AquaLink
If you are curious what a "flame" is, start reading here, you'll find lots of them. Look for Rob Toonen (aka Biogeek) posts, they are excellent and are really the only thing that keep me coming back. Compuserve's Reef Aquaria
Don't really know a thing about it. Reef Central Bulletin Board
Simply the best reef aquaria discussion board. There was a time when Dr. Ron Shimek posted here often. Search the archives for his posts. Knowledgeable, friendly atmosphere. Library of links to reef aquaria articles. Some features not available at other bulletin boards. Rating: Must see!No, really, you should go there now and stop looking at my pitiful site. Reefs.org
Another good discussion board. Library of links to reef aquaria articles.
Includes the Aquarium Frontiers article index
, an index of articles published on the excellent but defunct Aquarium Frontiers website. Aquarium Frontiers published monthly columns by respected authors such as Dr. Ron Shimek, Dr. Craig Bingman, Terry Siegel, Daniel Knop, John Tullock and Karen Randall. Feature articles were written by authors including Alf Nilsen, Eric Borneman and Peter Wilkens. This index was compiled by Kevin Done and is hosted at the www.reefs.org library. Rating: Must see! The Reef Tank
Smallish but good board with friendly people. Rating: They're good people!
Pet Warehouse
Discount online pet supply superstore. Buy supplies for about half of what the LFS charges. Limited selection of high end equipment like protein skimmers and metal halide lighting. Rating: I use and recommend it! That Pet Place
Discount online pet supply superstore. I pity the owner of the LFS. Shopping cart feature could be improved.
Aquarium Hobbyist Supply
Affordable power compact retrofit kits. Rating: Excellent products, reputation, prices and service. Marine Depot
Marine Depot is an online saltwater aquaria store with free shipping! Excellent prices, website and service. Recommended source for protein skimmers, books, replacement bulbs and other high end equipment not carried by Pet Warehouse or That Pet Place. Rating: I use and recommend it! Premium Aquatics
I love this place! Jason, the owner, offers perhaps the best customer service possible. Premium Aquatics also has excellent prices, website and service. Competitive pricing, especially on protein skimmers, lighting and other high-end equipment. Site has a cool consumer product review feature for equipment. Site is updated regularly. Good reviews by members of www.reefcentral.com Recommended source for protein skimmers, books, replacement bulbs and other high end equipment not carried by Pet Warehouse or That Pet Place. Rating: I use and recommend it! Reefers
Offers a full range of products for the hardcore addict.
CephSource
Looks like a good source for cuttlefish, which you probably shouldn't be thinking about ordering, and octopus. They even have a captive bred species of octopus! Good information about captive care of animals being sold, which I wish more vendors would provide. Coral Farms
Specializing in farm raised SPS frags. Mostly I am including them in this list because they are located in Cupertino, CA, which is closer to where I live than any other online livestock vendor. Dr. Mac & Sons
Hobbyist turned propagator. Dr. Mac sells a variety of propagated corals at good prices. I'd buy from him! Flying Fish Express
Flying Fish Express has a great website, decent prices and a fair service reputation among hobbyists. "Collector's Corner" is updated regularly with hard-to-find animals. I've never ordered from Flying Fish Express -- I use their website to look at pictures of animals I buy from the LFS, at Jeff's Exotic Fish or Premium Aquatics. Good prices on live rock. Sell dry goods, too. Gulf View
Supposedly this guy has some of the best live rock available. If I believed everything I read I'd think the rock would do everything from provide biological filtration, to denitrifying my system, to powering my coffee maker and filing my income taxes for me. Indo-Pacific Sea Farms
"Captive-bred critters for reef aquariums." This is another source to buy the detrivour critters that make live sand "live." Really, where else are you going to find amphipods or a "sea bunny" for sale? Inland Aquatics
Made famous by their detrivor kits to "activate" sand beds, and by their algae turf scrubbing filtration systems. Inland Aquatics has a huge catalog of species available. They have been around for a long time and come highly recommended on the various bulletin boards. A bit expensive, but give them a break, they're in Indiana! Jeff's Exotic Fish
Jeff's Exotic Fish has a $9 for $99 coral special that can't be beat price-wise. Large selection of corals and fish. Prices on clean-up crew critters and live rock are great. Good reputation from members at www.reefcentral.com Jeff's sells specialty dry goods, too. Rating: I use and recommend it! Ocean Rider Sea Horses
Sea horses and sea horses only! This has to be one of the best sources for "aquafarmed" (captive bred) sea horses. They offered six varieties of sea horses last time I checked. Pet Warehouse livestock
The wholesale equipment giant started selling a full range of fish and invertebrates at the end of 2000. Very comprehensive photographic catalog of specimens available. I gotta give them credit for providing species care info, too, even if that info is at times poorly thought out. This place is fast becoming the Wal-Mart of the aquaria universe. I'm impressed by their catalogue, but doubt they can offer the customer service some of the excellent smaller businesses offer. Premium Aquatics
Premium Aquatics has a large selection of corals, fish and invertebrates. Prices on clean-up crew and live rock are great. Good reputation from members at www.reefcentral.com Site is updated weekly with information about in-stock animals. Premium Aquatics sells specialty dry goods, too. Rating: I use and recommend it! Tropicorium
Tropicorium has been around forever. Offers variety packs of propagated SPS and soft corals.
