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Mark van der Wal
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Is This the Dinoflagellate Treatment We’ve all been Hoping for?

Being a reef aquarists, means dealing with nuisance algae, parasites, and other pests… Cyanobacteria, AEFW, Red Bugs, and who here remembers that pink cotton candy algae (Callithamnion)? But dinoflagellates are usually just a pit stop in the succession of algae…

Reef Reboot Check-In #2: No Water Changes for a Year!

Has it been 2 years since my last check in? It sure has. Last time I wrote an update, I was losing Acropora to a mysterious cause. I think now it was due to overdoing it with bacterial additives the…

Reef Reboot Check-In

Last spring I took on the ridiculous task of rebooting my reef aquarium while expecting a newborn. I am way overdue in writing update. Why the delay? Well, three reasons really. For one, life got really crazy after the baby…

Reef Reboot Phase 4, “Just Add Salt!”

So where did I leave off? Oh yeah, a tank full of RO water ready to become a reef! Now the fun part.. Salt was added and the pumps were fired up. I was thrilled that the new tank was…

Next Reboot Phase 3, “Let’s put this new tank together..”

So reboot phase 2 was all about the tear down. It wasn’t an easy time. A lot of corals were lost in the holding tanks despite my best efforts. It was definitely a low point. I would say there were…

First Impressions of the Aquamaxx ConeS Series Skimmers

Remember when an affordable skimmer meant an ugly piece of extruded acrylic paired with a pump that acted as both a heater and unsoothing noise machine? We remember. It used to be that the only way to retire the droning…

Reef Builders Reboot Phase Two: It’s Never a Smooth One

Reboot Phase One consisted of deciding on and ordering the new tank. Once that was done, it was time to tear down the original system. Temporary holding tanks were set up to hold the livestock, and the chaos began. The painful reminder…

First Impressions of the Trigger Systems Tideline Series Sumps

Trigger Systems has been providing great sumps for a while now, and they recently expanded their lineup to include the Tideline series. Trigger Systems took notice of the rise in white reefing equipment in the market, and put their own…

Hands on with the Deepwater BLDC5 series DC Pump

Unless you’ve been living under a large piece of live rock, you will have noticed the rise of DC pumps in our hobby. They have been the new staple for sump returns, closed loops, and skimmers. On deck here is…

Reef Builders Reboot Phase One

Some of you may have read my recent post about deciding when to reboot. For me, the time is now. My family is anticipating the arrival of another kid in a few months, and so there has been some shuffling of…