Mark Valderrama

Mark is the founder of Aquarium Store Depot. He started in the aquarium hobby at the age of 11 and along the way worked at local fish stores. He has kept freshwater tanks, ponds, and reef tanks for over 25 years. His site was created to share his knowledge and unique teaching style on a larger scale. He has worked on making aquarium and pond keeping approachable. Mark has been featured in two books about aquarium keeping - both best sellers on Amazon. Each year, he continues to help his readers and clients with knowledge, professional builds, and troubleshooting. He maintains the content of this site with a strong Editorial Process and provides a practical and real-life review process on all products reviewed and tested.
Honest Blogging about Aquarium Keeping.
IceCap 2K Gyre Review

IceCap Gyre 2K Review – An In-Depth Look

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The Gyre, when it first came out was an innovation to reef hobbyist. You no longer had to worry about dead spots or have multiple wavemakers installed in your reef tank. With a Gyre everything could be managed by a single device. And this Gyre did such a great job that it virtually eliminated dead spots and performed reliability. The IceCap Gyre was a budget version of MaxSpect’s original version.

The 1st generation of IceCap’s Gyres was in my opinion the best value in aquarium wavemakers on the market. Today, I look at IceCap’s latest Gyre 2K and 4K 2nd generation models and see if they still continue to deliver value.

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Waterbox Aquarium Review

WaterBox Aquarium Review – An IN-DEPTH Look

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Looking for a reef ready system that that delivers on quality and simplicity? If so, you have come to the right place as today I do a comprehensive Waterbox Aquarium Review. Waterbox has taken it to Red Sea with highly quality reef ready systems that are approachable even for a beginner saltwater aquarium owner. As you may have read in my Best Rimless Tank round up article, the Waterbox Aquariums systems are a great way to get started in the saltwater hobby. They got my best value award for having such great features at a fair price, however, I didn’t have the space in the article to talk about their entire line and go in depth on all their features. This post, I will dive in so you can see what makes WaterBox Aquariums stand out so much in an industry I feel at times can be seen as overly complex to beginners.

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EcoTech Radion G5 Review

EcoTech Radion G5 Review – An IN-DEPTH Look

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Looking for the very best Aquarium Reef LED available for your saltwater aquarium today? If so, you have come to the right place. Today, I go indepth on the EcoTech’s newest Radion – the Generation 5. What is new? What has changed? And what makes this stand out from all the other Reef LEDs out in the market?

As you may have read in my Best Reef LED round up article. LEDs are the it technology when it comes to coral growing. They have become the tech toys of our hobby and also have become very energy efficient over time. LEDs can be tricky however, as too many features can overwhelm a newcomer and the spectrum of the LED are not created equal among the various players out there.

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Sicce Syncra SDC Review

Sicce SYNCRA SDC Review An In-Depth Look

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Looking for the very best Aquarium Return Pump available for your tank today? Well, this is the very post you have been looking for as the Sicce Syncra has solved may of the issues that have plagued DC pumps since they were first introduced in the hobby.
As you may have read in my Best Aquarium Return Pump round up article. DC pumps are cursed with multiple issues. The main thing are the failure points and the quality control of the manufacturing. So what happens when we combine one of the most reliable and high quality Italian manufacturers in our industry and DC pump technology? It sounds like a dream combination doesn’t it? It sounds like Sicce may have solved the very issue that has frustrated most us with DC pumps since they were released – reliability!

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Chloroquine Phosphate – It’s Not A COVID Cure Damnit 😆!

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I’m really frustrated and tired of the news about Chloroquine Phosphate. There is so much bad information about Chloroquine Phosphate it has gotten to the point where it’s affecting my business. I’ve been in the marine fish keeping industry for over 20 years. I’ve used this substance on marine fish in quarantine for ages quietly speaking its praises to my fellow hobby club and group members. It’s been my secret weapon for years in battling the most deadly marine fish diseases over the years.

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Best Self Cleaning Fish Tank

Best Self Cleaning Fish Tank (2024 REVIEWS) – Have These 7 Do The Work For You!

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Are you wanting to keep a fish tank, but don’t want to deal with the hassle of cleaning it? Do you want a low-maintenance fish tank? Perhaps you want to try out aquaponics and grow vegetables with your fish tank? If any 3 questions peak your interest, than purchasing the best self cleaning fish tank for you is the answer.

That’s what this post is all about today. Finding a self cleaning fish tank that is easy to use and maintain. 

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The Best Nitrate Remover for Freshwater Aquariums

The 10 Best Nitrate Removers for Freshwater aquariums (2024 Reviews)

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Help my nitrates are over 50 PPM! This is a common email or text I get on my live chat. Nitrates can be a major problem for freshwater aquarium keepers. In today’s post, I want to talk about the best nitrate remover for freshwater aquariums. Nitrates for some of us are a bane of our existence. We obsess over it because our local fish store and fish guides tells us that nitrates are bad and our fish are stressed out when they are too high.

This is all true, however, instead of stressing out over them let’s talk about how to take proper action in tackling the issue. I want to revisit the nitration cycle and talk about ways to remove nitrates from your aquarium. I want us to reflect to how we got to this place. Once we know, let’s talk about the best products to solve our problem. 

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Freshwater Aquarium

Freshwater Aquarium – Words of Wisdom I Wish I Knew Before I Started

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Hello again fellow readers. Over the past few years, I have gone through a full dive into the freshwater aquarium hobby. As many of my friends and hobbyists know, I started in the hobby straight into saltwater aquariums and then into reef tanks. A couple of years ago, I posted a big piece of content titled words of wisdom I wish I knew before I started. As I got more into the freshwater side of the hobby, I thought to myself I should do the same with freshwater aquariums.

Today’s post is going to be a long. Each one of these points can be a post on its own. My purpose is to place all these words of wisdom into a single post so you can reference it to anyone starting out in the freshwater aquarium hobby.

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Best Driftwood for Aquariums

The 9 Best Driftwood For Aquariums For 2024 – Reviewed

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Driftwood in an Aquarium can look stunning and offer lot of options for designing your aquarium. They can make some really amazing aquascapes, especially heavily planted ones. We need to be careful in our driftwood selection process though. 

Today’s post discusses the best driftwood for aquariums. Much like the best aquarium rocks post earlier, driftwood is not as simple as picking it out of of your local pond or aquarium. Driftwood if not selected or prepped properly can have disastrous results in your aquarium.

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