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I got through the international security here at LAX three hours before my flight, and was able to do a short livestream from the Fiji Airways gate. I posed the question: What's the furthest you've traveled to see a natural reef.  As you can see above, this one was significant. My furthest, in fact. And in Kilometers, it's 10600.75 km.  That sounds even more impressive.

It's my hope that by 8:30 am Sunday morning, I'll be on Suvasuva, heading to join my group of friends to go diving immediately.  It's been too long since I 'blew some bubbles' as the divers like to say. :)

Last February, I booked my trip from Dallas to Suvasuva, Fiji... and the entire time all was well.  Until this morning, that is. I got an email mere hours before I'm about to depart, learning that the first leg of my trip has been pushed three hours later than my itinerary listed. That delay meant I would miss the second flight, which is the big one over the Pacific Ocean. Immediately I called the airlines to figure out what was going on, and was referred to the original company that provided this offer. The conversation was naturally frustrating, and took over an hour.

In my live stream on Saturday, I announced to the world that I was going to hook up an ATO to my christmas tree. Why? Because I'm crazy.  No seriously, once I tried to water the tree on the first day I knew that was going to be such a pain.  The tree hasn't even had ornaments hung upon it yet, and I had to stick my head into the branches and using a flashlight see how much water I needed to add. No way I was going to do that for the next five to six weeks.

Red bugs (Tegastes acroporanus) are small flea-like beasts that can infest smooth-skinned acropora sp.   Some reefers have gone out of their way to eliminate them from their reef tank, but that is not the purpose of this article. I've seen them in my tank on occasion, but never worried much about them. Maybe if they did more damage, I'd be more concerned. Still, whatever coral I saw them on, the coral wasn't as happy as it could be, because these guys are like little blood-suckers.

When I built my sump way back in 2010 for this 400g reef, I made a bigger bubble tower for the three drains.  That seemed rather simple.  Then later I added the 60g anemone cube that had to drain into the same spot. And I also added the biopellet reactor's output into that spot.

Do you practice safe reefkeeping? No matter where you go, no matter how much money is in your bank account, when you see that new coral you just have to have, there’s no chance you’ll let it elude your collection.  This time of year, many clubs hold Frag Swaps where coral fragments are sold or traded with other hobbyists.  What concerns me is what happens next.  In my club, I see pictures posted – within mere hours of the event -- of the new acquisitions in their display tanks.   Dipping new corals in iodine for 10 minutes, then placing them in a tank is not what I consider

Recently I received a shipment of products from Brightwell Aquatics. I wanted to try out their Xport NO3 Brick and see if it can remove nitrate as advertised. My reef has plenty, so this is a good test. I tested nitrate last night.

What is the difference between a whelk and a Nassarius snail?  In the picture below, the creature on the left is a Nassarius snail, the one on the right is a whelk. Whelks get much larger, while Nassarius don't. At least Nassarius vibex, that is.  And all the images at the top of this article are Whelks, an unwanted snail in a reef system. Read on...

Ein Closed-Loop-System für ein Becken ohne Bohrungen  

English version here: http://www.melevsreef.com/tanks/29g-closed-loop-in-an-undrilled-tank

Feeding an aquarium seems simple enough. Buy a jar of flake food, and toss some in, right? Actually, that really isn’t a good idea for a variety of reasons. Hopefully you’ll find the following information helpful for your own specific needs. Foods come in many forms, including sheets, flakes, pellets, frozen, refrigerated, liquid, and live.