Nudibranchs of the genus Phestilla are somewhat akin to the late American comedian Rodney Dangerfield – They can’t get no respect. Nor should they get any if you enjoy keeping corals in captivity.…
Dana Riddle
Recent Content
Product Review: Hanna ‘Checkers’: Calcium and Iron Colorimeters and Thoughts on Aquarium Industry Product Quality Control
Advances in technology and utilization of LEDs in particular continue to bring new analytical devices to market and many of these instruments are smaller and much less expensive than those of only a few years ago.…
Aquarium Chemistry: Effects of GFO (Granular Ferric Oxide) on ‘Trace’ Metals Concentrations in Artificial Seawater
Use of Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO, or iron oxide hydroxide) is a popular and effective means to reduce reactive phosphate (a non-metal) concentrations in aquaria hence reducing the potential for algal growths.…
Building a Plywood Aquarium
When my small laboratory needed a larger aquarium, I was shocked by prices quoted by local retailers. The cost of shipping a fragile glass or acrylic box from the mainland to the most isolated archipelago in the world (Hawai’i) greatly increases the prices on almost every commodity, including pet supplies.…
Product Review: Blue Moon Aquatics’ P30 LED Pendant
Imagine a LED lamp, a giant LED lamp. A 30-watt LED some 2.5 inches (~6.4cm) in diameter and that’s what you’ve got with Blue Moon Aquatic’s new P30 LED pendant luminaire.…
Product Review: Inexpensive Analytical Devices: Hanna Instruments’ Checkers: Alkalinity and Phosphate
When I first started work in a laboratory, determination of various aqueous constituents was a laborious task, beginning with mixing standards, manually graphing their absorbances, and then making comparisons with samples’ absorbance tests results.…
Product Review: Two Little Fishies’ Media Reactor 150 and PhosBan Phosphate and Silica Adsorption Media
Nuisance algae are perhaps the number one challenge facing aquarists and various strategies exist to prevent their growths. Pretreatment of makeup water (including reverse osmosis filtration, deionization), additions of high pH solutions of water and calcium hydroxide (kalkwasser), protein skimming, algal scrubbing with macro-algae, use of fish foods with low phosphorus content, etc.…
Aquarium Corals: A First Report: Early Summer Daytime Spawning of Porites lutea in Hawai’i
I suppose most serious hobbyists will watch a program concerning corals reefs on the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet (or other) television channels. With the cost of big-screen televisions rapidly falling in price and their use becoming commonplace, viewing these video essays on a giant screen can be spectacular.…
Getting Really Up to Date on Zooxanthellae (Symbiodinium spp.)
This work is rather lengthy hence an explanation on how to use it is in order. The database (containing almost 2200 entries and available here) lists coral hosts in alphabetical order. Also listed is the zooxanthella ‘type’ or clade, along with collection location, depth, and journal reference.…
Measuring Water Movement in Your Reef Aquarium for Less Than $100
Dissolution rates of various materials by moving water have been the focus of many researchers. Indeed, the ability of aggressive water to dissolve copper ‘coupons’ has been a standard for estimating the corrosiveness of potable water for a number of years.…