HELPFUL REEF AQUARIUM TIPS

1. Be Patient.  Ecosystems do not develop over night!
2. Place rubber matting underneath all of your equipment. It comes in 4 foot wide rolls at most hardware stores and is indispensable. It protects the floor beneath and helps isolate vibration. Its grooved surface helps control spills. You can curl it wherever it meets a wall to keep water from leaking out.
3. Start your siphons by placing the submerged end of the hose in front of a power-head.
4. Want to vacuum the tank without having to do a water change?? Just get some 3/8" flex tubing....or whatever size you want and put a fine mesh bag or a nylon on the end of it and rubber band/tie it on. Then stick the end w/ the bag into your sump. Start the siphon as mentioned below and vacuum away! The bag will filter all deitritus /flatworms/ valonia/ whatever and let the water pass right thru.
5. Vinegar is good for soaking pump/power-head impellers--it dissolves the CaCO3 that tends to build up on the internals.
6.  If you have a venturi skimmer, drop the air tube into a cup of hot RO/DI water once a week to get rid of any salt creep into the venturi (remove the air line muffler if equipped).
7. Dog toothbrushes are a reefers second best friend. Get the kind with a large and small end are the best, 2 in 1.
8. Get A Turkey Baster!  If you don't already use one, get a clean new TB; Jack of All Reef Tools! Blows detritus off rocks; sucks up unwanted "stuff"; use it to target feed corals; and the list goes on.
9. You can make spray bars out of PVC instead of buying return nozzles.
10. When catching a fish out of a tank use a rose vase. One of the big one's, for dozen roses, which has a large opening curves down for the neck, and then open back up. Put in a piece of food and set the vase on the side at the bottom of the tank. The curve in the neck will stop the food from floating out. Once the fish is in put your hand over the opening and pull it out. Most fish swim away from your hand so even if you are not fast enough to cover it they will probably stay in.
11. If you have a deep tank, invest in a small step ladder. (2 or 3 steps) Instead of having a chair around, use the ladder to access your tank.
12. Finally, and this has been said before, keep a journal!! It doesn't have to be fancy or completely detailed, but one needs to record actions, observations, and perceived results. Water changes, livestock additions (or losses), bulb changes, etc.  Things are forgotten and overlooked until something comes up, and then it's too late.

Feeding

Make your own food

• 4oz fish, shrimp, squid, clams, anything from the seafood counter
  1/8 tsp CYCLOP-EEZE (Artemia Nauplii substitute from Jehmco)
  2 sheets of nori
  1/8 tsp Marc Wiess black powder
  1/8 tsp Marc Wiess Spectra Vital Powder
  1/8 tsp high quality flake food
  1cup DTs
  1/8 tsp Selco
  3 drops free iodine
  mix in a Food Processer with 1 cup tank water  and freeze in small Ice cubes tray
  (with saran wrap over it so you don’t smell up the freezer)
  Thaw a cube and direct feed lightly over the coral

More Feeding Tips

1. Plastic onion nets...just replace the aluminum binders with plastic zips and stuff with "tang heaven" or other live, loose-leaf macro-algae that your tang likes. Tie one end securely to something so it doesn’t float all over the tank. If the algae pieces are large, tear one or two small holes in the mesh so the tang can haul out bites. Works like a hay bag with horses.
2. Pile up small pieces of rubble / shells / etc in a corner of your tank and just watch the pods multiply. It becomes an in-tank refugium. You may have to rebuild it every-so-often but I setup my pile 2 weeks ago and have TONS of pods of different types as well as worms crawling all around it.
3. For feeding clams with DT. Instead of moving the clams into a container outside your system and worry about temperature fluctuations, use a specimen container and hang that inside your tank. Then move the clams into the container to feed them therefore keeping the temperature constant.
4. Another tip for feeding. Get a 2 Liter Bottle. Cut the top 1/3 off. Drill a hole in the cap big enough to put an airline through. Silicon the connection of the airline with the cap. Stick rigid tubing at the end of your airline. Now, you can pour whatever you'll need to fit into the top 1/3 half of the 2 liter bottle and target feed wherever you point the tubing.

Electrical

1. Use GFCI outlets!  Have your standard outlets replaced with GFCI outlets.  Don't have money to afford electrician to install them.  You can make a portable GFCI outlet.  Go to home depot, buy a GFCI outlet, junction box, 15-20 AMP cord with an outlet. Assemble them together and you have a portable GFCI outlet.
2. Use timers on all your lighting; get the heavy duty variety with the grounded plugs.
3. Be sure to use drip loops on all plug connections.
4. I put labels on all my power cords, powerheads, heater, lights and the such, so I wouldn’t have to trace down each power cord to see what it was running,
5. A digital timer with a half dozen on/off settings works as a wave maker for smaller tanks.
6. Computer UPS systems make a good backup power supply; you can usually get used ones for free. People toss them when the batteries die and buy new, check your local Radio Shacks or Batteries Plus or Battery Zone type stores & ask the manager to hang onto one for you, buy new batteries and presto you have something to run your pumps if there is a power outage.
7. Lights Of America outdoor floods are 6500k pc's and work great for refugium. Pick up a spare one and wire it to a switch to light your sump, it's easier to work there when you can see what you're doing.

Here some uses for 5 gallon pickle/salt buckets:

1. Water changes.
2. Mixing water for water changes.
3. Mixing kalk.
4. Large kalk dripper.
5. Holding tank for new specimens.
6. Holding tank when exporting algae.
7. Stool to reach into tank.
8. Seat when working on sump.
9. Stand for kalk dripper.
10. LR curing vat (small batches).
11. LS cycling container.

Local Fish Store

1. If you know the employees at the LFS and they're reefers, bring them a frag or two once in a while for their own tanks.
2. Buy a bag of the crud on the bottom of the LFS rock tank to get critters to populate your rock and sand. They'll probably think you're crazy and give it to you. (especially if you've been giving them frags).
3. When you get really good service from a LFS or small MO place take five minutes to send the owner/manager a note telling him so, and mention the employee by name. A lot of people work in those places because they love the hobby (it sure isn't the money), and they deserve the recognition.
    

Also, here's a great source for test tubes, flasks, specimen containers, bottles, droppers, funnels, and all sorts of other lab equipment you wish you had from your chemistry classes:

Carolina Biological Supply