Sep102009

Going Shopping

By Glen | September 10, 2009 | Posted in Aquarium | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

We live in Gilroy, CA.  About 30 miles south of San Jose.  Even though there are two national brand pet stores in town, neither one has any marine live stock.  You know these stores – the ones where the happy dog owner walks in with her pet on a leash, and buys anything she wants (as long as it’s not marine aquarium related).  So, when we need to by live rock, salt, fish, coral (eventually – patience, Glen!), and pretty much anything else, we have to go to shops in San Jose.

When we decided to go get fish recently, we really weren’t sure how many, if any, of the fish stores we’d been to years ago were still in business. So, like any good geek would do, I googled “marine aquarium San Jose”


View Larger Map

We took the map, read a few comments, and headed off to find the perfect marine aquarium store.

There is another one of the big national brand stores in Morgan Hill.  We stopped there just in case they had something worth looking at.  They didn’t.  They had a stack of 9 tanks with marine fish. Nothing really remarkable except for the woman who was “cleaning” one of the tanks, with fish in it, by waving a fish net all over.  It looked more like she was just stirring up the mess.  Presumably, the filters would clean the mess, but it sure didn’t look like it was working when we left.

The second store we went to claimed to have a shark in a 2,000 gallon fish tank.  When we got there, they were right – it was a 2,000 gallon fish tank with a shark in it.  One shark. Just one. Nothing else. Not even sand in the bottom of the tank. And the shark wasn’t even that big – maybe a foot long.  The store wasn’t that remarkable either – a few marine fish and some equipment.  We didn’t stay long.

We had better luck with the next few stores.  Dolphin Pet Village in Campbell was one that we had been to years ago.  It’s still one of the best aquarium stores in the area.  They have lots of fish and coral.  I counted 4 huge bins of live rock, each claiming it was from a different area.  They also have new and used fish tanks, and all of the equipment you could ask for.  I even saw someone purchasing saltwater in 5 gallon water bottles.

We then went to my personal favorite marine aquarium store, Aquatic Gallery in Milpitas.  They have no equipment at all, but they have lots of fish and coral.  Their display tanks alone are worth coming and visiting.  They remind me of museum quality aquariums.  The staff is very friendly and helpful.  This is the store that got me headed down the path of a reef aquarium.

On our way home we dropped by another store just to see what it was like.  King Aquarium in San Jose turns out to be another very good marine aquarium store.  They had a big selection of fish, plus lots of fish tanks and other equipment.  If they had coral, I don’t remember it.

Of course, after all that driving around we came home and purchased the submersible pump and lighting from an online store. Sigh. What can I say? Less expensive and the shipping was free.  I’ve also been watching Craig’s List to see if I can find cheap used tanks and equipment.  I’d love to build a 150+ gallon reef tank some day (don’t tell Mrs Salty Geek).

Do you have a favorite aquarium store in your area?  Feel free to comment about it here if you’d like.

By Glen | Posted in Aquarium | Tagged , , | Comments (0)
Sep092009

Lighting… The Great Unknown

By Glen | September 9, 2009 | Posted in Marine Aquarium | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

As I discussed in my first post, the major reason why I decided to create this blog is because I had so much trouble finding information on the Internet regarding marine and reef aquariums.  This was particularly true for lighting.  I knew I needed better lighting to support corals and other invertebrates, but from there I didn’t have a clue.  The sites that were trying to explain reef lighting were mostly from the late 90’s to the early 2000’s, and were completely missing newer technology.  Even those that did discuss new technology were confusing – they used old style wattage estimates to calculate the amount of light required for a given size aquarium, even for the much more efficient T5 lighting.

This is what I know now, after piecing details together.  There are 5 main lighting technologies that are popular for reef aquariums today:

  • T8 and T12 florescent bulbs, Normal Output (NO)
  • T8 and T12 florescent bulbs, Very High Output (VHO)
  • Compact Florescent bulbs
  • Metal Halide bulbs
  • T5 florescent bulbs, High Output (HO)

T5, T8, and T12 are all just signifying the diameter of the florescent bulbs, in 1/8th inch increments.  So, a T12 is 12/8ths of an inch, or 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter, while a T5 is 5/8ths of an inch in diameter.  T8 is the size of florescent bulbs we are most used to today.  T8s and T12s seem to be giving way to Compact Florescent and T5.  T5s are the up and coming thing, because they are new and much more efficient than the T8s and T12s, and even the Compact Florescent bulbs.  The NO florescent bulbs are what you buy for household lighting, and are frequently used for standard marine and fresh water aquariums.  VHO bulbs are a much brighter bulb, and require a higher wattage ballast than the NO bulbs.

Compact Florescent bulbs look kind of like 2 florescent bulbs stuck together, with all of the connections on one end of the bulbs.  They were designed to be very high wattage light sources in a small space.  If you needed 6 VHO T8s, you might need one Compact Florescent, for example.  This style of lighting is still fairly popular.

