The future of the reef aquarium industry is microbial. Microbes hold many of the nuanced secrets behind the long-term health and reproduction of corals, reef fish, and invertebrates. All of these creatures are a sum of their associated microbiomes and…
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Is the Hobby Getting Too Expensive? Part II Livestock
As was discussed in Part 1 the cost of getting into the hobby, equipment-wise was surprisingly not as expensive as I had thought. This was the case even when some of the best equipment was being used. Even when inflation…
Online Coral ID Workshops Are Back For 2023/24
Do you know your Collines from your Coralla? Your Paliform from your Petaloid or Phaceloid? Your Septa from your Septo Costae? Learn all these hard coral descriptive terms and most importantly, how to identify virtually all Indo-Pacific hard corals to…
How To Keep Leptogorgia Gorgonians
Ahhh the wonderful Leptogorgia virgulata, a beautiful non-photosynthetic gorgonian. This wonderful species of gorgonian calls most of the eastern seaboard of the United States home. It can also be found on both coasts of Florida. This species comes in a…
The Benefits of Modern Reef Tank Technology
As with all technology, the technology related to the hobby and maintaining a successful reef tank has also improved significantly over the decades. In the early years technology consisted of small microprocessors that were only able to measure temperature, pH,…
Substrate versus Bare Bottom Reef Aquariums
As with many aspects of reefkeeping, there is no perfect way. Even something as seemingly simple as whether to choose substrate or go bare bottom leads to a discussion. As someone who has run both types of systems and is…
Mustard X Convict Tang is One of a Kind Hybrid
Tropical Marine Centre has received a very rare surgeonfish that they believe to be a cross between the Mustard tang, Acanthurus guttatus, and the Convict tang, Acanthurus triostegus. We’ve seen some Achilles X Goldrim tang hybrids lately and Jake Adams…
Pavona clavus: A Nerdic Experience!
There are some corals, that can only be appreciated by certain people. They are not colorful, nor grafted, nor multicolor, nor with long tentacles, nor unique… They are just plain brown, and still, they’re amazing. It often takes the power…
Clean-up Crew, and Their Role in the Reef Aquarium
As mentioned in last week’s article algae and how to manage it is still the biggest problem/concern of many hobbyists both new and old. I would love to say that if everything is kept in balance and nutrients are kept…
Is Chasing Numbers Chasing Your Tail?
With ICP (ICP-OES / Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy) testing becoming commonplace for a well-kept reef aquarium, the methods for interpreting the results and putting these numbers to good use are becoming quite varied and potentially confusing. One method…
