Things I’m Looking Forward To While going through some old books and magazines I came across a poster for MACNA from over twenty years ago, it made me laugh as the topic of my talk was “The Future of the…
The Hottest Corals of 1996
1996 was an interesting year for a number of reasons as it was the year that Dolly the sheep was cloned, DVDs were launched and my Steelers lost to the dreaded Cowboys. There were no digital cameras, nor smartphones, and…
How to keep the aquarium hobby fresh and exciting
From time to time one of my friends will comment about how they find it amazing that I still seem to have the same level of excitement about my tanks and the hobby as I did when they first met…
Dads and Tanks
The restaurants aren’t jam packed with patrons, there is no breakfast in bed and the cards are more funny than sentimental. But the grill is on, it’s Open weekend, and it’s the start of summer, so yes it is Father’s…
How to Reduce the Learning Curve of Keeping a Saltwater Aquarium
Since this hobby’s inception the dissemination of information has been one of the hallmarks of why we have gotten successful. But now that there is so much information, I sometimes question how it is we learn what works, especially when as…
The Coral Name Game
It’s all in the name. The name says it all. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. We have all heard countless phrases that extol the importance of a name. Last names like Miller or Baker referred…
Where have the large coral colonies gone?
Recently I came across a box of slides and began looking at the shots of the many tanks I had seen over the years and several things stood out. I have been fortunate to see a lot of tanks and…
Traveling reefer blues and the anxieties of the vacationing aquarist
Piling the kids in the car. The smell of the ocean and coconut sun screen. Getting up in the middle of the night so you can be on the road when there is not much traffic. These are some of…
The Decline of the Local Fish Store (And Some Possible Ways to Save them)
The mom and pop grocery store, the local hardware store, the corner Five-and-Dime are all stores that have for the most part vanished from our lives due to big box stores replacing them. Unfortunately the same thing is happening more…
Reef aquarium secrets, good or bad, we need to share them
Coca-Cola has secret ingredient 7X. What goes into Chanel No. 5 is known by only a couple of people and we have all seen a movie where discovering the secret formula was the plot. And truth-be-told, most of us know…
