Red carpet anemones are one of the most exotic clownfish-hosting anemone on the reef. I had lusted for brilliant Red Sea blue and purple carpet anemones for a decade before i found out about the existence of this fascinating reef creature…
Two more Tunze Protein Skimmers get DC treatment
Perusing the new Tunze catalogs, we came across a couple already available protein skimmers that have been outfitted with DC pumps. The Tunze DOC 9410 DC and Tunze DOC 9430 DC are the latest direct current additions to the growing…
Salty Q&A: Bay Window Reef Lighting?
Question I’m setting up my first reef aquarium and want to keep my approach as natural as possible. The room where I plan to place the tank has a really big bay window in it, and succulents and other sun-loving…
Experimental incandescent light bulb could exceed efficiency of LEDs
The aquarium hobby has gone from metal halides to fluorescent lamps to light emitting diodes and now we might have incandescent light bulbs lighting up our future reef tanks. We’re getting ahead of ourselves but if new research out of…
SOS Zaya is a creative ‘skimmer overflow stopper’
The SOS Zaya is a creative new reef aquarium accessory that can prevent the overflow of protein skimmers. The Skimmer Overflow Stopper is another one of those super niche reef aquarium products brought to you by the makers of the original…
The wild color change of spawning green chromis
The green Chromis, C. viridis, is such a staple and common aquarium fish, we hardly give a thought to how uniform this species is in the home aquarium, and in the wild. Sure you occasionally get a Chromis atripectoralis mixed…
Acropora spathulata discovered in Indonesia
Acropora spathulata is the quintessential Australian SPS Coral in our minds, but we’ve now discovered that this coral can also be found as far away as central Indonesia. Contrary to our previous belief that A. spathulata is an Australian endemic,…
Can you think of aquarium uses for the Tesla Valve?
The Tesla Valve is a unique device that was conjured in the 1920s by the master inventor, Nicola Tesla. The Tesla Valve is unique in that it is an ‘almost’ one-way valve that allows fluid to flow mostly in one direction,…
SnapPower turns your outlet into a USB charging station
SnapPower is a neat product that is hitting the market after a stellar Kickstarter launch last year. As more of our gadgets are featuring a USB power port of some sort, we have traditionally had only a few options to…
Astraea Snails Make Short Work of Algae
This past year, I rediscovered how great an army of snails can be. We go pretty light on cleanup crews in general. For example, there really aren’t any hermit crabs to speak of in our systems. In 5,000 gallons of…
