It’s that time again where we welcome a new sponsor to the site and this time we are particularly pleased to say ‘Halò’ to Scotland-based company mailordercorals! Running for around 10 years, mailordercorals is a classic example of a successful hobbyist operation that has gone on to become a healthy online business offering a secure website, live arrival guarantee, variety of shipping options, secure payment and the very best in customer care. Originally selling coral frags from their reef display, gradually more and more tanks were added for the sole purpose of propagating corals and soon these frags were being shipped all over the UK. Focussing on the provision of high quality stock at a realistic price point, they soon built-up an extensive and loyal customer-base and it wasn’t long before a purpose-built coral house was necessary. The opening of this facility also allowed customers to visit by appointment and hand-pick their stock. Jump forward to today, and with the coral house redeveloped to cope with ever increasing demand, mailordercorals remain one of the most successful operations of their kind in the UK. Offering everything you’d expect from a professional operation and more, one could easily become immersed in their ever-expanding website for several hours given the extensive range on display

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When I came across a full-tank shot of this large aquarium, I knew I had to learn more about the system and its owner. Great profiles, large coral colonies, showcase-size specimens, and a clean bare-bottom layout all collaborate to catch the eye of many an aquarist, including myself. So let’s dive in…just try not to splash! The Aquarist An interesting aspect of profiling aquariums that have drawn my gaze is finding out about the hobbyists behind them. Roy Seine, the aquarist responsible for the previously mentioned acrylic box reef, has been keeping marine aquariums since 1990. It’s not surprising to hear he favors small polyp stony (SPS) corals and giant clams, and that appreciation comes through in this salty display. During his two-plus decades in the hobby, Roy has maintained a number of aquariums ranging from 1 gallon all the way up to 500 gallons.

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Today there are so many aquarium additives and devices on the market, it’s easy for aquarists to become overwhelmed, when trying to decide how to maintain a healthy reef. Some additives claim to make aquarium water crystal clear, while others offer to reduce nitrates, phosphates and instantly cycle the aquarium. Over the years, I’ve stumbled on a few products that I couldn’t live without. These items make you wonder what you did before you discovered them. In an attempt to give aquarists some guidance, and share my experience with a variety of products, I offer the following compilation. 

• Korallen Zucht Zeovit media, additives, etc

I’ve been a zeo-head for a while, and adopted this method of keeping corals healthy back when it was first gaining traction. While I wouldn’t say that zeovit has gone mainstream, it has grown in popularity. There was a time, when mentioning zeovit only got confused stares from fellow aquarists. For me Korallen Zucht has the best, all inclusive, zeovit program on the market. Everything from zeovit media, additives, all the way up to salt mix and carbon – combine to create a complete zeovit package, which also aids reefers looking to achieve ultra-low nutrient systems (ULNS), along with natural seawater conditions. I’ve liked nearly every product Korallen Zucht has released, and used their Bio-Denitrator years and years ago, long before bio-pellets and zeovit even hit the reefing radar. 

• AVAST Marine Works Vibe Reactor

AVAST Marine Works offers high quality equipment, that’s not only innovative, but can also teach you a lot about reef aquarium machinery, by allowing you to assemble it yourself. Their vibe reactor is, IMHO, the best reactor on the market for those using zeovit. A major pain when implementing the filtration media, is having to use an integrated handle on the reactor, to stir up the stones and release precious mulm (bacterial slime) for your corals to feed on. Not only does the vibe include a vibratory plate and motor to shake the media for you, it does a wonderful job of it. Combining the vibe with a controller, or simple timer creates a hands off approach to implementing zeovit, and also does a better job stirring the media than manually shaking. 

