A crucial part of any thriving marine system is adequately circulated water.

Aiming for completely randomised water movement, simulated waves or reef crest type patterns is best, having enough flow is important for many reasons.

Two main aspects of selecting livestock for your aquarium come into play.

First off you would ideally make a selection of fish/invertebrates/corals and cross check and research them to ensure they are compatible with each other and be within your abilities to keep happy & healthy.

Once you have a finalised wish list of livestock and your aquarium is ready for supporting life the second step is selecting livestock for purchase at your LFS.

Some things to consider when selecting livestock are ethics and sustainability, health or behaviour and the cost.

Each Aquarium is different and parameters often need to be tweaked to suit your aquariums needs and the needs of the creatures you keep in it.

Any parameter change should be done slowly as big swings in parameters can have a very negative consequence on the aquarium.

Quarantine doesn't mean you need to medicate the livestock with anything, all the tank is for at this stage is to provide a stable environment in which you can observe the newly purchased creature or coral for at least 2 weeks.

A protein skimmer is a device used to remove organic compounds which would build up over time and cause elevated or even toxic levels of unwanted nutrients in the water.

There is a little bit of debate as to wether you can "over skim" your water, this means you run a huge skimmer 24/7 in an attempt to remove every last scrap of organic waste.