Reef aquarium keeping made easy
Your online resource for beginner to intermediate reef keepers and saltwater fish systems ranging in size from 50 to 200 gallons. We cover dozens of gotchas, myths, misconceptions, rule-breakers, FAQs, and more.
Bring a slice of a tropical coral reef to your home or office.
Coral reef conservation
Why do the folks that built and maintain this site do so? Simply put, coral reefs all over the world are endangered. Coral reefs are the keystone to many important ocean ecosystems.
By supporting the saltwater aquarium industry, in turn we indirectly support indigenous people that make a living, feed their children, through sustainable and responsible (hopefully) wild catch and aquaculture.
Reverse ecotourism
Think of it as reverse ecotourism. Instead of you flying (carbon footprint?) to some far off tropical island and spending money there observing diverse and beautiful wildlife in a few square feet, you send them money (to feed their children) and they send you the wildlife and you setup a slice of The Great Barrier Reef (for example) in a glass box in your home or office. Educational, fun to setup and maintain, aesthetically pleasing.
Can’t the inhabitants of tropical, often island areas make a living another way? If they can’t fish, they often go upland, clear cut, and farm. When it rains, which it often does, the run off of silt can cover the coral reel, change water chemistry and damage or worse the very coral reefs we want to protect.
So think about the unintended consequences when policies are implemented that stop the import of wildlife. Are policies meant to protect the wildlife are doing more harm than good?
There are many ways that reefers set up and maintain a reef tank. We try to aggregate and distill various practices into “best” practices. We test them ourselves in systems (our “lab”) whenever practical and possible.
Reefkeeping is a discipline with many myths, misconceptions, and pseudo-science. It doesn’t have to be that way!
You simply don’t need an expensive, time-consuming, Rube Goldberg contraption with many points of potential failure and trouble.
Visit the table of contents section for a general outline of how to keep your own slice of the Great Barrier Reef. Make sure to check out the blog section to read about my aquarium and reef keeping news.