New Tips and Tricks
AVOID AIR BUBBLERS
The most important reason to not use air bubblers, air bars and putting air hoses into the Venturi port of powerheads is the formation of salt creep or a coating of salt on the top and back of your aquarium. Saltwater is an excellent conductor of electricity. This gets on lights and electrical connections and causes shorts which you definitely can feel. Fires can happen.
MAKE YOUR OWN CHILLER
During hot weather turn off lights, especially metal halides, open doors and lids, and do not use heaters. If you have a Venturi protein skimmer you can build a "cooler chiller". Use a 30-50 foot coil of 1/4" id vinyl hose and attach one end to the air inlet of your skimmer. Place the coil in the bottom of a cooler and leave the other end sticking out into the room air. Put 10 - 20 lbs of ice in the cooler. The Venturi will inject cold air into the water.
RED CYANO (SLIME ALGAE) REMOVAL
In addition to the suggestions in SeaHorse Tips, increasing pH to 8.6 works over several days. Add small amounts of buffer over several days rather than a lot all at once.
ACCLIMATION OF NEW STARFISH
I've heard that starfish emit or secrete a scent that lets them know it's familiar territory. If you acclimate them to your tank and then dump in the acclimation water too, it is much less stressful. It breaks the "Don't add anybody's water to your tank!" rule but if it works, keeping linkias alive will be worth it. Just be sure of the water the starfish is sold with is of good quality.
REMOVING ANEMONES FROM ROCKS, ETC.
Do not pull anemones from where they are attached. If you injure their foot, survival is poor. The best way is to "tickle" or gentle irritate the edge of their base until they let loose. This may take several minutes. Touching them with an ice cube works too.
GOOD STARFISH VS BAD ONES
There are 2 types of tiny starfish found in aquariums. One is a small serpent star. It's about the size of a dime, grey to white in color with very thin legs. These are great. The other is smaller than a dime, brown in color, with six or seven fat stubby legs. These grow in plague proportions. Harlequin shrimp will clean them up but then they will eat other starfish too.
FEATHER DUSTERS
Feather dusters usually open quickly when put into your tank. But if they're not open in 3 days, then move them. Be sure there is room for them to open fully. Sometimes they will detach their heads and will appear dead but they can grow a new one back in 2-3 weeks. Only when you squeeze the tube gently and you can't feel the worm, then consider them dead. Beware, they can pull way down into the tube.
WHY LARGER WATER CHANGES
When it comes to do a water change, 1 large change per month is much more effective than many smaller changes over a month's time. The temperature doesn't need to be the same - plus or minus 15 degrees is fine. Salt concentration plus or minus 0.002 is fine also. Use the opportunity to adjust your salt level in the tank. If your tank is lower than you want, add slightly more salty new water. The logic is like this:
Let's say we have a 100 gallon tank and there are 100 nitrates to be removed. If you change 10 gallons you remove 10 nitrates. Adding new water dilutes the nitrates and there are 90 left. Changing 10 more gallons removes 9 nitrates. the next 10 gallon change removes 8.1 nitrates. 3 water changes removes 27.1 nitrates.
Now do a 50 gallon change. 50 nitrates are gone. Replace with new water and do another 50 gallon change which removes 25 nitrates. 2 water changes removes 75 nitrates. Get the idea.
GROWING SEAWEEDS AKA CAULPERA
If you want to grow seaweed, start with a small sprout. Attach to rocks or substrate with small pieces of rock. If sufficient nutrients are present and you have almost any kind of light (24/7), it will grow. It's very difficult to grow more than 1 type of caulpera. One species will out compete the others for food - nitrates and phosphates. Once the food supply is gone, quite often it will turn white and fall apart - referred to as asexual reproduction. To reduce this problem, "weed the lawn". Pull out a majority of the growth and give it to someone else.
BUBBLE CORALS
Keep the skelton - those fins that stick out when the coral is closed, - clean and free from algae. This deters the coral from opening. They also love to be fed tiny bits of silversides
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If you have a large hole in your tank or sump from a bulkhead fitting that is too small and you want to enlarge it, you will need to make a guide. Use your large hole saw to drill the larger hole in a scrap piece of acrylic or thin plywood. Place this guide hole over the smaller hole in your project and center it. Clamp the guide in place then redrill your hole. This can be done with glass or acrylic tanks and sumps. If you're drilling glass, use running water to cool the drill bit.
ANTI-SIPHONING
I may have this info somewhere else in my web site but here it is again. Back flow valves don't work reliably. They often get small sponges growing where the flap seals which may stop the gush of water but it doesn't seal tightly. If the power goes out, the dripping water will eventually fill your sump.
To solve your dilemma, drill an 1/8" hole (in the return tube inside the tank) just below the water line. If the water begins to siphon backward, the hole will cause a siphon break as the water drops.
SPS (small polyp stony) Corals like acroporas, montiporas, etc can get a non-specific bacterial infection that can wipe out a colony in 24 hours. The only possible way I have been able to save parts of the coral is by IMMEDIATELY fragging the healthy ends of the colony. Glue them to small rock pieces. Give them a dip in a Betadine solution (like the doctors use. add drops to water until its is very lightly tinted brown.) I have Betadine available in the shop. Then move them to a different tank. This is the best I have come up with. Putting super glue or CA glue over the dead area and slightly touching the tisse will also stop it.