Aquatic Lighting Systems (ALS)
Affordable metal halide retrofit kits. Manufacturer of 12,000K Suburst metal halide bulb, they sell direct to customers (but their bulbs are cheaper at Marine Depot, where you also get free shipping). Aquarium Hobbyist Supply
Affordable power compact retrofit kits. Rating: Excellent products, reputation, prices and service. DIY guide to compact flourescent lighting for aquariums
Sanjay Joshi's exhaustive, informative article on how to pick the right ballast for a DIY power compact lighting setup. Originally published at Aquarium Frontiers, this article is huge! DIY guide to compact flourescents
Troy Brightbill's 27, 28 and 55 watt DIY plans using ballasts available at your local hardware super store. Rating: I built it and it worked! DIY guide to metal halide lighting
Another Sanjay Joshi DIY article, this time on metal halide. DIY plans for light box
Good pictures and step-by-step instructions for ventilated enclosure. DIY plans for light box by Larry Maras
Good step-by-step instructions for Larry's often copied light box.
Note: This list is by no means intended to be a comprehensive list of every hobbist's tank available for viewing on the Internet. Rather, it is a place to draw attention to sites that are worth visiting. People who have something unique about their site are most likely to be included here. Bob's Reef
Well-organized site dedicated to Bob's 300 gallon reef system. Carlos' Reef
One of the best organized hobbyist sites. Carlos maintains a 75 gallon reef. Nick Dakin's World of the Marine Aquarium
Nick is an author perhaps best known for the Marine Fish Survival Manual. He has written a few books, and published many articles in periodicals. Doug's Reef and Fish Page
90, 75, 55 and 29 gallon reef tank information with lots of pictures. Book reviews. DougL's Reef
Description of 75 gallon reef system. Notes by Doug reflecting on various topics. A good read. Richard Durso
Home of the Durso Standpipe, probably one of the most popular DIY projects. Pictures, costs and information about Durso's 180 gallon reef system. Vendor reviews. EMC Reef
The Bingman Files: responses Dr. Craig Bingman has given on rec.aquaria.marine.reefs organized into more than 30 topics. 200 gallon reef tank system setup, description, photos. Vendor reviews. European Reef Tank Tours
Twenty or so tanks from all over Europe. The Forbidden Reef
Mixed soft and stony coral tank that looks to be about a 90 gallon tank. Lots of solid information for beginners. John's Reef Flat
Newsletter that can be e-mailed to you. Website has HTML archives. Lew's Arctic Reef: Polar Bears in the Marine Tank
Care, feeding and FAQ of BOWLR (Bear Only With Live Rock) and POWLR (Penguin Only With Live Rock) setups. Got to love funny people. Larry Maras' Northern Reef
Descriptions of several reef systems. Lots of good DIY plans. Tips for working with acrylic and building sumps. Tim McRae's 600 Gallon Tank
Photoalbum of the setup of Tim's monster tank. Mr. 4000
4000 gallon DIY reef aquarium. Nope, that wasn't a typo. My Inland Ocean
Wow this is a fun site. Not only is it nice to look at, there is a lot to do here. First of course you have to take a look at the 180 gallon in-wall reef tank project as it progresses. There are also surveys, user added links, a guestbook, an aquaria search engine, guest tanks, a discussion board...you get the picture. Go here now! NorthCoast
Mark's 120 gallon reef aquarium. Psychocoralchopper's Reeftopia
Pictures and info about several reef systems ranging from 3.5 to 135 gallons. Ramon's Reef
Ramon is a good guy. I traded frags with him via the USPS and learned a few things that I will never do again: like mailing frags the week before Christmas. Reeftank.com
Quick Time movies of corals! Reviews of reef keeping books. Nice archive of quality pictures including a visit to the Waikiki Aquarium. 50 and 20 gallon reef tank setups. Sanjay's Reef Aquariums
Sanjay is perhaps best known for his DIY and spectral analysis articles on metal halide and power compact lighting published by Aquarium Frontiers and Annual Marine Fish and Reef USA. Also has plans for a popular calcium reactor design. 180 gallon reef system. Shadetree's Reef
Shadetree's DIY work is superb. Info about sump and refugium construction; how he supported the floor for his new tank; lighting comparison pics; tours of his buddies' reef tanks and propagation systems. Overall, a nice assortment of useful information. Skipper's 118 Gallon Reef
Nicely designed site. Stephen Gotz's Piece of the Reef
Stephen's 120 gallon SPS dominated tank. Photo archive and few articles he's written. Tidal Blue
75 and 38 gallon reef aquarium setups.
