Each bag of Omega Sea Reef salt really does mix up 60 gallons fast and clear

About one year ago we found ourselves at the Omega Sea booth at Aquarama, pondering to ourselves how was it possible that a bag with less then 17 pounds of salt mix could produce 60 gallons of seawater to natural…

Skimmate Ghost protein skimmer is a concentration of innovative features

The SkimMate Ghost Protein skimmer from Innovative Marine is so intriguing it really makes us want the kind of all in one reef tank for which this device is designed. When Innovative Marine’s first SkimMate was launched over two years ago,…

Hands on & review of the Nano Box Reef Mini Tide LED light

The name Nano Box Reef has been around for a while, and is certainly making quite the splash in the aquarium world of late. With everything being hand built and customized in every degree, there is certainly a lot of…

Mini Maxi Spawning at Tidal Gardens

For years now, we have been propagating mini maxi anemones. They are easy to propagate by cutting them in half and letting them heal for a month or two. Most aquacultured corals are asexually produced either by allowing them to…

Somebody please make this iPhone light meter for aquarium use

The Lumu smartphone accessory for measuring ambient light is not the first device we’ve seen developed and produced for photographic use but dang it, we want to see one of these designed for aquarium use! How hard could it be…

Avast Marine Diaphragm pump is the mother of all top off pumps

The new diaphragm water pump that Avast Marine has just revealed is the beefiest in the genre we have seen to date. Not since Innovative Marine’s Hydrofill ATO pump have we seen a diaphragm water pump with such high pressure…

PE Mysis Energy Flakes and Pellets coming next year

Piscine Energetics is on a mission to deliver their highly nutritious Canadian mysis shrimp to as many aquarium fish as possible, in all conceivable forms. PE Mysis Energy Flakes and Energy Pellets are the first ever prepared foods from Piscine that…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: The Mauritian endemic Pseudojuloides xanthomos

Pseudojuloides is a genus of touchy labrids that are aptly named pencil wrasses for their slender figure. The genus boasts a sizeable number of mostly colourful sexually dichromatic species, of which only a small sampling is offered to the aquarium trade.…

Chalk Bass: A Caribbean Jewel Custom Made for Marine Aquariums

Anyone who has visited Saltwater Smarts on a regular basis knows that Chris has a bizarre fixation on Caribbean species. No livestock—fish or invertebrate—originating outside the Caribbean/tropical Western Atlantic is allowed in his tank. If he could, he’d probably go…

Join us at Dallas NextWave this Saturday, May 3rd

The spring 2014 reef aquarium conference is in full swing with Dallas next in line to shine this weekend. Saturday May 3rd at the Sheraton Hotel the Dallas Fort Worth Marine Aquarium Society, the same who guys who brought us…