Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance

At time/point 5 ammonia starts to drop off in concentration, being readily oxidized by the first group of nitrifiers. Ditto at time/point 6 for the second group of bacteria. At time seven the system has officially "cycled" with ammonia and nitrite now at undetectable levels. In completely cycled, balanced systems the curve of nitrate concentration will flatten as marked (8) with an unbalanced situation (too little denitrification, use of nitrates by other life, transport by water changes, over-feeding/under-filtration...) accounting for an ever-increasing level/concentration of nitrate as indicated by (9)

This reality demands that you pay strict attention to simple but thorough articles of aquarium husbandry.

With careful feeding, light stocking, regular water changes, etc., you will be able to enjoy a remarkably easy system at any size. Set realistic goals for the bio-load and have a planned stocklist in advance (including a proposed order of introduction). A super-sized aquarium

However, in contrast to a standard multi-strip, only three of the plugs have power 24/7. The other three plugs are connected to a controller knob and turn on and off in an alternating pattern. Plug #1 runs for a set period of time and then shuts off. When #1 turns off, #2 turns on and runs for the same set period of time. So, #1 and #2 are always opposite of one another. The #3 plug is a little different. It will turn on and remain on all the while #1 and #2 operates for one cycl

rlin-Style Filtration: Live Rock & Protein Skimming

Either take the above prototypical wet-dry systems media out entirely or start with a bare tank, add a large quantity of cured live rock to aforesaid wet-dry sump or gravel-less tank, toss in an efficient protein skimmer and you have the essence of a Berlin-Style filtered set-up. Further commonalities of such arrangement

Easily mistaken for spotted gar.

Spotted gar, Lepisosteus oculatus
Long snout and spots. Spots to a higher degree towards the posterior of its body. 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 a shor

Reply to tips for aquarium shots?

Photography is a still of life posted a reply:

Id say a dark room, no flash, and a wide aperture. Try using different camera speeds if you have a manual setting on your camera.
Use a tripod or a stack of books to mount.

Hitchhikers !! Part 1 & 2
Part 1 http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/reefslides/index.php Part 2 http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/reefslides/index.php.