If you are searching for a gift for anyone who has a saltwater aquarium, that someone will always be looking for "something else" that he or she still needs or wants to make their tank perfect. If you have been keeping your ears open, you have probably heard the aquarist mention an item, often more than once. If not, any of these gifts are sure to be a hit.
Price GrabberDespite the numerous problems with the old 03 Series, such as breaking latches, being hard to clean, difficult to put back together and get started, aquarists still seemed to rave about them. When the new and improved Fluval 04 Series came along, some aquarists suggested that Hagen had out done themselves on this line. Now there's the newer 05 Series units, which are even better.
"Marine Fishes" by Scott W. Michael covers over 500 of the most popularly kept marine fish species. This book includes full color photographs with scientific and common name, maximum length, range, minimum aquarium size, feeding, captive care and other information on each fish profiled. This is an excellent book for any beginner or advanced aquarist to have in their saltwater reference library.
Is that "special someone" getting tired of buying RO water for their tank? You can save them the time and expense of going to the store to buy RO water every week by getting him or her an RO/DI Unit that filters out 99.9% of the impurities in tap water. You can treat them to the perfect cup of coffee every morning as well when you make it with RO water, instead of regular tap water.
Is the saltwater aquarist in your life getting fed up with having to measure kalkwasser and other supplements to add to their reef tank when needed? Give them a break with a state-of-the-art automatic doser. That special someone in your life will sleep better every night knowing that their reef tank has been properly dosed every time.
Surprise that special someone in your life with a gift that every saltwater aquarist usually wants and needs if they don't already have one; a good quality protein skimmer. Skimmers help reduce the load on the biological filter and makes tank maintenance a much easier task. Everyone, including the tank critters will love the crystal clear water, too. This is a simple to install hang-on-tank model.
For the budget minded shopper, this is a gift that every saltwater aquarium hobbyist can use at one time or another, either as an extra air pump to have on hand as a handy back-up unit for when their present air pump fails in the middle of holiday weekend, or as a source of air for some new "tank toys".
Aquarium heaters seem to always give up the ghost in the middle of winter in the dead of night, when no stores are open of course. Give the saltwater aquarium hobbyist in your life some peace of mind during those long winter nights with a new high performance submersible heater, either as a replacement unit or an extra to have on hand for an emergency.
When the saltwater aquarium hobbyist in your life needs some time off, whether it is for a weekend on the slopes or a week long vacation on Moloka'i, they won't have to worry about their tank critters being fed on time with an automatic feeder. Even when they are at home, this type of unit will make sure that the tank critters get fed every day at the same time, with no fuss.
Any saltwater aquarists needs to know what his or her pH, alkalinity, nitrates, calicum and other tank water parameters are doing at all times. Having good basic saltwater aquarium and reef tank test kits, as well as refill reagents readily at hand will help keep the fish, corals and other livestock bright, colorful and growing like weeds.
Since tropical saltwater critters are extremely temperature sensitive, knowing where the tank temperature is at all times is very important. Aquarium thermometers come in many styles, the newest of which are the "Remote Sensor Digital Temperature/Time/Alarm" models which are inexpensive and make every aquarist feel "High Tech."