• Ecotech Vortech Circulation Pumps + Reef Link

Ecotech revolutionized what a circulation pump was by releasing the original Vortech. Since then, they have been moving at a fast pace, constantly making the products better.… More:

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The key to success with coral such as Goniopora may be healthy populations of bacteriaCarbon dosing is a relatively new phenomenon in the reef aquarium hobby. The first I heard about it was around two years ago, and I hadn’t given it a whole lot of thought until recently. The goal of carbon dosing is to improve water quality by lowering nitrates and phosphates. Nitrates and phosphates can lead to algae blooms and poor coral health if the levels are too high. Some aquarists have difficulty controlling these levels and it can be a frustrating battle. Carbon dosing lowers these two chemical parameters by providing a food source for bacteria that consume nitrates and phosphates. Then, by removing the bacteria through protein skimming, the aquarist eliminates nitrates and phosphates from the water. It is similar in concept to algae scrubbing, whereby one grows algae to bind up phosphate, nitrate, and heavy metals, and then exports them from the system by periodically harvesting the algae.

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This is a quick time-lapse of a beautiful orange plate coral I took footage of at Aquatic Experience in Chicago. It was Midwest Coral Connection’s coral at their booth and was fed with BENOFISHAL fish food. Overall this fungia loved the food and even though the video didn’t come out perfect, it is still pretty cool.

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This small colony of Echinophyllia aspera is one of my favorite chalice corals.  It has been with me for many years and has passed the test of time.  It has went through many fragging sessions and always recovered after propagation very nicely.  It lives in a lower nutrient reef that houses mostly Acropora which I believe dictates it vibrant colors and its tendency to grow quite slow.  Chalice corals tend to grow faster in aquariums that have slightly higher nutrients and lower light levels.  My stubbornness to move this coral to one of my other systems that have lower light levels and more nutrients is primarily due to its rarity and possibility of loss from the change.  Moving a coral that has been growing for many years in the same location has proven to have some risk so I tolerate the slower growth in this instance.The largest the colony has grown through the years was approximately 6 inches.  I typically cut the colony in half when it reaches about this size to propagate this rare and beautiful specimen.  I know I have passed this lineage on to a good number of collectors with this process.  I do feel joy from knowing this coral can live on and exhibit its beauty to others as well as myself.  It is truly an old school coral and well worth the patience required to grow this amazing specimen.… More:

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A b&w view of Trikentrion flabelliforme.

We’re back! This week we talk about Snorkel Bob’s Hawaii efforts and more beginner tips. Download the podcast here, or subscribe to our podcasts at iTunes. Also, follow us on Twitter at reefthreads.—Gary and Christine

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“Have you seen my signature gold dragon’s eye merlin’s chalice of wrath?” Nope this isn’t a game of Dungeons and Dragons, or a World of Warcraft convention. It’s the reef aquarium hobby. Years ago, if you stepped into a coral shop, or onto an online forum muttering those words, people would have either thought you were drunk or very confused. Fast forward and arrive at the same forum or shop today, and don’t be surprised if some chopped up phrases like the one above are flying around. It’s coral naming, and today it seems as though the scientific names of corals are long forgotten, lost in a haze of cool rhymes that seemed to emerge from the mind of a 12 year old hipster.  Despite my tone, I don’t hate naming. When I entered the hobby we hadn’t gotten that creative. A colorful scoly was often called a red or orange doughnut coral. Did I mention that back then, it also cost 40 bucks. Coral naming lets people be creative with their livestock, and now and again a name sticks, and travels through the hobby like the avian flu. There is something that bothers me though, it’s that often attached to that swell signature name, is a jaw dropping price tag. So should a coral with a cool name cost more than the old doughnut coral of yesteryear? More importantly, how did naming begin and is it helping, hurting or having little effect on the hobby and industry as a whole? Coral wholesalers are called such because they have to sell everything. That means that among the angel’s eye zoos and Jurassic purple people eaters, there are old standbys like green star polyps, garden-variety leather corals and a host of others. To make sure everything finds a home in a retailer, wholesalers often throw in a few choice pieces with the bread and butter stuff. I remember a time at my local fish shop, when a real stand out coral piece was sold for five dollars more than the bland stuff. It didn’t last long, and often I would help the store’s owner un-package his new stock, for first dibs on anything exciting. As the reef keeping hobby gained solid footing, more and more people wanted exclusively unique corals. Suddenly retailers learned the reality of capitalism consumers wish they would ignore; to some these pieces were worth a lot of money.… More:

