General Saltwater Aquarium

I've been a Tampa Bay Saltwater customer for more than a decade now and have started at least half a dozen saltwater reef aquariums using their rock, sand, and clean-up crew. TBS is an amazing asset and resource for hobbyists in the USA. In this article, I hope to offer some insight into their...

Aquariums - as good for our well being and state of mind as they are for the millions of creatures that inhabit it's seemingly small, and at the same time, unendingly vast and bountiful landscape. To us giants, we see the glass box with rocks, and coral, and it's torrents of water swishing...

Note from the Editor: David Kimutai (@Davidangelfish) had the good fortune to connect with a major livestock supplier based in Africa for the marine aquarium trade. Below is David's interview with Kenya Tropical Sealife LTD, and all photos included in the article are courtesy of René Jorgensen...

Introduction: When we think of public aquariums, we usually think of someplace interesting and educational, a destination to take your kids for an afternoon. However, more and more, public aquariums are contributing to the scientific knowledge base. They are often affiliated with institutions...

A few months ago, on April 4, 2019, Reef2Reef published an article called "Depression in Fish". Although the article was well researched, and I personally fact-checked it, we received from our readers a lot of pushback to the article's premise that, yes, fish can and do suffer from depression...

Note from the Editor: These profiles are only possible with the help and participation of aquarists willing to talk about their tanks and practices and answer a long stream of questions. Reef2Reef thanks @4FordFamily for letting us profile him. It's always interesting for readers to get to...

This week's Profile of a Reef Aquarist (#7) introduces you to @Bob Weigant, a resourceful and pragmatic gentleman, who believes in making the most of what you have and making good use of your resources, whatever they may be. Bob has almost 25 years of reef experience. The 200G. Photo is...

We have in our midst a reef aquarist who has had aquariums for the past 40 years and saltwater aquariums for 30 years. That's an enormous amount of reef experience by any measure. He also does things a little differently than some of the others profiled recently. This gentleman in the southern...

When you're starting a reef tank, it can take a long time before your tank starts to look like something you can be proud of. It takes patience and perseverance. We always say, "nothing good happens fast in a reef tank." Recently I visited a big LFS in Vancouver, BC, that had a nice display...

This is a royalty-free photo covered by Creative Commons License CCO. Sperm whales or cachalots Physeter macrocephalus are world’s largest toothed mammals, and they have the largest brains of any living things. They belong to the cetacean group of mammals along with dolphins and whales. Sperm...

The author's dog-eared copy of Moe's book. Photo courtesy of @Seawitch, ©2019, All Rights Reserved. The Marine Aquarium Handbook: Beginner to Breeder by Martin A. Moe, Jr. Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: TFH Publications, Inc.; Revised, Expanded edition (September 1, 2009) Language: English...

Forum member @cancun has had reef tanks for the past six years. Because of either extraordinary skill or extraordinary luck or some combination, during those six years, she has had very few problems with her tanks. This is her story. She also has a terrific build thread you can read. All the...

An overview of Kenya’s Ornamental Marine Fish Trade On the western coast of the Indian Ocean, Kenya is the biggest exporter of marine aquarium fish. Other countries in this region include Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Somalia. The reefs off the shores of these countries are rich in many...

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." Henry David Thoreau We have among us, down in Arizona, a reef aquarist with a very different reef tank. @Exclusive...

Deep by James Nestor Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (June 24, 2014) Language: English ISBN-10: 0547985525 ISBN-13: 978-0547985527 A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice An Amazon Best Book of the Month Amazon Best Science Book of 2014...

Mussels. This is a royalty-free image from Pixabay. This is Part 2 of our article on Shellfish Poisoning Syndromes. We'll pick up with the fourth subtype in our list. 4. Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning It’s a bit odd that this type of shellfish poisoning is labeled “diarrhetic” when ASP...

A mussel farm in Croatia. This is a royalty-free image from Pixabay. Preface: I’ve always been a bit leery about eating shellfish. In the 1980’s, when I lived in Europe, I ate more than my fair share of raw oysters, cooked mussels, and crab. I knew that shellfish can make people sick, and I...

A shipwreck off of Honduras. This is a royalty-free image from Pixabay. Artificial reefs are something we hear about on a regular basis. There is a growing interest in creating artificial reefs for a few reasons: because of the destruction of natural reefs, which is hopefully slowing down, and...

Simon Ellis (R2R member @ca1ore), a Connecticut reefer with 30 years of experience, is a frequent contributor to the Reef2Reef Articles Section. He recently wrote the article about building your own Algal Turf Scrubber (ATS), and the article about automatic water changes. He's the perfect...

The class, Cephalopoda, falls under the phylum, Mollusca. While cephalopods are not commonly kept in home aquariums, they remain an extremely diverse and interesting group. Many of the cephalopods are very short-lived (octopus), many are very difficult to keep alive in captivity (squid), some...