Product Review: Phosguard

Phosphates can cause many problems to marine aquariums by harming corals and allowing for algae outbreaks. Phosphates can be added to the tank through fish food, water changes, and fish waste. Algae love it and will grow like wild once their is enough in their tank. The best thing you can do to prevent algae outbreaks is starve it of nitrate and phosphate. I bought Phosguard from my LFS and have been very satisfied with it. My phosphates dropped to 0 in under 3 weeks. I have also had no algae problems whatsoever.
To use phosguard, it's first a good idea to do a few other things. First make sure your nitrates are in check and then get your phosphates tested if you still have a problem with algae. Your levels should be 0 ppm but 0.3 ppm is ok. The best way I have found to remove phosphates is to install phosguard in your filter. It usually comes in a bag with little white balls and you just throw it anywhere that there is water flow. You can find it at your LFS but it is definitely cheaper on amazon. If you are treating an older tank that has an algae problem, change this bag every 3 weeks and then once your phosphates are under control, change it every 3 months for prevention. The Phosguard first pulls the phosphate out of the water column and then will pull it out of your live rock and sand which might take a longer time especially if your tank is very established. If you just set up a new tank, this is a great product to prevent any and all algae problems in your aquarium. It is much better to do this prevention rather than buying many more things later on to get rid of your algae.
PhosGuard, 100 mL bagged
Price: 5/5
Ease of Use: 4/5
Effectiveness: 5/5
Length of Use: 3/5

NEW Ocellaris Clownfish Variety:Black Ice Snowflake

ORA has come up with a new variety of ocellaris clownfish, which is a combination of a regular snowflake clown and the black clown. They definitely took their time with breeding this clownfish, making sure it was genetically sound by outbreeding it with many of their other clownfish. The problem is that it is hard to make a jet black clownfish with the snowflake pattern. The clownfish turn out either lighter black or orange. They are getting closer to their goal and should be selling these soon!

Beginner Corals

A blue/purple Mushroom coral

A cream-colored Kenya Tree Coral (small)

Beginning reef keeping is very exciting. The best thing you can do is be patient. Do not put in corals when you do not know your water parameters. Many LFS will offer free water testing and can guide you in corals you can keep. Your water should have very low nitrates, under at least 25. Your calcium should be in a good range as well as your pH and kH. Salinity should be around 1.021-1.025. The tank should be cycled and if your thinking about getting corals, try to wait a few months for your tank to stabilize if it is new. Make sure you have reef-compatible fish. If you have an angelfish or butterflyfish, beware that they might try to eat your expensive corals! If you keep them well fed with high quality food, they should leave them alone. No fish is completely reef-safe; even clownfish have been seen eating corals. Lighting is also a very important aspect in reef keeping and will be explored in depth later.
Here are a couple of great beginner corals that are pretty much bullet proof in their care and usually cheap.
1. Mushroom corals - these corals come in a variety of colors. They don't require much light, water flow, or feeding and grow quickly. Make sure not to get a mushroom with "pipae" or small bumps on the surface; these ones can be harder to keep. These can be placed on the sandbed or close to the bottom.

2. Kenya Trees - These soft corals come in a small variety of colors but definitely add height to your reef. They require medium light and low to medium waterflow. Their branches extend out and sway in the current. You should feed these corals some type of coral food such as oyster feast from Reef Nutrition.

Green Star Polyp Colony

3. Green Star Polyps -These beautiful corals can grow like wildfire when conditions are right in your aquarium. They consist of a purple rubbery base with green "stars" coming out of the polyps. They can stay closed for a while when put in a new tank but just give it some time and they should open up. They will also close at night. These should be fed a coral food as well and be under medium to high light with medium to high waterflow.

Green Button Polyps

4. Zooanthids/Button Polyps - A variety of colors and sizes can probably be found at your LFS. These need medium water flow with medium light. They will close up when you target feeding them, which is normal since they are trying to "catch" the food.
When you get the corals home, acclimate them like you would a fish and make sure to increase your rate halfway through, this helps keep the temperature stable in the bag/bucket.  Once you put the corals in the tank, try to start your corals on the bottom of your reef and then move them up if they need more light.

50 Gallon Update: New Fish

I took home from my LFS (that I work at) a new Two Barred Spinefoot Rabbitfish. It's scientific name is siganus doliatus and is commonly confused with the virgate rabbitfish. Right now, the fish is sporting quite an ugly brown coloring but I hope he will end up turning beautiful as he grows up. He is eating the dried seaweed and seems overall happy. Sorry for the crappy picture, he moves pretty fast and is very shy.

Just in Time for Halloween: The Halloween Hermit

Scientific Name: Ciliopagurus strigatus
Diet: Omnivore/Scavenger, may even eat Cyanobacteria
Caution: Can kill small inverts and fish, other than that, pretty reef-safe
Comes from Hawaii/Indo Pacific


This hermit is very unique in coloration with bright orange legs with white and black stripes. It is one of the more larger hermits and make sure to keep extra shells for it to move into.

Great Books for the Beginner

1. The New Marine Aquarium: Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide

This is the book you should get if you are starting up a new marine aquarium. It takes you through all the steps as well as fish choices and possible problems with marine aquarium keeping.

2. The Complete Book of the Marine Aquarium

3. Corals (Catalog Category: Aquarium / Books-marine)


Great book on reef-keeping as well as the basics of coral care.

4. Aquarium Fish International (1-year auto-renewal)

This is the best magazine for any aquarium keeper. Has equal content of both freshwater and saltwater.

