Building A Aquarium Stand

Biological media used in wet-dry filters can vary widely. The types of media used include plastic ball media, DLS (Double Layer Spiral) material, sintered (porous) glass, and many others. Although some media are better than others, all have one thing in common, and that is high surface area for bacteria cultivation.

The water entering the wet-dry filter usually feeds into an area above the wet-dry chamber, equipped with a trickle plate. The

Their reasons? They worked. Not much was commonly known as to why. Now we "know" that the aforementioned beneficial bacteria thrive in such settings with their chemical food (ammonia, nitrite, oxygen, and CO2 as a source of carbon) flowing oh-so conveniently by the nooks and crannies living space provided by the "holey" substrate.

Even today, with the advent of macro-algae, reef, "Berlin" and other "live-rock" systems in use providing the same habitat, circulation and buffering advantages, undergravel filtration remains the predominant method of

They are generally constructed for short to medium-term life, with many being so inexpensively constructed and offered that they are regarded as "disposable". Some will last more than five years (uncommon), but even they are generally "tired" and only able to provide reduced flow. Most have a useful lifespan of less than 5 years. While we are on the topic of failure and modest construct what about shock hazards? Good heavens, it is amazing and frightfully common how many people have gotten a shock from a faulty powerhead! Yet it is not actually surprising. Take a look and you will find that most have no

All one needs is strong, turbulent circulation.), I have chosen to not spend a great deal of my own money on them.

Aquarium Systems Natural Wave Timer:

The Natural Wave timer Photo Adam Cesnales

This is the first wavemaker device I ever purchased and I was very pleased with its performance. This unit is very much like a standard surge protector multi-strip. It is a

Easily mistaken for Florida spotted gar.

Shortnosed gar, Lepisosteus platostomus
The shortnosed gar can be identified by its short snout, and by the lack of teeth rows in the upper jaw like the alligator gar, and the lack of spots on its body.

Long-nosed gar, Lepisosteus osseus
The long-nosed gar is, as the name suggests, identified by its long slender snout, and also by its slender body.

Alligator gar, Atractosteus spatula
The alligator gar has

phosphates too high
hello again- Well my 90 gallon predator/reef tank has been up in running for about 7 months. Everything is running smoothly so far- water parameters are nitrate > 20 ppm, nitrite 0ppm, ammonia 0 ppm, pH 8.2, salinity 1.025, but phosphates are way to high it's about 5 ppm. For .