Metal Halide bulbs look more like a standard light bulb.  Some reef aquarium owners prefer the Metal Halide light instead of the florescents  because the corals get a wave distorted light effect similar to what the sun creates in a real reef.  Florescent bulbs, on the other hand, are a constant light all along the length, and don’t give the wavy light effect.  Metal Halide lights also give off much brighter light at much higher wattages than you can get with florescent bulbs.

Another important part about lighting is the spectrum of the light produced.  With this hobby we are trying to model a reef that would be from 10 to 20 feet under water in some cases.  Depending on the depth, the red and yellow spectrum light tends to get filtered out in water, leaving only the blue spectrum.  The deeper the water, the bluer the light gets.  As a result, most corals like blue spectrum light, sometimes referred to as “actinic”.

Our new Satellite Dual Lamp Lighting

Our new Satellite Dual Lamp Lighting

I recently found a very good blog post about the technical details of aquarium lighting.  If you’re interested in all of the geeky details of what light is and how it applies to reef aquariums, definitely read that post.

I also intend to research lighting more thoroughly in the upcoming weeks.  For one thing, I still want to understand how to accurately determine what kind of lights are required for a given type of coral.  Also, I hear that LED based aquarium lighting may be starting to hit the markets soon.

When it came time to work out what lighting we would use for our reef aquarium, we had a couple of ideas.  First, we found a Metal Halide bulb and ballast on Craig’s List for $75.  Since Metal Halide systems can go up to $400, this seemed like a great deal.  However, it did not have a hood with it, so I would have to make one.  We even went to the local Home Depot to price materials.  I had it all worked out – I would build a wood hood, about 3 feet wide and 8 inches deep.  I would mount the Metal Halide bulb in the middle, and add a pair of T5HO florescent bulbs to one side.  The T5’s would use the blue spectrum lighting, since Metal Halide tends to be a white light.  Unfortunately, the materials for this contraption would have been quite expensive.

Instead, we decided to go with a dual lamp Compact Florescent system.  You might ask, “why not the T5HO system?”  The answer, budget.  First, the comparable T5 system was twice as expensive as the Compact Florescent system.  Second, replacing the T5HO florescent bulbs (required about once a year) would have been close to double the cost of replacing Compact Florescent bulbs.  Since our aquarium is relatively small at 46 gallons, the 192 watt Compact Florescent system we purchased will be plenty of light for most corals.

Now, one benefit that I had not thought of initially is that the brighter lights allow for far superior pictures to post.  So, here is the latest picture of the aquarium.

Aquarium on Sept 9, 2009

Aquarium on Sept 9, 2009

By Glen | Posted in Marine Aquarium | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)
Sep062009

The First Fish

By Glen | September 6, 2009 | Posted in Marine Aquarium | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

As discussed earlier, reef aquariums don’t always have fish in them.  But for me, fish are a must.  I like the look of the live corals and other invertebrates, but I like to have fish as well.  After all, part of the point is to have fish as pets, to feed daily, and to take care of.  It also helps to keep the kids interested in the hobby.

Ren and Stimpy

Ren and Stimpy

When we originally went to the fish store, we were planning on purchasing one fish.  I was actually leaning towards a Yellow Tang myself.  But, my son choose a black striped Clown Fish.  When we had selected the perfect Clown Fish, and were checking out, the store owner asked, “are you just getting one?”  He insisted that Clown Fish are very social, and that they would do much better if there were two or more of them.  They would eat better, be more active, and generally just make better pets.  Of course, my son saw this as an opportunity to pick out a different colored Clown Fish, but they have to be the same breed.

I wasn’t sure at the time if this speech about Clown Fish being social was genuine, or if it was just a ploy to get me to spend more money.  But when I got them home, acclimatized to the new aquarium, and started watching them in their new home, it does seem to be true.  They very rarely separate.  They will occasionally shoot across the aquarium apart from each other, but they will soon be back together.  The all black Clown Fish appears to be the dominant of the two, and will occasionally nip at the other just to show who’s boss, but they never hurt each other.

Since these are pets, they have to have names, right?  As we were driving home, my son and I decided they should be called Eeny and Meeny. However, when we arrived at home and another son asked what their names were, Mrs Salty Geek immediately yelled out “Ren and Stimpy!” Since I’ve been a big fan of The Ren & Stimpy Show forever, I answered back, “Ummm… yah, they’re Ren and Stimpy!”  I had to convince my other son later, of course, but the names have stuck so far.

We feed the Clown Fish once per day.  They dine exclusively on frozen Brine Shrimp.  We put the frozen block into a small Tupperware container along with a few teaspoons full of salt water from the aquarium.  Then, when it’s thawed, we suck out a few Brine Shrimp at a time with a medicine dropper, and squirt it in the fish tank.  The idea is to watch the fish, and see if they are still eating.  You really don’t want to introduce a lot of extra food to decompose.  I was originally alternating between frozen Brine Shrimp and a flake food, but an employee at the fish store suggested that the flake food would tend to get sucked up in the filter and decompose there.

