by Saltwater Smarts | Sep 24, 2015 | Corals, Equipment, Fish, Invertebrates, Opinion, Science, Technology
Virtually since the advent of the internet, there’s been a tendency in our hobby to rate the reliability and trustworthiness of online content beneath that of print-format materials—books, magazines, and so forth. But is this assessment really fair?The general premises behind this viewpoint are: Anyone with a computer and internet connection can post anything they want online, whether or not he or she has the requisite expertise to expound on the subject. Online articles and posts are seldom given professional editorial treatment and/or subjected to peer review, so you can’t trust that they’ve been vetted properly for accuracy. There tends to be an “echo-chamber effect” online, so inaccurate or outright fallacious information appearing on one site can be picked up immediately by others and repeated ad nauseam, creating the false impression of consensus on the information/viewpoint. Now, there’s truth to each of these arguments, but as someone who’s made his living as a writer/editor for nearly 20 years (primarily in print format) and once served on an editorial committee that reviewed book submissions for a major retail pet chain, I can say with some confidence that print materials have their limitations as reference sources, too. Among them: Just as with online materials, print books and magazines are no more reliable or accurate than the writers and editors who produce them. You can’t assume that just because someone went to the effort to produce something in hardcopy, the information it contains was properly vetted. by Austin Lefevre | Sep 8, 2015 | Conservation, Corals, Equipment, Events, Eye Candy, Fish, Industry, Invertebrates, MACNA, Photography, Sustainability, Tanks, Technology
The Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA) is the largest marine aquarium conference in the world. The gathering brings livestock vendors, equipment manufacturers and everything in between together for a three day extravaganza of reef geek utopia from... by Austin Lefevre | Sep 8, 2015 | Equipment, Industry, MACNA, Science, Tanks, Technology
Reef Savvy is known to continuously raise the bar on what a high-end display aquarium can and should be. This year at MACNA 2015, their displays were as eye-catching and innovative as ever, and a sump resting front and center in their booth piqued my... by Saltwater Smarts | Sep 7, 2015 | Fish, Industry, MACNA, Science, Technology
Thousands of salties attended the Saturday night banquet (this shot only shows part of the massive room)!Caribbean Chris and I just got back from MACNA 2015, held last Friday through Sunday in Washington, DC, at the Marriott Wardman Park, and what a weekend it was! From the venue to the speaker lineup to the banquet and everything in between, we think this year’s MACNA (Marine Aquarium Conference of North America) really delivered on every level. Kudos to all who had a hand in coordinating and presenting this massive convention and making it appear so seamless (extra special shout out to WAMAS and MASNA)! While we’ll soon be doing our usual MACNA wrap-up post with more specific details, today I’d like reach out to all the salties out there who either haven’t heard of MACNA or are aware of it but think it’s not for them. Here are 5 reasons you might want to consider attending next year’s event, to be held in San Diego, California:1. You can learn from and meet major hobby pioneers and experts Dr. Bruce Carlson, Sanjay Joshi, Kevin Kohen, Richard Ross, Walt Smith, Julian Sprung, Ret Talbot, and Dr. by Justin Credabel | Aug 2, 2015 | Corals, DIY, Equipment, Industry, ReefGen, Science, Tanks, Technology
Space in the coral troughs is always at a premium at the ReefGen coral farm, and we all agree that water flow is one of the most important aspects of coral care. When one of my troughs has an area of inadequate flow, such as this Acropora grow out system, it starts... by xeniaforever | Jul 29, 2015 | Conservation, Corals, Industry, Science, Sustainability, Technology
Coral, with its porous nature and curled structure, is extremely efficient at absorbing toxic heavy metals; deadly poisons. The mercury that is polluting our oceans is contributing to massive coral die-offs, and is building up in the food chain, eventually resulting...
