Settings tab - Basic settings.

Fish tab - Pick your favorite fish.

Clock tab - Choose clock faces and change settings for each. Import logo.

• Resolution Dropdown menu - "Default Desktop Resolution" will match the program display to your current desktop settings for color depth and resolution.
  
  
• 16/32 bit - Forces Marine Aquarium to display at 16 or 32bit color depth regardless of desktop settings.

• Automatic Lights - To prevent your monitor from burning in over long term use, the Marine Aquarium will cycle the lighting from light to dark across the tank. Un-checking this box will give you full control of the lighting.
  
  
• Delay Slider - Determines the length, from light to dark, of the lighting cycle when in Automatic lighting mode.
  
  
• Lights Slider - Manual setting for the lighting when not in Automatic lighting mode.
  

• Column - Activates/Deactivates bubble column. Bubble sound will still be present and is controlled by the sound settings below.
  
  
• Volume Slider - Controls bubble volume.
  
  
• Always On - Bubble sound will always be heard when the Aquarium is running.
  
  
• When Active - Bubble sound will only be heard when the Aquarium window is visible. Helpful when Aquarium is in Windowed mode (see "F" in the hot keys list above.)
  
  
• Off - Turns off bubble sound entirely.

Select button - Clicking this button will assign a fish from the library to the selection box. The fish must be chosen first.

Off button - Turns off one of the selection slots. Marine Aquarium will have one less fish in the tank.

? - RANDOM will assign a fish at random.

X - OFF will leave a blank space and the tank will have one less goldfish in the tank.

• Show Day/Date/Time - Places a date stamp in the stones at the bottom-right of the Aquarium.
  
  
• Show Seconds - Adds a moving second hand to the Analog clock.
  
  
• Show Second Marks - Adds second marks to the Analog clock face.
  

• Show Time - Adds a small digital clock under the month title. If this option is unchecked the next two options will not work.
  
  
• Show Seconds - Adds a seconds counter to the end of the clock above.
  
  
• Show AM PM - Adds an AM or PM time indicator to the clock above.
  
  
• First Day of the Week dropdown Menu - Changes the first day of the week to the day you select.
  
  

• Show Seconds - Adds a seconds counter to the end of the clock.
  
  
• Show AM PM - Adds an AM or PM time indicator to the clock.
  
  

• 24 Hours - Changes all digital clocks to 24 hour (Military) time format.
  
  
• Default Clock dropdown Menu - This list lets you choose which Default Clock will be shown when the "Cycle Clocks" option below is unchecked.
  
  
• Cycle Clocks - Marine Aquarium cycles through all Clocks. Cycle time is determined by the slider bar setting below.
  
  
• Delay Slider - The time, in seconds, it takes for the Clocks to change.
  

1. Press the space bar while the program is running. This will bring up the Settings window.
   
   
2. Click on the "fish" tab. This will take you to the fish selection page of the Settings window. On the right you will see a visual library of colorful fish to choose from. On the top left are a number of slots showing the fish currently chosen for your tank. The bottom will show vital information on each fish.
   
   
3. By left-clicking on a fish you can see its information in the bottom left. By double-clicking, you can set the fish as one of your tank choices, filling one of your slots. Double-clicking the "X" (OFF) will leave that slot blank and the Marine Aquarium will have one less fish on the screen. If you double-click the "?" (RANDOM) the Marine Aquarium will pick a fish for you at random, every time you open the program.
   
   
4. Checking the option "Dont Duplicate Random Choices" will make sure that no random choices are the same.
   

1.0 - Fills any screen. If the Aquarium is set to widescreen and you have a widscreen monitor, there will be no distortion.

0.8 - Will "Letterbox" the Aquarium image, placing a black bar at the top and bottom of the screen. This setting will allow the widescreen mode to appear without distortion on a normal ratio display.

1.2 - Will "Sidebox" the Aquarium image, placing a black bar on the left and right of the screen. This setting will allow the normal mode to appear without distortion on a widescreen display.

1. IMPORTANT: Your logo must be black and white (see below for more information) and in bitmap (.bmp) format. You can convert your logo in any paint program, though clean artwork works best.
   
   
2. Run Marine Aquarium 2.6 and press the spacebar on your keyboard to bring up the Settings menu.
   
   
3. Click the "Clock" tab.
   
   
4. Click the IMPORT LOGO button. A window will appear with the title "Open."
   
   
5. Navigate your files and locate the picture file you want to use as your Logo.
   
   
6. Click on the picture file and then click the "Open" button. Marine Aquairum will load the file to its memory.
   
   
7. Click the "OK" button to exit the Marine Aquarium 2.6 Settings menu. Your new Logo should now be displayed on the Crystal. If it is not, press the "C" key on your keyboard to cycle through the clock faces.
   
   
8. Use the "Page Up" and "Page Down" keys to adjust the Logo size.
   
   
9. Use the Ctrl+Arrow keys to adjust the Logo placement.
   

1. Open the file you want to use.
   
   
2. Click "File".
   
   
3. Click "Save As..." This will open the Save As window.
   
   
4. Use the "Save as Type:" dropdown menu at the bottom of the window to select "Monochrome Bitmap".
   
   
5. Click the SAVE button.
   

1. IMPORTANT: Be sure that your video card has 32 megabytes or more of video memory and an up to date driver. Do not skip this step! Even if your computer is brand new or you have recently updated drivers, there can still be problems in this area.
   
   Click HERE for more information on your video card and how to check it.
   
