Captive Aquatics: An Aquarium and Ecology Blog

The Marine Aquarium Hobby in Retrospect: 2009

After a hectic "holiday season", I/we are back (trying to be back?) at penning for the CA blog.  I wanted to write a brief opinion piece of the hobby in 2009.

As a marine aquarium hobbyist since 1993, a marine aquatics author since 2001, and a "professional" for a year, I've seen a lot of things come, go, stay, and change in our hobby, for better or for worse.  For better or for worse, this is the first year I felt that the beginning of the end was palpable for the marine and reef aquarium hobby in it's current state.

Help Protect Leatherback Sea Turtles!

Leatherback sea turtles are the most endangered of the seven sea turtle species: 95% of the population has died in the last few decades.  The Monterrey Bay Aquarium and NOAA are asking us to help them pass legislation that would protect 70,000 square miles of "critical ocean and beach habitat" that these giants need to feed and reproduce.  To let your voice be heard, comment online via regulation.gov here, and of course, read more about these awesome reptiles at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium or get all the details and a map of the protected zone at the NOAA Leatherback Turtle webpage. 

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Aquarium Water Changing Tips

Besides providing the correct, stable environment, water changes are the most important action you can take to ensure your aquarium remains healthy for your fish.  Water changes remove dissolved organics, wastes, and noxious chemicals from coral (if you have a reef tank) and replenish trace elements, calcium, and most importantly: dilute organic wastes in your aquarium.  Here are a few tips to make water changes less painless:

JBJ TrueTemp Aquarium Heater Review

My rep at JBJ Lighting was kind enough to send us a whole stack of products over the holidays that I'll be reviewing as time permits.  Seeing as Texas just got hit by a cold front, I thought it'd be a fitting time to review the heater I was sent: JBJ's Professional Series aquarium heaters; their new line of digitally controlled titanium heaters boasting a ton of great features!  Today I'll be reviewing the 800w model.

Nanocube 28 LED Hands-On

Unfortunately, JBJ's new 28 gallon LED-lit nanocube that was sent to me for review arrived with a broken back pane, but I snapped a few quick pics before I had to hand it back to UPS, and thought I'd share!  Full review to be posted when I get a replacement in one piece! 

Closeup of the LED lighting system

Updates soon...I Promise!

We've fallen behind on the blog, and we know it!  With the holidays, running the 'biz, and just myself and Merritt posting during this month, we haven't been giving our readers much love.  Incidentally, this means we have a literal pile (as tall as I am!) of aquarium products we've received but haven't yet reviewed.  Stay tuned for product reviews I promised already, in addition to heaters, LED lighting fixtures, wavemakers and more at the end of the month or the beginning of 2010.  In the meantime, have a happy and safe holiday season and new year!

Five Tips for New Aquarium Owners

My first aquarium was giving to me by my parents during Christmas and like my parents, I didn't know how to set up and run an aquarium.  So for those parents and happy kids alike I have assembled a Frequently Asked Questions for beginners to get started on the right foot with their first aquarium.

Four Holiday Fish Feeding Tips

During the holidays many hobbyist leave to visit family and find that they have forgotten to plan on feeding their fish during their vacation time.  Don't worry!  Here is a simple list of suggestions for when you are away and the fish must stay.

Ecoxotic LED Aquarium Lights Now Shipping

An Ecoxotic rep emailed me a few days ago to inform me that their new Panorama series LED fixtures are now shipping as of yesterday!  Looks like we'll be getting a review unit, so stay tuned for a hands-on!

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The Nano Reef Blog is now Live!

I thought our blog here was a fairly spiffy bit of web coding, but the new Nano Reef Blog that just went live, from a web designers' perspective, is a beauty.  Launching with an impressive selection of features, I'm impressed so far - and I think we all know aquarium sites and publications don't impress me easily.  Maybe they'll let me write for them? 

I especially enjoyed the excellent interview with Anthony Calfo, and I'm taking the liberty of quoting my favorite part here:

Q: Will we ever see an Anthony Calfo Limited Edition coral? How so you feel about the whole ‘collectors’ aspect of this hobby – do you think it’s out of control? Did you see that a chalice coral frag recently sold on eBay for $2000!

A: I find the so-called limited edition, “rare” and designer corals horrifying. It is a staggering misrepresentation of what among collectible specimens from the reef is actually rare (few) and what is not (most). If you look at the model by which gouging sellers is doing business, it is almost always nefarious. Is a coral rare because a small importer can’t afford to buy 100 corals to get 20 select colors? But instead buys 5 or 10 pieces and statistically gets less of what they want? Is a coral rare because an aquarist frags a tiny parent colony monthly and can only get a few of pieces rather than act as a proper farmer and let the broodstock growout to a size that affords the monthly collection of dozens of frags (or better still… let the parent colony mature to a size at which it will planulate and yield thousands of new colonies per year). That’s not rare… that’s just bad business. Such sellers are ignorant at best and too often nefarious (ahem… a waiting list? Really?!?!). At the end of the day, however, it comes down to the (modified ;) ) P.T. Barnum wisdom, “A fool and his money… were lucky to ever get together in the first place.”

Without further ado, go check out Nano Reef Blog! 

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