Related information:
Reef Central Member's Tanks
Check out the 150+ tanks viewable online from Reef Central's members. Includes the always popular Tank of the Month.
Craig Bingham's Homepage
Article listings and other publications by the author. The Breeder's Registry
Membership is $15 per year, and for that you get access to breaking information in the exciting world of breeding. To get full accesss to all the articles at this site you have to pay. The Breeder's Registry was established to collect and make available detailed reports on specific breeding efforts. Crustacea.net
Information retrieval for crustaceans of the world. Someone's got to do it. Eastern Pennsylvania Reef Club (EPARC)
Online aquaria club that regularly publishes a quality newsletter available for download in Adobe PDF format. FishBase
Online aquaria club that regularly publishes a quality newsletter available for download in Adobe PDF format. Fish 'N' Chips
Newsletter that can be e-mailed to you. Website has HTML archives. FishGeeks.com
Looking for a place to host your website? FishGeeks.com will give you 2 MB of space and host it for free. Resources here include a tank volume calculator, product reviews, FAQs, picture archives, etc. Monterey Bay Aquarium Kelp Cam
Live web cam images from the aquarium's 28-foot deep kelp forest. Nemo's Reef Reference: 1200 reef related links
Will it never end? Over 1,000 reef links organized in to 5 main categories and 25 sub-categories. Net Pets library
Collection of articles on various topics by several authors. Albert J. Thiel has several articles here. Ron Shimek's website
The good doctor is in! Collection of Ron Shimek's articles and other resources. Walk toward the light!
Backslashx2.net's mantis
Online journal detailing acquisition of mantis. Also, this guy will buy your mantis from you. Eric's Mantis Shrimp
Small site about a 2.5" male Gonodactylus chiragra mantis shrimp. Some beautiful photos. Grendel's Haunted Mere
Interesting comparison between Grendel the mantis and Grendel of Beowulf fame. I'm a mantis geek and an English major geek so I like this site. The Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods
Informative site dedicated to stomatopods, also known as Mantis Shrimp. This is the best mantis site on the net that I know of. Rating: Must see! Mantis Shrimp In Your Saltwater Aquarium
About.com's article on mantis shrimp. Round-up of mantis links, anecdotes and basic information. Monterey Bay Aquarium under siege by mantis
SF Gate report on the incident. Video of mantis charging out of its burrow to snatch a fish
PBS' NOVA site brings hosts the Quicktime video. More About Mantis Shrimps by Dr. Roy Caldwell
Dr. Caldwell rises to the defense of the mantis! I love it. Basic overview and recommendations for pet mantis. More On Mantis Shrimp by Doug
Doug shares his thoughts about the oft-misunderstood mantis. Raz's site
Raz's site. I think Raz is even more obsessed with her mantis than I am. She searched for eight months before finally getting her Odontodactylus scyllarus. We've been e-mailing back and forth about mantis shrimp for months. She's good people! The Odontodactylus scyllarus pages
Ripley's mantis site. Not sure what language it's written in, but there's barely enough English to get around.