By Glen | Posted in Marine Aquarium | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
Sep042009

Why we purchased a fishtank !

By MrsSaltyGeek | September 4, 2009 | Posted in Marine Aquarium | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

I was talking to our 5 year old son one day.  He was very sad because we had to put our Beagle Rocky to sleep.  He had arthritis so severe he had started chewing his leg to the bone.  I was trying to figure out a way to help him not miss Rocky so much.  I said, “How about if we get you a little fish tank you could take care of?”   He seemed to get really excited.

Now, I was just thinking of a small desk fish tank with maybe 1-2 fish and probably not costing more than about $20.00.  This is where my mistake comes in.  I mentioned my plan to Glen and oh boy BIG MISTAKE!  We make plans to head to the fish store to look at fish tanks.  $680.00 later, of leaving the pet store with a 46 gallon bow front salt water tank, filters, pumps, protein skimmers, water filters and gravel.

This begins our next story of the salt water tank.  We end up loosing the fish we had.  Not liking the cheaper way we tried to go with sand stone, we moved the tank, got rid of the stone and set it up in a different location as Glen has posted about this.  As the fish tank has sat empty I finally asked Glen “is it OK for fish?”  Once again, BIG MISTAKE.  We discovered a new fish store that really looks like an aquarium.  As Glen was speaking to one of the workers about fish and different reef type tanks, the guy told us it was not that hard to do.  So here we sit getting new lighting, water motion thingy and trying to get a reef tank going.

Now, as most wives know, once a husband starts a project like this we have to keep them under a budget and do it in baby-steps.  After 21 years I know for a fact my husband does not know this concept.   It is amazing, I still love this guy even without his baby-steps.   This is my 2 cents of the story of our fish tank.

By MrsSaltyGeek | Posted in Marine Aquarium | Tagged , , | Comments (2)
Sep042009

Why a Reef?

By Glen | September 4, 2009 | Posted in Marine Aquarium, Reef Aquarium | Tagged , , | Comment (1)

Like I mentioned before, my original plan was to restart the aquarium as just marine fish.   So what happened?

For those that aren’t familiar with the terminology, a reef aquarium is primarily focused on corals, anemones, sponges and other types of marine invertebrates.  They don’t move, at least not on their own, but they are living organisms.  Most marine invertebrates used in reef aquariums are very colorful, and make for a very pleasing visual experience.  Reef aquariums sometimes will contain a few carefully picked live fish as well.

On the other hand, a marine, or salt water aquarium, will often have live rock, but no marine invertebrates.  Instead, it will focus on live fish, and sometimes will have some empty sea shells.  A marine aquarium doesn’t have to be as picky with fish because you don’t really care if they eat coral or not.  You just need to make sure that the fish themselves will get along with each other.

Mrs Salty Geek, one of my sons and I decided that it was time to add a fish.  By this time the aquarium had sat for 4 months with just live rock.  So, we decided to go to San Jose to look for fish.  After about four not-so-good fish stores we finally found a good one that we’d never been to before.  As one of the employees came over to help us, he asked a question that no one had asked before: “Do you want reef safe fish?”  I started into my usual routine, describing how difficult reefs were, but the employee started correcting my misconceptions.

Just like there are fish that are easy to keep healthy, and others that are more challenging, the same is true of marine invertebrates.  Most soft corals are fairly hardy.  Large polyp stony (LPS) corals are a little more challenging.  Small polyp stony (SPS) corals, on the other hand, can be quite challenging.

When I described all of the filtration equipment I already have to the store employee, he seemed satisfied.  I think the protein skimmer was a key.  With the filtration equipment and live rock that we already have, he was confident that we would be able to keep the chemical balance of the aquarium in good shape.

Koralia 3 Pump

Koralia 3 Pump

There are still things that need to be fixed, however.  The most important part is lighting.  Corals require lots of light to survive and grow.  Even though they don’t look like plants, and technically are not plants, they still do use photosynthesis to survive.  In my marine aquarium, lighting was not important, so I just used a standard 40 watt florescent light in the hood that came with the aquarium.  I’m planing on correcting this problem, but I’ll get into details in another post.

The other thing I didn’t have was sufficient water circulation.  Since corals and anemones don’t move, they have to wait for nutrients to come to them.  Likewise, any waste they produce will just sit on them if there is no current.  In the ocean this happens in the form of waves and tides.  In a reef aquarium, water circulation is often created by a submersible pump.  Recently Mrs Salty surprised me with a Koralia 3 pump for our future reef aquarium.  The fish seem to like it too – they swim in and out of its stream.  The only problem is I have to shut the pump off when I feed the fish, because the brine shrimp go shooting all over the tank if I don’t.

After this discussion at the fish store, I couldn’t keep the thought out of my head…  “I really could build a reef tank!”  It just seemed like too much fun to pass up.  Since that time, I’ve been doing hours of Internet research, and skulking through many area salt water aquarium stores.

By Glen | Posted in Marine Aquarium, Reef Aquarium | Tagged , , | Comment (1)