Guides

A UV steriliser is one of those pieces of gear that gets argued about in every Brisbane fish club group chat. Half the room swears by one, the other half says it's a waste of power draw. The truth sits in the middle. UV can knock down free-floating algae, control certain parasite stages, and clear up bacterial bloom water, but it will not fix a dirty filter or overstocked tank. This guide covers when a UV steriliser earns its place, how to size wattage against your tank's litres, and which two units we actually sell at Gallery Aquatica for reef...

Every new tank owner in Brisbane eventually asks the same question at the counter: canister, sump or hang on back? The honest answer depends on what you're keeping, how much noise your household will tolerate, and how much time you want to spend on maintenance each month. This guide breaks down the real running costs, decibel levels and upkeep for each system across common Australian tank sizes, from a 60 litre nano to a 400 litre reef.Table of Contents What Each Filtration System Actually Is Comparison Table: Canister vs Sump vs HOB Running Cost Breakdown Noise Levels in a Real...

Substrate gets picked last and regretted first. Someone spends three weeks agonising over a filter, then grabs whatever bag of gravel is nearest the checkout, and six months later they're fighting algae or a pH that won't sit still. Planted tanks and reef tanks want almost opposite things from the stuff on the floor of the aquarium, and understanding why will save you a full teardown later.Table of Contents Planted tank substrate basics Reef tank substrate options Comparison table Good, Better, Best picks FAQ Planted tank substrate basicsFreshwater plants feed through their roots as much as the water column, so...

Every reef tank loses water to evaporation, and every drop lost concentrates salt a little further. Top the tank up with fresh RO/DI water and salinity holds steady. Skip a day or top up with the wrong amount and your corals feel it within hours. The question most Brisbane reefers eventually ask is whether to keep topping up by hand with a jug, or hand the job to a float switch or optical ATO unit. Both work. They just work very differently once summer humidity drops and evaporation rates climb.Table of Contents Why evaporation matters more than people think Manual...

Brisbane and South East QLD tap water runs through a lot of pipe and picks up chlorine, chloramine and dissolved minerals along the way. Fine for a shower, not fine for coral or shrimp. If you have ever dosed a reef tank with straight tap water and watched alkalinity swing or algae bloom for no obvious reason, the water itself was probably the problem. An RODI unit fixes that at the source, and this guide walks through picking one, installing it, and knowing when the membrane or resin needs changing.Contents What RODI actually does What does TDS mean for an...