All-Glass Aquarium
Manufacturers of glass aquariums. Aqua FX
Water purification products. High quality RO/DI water purifiers. IceCap, Inc.
Electronic ballasts. Oceanic
Manufacturers of glass aquariums. PFO Lighting
Manufacturers of high quality lighting systems. Spectrapure
Water purification products. High quality RO/DI water purifiers.
Dana's Nanoreef
3.5 gallon nano reef with lots of pictures. Part of Psychocoralchopper's cool site. Keith's Nano
12 gallon nano reef. LT1
Larry Maras' six gallon custom-built nano tank. Good pictures for construction ideas. I like the shape of this DIY tank. Maximus' 7-gallon AGA Bowfront
A few pictures. Nano Reef
Yep, another web site about nano reefs with "nano" and "reef" in the title. Pictures and descriptions of two nano reef tanks weighing in at 5 and 5.5 gallons respectively, both maintained by the same guy. DIY lighting ideas, configurations with recommended equipment for four different sizes of nano tanks. More than a little thought has gone into this site. This site almost made me want a cute glass box on my desk again. Nano Reef Information Center
Charles Devito's nano site is probably the best out there. Site includes the Nano FAQ. This site inspired me to set up a 2.5 gallon nano reef. I failed. Gotta love the Skilter Info/Hate page. NanoReef.com
Pictures and information about a few pint-sized reef tanks. Nano-Reef.com
Description of 7.5 gallon nano reef. Nano Reef: A Small Reef in a Smaller Dorm
Small new site. 7 gallon nano reef. Neo Reef aka Pico2
Pico2 was what Troy Brightbill named his former 2.5 gallon nano reef. Troy really inspired me to try the 2.5 gallon nano. I still failed, but not for lack of lighting, which I built per the easy to follow specs on his page. Troy's site is excellent, the very helpful information about DIYing power compact flourescent lighting from Lights of America ballasts can save you a lot of money. Saul's MicroReef
Probably the most colorful 10 gallon aquarium I have ever seen. Setting Up An Eclipse System Six Nano Reef
Step by step description of one person's experience converting a 6 gallon Eclipse aquarium into a nano reef capable of sustaining photosynthetic life. Please do not put a mandarin goby in a nano reef. It will die.
Related information:
Recommended nano lighting
Aquarium Hobbyist Supply is probably where you will end up getting your lighting equipment if you decide to set up a nano tank. Affordable power compact retrofit kits. Recommended nano skimming
Sanders Piccolo skimmer for sale at Aquarium City. The 9" hang-on air pump driven Piccolo just might be the skimmer you are looking for for your nano. This place also sells the Sanders Maxi Skim, which is a follow-up model to the Piccolo. I have no idea if it works as well as the original.
Docslaw Seaworld
Beautiful site dedicated to an advanced hobbyist's sea horses. Probably the best hobbyist sea horse site on the net. Dozens of beautiful photographs. Care, feeding, and breeding information. This site also has info about some other exotic species, like pipefish, anglers and moray eels. Rating: Must see! NOVA Online Kingdom of the Sea Horse
Good articles from PBS. Ocean Rider Sea Horses
Vendor site about sea horses and sea horses only! This has to be one of the best sources for "aquafarmed" (captive bred) sea horses. They offered six varieties of sea horses last time I checked. Nutritional Requirements of Sehorses
Article by Rob Toonen, aka biogeek. Piscine Energetics
Piscine Energetics. Distributor of mysis shrimp, a promising food source for sea horses. Project Seahorse
Big site. ProjectSeahorse is a team of biologists and social workers
committed to conserving and managing seahorses. FAQs, references, biology of seahorses. Seahorse.org
Chat, discussion boards, library, surveys. Excellent resource for those interested in learning about seahorses. Rating: Must see! Seahorses and More
Nice collection of photographs and links. Seahorse FAQs
FAQs about seahorses on Green Mariner's site. Seahorse keeping
Article by Dr. Amanda Vincent titled "Seahorse Keeping" originally published in The Journal of MaquaCulture from The Breeder's Registry. Seahorse World at Aqualand Pet Center
Vendor specializing in selling dwarf sea horses.
Related information:
Darren Baucum's Refugium page
Hobbyist Darren Baucum's excellent refugium page. Comprehensive collection of links to other refugium pages on the net. If you are thinking of keeping sea horses, you should be considering having a refugium.