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Upon first catching sight of Karen Talbot’s work, you’re forced to do a double take. Surely there’s no way someone was able to sit down and replicate a creature so precisely, not only capturing every physical attribute of her subjects, but seemingly bringing them vividly to life in dripping detail.  Talbot’s pieces have long been collected by scientists, anglers and those with an appreciation for nature and fine art and it’s hardly a challenge to see why. Long before any medium touches a canvas, her work starts in the field. The avid fisher, diver and hiker gets much inspiration meeting her subjects face to face in the wild, where she’ll rough out a field sketch, photographs them and often times takes them home for further study. Back in her studio, Karen observes the specimens tediously under a microscope, familiarizing herself with every minute detail. It’s this level of attention that really sets her apart from other artists – most of her fishes are so ridiculously accurate down to each individual scale on the lateral line! It’s this specific area where she tends to gets her bearings on a species (a Bangaii Cardinal, for example, usually has 26 scales along its lateral line).
 Her work is the result of a conglomeration of materials, starting with a graphite drawing, perfecting fine detail in pen and ink, she then washes over each piece with watercolor and finishes off with colored pencil and acrylics. The results are simply resplendent. No stranger to the aquarium world, award-winning author and photojournalist Ret Talbot has been floating about for over two decades making waves and inspiring inquisitive minds. He’s also the adoring husband of Karen, making them quite the aquatic duo. His level of pride for her is obvious and well deserved. When I asked which piece of hers was his favorite, he was endearingly torn. The Naso tang takes top spot for tropicals, but his overall favorite might be the Bluefin tuna, OR the brook trout, which he holds near and dear. But then there’s the Colorado River Cutthroat trout! They’re all stunners, honestly, I’m the lucky owner of 3 of her pieces myself, the favorite of which is a charming little mystery wrasse that I had the pleasure of picking up from Karen herself. Her art studio and gallery has been open in Maine since 2013 where she not only exhibits her many works but teaches art classes as well, an endeavor I plan to take on very, very soon.… More:

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A. frenatus in its host anemone, a bubble-tip (Entacmaea quadricolor)Lately it seems many of the species profiles I’ve written have been on fish that either grow too large for the average home aquarium or are otherwise poor choices for aquarium keeping for one reason or another. By now, some of you salties out there might be wondering, “Does this guy ever write about species that can actually be kept in a home aquarium?” So, for today’s post, I’d like to highlight a fish that is not only attractive, but also hardy to the point of being “bulletproof” (especially if you acquire a captive-bred specimen), very easy to feed, and well suited to medium-sized systems. I’m talking about the tomato clownfish (Amphiprion frenatus), which hales from the western Pacific. Physical traits A. frenatus has a robust, ovoid body that is orange-red to tomato-red in overall coloration. Just behind the eye is a vertical white bar. Females are larger than males and exhibit a charcoal coloration on their flanks with age

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Aquatic Experience in Chicago was a blast this year, 2014! There were lots of exhibitors and many made either this or the second video, but these are all the interviews I did at the show. Doug Poindexter- World Pet Association Julian Sprung- Two Little Fishies Kessil Real Reef Solutions COLLAR Doctor Eco Systems Proaquatix PRODIBIO Blue Life I also talk a little about the Aquatic Experience banquet. This is full coverage elf the event by coralfish12g

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Aquatic Experience in Chicago was great! There were many awesome show tanks from vendors and in this video I highlight them and some other booths from the show. Enjoy! Brought to you by coralfish12g.

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Good morning amigo’s!! We had such a great blue-light night dive last night entering at around 7:30 and exiting around 9:00 with very little air left! I used my 28-70 lens that was sitting around collecting dust, I figured I would give the macro a little break and try something new. We had one of those dives that was just fun from start to finish. Aimee was the finder of things, she would signal me with her light, blinding me at times and I would rush over and see what she found, she kept me busy non-stop all night

