Reefing Hot Takes Part One: Organic Nutrients and N-DOC Testing

I’ll discuss my “hot takes” on the reefing industry in this new series. In this first installment, I will cover N-DOC testing and the importance of measuring organic nutrients for our tanks.  What is an N-DOC test? N-DOC is a…

My Experience With Fenbendazole

After being in the reefing side of the hobby for almost forty years I have seen or had just about every pest imaginable in my tanks. While I am especially thinking about our friend Jake and his passing a year…

Why Pure Source Water is Fundamental to a Successful Reef Tank

There are so many aspects to succeeding with a reef tank but one of the first ones, and one of the most important ones, is good source water. Unless you are buying/using natural seawater (and even if you are you…

Could Purple Non-Sulfur Bacteria Change Reefing?

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…

Grzegorz Grebosz’s Acropora are Probiotic Perfection

We admit to following and admiring this aquarium for a while, and although it’s existed in several guises since 2015, the bright, tabling acros and pristine, immaculately clean tank always manage to keep it looking like new. We caught up…

How to keep Algae from Becoming Problematic

Whether you are starting out or have been keeping a reef tank for a long time the number one worry that most hobbyists still seem to have is how to keep algae in check. Since the start of the hobby…

FAQs on Phytoplankton Part 2

Phycologist Taras V Pleskun answers more of your most frequently asked questions on Phytoplankton. Is the algae I scrape off the front glass phytoplankton? Yes and No! Though this is more an exercise in wording, there is a profound difference…

It’s Always Something!

There are few universal things in this hobby, as every tank is different and how every tank is managed is different as well.  But there are a few such as the need for being patient, and there being no benefit…

How to Manage the Ugly Stage of a New Reef Tank

There are few inevitable things in life and even fewer in this hobby. But the one inevitable that everyone encounters when they set up a new tank is that there will be an ugly phase. It does not matter if…

How to Cure Live Rock

Up until now, everything that has been necessary to do has been relatively easy. This next step in setting up a reef tank properly is what starts to separate those who will be successful long-term from those who will not.…