam dunk. Our host of The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide, Bob Wiatroski, has said his customers have not had any long term effects using vodka. We  will keep an eye on the tank, but the first review is in and vodka might be the cheapest, most effective way of keeping your nitrates down in your reef tank.

As a final note, we do not recommend this for a marine tank with no live rock, as the vodka helps the bacteria inside the live rock and would probably not be helpful without the rock itself.

Award Winning DVD!!!

Award Winning DVD!!!

The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide has just won another award! The highly regarded Communicator Award chose to honor us with their Award of Distinction for 2008. The Communicator Awards is an international awards competition that recognizes outstanding work in the communication field. Entries were judged by industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. The highly respected judges commented that “The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide was beautifully shot and extremely well written. There is a tremendous wealth of knowledge that was easily presented so even people with almost no experience in fish keeping could succeed in keeping a marine reef aquarium. Congratulations on your well deserved Communicator Award of Distinction!”

Maintenance on your ozonator

Nitric Acid build up in ozonator

Be careful to have dry air go to your ozonator! If you don’t, it can cause a build up of Nitric acid, a sticky brown substance that will make a mess all over your plumbing and cause your ozonator to stop working. This was a mistake on our part, not attaching a dryer right away. This allowed the Nitric acid to build up over time and damage the ozonator. Here is our Ozotech ozonator with the top open and the bulb out. We cleaned off most of the Nitric acid which was on the bulb and the inside. Next we tested the unit to make sure the bulb still lit (it did).

dryer mounted

We hung the unit back in place with a toggle bolt and hung our new air dryer nearby, attaching it with clear hose to the air intake of the ozonator.

Crystals rurn from blue to pink

The crystals that Ozotech supplies with the dryer start off as blue then turn to pink as they acquire moisture. Once they gels turn all pink, you can either microwave or bake (recommended) the gels until they turn blue again. This can be repeated several times, but not indefinitely, as the gels eventually loose their moisture holding capability. Here you see the crystals that have turned to pink, so we put them in the toaster oven, turning them over every few minutes, and in about 40 minutes they were ready to go back to work. This 8” pie pan worked alright, but next time I would use a large cookie sheet to increase the surface area and decrease the cooking time.

dry crystals to blue

We just put the crystals back in the dryer, screwed it in, and we were in business!

What Reaction should you have to Refilling your Calcium Reactor? Dose.

Calcium Reactor

So you just refilled your calcium reactor with a big jar of aragonite, cleaned out the lines, turned it on and it is going great! The water is coming in and out just like clockwork. Your CO2 that you are running is perfectly entering into your calcium reactor to help break down the aragonite. So what do you do now? Dose your tank with calcium! But you just did all this work to make your calcium levels high! Why do should you have to dose now!?

Calcium lines

Because it takes your calcium reactor a few weeks before it can really start to break down the aragonite to make the calcium. So if you want to keep your tank running smooth, pour in some liquid calcium or a solution that contains calcium to bring up your levels. Your corals and clams will thank you for it. We strongly recommend using a calcium reactor in The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide as this will make it easier on you, and over time save you money on chemicals.

Want happy fish? Give them a shot of Vodka!

Drink Up!

No really, we are not kidding. We noticed that over the months, our nitrate levels in the Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide demo tank were slowly climbing up, even though we had not added any new fish to the demo tank. In fact, we even had a few less fish through natural mortality. On the other hand, many of the fish had grown, especially the Blue Hippo Tang who eats more than the four Ocellaris Clowns in the tank. We have 300lbs of live rock in the tank and sump, weekly 5-6% water changes, a MTC-1000 protein skimmer.

1 ml per 20 gallons to start

Bob Wiatroski, the host of The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide suggested some adding some vodka to the tank each day as the vodka encourages the development of the denitrifying bacteria deep inside the live rock. Bob has had customers do this and after 30 days, their nitrates fell to zero. All this with no ill effects to the fish. At this point we are adding 1 ml per 20 gallons. Since the demo tank is 210 gallons, we are adding just a little over 10 ml a day. Right now we are in the middle of this experiment, so keep posted to our blog to see our results.

Also, use the cheap vodka. Save the Stoli Crystal for yourself!