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Hair algae grows where there's light and nutrients. Our reef tanks are full of both. Reducing the light is unlikely, since the corals need it. Reducing feedings... this is a touchy subject with me. I tend to eat at least three times a day. Fish in nature forage all day long, so offering them one meal a day (or even less often) seems unkind. My reef gets food three times a day: twice with an autofeeder, and then the frozen fare every night. Plus a half-sheet of nori. And occasionally a pinch of flake food or some banana if I'm so inclined. My reef doesn't ...

For a long time now, I've followed discussion of extension tubes for macro photography. And a few years ago, I looked up what they cost and quickly dismissed them. However, in the back of my mind, I kept thinking "what if those are really what I need to get these stellar macro shots?"

Probably a year ago, I considered getting them again. I talked to someone that had them, and to someone else that had used some... one person said I could use the cheap plastic tubes (less than $10) and I'd be happy. The other person paid $200 for the Nikon brand specifically because it would pass the auto focus information from the camera to the lens itself. The cheap one would not, meaning all focus would be done manually. My eyes aren't young, and I wear corrective lenses daily. I was pretty sure I'd need the camera to focus on the subject more often than not. Plus I had huge concerns about an expensive macro lens connected to a cheap piece of plastic. What if it ...

A year ago, I had to set up the 215g to support my livestock when the 400g tank leaked. Using plumbing I had on hand, everything was cobbled together to run the tank for a few months. I figured it would be three months until the 400g would go up again, but as you probably know that hasn't happened yet.

I also stated back then that I would showcase how it was plumbed, as it's something others may need to emulate to some degree. The decision to continue using the sump where it was regardless of the display was a no-brainer. Everything was plumbed and wired properly in the sump, and the filtration was operating perfectly, so I needed to connect the temporary tank with plumbing to the established filtration and top-off system.

Once the 215g was on the stand in the fishroom, it had to have the drains connected and these would drain into the sump three feet away. The return line from the Dart pump had to run the full length ...

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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