Earth Day and Aquariums

Since its Earth Day, try to keep in mind how your aquarium impacts your environmental footprint. Here are some tips to keep your green without turning it green.

1. Use aquarium light timers
   - You will save electricity and maintenance headaches if you use light timers to only run your lights for max 8 hours a day.
   
2. Stay away from Chemicals if possible
   - It is always better to use natural remedies to problems with your tanks rather than using chemicals.
   
3. Buy tank raised livestock
   - Buying tank raised livestock keeps our oceans stocked and curbs the threat of poaching and cyanide fishing.
   

Quarantine Tanks

When everything that you read suggests that you get a quarantine tank for your fish, don't be like me and ignore it.

I had been stocking up my salt water tank with clown fish a butterfly fish. Which I purchased from a great store in Phoenix, Aquatouch.

I then decided to add a Sailfin tang and firefly Goby. I purchased these from a corporate store who's name name stars with "pets" and ends with "smart". Yes I know I should have stayed away in the first place but I couldn't help myself.

Upon adding these two directly to my marine tank, everything was fine for about a week and then I learned my lesson. My Ocelaris clowns and my Longnosed yellow butterfly wet belly up due to parasites.

If I would have quarantined these fish I probably could have avoided this disaster.

Learn from my mistake. Quarantine new fish that you get for at least a week before adding them to your tank. And remember that when buying from chain pet stores that you will probably be getting dirtier fish with more possibilities of having diseases and parasites than you would with hand picked local stores.

Keep an Aquarium Log

Keeping an log of the changes that you make to your aquarium is an invaluable resource when taking care of fresh water or marine fish. You can use anything to keep this record. I use Google Calendars to keep track of mine.

I track when I do water changes, add fish or invertebrates or loose fish. If anything goes wrong I can look back at my log and see if I have been doing something wrong. It also keeps me on track with maintenance. Having the visual schedule in front of me everyday keeps the tasks at hand fresh in my mind so I don't forget.

IPhone Koi Pond

If you have and IPhone and are looking for cool app's, check out Koi Pond. Its a $.99 download the give you a totally customizable Koi Pond on you IPhone.

Money Saving Tips for Aquarium Hobbyists

Everyone is looking for ways to save money with the economy in its current state. Keeping fish can be an expensive hobby, so finding ways to cut cost is always a good thing.

Here are a couple of ways I have found to cut maintenance costs for my aquariums.

1. Sign up for bigger pet store's email's.
They usually have lots of deals, especially now, that you can get quite a bit of money off of those items that you have to buy on a regular basis like filters.

2. If you can order the item online, open a new tab on you browser and search for "[company name] coupon codes". I have gotten 10% off, 20% off and free shipping from using this little trick online.

3. Search for what you are looking for on Craigslist. You can find lots of good deals from people that are looking to get rid of their aquariums, stands, live rock, or maybe an entire setup for half the price you would pay in the stores.

Hopefully this will help you save some money and beat the recession without having to give up your favorite hobby.

Auto Fish Feeders

In a couple of weeks we will be leaving on a trip to Europe for a little over a week. This brought up the question, Who will feed the fish?. In the past I made complex schedules of different people dropping in on different days to feed our fish.

This year we are sticking with an Auto feeder to make everything a little easier. They are relatively inexpensive and most are digitally programmable so you can set up a feeding schedule that mirrors your usual schedule.

Here are a couple that are popular
Current USA AquaChef Auto Fish Feeder

Eheim Battery Operated Auto Feeder

My Saltwater Aquarium Pictures

I have just stocked my saltwater aquarium. Right now its just a FOWLR tank. Eventually I will work up to a reef setup.Yellow Long nosed Butterfly



Butterfly and Ocelaris Clownfish

Sailfin Tang