“The Greatest One”: A Luft Affair

Greatness comes in many packages, many forms. In sports, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky earned the title, “The Great One” during his long and storied NHL career.  One of my personal sports heroes, Gretzky holds 61 records for his amazing accomplishments,…

Aquascaping techniques, tips and thoughts

As a reef geek who is more than just casually interested in creating great looking aquariums, I’ve made it my personal mission over the past few years to rid the reef aquarium world of dull and mediocre aquascaping. To this…

One new tank…A million ideas!

I’m deep into the planning on my first new aquarium in 2 years. It’s a great feeling, I’m now in that most exciting phase of the planning process (in my warped opinion, anyways): the “Which idea do I try?” phase!…

From revolution to evolution: a look at two hobby trends and their impact

After 30-something years in the hobby, you see a lot of trends come and go. Fads and “new” ideas show up and subsequently vanish back into the mists of time. Some of these “fads” do stick around a while, yet…

When common corals are Amazing corals

I was at a local coral “chop shop”  a while back (yeah, they exist here in SoCal), perusing the raceways chock full of ½” frags of “LE” corals , when I saw it: A brilliant, neon- green, orange-tinged  flash- a…

Aquascaping “Outside The Box” The Volcano-scape of Kyle Verry

If you are a regular reader of my ramblings here on Reef Builders, at hobby conferences, and in hobby magazines, you know I’m a HUGE fan of outside-the-box thinking in aquascaping. No rock walls and boring layouts for me. Nope!…

Reef Builders Celebrates 2000 Posts

This post, this one you are reading right now is the 2000th post that has appeared on Reef Builders. This is very exciting to see Reef Builders grow as fast as it has, especially since it has been going for…

Thoughts on Reef Aquarium Husbandry: “Good things done in small measures, with frequency.”

Recently, I gave a talk at a hobby club meeting in Vermont, and the topic was Nutrient Control and Export”.  I’ve given this talk at some other clubs aound the nation before, and I’m frequently surprised by how much hobbyists…

Thoughts on Reefapalooza 2009 and fashionable coral names

And so it goes, Reefapalooza 2009 has come and gone.  First off, I have to hand it to the folks at SCMAS – WELL DONE… What is really amazing is that even though this thing has evolved to “major event…

Reef-A-Palooza excites Southern California this upcoming weekend

The sixth annual Reef-A-Palooza (RAP) is hitting the Orange County Fairgrounds for the sixth time this weekend bringing together hobbyists, coral vendors, manufacturers and speakers for a weekend of reefing excitement. With a few tricks up their sleeves, the Southern…