Becoming A PADI Instructor Zambezi’s Story

Education There are three elementary schools on the island with classes up to the 8th grade. While current generations are more likely to attend school, growing up Zambezi and his age group were unlikely to study past the 3rd or…

Reef Aquariums Through Time

As the Rolling Stones once sang “Time waits for no one, he won’t wait for me”. With the passing of yet another long-time hobbyist, Albert Theil, recently it got me to thinking about time and its relationship to the hobby.…

Ecotech Marine Products And Service Over The Years

     Over the years we have been fortunate in seeing innovation after innovation come to the hobby. Initially, most of these innovations came from Europe, which due to their being in the hobby longer undoubtedly accounted for their innovations…

All That You Need When Setting Up A Reef Tank

As you navigate the kind of muddy waters of “New-to-Reef-Aquariums-Land”, you’re bombarded by tons of different messages about what you need, what you don’t need, what you SHOULD do, what you SHOULD NOT do…it’s a very noisy world. So, here…

Watch This Swimming Yellow-Spotted Flatworm
Have you ever seen a swimming flatworm? These colorful animals can be found moving swiftly across the reef, but to catch one in open water is the real treat. Flatworms are soft-bodied invertebrates which propel themselves through the water with a mesmerizing wave of the…
Beyond the very beginning…stocking your reef for success

If you ask most level-headed reef hobbyists, one of the most enjoyable parts of the game is stocking our systems with corals and fishes. Now, on the surface, this seems like just a super-fun thing to do- and it IS-…

I Saw A White Bicolor Angelfish And It Was Magical

When I traveled from Sydney to Cairns to visit Cairns Marine, I knew I’d be treated to see some very neat rare fish, and some juicy corals. But as luck would have it, the fish collecting crew brought in something…

Astreopora moretonensis Can Develop Some Radical Branches!

Traveling to the fringes of the developed world in search of coral can have its ups and downs. I never really tell you about the sunburns, sketchy food, undrinkable water, extreme heat or mosquito bites, because I know what I…

Wanting Versus Needing

Wanting Versus Needing       While my daughter was at home for Spring Break, one of her most frequent refrains was “I need this” or “I will die without that”. As a parent one of the things I tried to…

You Won’t Believe This One ‘Trick’ That Keeps Jaime’s Reef So Awesome

We all love reef tanks, and to some degree, the alchemy involved with keeping all the parameters of lighting, flow and chemistry appropriate for coral growth. But what if you could cut out all the water testing, most of the…