The year is 2003 and I was just starting to delve into the first year of real marine science courses like ecology, oceanography, and fluid dynamics. At that time I’d already been keeping marine aquariums for 8 years and i was…
Editorial
What’s next for Drs Foster and Smith, Live Aquaria, and Petco?
Petco, the large multi-channel retailer is intent to purchase our beloved Drs. Foster Smith mail order and eCommerce business. Apparently the owners wanted out of their successful enterprise—which comes as no surprise as they are older in age and more…
ORA Debuts Latest Captive-Bred Cardinalfish to Mixed Reviews
If anyone had a clue what it takes to knock down species first after species first, I think we’d be showing ORA a little more appreciation for ticking another “boring” and “dull” captive-bred fish species first off the list this…
Reef Builders Prediction – Captive Bred Butterflyfish by the end of 2014!
It has been a long time coming, but just as we see aquaculturists banging hard on the door, demanding to be let in on the secrets of captive-bred Tangs, so too we see the captive-breeding barrier being approached from every…
Why would Ecotech Marine and AquaIllumination join forces?
The news that Ecotech Marine and AquaIllumination had completed a formal merger came as quite a shock to the marine aquarium world. The reasons for AI and EM joining forces might come across as a monopolistic move to the shortsighted,…
Why this may be the future of aquarium (and home) automation
Aquarium control and automation has been a hot topic for years. Before affordable aquarium controllers hit the market, we were linking together lamp timers and hacking X10 devices to do our bidding. Not that automation and control is getting more…
2013 Marine Breeder’s Year in Review
It’s the 4th annual installment of the Marine Breeder’s Year in Review (see past installments at 2010, 2011a, 2011b, and 2012) and frankly, it’s been an interesting if not arguably “slow” year for a change, and yet I’ll probably write more…
AquaMaxx Zeo Reactors
We like to keep up with all the new products and every so often we come across something that may have been on the market for a while, but we haven’t covered it here at Reef Builders. Although AquaMaxx Zeo…
Tip of the Day — Always check your magnet mounts
Equipment and livestock maladies effect even the most expert of reefers. Kevin Kohen, Director of LiveAquaria, shared this image along with this note “Tip of the day–check you magnet holders occasionally to avoid mysterious problems in reef aquaria.” We don’t…
Hands on with Ocean Nutrition Sep-Art Artemia System
Last summer we ran a story announcing Ocean Nutrition’s European pricing for their newly introduced Sep-Art line of Artemia (Brine Shrimp) cysts and supporting products. What we didn’t tell you then was that we were working on testing out this…