Coral City Camera is an Underwater Live Stream You Can Watch All Day

The Coral City Camera is an underwater camera fixed to one spot and live streams from an urban reef in Miami, Florida. The backdrop is one of boulders with a couple of Pseudodiploria strigosa Brain corals, some sponges, and an…

Reef Microbiology Part Two: The Immune System

In this installment of the microbiology series, I will provide a more technical explanation of the coral immune response.   Introduction to Immunology Immunology is the study of the immune system. There are two broad categories of immune responses – innate…

Why Successful Reefing Is All About Incrementalism

Over the course of the last forty years, many changes have taken place that have made the hobby better. Looking back, it is safe to say that while all of these changes seem large now, they were all done incrementally,…

Malaysia’s Largest Inland Coral Farm Uses Radio Frequency ID Tags

Earlier this year I was invited to speak at The Garden and Aquatic Show in Singapore. This show also featured quite a few highlights of interest for reefkeeping enthusiasts. One of those was a marine aquascaping contest. All participants started…

Study Reveals How Corals Gain N and P in Darwin’s Paradox

An article published in the Journal Nature has found that photosynthetic corals not only host their symbiotic algae, they feed directly on it too, and importantly, it is how they uptake Nitrogen and Phosphorus. The paper titled “Reef-building corals farm…

How to Overcome a Total Tank Wipeout

We hate to hear about it happening to someone. We hate to see it when someone posts about it happening to them. But more than anything we hate to experience it. Sadly, almost everyone I know who has been in…

The importance of pH in the reef tank

Over the years a number of different aspects of reefkeeping have either become a hot topic or have been forgotten by the hobby. When I was starting out one of the parameters that was focused on was pH, which stands…

How to take Corals on a USA Domestic Flight

If you’re like me, then you try to be as streamlined as possible when flying. The idea of flying to an aquarium conference, buying coral, and transporting it back home seems a bit intense. Why complicate an already arduous process?…

The Five Best SPS Corals For Beginners

Small Polyp Stony Corals are some of the most popular aquarium corals, and the most populous on natural reefs, famed for their spiky branches, flat tables, or swirling plates. Not all SPS corals are the same, however, or as easy…

Flower Bomb is a Newly Released Tabling Acro from Top Shelf Aquatics

This coral was originally imported from Australia and hand-picked as a pale, small mini colony with loads of potential. I have hand-picked many pieces from various suppliers throughout the years but this one really stood out as something that could…