Star Spike Coral Is An Incredibly Neat Nano Soft Coral

There’s a whole world of soft corals that the reef aquarium world knows nothing about, both photosynthetic and azooxanthellate. Asterospicularia is one of those softies that is primed for being grown in reef tanks, and which we affectionately call ‘Star Spike’ as…

How To Fill Out Your Reef Tank When You’re Just Getting Started

Filling Out Your New Reef Tank One of the biggest challenges for new aquarium hobbyists is patience. It’s not uncommon to have a rock garden in your living room for two months before your aquarium is cycled and ready for its…

Bounce Shrooms all start out as really nice Rhodactis

Bounce Shrooms and Mushroom Mania in general is taking the reef aquarium hobby by storm. Not since zoanthids has a soft coral captured the collective collectoritis that is gripping the high end coral frag market in the U.S. today. To be…

Corals Gone Wild: Don’t Let Encrusting Polyps Take Over Your Tank!

I have a confession to make. When I mention my 75-gallon “reef tank” in my posts here at Saltwater Smarts, I’m not being entirely truthful in my terminology. When I first set up the tank almost 14 years ago and…

Sympodium encrusting soft coral starting to appear in blue and green colors

Sympodium is an interesting encrusting soft coral which is just beginning to show up in some coral shipments. We personally spied the Sympodium colony above tucked away in a corner of a display tank at Amazing Aquariums and Reefs and…

ORA Purple Stylo starting to be released in limited numbers

The purple stylo from ORA is a strain of Stylophora that we have lusted after for over 5 years since we first saw a specimen of this startling color strain in the 2000 gallon reef aquarium of French reef aquarist…

Chalice Coral Collage by Greenwich Aquaria

Chalice corals are raging hot and despite the overpriced frags, there are still plenty of coral vendors and growers out there who are willing to charge a fair price for these coveted pectinids. One of our all around favorite high…

10 Gallon Nano Reef Tank Makeover

If you’ve ever kept multiple systems at once, you know that sometimes we all have those one tanks – the ones you don’t have time for. You tell yourself you’ll find time, but then you don’t – this repeats for…

Seven Ways to Reuse Dead Hard Coral Skeletons

Don’t throw away those dead coral skeletons as we have seven useful ways for your aquarium corals to live on: 1. Use as home decor In the 1970s and 80s coral skeletons made popular home decor items, especially in bathrooms.…

How to Set Up a Nano Reef Tank

We’ve really been feeling it lately for nano tanks. We run much larger tanks for surgeonfish, but while we’re waiting for our Acros to grow in those we like to have some low-cost fun and set up nano tanks as…