Laurren Schmoyer

The original guide was great for the beginner setting up a saltwater aquarium, but I had tons of requests for information on what to do once the aquarium was set up and filled with fish. So I took their advice and now the guide is a whopping 274 pages!

It is now stuffed with even more information, tips, advice and pictures! The guide still has color pictures and advice to take you step by step to setting up a saltwater aquarium. Now it is even better with lots of advice and techniques for established aquariums. Just check out some of the new chapters from my revised Expert’s Guide To Saltwater Aquariums:

Using Purified Water - Explains the benefits and disadvantages of the different types of water including city, well water, Reverse Osmosis and Reverse Osmosis With Dionization water.

Basic To Advanced Filtration - Professional advice and information on many types of filters with color photos. These include hang-on, canister, wet/dry filters, Berlin sumps, refugiums, protein skimmers, UV sterilizers and more.

Feeding and Vitamins - Expert recommendations for the best types of food for your fish. Also includes tips on how to feed finicky fish and suggestions for picky eaters.

Taking Control Of Algae And Cyanobacteria - Learn the latest techniques to control and cure the most common nuisance algae.

Fish Health and Diseases - Now you can prevent disease, figure out why your fish got sick, and learn how to diagnose common ailments.

Plus, an entire chapter dedicated to how the professionals clean and maintain saltwater aquariums. (My aquarium service company which I started back in 1983 and is still going strong.) Also included are the 15 Steps To Maintaining A Saltwater Aquarium. There is a whole bunch more, to see all the chapters click here to see the table of contents.

To get your copy of the newly revised and expanded experts guide and learn the professional way to keep your aquarium click here http://saltwateraquarium.aquaticexperts.com

Green Wolf Eels or Carpet Eel Blennies are fish that look like, are named like, and are commonly mistaken for eels. Green wolf eels (Congrogadus subducens) are really a pseudochromid (Dottyback.) These hardy fish are frequently for sale at most fish stores.

One of the neat features about this fish is its great eyesight. When a customer asks about this fish I generally grab a tuffy (rosie red minnow) or a small feeder goldfish and hand feed it. Even though Green Wolf Eels are wild-caught in a very short time they will eat out of your hand. I have never had one miss the food and bite me but it is probably wise to use feeding tongs, it’s just not as cool.

Green Wolf Eels grow to a maximum length of almost 18″ so it requires an aquarium of at least 55 gallons. They need a meaty diet consisting of foods like krill, shrimp, squid and other frozen and live fish. They generally are quick to learn to eat in captivity but if you have a finicky eater feed it glass shrimp, small feeder guppies, tuffies or goldfish depending on the size of the food. To keep aggression down and the aquarium clean try to feed frozen or prepared foods instead of live.

Make sure your Green Wolf Eel has good hiding places to feel secure. Their streamlined bodies make them great jumpers so make certain the top on your aquarium is fully covered.

Their colors range from a bright green to a mottled light brown and they do well in aquariums with tangs, angels, lion fish, large clown fish and much more. As a rule keep the Wolf Eel with semi-aggressive to aggressive fish, one Green Wolf Eel to an aquarium. Because of their hardy nature we have gotten many Green Wolf Eels traded in over the years and many of these fish have been well over 5 years old.

With all the available books on keeping saltwater fish and reef aquariums, I want to share with you a couple of my favorites that can help you choose the right fish for your aquarium.

Scott W. Michael has written a number of books entirely on saltwater fish. In his collection there are two great, inexpensive reference books. Hobbyists would be wise to keep a copy of one or both on hand. A PocketExpert Guide to Marine Fishes: 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species and A PocketExpert Guide to Reef Aquarium Fishes: 500+ Essential-to-Know Species are quick reference guides on particular species of fish. Their compact size allows them to be carried to fish stores where you can look up fish you are thinking about purchasing. You will quickly discover if a fish is right for your aquarium. Both books have more than 500 color photos. Scott includes scientific and common names, maximum length, range, minimum aquarium size, foods & feeding, aquarium suitability index, reef aquarium compatibility, and captive care advice.

Color photos make it easy to identify the fish. The author, Scott, chose fish that are most often seen and kept by saltwater hobbyists. The information in these books will help you choose great fish that will do well in your aquarium. These books are a great beginning or addition to your aquatic library.

I started my retail aquarium store in 1983 and have helped many customers over the years to keep freshwater, saltwater and reef aquariums healthy and thriving. Since I travel a lot I have heard the horror stories and even received phone calls from all over with people needing advice for their aquariums. I felt obligated to share my knowledge and knew the Internet was the obvious choice. Of course I knew nothing about how to market information products on the web, but I had studied a marketing guru named Dan Kennedy for many years.