   
2. Examine the programs in your System Tray (The area just to the left of the clock on the Taskbar). Placing your mouse cursor over the icons will give you items full name. If you have Windows XP you may have to "Show hidden icons" using the small circle and arrow button to the left of the System Tray.
   
   If the icon is Windows or another program waiting to update, run the updates then continue.
   
   If the icon is not one of your basic system functions (volume, task manager, mouse, video card, printer, etc.) exit, disable or close the program. Right-clicking will usually give you options. Then, check if Marine Aquarium exhibits the same behavior.
   
   
3. Double-check your computer for spyware or viruses.
   

1. Close all programs that are running.
   
   
2. Click on the START button and select "Run".
   
   
3. In the box that appears, type in dxdiag.
   
   
4. This will bring up the DirectX Diagnostic tool. Wait for it to fully load.
   
   
5. Click the "Display" tab.
   
   
6. All the information on your video card is in the upper left under the heading Device. You will want to write down the following information:
   
   
   • Name
   • Manufacturer
   • Chip Type
   • Approx. Total Memory
   
   If the Approx. Total Memory is below 32MB (megabytes), your video card does not have enough video memory to run Marine Aquarium 2.6 and you should e-mail us to let us know.
   
   
7. All of the information about your video driver is on the right-hand side under the heading Driver. You will want to write down the following information:
   
   
   • Version
   • Date
   
   If the date is more than six months old, you will want to update your video driver as outlined HERE.
   

1. Run Marine Aquarium and press the space bar to bring up the settings menu.
   
   
2. Click the Settings tab and make sure the option "Exit on Mouse Move" is NOT checked.
   
   
3. Click the "OK" button.
   
   
4. Press Ctrl and the "T" key at the same time. The color should return to the tank.
   
   
5. If this works, go back to the settings menu and change a few of the fish selections to save the new graphic setting.
   
   
6. If this does not work, the problem may be your video card driver. Please see the driver update section for more information.
   

1. If Marine Aquarium runs for a while then goes black, this can be caused by the monitor going into sleep mode. Check your Power Options in the Windows Control Panel.
   
   
2. If Marine Aquarium goes black as soon as it activates, this can be a problem with your video card driver. Click HERE for more information on updating your video card driver.
   

1. Wireless hardware, like mice and keyboards, send signals to the computer that can prevent Windows from calling up a screen saver. Try updating the drivers for your wireless devices.
   
   
2. Programs running in the background. Nearly all computers have programs and utilities running in the background, not noticed, but requiring resources to operate. Some of these programs are less obtrusive than others.
   
   Examine the programs in your System Tray (The area just to the left of the clock on the Taskbar). Placing your mouse cursor over the icons will give you items full name. If you have Windows XP you may have to "Show hidden icons" using the small circle and arrow button to the left of the System Tray.
   
   If it is not one of your basic system functions (volume, task manager, mouse, video card, printer, etc.) exit, disable or close the program. Right-clicking will usually give you options.
   
   
3. Windows or another program is trying to update. Be sure that ALL programs on your system have been updated or do not update automatically.
   
   
4. Viruses and spyware can steal a lot of system resources; in fact this is one of the symptoms of being infested with this malevolent software. Update and run your antivirus program. Do a full system scan to be sure that your computer is clean.
   

1. Open your My Documents folder and select "View" ("Tools" for Windows XP) from the Menu Bar then click on "Folder Options..."
   
   
2. Click the "View" tab, uncheck "Hide file extensions for known file types" and click the "Apply" button. This will allow you to view the file extensions for all files.
   
   
3. Close your My Documents window.
   
   
4. Right-click on the Marine Aquarium 2.6 desktop shortcut and select "Properties". This will bring up the Shortcut properties window.
   
   
5. Click the FIND TARGET... button at the bottom of the Shortcut properties window. This will take you right to the MA2_6.scr file on your hard drive.
   
   
6. Right-click the MA2_6.scr file and select "Copy".
   
   
7. Go back to your Desktop, right-click any empty space and select "Paste". A copy of MA2_6.scr should appear on your Desktop.
   
   
8. Right-click on the new MA2_6.scr icon and select "Rename" from the menu.
   
   
9. Change the icons name to Marine Aquarium 2.6.exe.
   
   
10. Delete the old Marine Aquarium 2.6 shortcut from your Desktop.
    
    
11. You can now run Marine Aquarium 2.6 manually by double-clicking the new icon.
    
    
12. If you are using an older version of Marine Aquarium, the above instructions are the same except for the programs file name. To see a list of the Marine Aquarium file names, click HERE.
    

Better technology

Advancements in monitor hardware and software mean that todays monitors are less likely to burn-in.

Energy saver options

To save electricity, monitors will switch to an energy saving mode after a period of time, either reducing the brightness of the display or turning off the display entirely.

Screen savers

Finally, there are an incredible number of screen savers that display moving images to reduce the persistence of a single image on the screen helping to avoid burn-in.

• Different monitors have different needs when it comes to burn-in. You should check the users manual for specific information, or even contact the manufacturer, just to be sure what steps you can take for your specific monitor.
  
  
• Set the energy saver options to turn off your monitor when not in use for a long period of time.
  
  
• With any of our products, the background and foreground lighting change constantly on an automatic cycle. If you are concerned about burn-in, do not turn off this cycle.

CRT

Unfortunately, once burn-in occurs on a CRT monitor, there is no fix as the actual process that produces the image has been damaged.

LCD & Plasma monitors

The approach to fixing burn-in on plasma and LCD monitors is the same: Display a white screen on the display for a length of time equal to the image that burned-in.

Apple has an excellent article on how to go about this:

Apple: Avoiding image persistence on Apple LCD displays