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Research from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), based at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa (UHM), has highlighted another damaging effect of rising ocean acidity. “It was surprising to discover that small-scale changes in the environment can influence ecosystem-level reef processes,” said Nyssa Silbiger, lead author of the study and doctoral candidate at HIMB. “We saw changes in pH on the order of meters and those small pH changes drove the patterns in reef accretion-erosion.” The noted increase in erosion has scientists battling two fronts in the understanding of the accretion vs erosion balance of reefs. Read more here.… More:

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It’s only natural for family members and friends of marine aquarium hobbyists to want to buy holiday gifts that support their loved one’s briny habit. But choosing an appropriate hobby-related gift is sometimes easier said than done. Giving actual fish or invertebrates as a gift is a really bad idea for all kinds of reasons—not the least of which is the problem of salt water soaking through the gift wrap and giving away what’s inside (I kid!). Certain equipment can be dicey too. Depending on the hobbyist’s unique system and goals, an item that would seem to be a good fit may prove to be inappropriate, inadequate, or redundant. Plus, if you have to ask all kinds of questions about what to buy, you lose that fun element of surprise.

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Yup. Squalene, more specifically , which Wikipedia kindly points out is not to be confused with the hydrocarbon and triterpene derived by hydrogenation of squalene, “squalane“. They’re also both extremely dangerous and generally misunderstood. This biochemical precursor to the entire family of steroids is a 30-carbon organic compound found in shark liver oil. It’s also a natural lubricant found in certain parts of the female anatomy. Actually,  it happens to be one of the most frequent lipids produced by human skin cells, and can also be found in nasal sebum (but that’s not as fun, is it?). Sharks also are suspected to be resistant to cancer due to high levels of squalene in their tissue (they’re not, however, completely immune). Squalene anti-tumor activity in certain animal experiments do suggest cancer-risk reducing properties of the compound (ladies, I wouldn’t take this as license to start bragging about your cancer-curing magical nether regions if I were you, it’s merely a suspicion, though they do act as a tube slide for babies, so that’s pretty awesome).  Fun fact: a sharks brain looks oddly similar to a human vagina. Another fun fact? Male sharks have two penises called “claspers” (must have really bad aim to need two). On another note, since I love to Wikipedia it up, you should donate to keep their site up and independent without running ads. They’re reaching out this week to their readers for teensy donations for this invaluable tool.   … More:

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The helfrichi firefish is often considered to be the most beautiful of the firefish gobies, and we tend to agree with that notion. Of course, being the most beautiful, this fish is highly sought after, with a high price tag to match. That’s why we were blown away by seeing the fish in such a large group in the tanks of a fish wholesaler. One of my personal favorite fish in such large quantities…it was awesome.

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You’ve got to love Acropora millepora specimens.  They have the movement not often seen with other Acropora species.  The polyp structure and fuzzy appearance is second to none when speaking about this species.  The polyps flowing to and fro with current really catch ones attention.  They also come in a rainbow of color variations.  From the more common green varieties to the striking pink specimens to the more rare blue ones, they all have striking beauty.  They tend to require strong lighting and strong random flow to look the best.  Low nutrients along with stable parameters and excellent water quality will bring out the best colors and accessory pigments.  The growth can be quite rapid on some specimens.  They also seem to be very hardy in most scenarios when a healthy coral is the starting point.  The captive grown pieces do very well under many types of lighting as long as the required amount of par is supplied.  I have always loved the millepora corals and included several in my personal aquariums.… More:

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Saddled Toby (Canthigaster valentini)Sometimes good things come in small packages. Such is the case with Canthigaster valentini, better known as the saddled toby, black-saddled toby, or Valentin’s toby (you may also see “sharpnose puffer” substituted for “toby” in various sources). Reaching only about 4 inches in total length and usually adapting well to aquarium conditions, this species can make a great choice for puffer aficionados with modest-sized systems and an intermediate level of hobby experience. Physical traits It’s hard to do justice to the saddled toby’s physical appearance with a written description, but I’ll give it a whack: This fish is somewhat laterally compressed with high-set eyes and a moderately elongated snout (hence the “sharpnose” moniker). White in base coloration, it has a series of brown markings along its back, the two in the middle extending downward to the belly. Small orange to brown spots appear all along the ventral half of the fish, and the face is scrawled with thin, brownish lines.

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