Aquarium Tips — Aquarium

Part of the fun of the aquarium hobby is that Tropical fish come in many different shapes, sizes and attitudes. Included in these differences should be feeding requirements. In freshwater, there are carnivorous (meat eating) mid-water tetras, or bottom feeding catfish, top feeding hatchetfish and Killifish which are different in size and temperament from top feeding cichlids and arowanas. Feeding omnivorous (meat and plant eating) barbs is different from feeding herbivorous (plant eating) mbuna and plecos.  In saltwater aquariums, there is a big difference between feeding carnivorous clownfish, butterflyfish and pipefish or feeding herbivorous Tangs.  Lionfish have a different type of...

Often overlooked, magnesium plays a critical role in chemical and biological processes in an aquarist's saltwater aquarium. The magnesium content in natural saltwater is only behind that of sodium and chloride, making it a major element as opposed to a trace element. Magnesium is essential to all organisms for biological functions, and is very important to organisms that are skeleton building such as LPS and SPS corals. Many times we find hobbyists that are struggling with issues in their coral reef aquarium only to find deficiencies in magnesium. It is very difficult to maintain ideal calcium and alkalinity levels in saltwater without...