I attended Dan Kennedy’s Super Conference after hearing that one of his speakers was extremely successful Internet marketing Expert. His name is Armand Morin and his presentation blew me away. I immediately bought his course (Internet Marketing Explained). It is a recorded series with a written transcript explaining in easy-to-understand terms all about marketing on the Internet. Here is a sample from the 24 different topics that are covered.

• How to create and market a product
• Exactly how to create The Sales Letter
• How to run your Internet business
• Copywriting
• Affiliate Programs
• How to use audio and video
• How to create and use Autoresponders
• What are and how to use Blogs and RSS feeds
• Building a Membership Sites
• How to create and use Opt-in Pages
• Tons of traffic Generating strategies
• Tracking your results on your websites
• What is and how to use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• And much much more.

The whole program has recently been revised making it even easier to create a website or take an existing website to a much higher level.

Because I still work a full time job I listened to the recording on the way to and from work and on trips. The transcripts of the recording made it easy to go back and study the sections I was interested in. Being able to read the information and follow the steps made it so much easier to create my first site. Armand took complicated subjects and made them seem simple, giving me a path to success and all I had to do was listen and do what he said.

Just listening to Internet Marketing Explained gave me the confidence that I too could be a successful Internet marketer. I was able to follow the steps and know exactly how to create very own website. For certain steps I did need a good webmaster’s help. With the program I knew exactly what to tell her and what the outcome should look like. Armand even tells you where to find and how to hire a webmaster. Then, once your site is created, Armand teaches many different and unique ways to drive traffic to your site.

If you are just starting out or have been marketing on line for years you will learn a lot from this program. Buying the Internet Marketing Explained program was a worth every penny and I recommend it to everyone.

High levels of nitrates and phosphates have frustrated many a saltwater hobbyist. Now refugiums are here to save the day! A refugium uses macro algae, mud and/or sand as natural filters for reducing nitrates, silicates, and phosphates. As you harvest (remove) macroalgae you are also removing excess nutrients from the aquarium. Reducing excess organic nutrients helps control unwanted algae growth in the display aquarium.

Since a refugium is generally separate from the main aquarium it provides protection for copepods and amphipods, giving your aquarium a constant, natural food source. This natural food can be netted from the refugium or will travel naturally to the display aquarium via the lines connecting the two. Predators such as fish, shrimp, and corals should never be placed in your refugium.

There Are Four Refugium Styles

Refugiums come in a variety of styles including hang-on, internal, stand-alone and built-in.

A hang-on refugium consists of an acrylic box with baffles, a powerhead to pump water from the aquarium into the refugium, and a light. The water flows through the refugium and gravity feeds it back to the aquarium. Just add mud or sand and macro algae and it is ready to go.

Choose a refugium style based on your budget and the amount of room you have. Once one is chosen and plumbed to your display aquarium it is ready to set up. Add mud and/or an oolithic (sugar size) aragonite sand to a depth of up to six inches; add live rock and macro algae.

The following macro algae do well in refugiums: Chaetomorpha, Ulva (Sea Lettuce), halymenia (red seaweed) and Gracilaria (red seaweed). These macro algae remove nitrates and phosphates from aquarium water. Regular trimming and thinning of these plants removes the nutrients out from the aquarium.

Place a light over the refugium to grow macro algae. The bulb should be 5,000 to 6,500 Kelvin for optimum plant growth. Choose a light fixture that produces at least 4 watts per gallon of water in the refugium (for those less than 16 inches deep).

The Refugium Light Goes On When The Display Light Goes Out.

To stabilize the pH and oxygen levels the refugium lights should be set to turn on at times opposite the display aquarium. During the day plants and algae in the display aquarium use up carbon dioxide and give off oxygen when exposed to light. When the display aquarium light is off photosynthesis no longer takes place and CO2 levels rise. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) when it mixes with water is an acid, so pH lowers at night when the light is out. With a refugium light on while the display aquarium lights are off algae in the refugium will use CO2 and produce Oxygen, keeping the pH in the entire system stable.

About a month ago my outside service techs brought a dogface puffer back from one of our service clients whose front teeth had grown so long the poor fellow could no longer eat.  Just two years ago my staff and I trimmed his teeth, but they grew back, and here he was again.  We needed to perform this tooth trimming operation to keep him from dieing of starvation.

The dogface puffer is one of the species that commonly has a problem with overgrown teeth.  In the wild puffer fish kill and eat crustaceans with hard shells - keeping their teeth worn down. They also grind their teeth on rocks and rubble as they attempt to remove algae. In the aquarium they may eat a nutritional diet but it usually consist of soft foods, and even if they eat the occasional crustacean, they just don’t find rocks and rubble to wear their teeth down.