Beginner Saltwater Aquarium Stocking

Here are a few examples for inspiration of small marine aquarium set ups that would work great. These are all relatively cheap fish and easy to keep and maintain.
10 Gallon Nano Reef
1 Clownfish Pair
OR 1 Goby of Choice with Symbiotic Pistol Shrimp (they build a home together and hang out)
2 Tiger Trochus Snails
Fill this tank up with nano corals to make a mini-reef

29 Gallon Reef Community
1 Clownfish pair - preferably Ocellaris, Tomatos, or Perculas
1 Six-Line Wrasse
1 Royal Gramma or 1 Hector's Goby
5 Tiger Trochus Snails
2 Emerald Crabs
1 Brittle Sea-Star


29 Gallon Fish Only With Live Rock
1 Coral Beauty Angel or 1 Flame Angel or 1 Lemonpeel Angel
1 Blue Spot Jawfish
1 Chocolate Chip Star
5 Hermit Crabs (Scarlets or Blue-legs)
2 Turbo Snails

50 Gallon Reef Community
1 Clownfish Pair - preferably Ocellars, Tomatos, Perculas, Clarks, or Maroons OR 4 Banggai Cardinals
1 Firefish
1 Bullet Goby
2 Urchins
10 Tiger Trochus Snails
5 Cerith Snails
5 Emerald Crabs

Species Profile: Amblygobius phalaena

Common Names: Brown-Barred Goby, Sleeper Banded Goby, Bullet Goby, Rock Mover Goby, Dragon Goby, Pistol Goby, Harbor Goby, Pennant Goby
Hails from: Indo Pacific
Diet: Omnivore, crustaceans in sand, copepods.
Minimum Tank: 20 gallon
Reef Compatible: Yes
Care Level: Easy
Temperament: Semi-Aggressive to Con-specifics, unless mated pair
Size: 2 to 6 inches
A beautiful addition to a reef aquarium. This fish will keep your sand clean but may decide to move a few rocks. He may also spit sand on your live-rock and corals which can be removed with a turkey baster from time to time. A pretty cheap fish at your LFS, at about $30.

Marine Aquarium Aquascaping Basics

Example of a bad aquascape

Aquascaping your first marine aquarium may seem like a daunting experience. Do I glue all the rock together? How do I create caves and overhangs that I see in other reef aquariums? Here is basic guide with a few tricks to help making this exciting task of setting up a marine aquarium easier.

Materials: You need about as many pounds of live-rock as you do gallons your aquarium can hold. You can always add more so start out small if you have a tight budget. Live-rock can be the biggest investment you make in starting up your marine aquarium. It can be anywhere from 5 to 12 dollars per pound depending on the quality of the live-rock. If you are starting with a 55 gallon aquarium, that could be anywhere from 300 to 500 dollars! A trick on how to save money is to buy "base rock" or "dry rock". This rock has none of the living organisms on it that live rock does but if you buy half of the cheaper rock and half of the live-rock, the organisms from the live rock will spread to the dry rock once put in your aquarium.Try to find many different sizes including some large flat-ish rocks to put on the bottom of your aquarium for the base.

How To Aquascape:

1. DO NOT PUT YOUR SAND IN JUST YET! If you are just starting up the aquarium, wait to put the sand in until after you have the base of your live-rock aquascape laid down. If you bought live-sand from your LFS, it should be fine for a couple of hours in a bag with water while you get everything else ready. If you already put the sand in, its not too big of a deal.

2. Lay down your biggest pieces of rock first. Have a look at the different layouts at the end of the article and see where the best place is to put your pieces. Make sure the flattest part is laying face down on the aquarium bottom. You can add a little pre-made saltwater while doing this in order to keep the live rock wet but it is not necessary.

3. Stack the medium rock on top, allowing for a lot of openings, caves, and holes. The looser your live rock is placed, the more area there will be for water to move through it and therefore get biologically filtered. Also, placing your live-rock loosely will help fill out the space of the aquarium, making it look more full. To make sure the live-rock will not topple, move the rock around in a few different positions on top of the bottom one, until it locks in place. If you can't find a "sweet spot" then use a different piece of live rock or flip it over and try again.

Channel aquascape. Two islands of live rock with water flow

 between them.

4. The top piecies should consist of small pieces or branching live rock. Branching rock can be called fiji live rock or might be in the regular live-rock bin at your LFS. Try to fit the branching rock into cracks between your bottom live-rock but it may prove difficult to keep it in place without falling to one side or the other. Try not to have it resting against the sides of the aquarium because this will cause problems with cleaning the glass. If you can't find a good place for branching rock, try putting it in after you put the sand in, and then stick it in the sand and lean it up against the rest of the live-rock. Don't glue the rock together with epoxy unless you have to. This makes transferring the tank very difficult in that you can't pick out rock seperately. Also, it leaves the importunity for change in your aquascape.

Lagoon aquascape with suggestions for pump placement.

5. Put your sand in! Try not to get the sand on the live-rock as this may harm organisms and cause cloudy water when you put water in. Take scoops of sand and place it around your live-rock, shoving it close to the base of the rock. When this is done, you can start adding water. Pour the saltwater directly on top of the live-rock, to help keep the sand undisturbed. This will also test the aquascape's stability. If you see any rocks fall or wobble during this process, try to fix the problem.

Other things to think about:

1. Water flow- you want your pumps to be able to push water through and around the aquascape so plan accordingly. This is the main way that marine aquariums are filtered biologically instead of freshwater aquariums that use carbon filters.

2. Coral placement - make sure you have places to put corals if you plan on keeping a reef tank.

3. Cleaning - make sure there is room between the glass and rock for your hand or for a magnetic algae scraper.

4. Look for inspiration on youtube or just searching on the internet for different pictures of setup saltwater aquariums.

An idea for an aquascape. Large base rocks on bottom,branching rock

 placed in cracks or leaning against other rock.