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Synchiropus sycorax Is The New Official Name of the Ruby Red Dragonet

Synchiropus sycorax is the newest species of dragonet to get an official name, brought to you by Yi-Kai Tea, better known as Lemon in the Reef World, and his advisor Dr. Anthony Gill. The Ruby Red Dragonet, which the aquarium…

Tunze 9410 DC DOC Skimmer review Pt 2: One of The Best Skimmers Ever

The Tunze DOC DC 9410 Skimmer is one of the veteran company’s first ever controllable protein skimmer models. We’ve been using this model on a 60 gallon reef tank for half a year and we couldn’t be happier with the…

Biota’s Bristletail Filefish are TRAINED to Eat Aiptasia!

Bristletail filefish, Acreichthys tomentosus, is a well known reef fish that has a strong potential to eat Aiptasia and Majano pest anemones. Despite their long record, I’d actually never personally employed one for this purpose, opting instead for peppermint shrimp and/or copperband…

Kung Pao Monti is the Ultimate Strain of Montipora palawanensis

Montipora palawanensis is a species of Monti that has been in our reef tanks for quite some time. However in recent years we’ve seen a huge uptick in the number of strains of this coral, especially coming out of Indonesia. Of…

Where the Big Corals Are: The Tank of Martin Lakin

A couple of months ago I wrote a piece asking where all the big corals went. Well on my recent speaking trip to England, I found them. In the tank of my friend Martin Lakin I was amazed to see…

An insight into documentary film making with Richard Fitzpatrick

The best things in life often come unscripted and unplanned, brought upon by sweet serendipitous moments that take you by surprise. While visiting Cairns Marine earlier this month, we were treated to an enchanting encounter with one of documentary filmmaking’s…

Unsung pioneers in the reef aquarium Hobby

After attending last year’s MACNA in Denver and a couple of the recent Reefapaloozas, I have come to the realization that the majority of the people now in the hobby have been in the hobby for less than ten years. …

1.1 Fairy Wrasses: The lubbocki group

The lubbocki group houses six members divided evenly into two separate but closely related clades. They are the lubbocki clade and the marjorie clade. All members of this group are small to medium sized species with a recurring red and white…

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…

Pros and Cons of the aquarium hobby being so expensive

Recently I became involved in something I hadn’t done for a long time: helping a total newbie set up his first reef tank.  Initially he wanted to set up a 300-gallon reef, but after we came up with the list…