Masanao Shibuya’s SPS reef tank is bordering on perfection

Attention to details is what can make the difference between a nice reef tank, and a great reef tank. In this exquisite example of a reef display by Masanao Shibuya, no detail has been left to chance to create a…

Kessil AP700 LED fixture can’t come out soon enough

Kessil has been teasing us with their forthcoming Aquarium Panel AP700 LED light fixture for nearly a year now, and frankly we’re ready for this new phase in Kessil’s legacy to come the aquarium hobby. After years of refining the ultimate…

When is it Time to Reboot your Reef?

To keep a reef aquarium is to understand that a closed system growing corals is never static, it is ever changing, growing, regressing, progressing. The first few years can be challenging as the system settles in and corals grow to…

PNG’s Pictichromis aurifrons from Milne Bay show a gradient of color patterns

Dottybacks are some of the quintessential reef fish; they are small, hardy, come in a myriad of colors and they are both readily available and affordable to aquarists. The other feature of dottybacks is how amenable they have been to captive…

Rich Ross focuses on Phosphate in the last MACNA 2014 speaker video

“Phosphate does not mean what you think it means” is probably one of the most profound things any speaker has said about this much maligned nutrient in our reef tanks. While PO4 gets a bad rap in our tanks, nothing,…

Dr. Tim’s introduces Bene-Fish-Al, a DIY frozen fish food

No one can ever accuse Dr. Tim’s of not being original with his latest product entry into the aquarium market being a DIY frozen fish food. Bene-Fish-Al might be hard to say, but it seems really easy to use with some…

Bubble-Tip Anemone Safety Tips

The bubble-tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor), or BTA, is justifiably popular in the marine aquarium hobby, being relatively hardy and easy to keep as anemones go as well as being a suitable host anemone for many clownfish species. But to horribly…

Half white ‘Panda’ bicolor angelfish collected by Walt Smith Fiji

A very curiously colored bicolor angelfish was recently revealed to have been found, a specimen with a complete lack of yellow coloration. On some reefs bicolor angelfish are so common that they may as well be part of the damselfish…

Pros and Cons of the aquarium hobby being so expensive

Recently I became involved in something I hadn’t done for a long time: helping a total newbie set up his first reef tank.  Initially he wanted to set up a 300-gallon reef, but after we came up with the list…

Fisheye view of my saltwater fish only aquarium

Ask anyone in this hobby about me, and nearly all will tell you that I range from an insatiable coral junkie to a laid back coral connoisseur. One little known secret is that while I hardly keep any fish in my…