One of the biggest impacts on whether your reef tank thrives or is just kinda ugh is most definitely keeping your Alkalinity in check. Honestly though it is one of the most confusing things for new hobbyists. Let’s try to simplify it!
A refugium is a separate area of your aquarium system that offers sanctuary or refuge to creatures and plants that would not be able to thrive in your main display tank. These creatures offer tremendous benefits to your aquarium. The ocean is a vast and extremely diverse ecosystem and a refugium allows us to more closely align our tanks with what happens in nature.
The Skunk Cleaner Shrimp is in my opinion the most personable of all invertebrates you can add to your tank. You can hand feed these guys and they will even crawl around on your hand cleaning them.
The first time I saw what at the time I thought was a bug crawling around on one of my live rock, I thought “Wooo that bug is crawling around under water!” I thought it had crawled into my tank. I didn’t know it was actually a Pod.
Stop the bubbles! Bubble algae can look interesting when you first see it. Many have even made the mistake of finding it on new live rock and deciding just to leave it alone. Once their tank dipped into this algaes growth zone though they quickly changed their mind.
When it comes to lighting your reef, there are several options you can choose from. Each one is going to have its pros and cons and a variety of price points. At the end of the day for most people it boils down to