It has been just about four months since I started using Captiv8 Aquaculture salt and I wanted to provide my initial thoughts on what I have been seeing with my tanks and also some interesting tidbits about the salt itself. I had been using Instant Ocean salt for a number of years and for the most part I was happy. My corals looked good and the salt was pretty cheap. I did have to supplement magnesium since freshly made batches of salt tested out at around 1270 ppm for that element. I never tested for calcium and alkalinity so I can’t comment on the consistency of those components. Another kno ..read more

It is always good to have options and in reef keeping there are usually many available to run and maintain a reef tank.  For instance, you do have choices when it comes to keeping up with the calcium and alkalinity demands of a reef aquarium, especially one that is SPS dominant. SPS require some form of calcium and alkalinity supplementation since they have calcium skeletons that demand a lot of these elements to grow and do well in a tank. Calcium Reactor vs. Two-Part When I started to keep reef tanks, I kept mostly soft corals and began to experiment with SPS only after achieving succes ..read more

Years ago I tried to start a reef tank with dry rock and I had a terrible experience. It was one problem after another, including dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria and a bacterial bloom. I just couldn’t grow SPS like I had done so with live rock and I vowed to never use dry rock again. The issues stemmed from a lack of biodiversity and microfauna with the dry rock. Additionally, I probably did not dose enough bacteria to build up the biological bed. With my most recent tank build I had a very quick cycle using live rock from KP Aquatics. The tank has had a couple of hiccups but so far the SPS are ..read more

Why raise live phyto? Well, they are an important part of the food chain in a reef tank. Phytoplankton is a small, photosynthetic, micro-algae that takes in nutrients and carbon dioxide to create fatty acids that are very important for all organisms in the tank. Phyto is consumed by filter feeders and copepods, which can pass the fatty acids on to fish that consume the pods. A big plus is the fact that corals will also consume phyto. Side benefits are the reduction of nitrates and phosphates and a higher PH. The Basic Setup What are the steps for setting up live phyto cultures? You essentially ..read more

Over the years I have shipped a lot of coral frags overnight to customers using either FedEx or UPS. Initially, I used FedEx but I switched to UPS after FedEx screwed up and delivered some packages a day late. Frags are much more prone to die when in transit for two days versus a day. UPS had been super reliable for me up until the pandemic hit. There were a few instances during the past year when packages didn’t make it the next day and, as a result, some corals didn’t survive. Was this due to labor shortages in the overnight shipping business? Could more extreme weather be part of the proble ..read more

It has been just about four months since I started using Captiv8 Aquaculture salt and I wanted to provide my initial thoughts on what I have been seeing with my tanks and also some interesting tidbits about the salt itself. I had been using Instant Ocean salt for a number of years and for the most part I was happy. My corals looked good and the salt was pretty cheap. I did have to supplement magnesium since freshly made batches of salt tested out at around 1270 ppm for that element. I never tested for calcium and alkalinity so I can’t comment on the consistency of those components. Another kno ..read more

Last month on Rappin’ With ReefBum we had the opportunity to interview Dr. Dean Miller from the Living Coral Biobank. Dr. Miller is a marine biologist, film maker, photographer and the managing director and project coordinator of Great Barrier Reef Legacy, a non-profit organization based in Port Douglas Australia dedicated to conservation of coral reefs around the world with an array of innovative projects. Dr. Miller is overseeing the Living Coral Biobank project, which was started to “bank” stony corals on the Great Barrier Reef impacted by mass bleaching events caused by global warming. The ..read more

I have many, many favorite SPS corals and my tastes have changed over the years. But some of my early favorites are still at the top of my list of must have SPS. Granted, a list of top SPS is very subjective since it comes down to personal preference and taste. What appeals to one reefer may not strike the fancy of another reefer. However, certain corals do generate a lot of  buzz among “stick heads”. With that said, here is a list of my top 10 favorite SPS corals. #1 Tyree Purple Monster The Tyree Purple Monster is an extremely slow grower. It typically has white polyps with very dense a ..read more

Does it make sense to tear down a thriving, healthy reef tank? On the surface it would seem to be a foolish move but a tank with too much coral growth can spell trouble. Growing corals can cause a drop in circulation and make it easier for detritus to settle inside a tank. This can lead to problematic algae such as cyanobacteria. Less circulation will also make it harder to deliver nutrients to corals. This was the scenario I experienced with my 187 gallon SPS dominant tank. It was started about five years ago and certain colonies were taking over a lot of real estate, crowding and shading out ..read more

There are a number of ways to control phosphates in a reef tank. A protein skimmer and regular water changes will help to keep phosphates in check as will bio pellets. You can also use macro algae in an algae scrubber, algae reactor or refugium. Another alternative is Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) in a media reactor. All of these options were discussed in a prior blog post. But one option not discussed was the use of Lanthanum chloride. Lanthanum chloride works by binding and exporting phosphate in a reef tank. A number of companies have Lanthanum chloride based products that were designed speci ..read more