Here’s the operation:  We kept this puffer in a holding tank for a few days to calm him down.  Our  operating room was right in my store.  We used clove oil, an essential oil expressed from the strong herb cloves, to anesthetize the puffer. Clove oil can be purchased at most heath food stores. The amount of to use varies according to how large and how sensitive the fish is to the anesthesia. For this puffer I mixed three gallons of saltwater taken from the puffers holding tank with 45 drops of clove oil. I mixed the water and got my operating tools together.

The tools consist of a dremel with a cutting wheel and a grinding bit. Also safety glasses are a must to protect your eyes. Next, the fish was carefully placed into the clove oil saltwater mixture. We watched the fish carefully and it took about 4 minutes for the puffer to be sedated enough to perform the operation. Steve, one of my staff held the fish gently and we placed a stick in the puffer’s mouth. So not to injure the fish I had another staff member, Paul, press a cotton swab against the puffer’s teeth to keep his head still.

The fish started to revive during the operation and so we placed him back into the clove oil mixture. After about a minute and half he was again sedated. We continued to grind the edges of the teeth to ensure they were smooth.   Once the puffer’s teeth were finished the fish was placed into a bucket of clean water taken from his holding aquarium. As he became more active he was transported back to his holding tank and released.

Two days after its operation he started eating. After two weeks the fish was returned to his owner’s aquarium and is now doing great.

Even though I am sharing most of the details for this procedure please do further research before attempting this yourself.

MACNA stands for The Marine Aquarium Conference of North America and is open to all saltwater and reef hobbyists. Last year MACNA was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and had over 1000 hobbyists in attendance. This three-day event is packed with up to date information about the hobby and includes speakers, workshops and a even a trade show.

The impressive list of speakers includes Eric Borneman, Anthony Calfo, Dr. Bruce Carlson, Charles Delbeek, Julian Sprung, Larry L. Jackson, Bob Fenner, Scott Fellman and many more. Scott Fellman gave a great presentation to my customers at my retail store Aquamain’s Fish World on March 8, 2008 which included an enjoyable visual presentation filled with marine aquarium aquascaping techniques and more. He also discussed future trends for the reef hobby. All the speakers have great information to share to further your enjoyment of the hobby.

The Trade Show is a great part of the event where you can get lost for hours, with displays of the newest and best saltwater and reef supporting products on the market. You will also see some amazing displays with fish and corals.

MACNA will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on September 5-7, 2008. Go to www.macna.com for more information. They are offering a discount if you register before May 31, 2008. Look forward to seeing you there!

Moving big aquariums is exciting, fun and not as difficult as you might think - if you have the right equipment, that is. This picture shows a 540 gallon aquarium being set up in a home. The aquarium is 8 feet long by 3 feet wide and 3 feet high. Material lifts make it easy to large aquariums on a stand.

A material lift has a telescoping aluminum frame with steel forks and a hand crank. Large aquariums are usually shipped straped to a wooden pallet from the aquarium manufacturer. Just slide the forks inside the palate and start cranking. When the top of the pallet is even with the aquarium slide the aquarium off onto the stand. The aquarium in the picture took two lifts because of it weight.

Not long ago used one of these lifts to raise an eight foot long tank through a second story window. That was very scary especially if for the person on the bottom doing the cranking. These lifts can be rented from most equipment rental stores.

If you want to pack in the nutrition and put some weight on your fish and LPS corals then you should be feeding Piscine Energetics Mysis!  This freshwater shrimp is collected in the deep waters of Canada’s lakes and is instantly flash frozen to lock in vitamins and keep the actual mysis shrimp from breaking apart. Keeping the shrimp whole makes it easy for animals eating the shrimp to recognize it as a real food source.

Another advantage of being frozen on the lake is there are no fillers added, just solid mysis shrimp. Since mysis live in freshwater it eliminates parasites from being transferred to your saltwater fish. This food makes a great diet for most fish and even corals and finicky eaters will take this food because of its high levels of fatty acids. If you want your LPS coral to be plump place a piece of mysis in the coral’s tentacles and watch it grab the shrimp and pull it in.

When using a wet dry filter or Berlin sump the inside of an aquarium cabinet gets covered in dirt and salt spray over time. Finished cabinets are usually easier to clean but unfinished have a rough texture making them difficult to clean. To make the job easier cover the inside of your cabinet with ABS plastic. ABS is available in a variety of colors including black, white and blue. White ABS gives a sleek appearance and hides salt creep.

ABS is easy to cut, Either cut it with a table saw or score and snap it. Cut the ABS so ti is the same size as the inside floor of your stand and drop it in place. The sides need to be attached to the stand to keep the ABS from falling. Use screws or glue. Once all the parts of your stand are covered use 100% silicone to seal the joints.

Now you, too, have a professional-looking sleek, easy to clean cabinet interior.