How to Properly Place Corals in a New Reef Tank

The difference between a successful reef tank and one that fails is often a matter of the little details. One of these little details that cannot be overlooked is proper coral placement. With a new tank, you basically have a…

Are Fish Necessary in a Reef Tank?

After keeping reef tanks for almost forty years, and having viewed literally thousands of successful tanks, including a few recently sans fish, it got me to thinking are fish necessary in a reef tank.  Now before you think I have…

Are Reef Tanks Stress-Reducing or Stress-Inducing?

Since we are in the midst of the holiday season, we are all familiar with how the family get-togethers, shopping, and hustle and bustle can be both stress-relieving in some ways and also stress-inducing. I have come to realize that…

$12.6 million Missouri Mansion comes with a 900-gallon Reef Tank built-in

One of the most expensive homes in the Kansas City area is being offered for sale. At nearly 17,000 square feet, the Lake Winnebago lakeside property boasts a five-stop elevator, a 1000-bottle wine cellar, a movie theater, an indoor spa,…

How to Select Fish for a New Reef Tank

For the majority of us who started in the hobby, our initial lure was watching a beautiful colored fish in a saltwater tank in the local fish shop. It could have been a clownfish frolicking in an anemone or a…

Why Pure Source Water is Fundamental to a Successful Reef Tank

There are so many aspects to succeeding with a reef tank but one of the first ones, and one of the most important ones, is good source water. Unless you are buying/using natural seawater (and even if you are you…

What to do in a Reef Tank Power Outage

Possibly one of the most daunting things you can encounter is sudden silence from the reef tank when the power goes out. Or perhaps you know the power is going out on a particular day for scheduled maintenance? Whether the…

The Benefits of Modern Reef Tank Technology

As with all technology, the technology related to the hobby and maintaining a successful reef tank has also improved significantly over the decades. In the early years technology consisted of small microprocessors that were only able to measure temperature, pH,…

How To Set Up A Nano Reef Tank In One Day

We’re celebrating the life of Reef Builders’ late, great Managing Editor Jake Adams this week, as it is one year since he passed away in October 2022. Jake built the Reef Builders Studio so that he could create some great…

How to Manage the Ugly Stage of a New Reef Tank

There are few inevitable things in life and even fewer in this hobby. But the one inevitable that everyone encounters when they set up a new tank is that there will be an ugly phase. It does not matter if…