My starfish has died :(

I have some bad news guys... Seems it is indeed very hard to keep marine invertebrates in aquarium. My starfish has died last week. I did not notice anything at all and it happened almost overnight. What really struck me was that the starfish was perfectly well the day before, and on the day it died, it simply started to 'melt'... Yeah, it seemed to me that it was melting and disappearing in the process, leg by leg... I counted the leg from 5 to 4, 4 to 3, 3 to 2, 2 to 1 and finally nothing... And all this time, it was still alive and moving about... I was totally battled by this scene guys... However, I do not have any more information on what happened or why it happened. I have some of these big snails which has a small trunk... I watched some docs on television and I remember they are predators and have a toxic sting which they use against their prey... I have not idea what happened, it could be that the starfish was stung by one. However, I am really sad and sorry about this.

The good news is, I have introduced some live aquatic plants in the tank and they seem to have settled down in the bed and have started growing... I hope they will render the water safer for the animals by sucking the nitrates and other nutrients from it and prevent them from contamination the water. Let us see how it goes.... Maybe, after that, I will go and look for another starfish as it was really the eyecatching point of my aquarium.

Sea Urchins

Today I brought 4 sea urchins which I picked from the shore and put them in my fish tank hoping that they will help with the cleaning up of the wastes. They are quite nice to watch sliding around on the bed and sometimes the stick themselves the the glass and you can actually see the mouth of the sea urchin as well as FIVE TEETH! I did not know sea urchins had teeth.... the mouth with the teeth are scary. I am learning things with this saltwater fish tank. The marine life is very interesting and distracting to observe. I also noticed that some kind of algae grew all over the tank and therefore, the glass became a little blurry, so I also brought around 100 small snails from the shore and I hope they will wipe the glass clean :D

So far, things are doing good...

Sea Urchins

Homemade Protein Skimmer is working fine

I have finally decided to make a video of the homemade protein skimmer in action as it was too great. It is working very well and the foam that is getting out is really yucky. It is really shocking how much hidden waste there can be in perfectly clear water. The foam coming out of the protein skimmer catches the pollutants and dissolved chemicals from the water and segregate them in the collecting container. The color of the water coming out will tell you everything about what it contains. Hope you will like the video.

Saltwater Aquarium Video

I have finally managed to finish setting up and populating the saltwater aquarium. I have also made a homemade protein skimmer which is working very well and efficiently. You can see my saltwater aquarium and my reef fishes in the following video. Hope you enjoy and hope to hear back.

Homemade water filter for the aquarium

I found this interesting video with instructions and plans on how to make our own homemade water filter and it seems to be working quite good as well. Maybe someday I will try to work on something like this. Having perfectly clean water cannot be 100% achieved but at least we can try our best to reach some level of perfection which is allowed. The cleaner the water, the healthier the fishes and plants and the less water change cycle for the aquarist. I hate water changes... :D

Main concern is that the fishes should not die...

I have heard/read that keeping a saltwater aquarium is far more difficult that keeping a freshwater one. The main problem is with the marine animals themselves as they are less tolerant to the slightest water contamination and changes, therefore, these should be monitored closely. However, since I am keeping a small hobby tank, I am not planning to buy anything expensive at all and I will be trying my luck with homemade stuffs.

I have read that waste/dead matter decomposes into amonia and nitrates, and little my little, the amount of these dissolved chemicals become higher and the water becomes contaminated. The fishes and animals will started to become ill and die as well. The solution to this problem of proteins and nitrites is to use a protein skimmer so that the protein can be skimmed from the salt water before it decomposes into toxic chemicals. There are quite a lot of information pertaining to the commercial versions of these protein skimmers. However, I do not find much information on a homemade version. After doing some deeper research, I came across an interesting webpage where good and clear information can be obtained on protein skimmers and how they work.

Also, there are plans how you can make a cheap one out of common coke plastic bottles. So, from now on, I will be devoting some more time into finding and making the right protein skimmer as I want my fishes to remain alive. Having them sick, dead and floating around is not a very good scene for the fish lovers and is quite depressing for a first-timer like me. If you want to read more on the protein skimmer, you can follow this link.