Advanced Aquarist: May 2008 Issue is Now Online!

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Advanced Aquarist: May 2008 Issue is Now Online!

Fellow Marine Aquarists,

For those that don't check the website religiously on the 15th we are pleased to announce the release of the May 2008 issue of Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine. Remember to check back here each month on the 15th for our newest issue. Also remember that we will have a

PDF issue of this month's magazine available in two week's time (on the first of the month) at the following download location: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/pdf

For those of you who use RSS, we have a RSS feed available. Subscribing to this RSS feed will keep you up-to-date on the publication of our magazine each month.

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We've also made available a couple of browser extensions to allow you to better search our magazine:

* Google Toolbar Extension for IE
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Enjoy the issue!

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/5

Here's the lineup for this month:


Editorial: May 2008
By Terry Siegel
I have been maintaining a reef tank for many years, and can say without hesitation that significant water changes are vital.

Feature Article: West Atlantic Stony Corals, Part 3: Large Polyp and Fire Corals
By Jake Adams
Jake continues his West Atlantic Stony Coral series with Meandrinids, Mussids, Oculiniids, Caryophillidae, Hydrocorals, and others.

Feature Article: Top Down Photographing Techniques and Equipment for Corals in a Reef Aquarium
By Sanjay Joshi
This article will explore some of the cheaper options that will allow an aquarist to take stunning top down pictures of corals in the home aquarium with both simple point and shoot cameras and the more expensive SLR cameras.

Feature Article: Home Fumigation - Do I Really Have To Remove My Aquarium?
By Dana Riddle
Dana's limited experiences suggest you and your aquarium will make it through just fine.

Featured Aquarium: 15 Gallon Freshwater Planted Tank
By Charles J. DeVito
Even in this day and age of exorbitantly colored, ridiculously expensive, inordinately rare corals with over-the-top names like Reverse Radioactive Green Monkey Nipple zooanthids, there's still not much that compares to a school of neons swimming amongst a lush aquatic meadow.

Reefkeeping Events: What's Happening in Your Area?
By Advanced Aquarist Readers
Check to see if an event is happening in your area!

Product Review: EcoTech Marine VorTech Part 1: Basic Introduction
By Adam Blundell M.S.
For a hobbyist who truly wants to create water motion, change the flow, or create a very dynamic system, then this pump is the real deal. The VorTech pump is awesome.

Reefs In The News
Media coverage of the state of our world's reefs, interesting information, and other marine-related news.
RSS feed available.


As always, please let us know if there is a specific article or area that you would like to see covered by Advanced Aquarist's large staff of aquarium hobby experts. Please post any suggestions you might have for the magazine in our Editorial Discussion Forum: http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=38

Sincerely,

The staff at Reefs.org and Advanced Aquarist

 

[Anonymous]

Woohoo! My ghetto fabulous picture taking box is in it!

 

[Anonymous]

So are my weeds

 

[Anonymous]

your weeds have me thinking.

Dammit I don't have room for another tank...

B

 

[Anonymous]

Heheh yeah, one of the LFS has a nice planted tank, and it got me thinking, but then reading how some of these things are run, adding fertilizer!!?!?? adding CO2?!?! seems like almost as much if not more work than a reef tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Heheh yeah, one of the LFS has a nice planted tank, and it got me thinking, but then reading how some of these things are run, adding fertilizer!!?!?? adding CO2?!?! seems like almost as much if not more work than a reef tank.

Nah. Feeding the fish and adding ferts takes about a minute a day. Trim the plants whenever it looks like they need it... depending on the plants/setup, this can be multiple times a week or once every few months. Clean the filter occasionally, do a water change every now and then, refill the CO2 when it runs out if you’re using it.

That’s it.

No kalkwasser or calcium reactors. No skimmer to clean. No filling containers with RO water. No mixing of saltwater. No plumbing. No acropora eating flatworms, no flatworms at all in fact. No mantis shrimp. No evil hitch hiking crabs. No refugium. No wavemaker, no seasquirt jamming up, no oscillating return that stops oscillating. No need to apply a razor blade to the glass, ever. No soaking cover glass in white vinegar to clean salt spots. No overflow overflowing. No overflow breaking siphon. No overflow at all, actually. No… well, you get the idea.

 

[Anonymous]

So here's a question, how do you make sure the plants take up a dominant role over say nuisance algae?

 

[Anonymous]

So here's a question, how do you make sure the plants take up a dominant role over say nuisance algae?

The main trick is just to heavily plant, from day one. That makes all the difference in the world. Don't go nuts on lighting (a high light planted tank only needs about as much light as you might give a soft-coral-only tank, and you shouldn't even use that much unless you're also going to use pressurized CO2) and plant heavily and you're pretty much in control of the game from day one. High levels of CO2 in the water help to depress algae growth as well, and SeaChems organic carbon additive, Excel, also has some algaecidal properties that make it useful.

Most freshwater algaes are pretty easy to deal with even if they do crop up. The only exception is cladophora, which thrives in the same conditions as higher plants and is thus a bit of a royal pain.

 

[Anonymous]

your weeds have me thinking.

Dammit I don't have room for another tank...

B

(sultry voice)

C'mon, you know you want another tank

 

[Anonymous]

So here's a question, how do you make sure the plants take up a dominant role over say nuisance algae?

The main trick is just to heavily plant, from day one. That makes all the difference in the world. Don't go nuts on lighting (a high light planted tank only needs about as much light as you might give a soft-coral-only tank, and you shouldn't even use that much unless you're also going to use pressurized CO2) and plant heavily and you're pretty much in control of the game from day one. High levels of CO2 in the water help to depress algae growth as well, and SeaChems organic carbon additive, Excel, also has some algaecidal properties that make it useful.

Most freshwater algaes are pretty easy to deal with even if they do crop up. The only exception is cladophora, which thrives in the same conditions as higher plants and is thus a bit of a royal pain.

I agree the main thing is to get the plants in control from day one. My 6 year old Fw planted 10g has 20-30 guppies and the 2 year old 20g long has about 20 platys. Both tanks have clean glass even though I have not touched the glass on over a year. Both use straight tap water, no filter, no circulation, and no water changes.

 

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/me points at Charles

Ah, another Dinosaur Comic fan!

Shane