mike palleta

BANNED! But Is There Still Hope? Having a tank like this resplendent with full colonies will take longer in the future since if the bans continue most new tanks will need to start off with frags. The collection of ornamental fish in Hawaii: BANNED. The collection and sale of live rock and...

Thinking about Reefapalooza and Orlando A happy camper about to attend her first Reefaplaooza. While sitting here in the gray of Pittsburgh, it has rained or snowed almost every day this Spring, I started thinking about my trip to Reefaplaooza in March and went back and looked at my notes...

Has the hobby gotten too expensive and how does it compare to the past? I have been in this hobby for a long time, but I am not going to act like an old codger and say I remember when Flame Angels were a quarter and corals were a dollar. Nor am I going to get into a discussion of how a frag...

Things I Miss About the Hobby Being with some of my long-time friends a bit ago, we started reminiscing about the early years of the hobby and some of the things that used to be common or major parts of the hobby and how many of them were gone. I am typically not someone who dwells on the past...

The Pros and Cons of Aquacultured vs Maricultured vs Wild Coral Colonies Visiting MACNA or any of the large frag swaps or shows 10 years ago the vendors present for the most part displayed large wild colonies of coral under metal halide lamps. IN the last five years this has changed...

Stability and Consistency of a Reef Tank One of the benefits I have found of writing so much is that when I am putting together an article I always learn something. When I did the articles on the master’s tanks I learned a great deal, as I hoped I would. One of the most important things I...

Learning and Understanding This past fall and winter were a bit trying for my tanks due to the amount of travel I did and the resultant time away from my tanks. I have to admit that they were more neglected than they had been for quite some time and it showed. As a result, I lost a few corals...

Tank Parameters Of Some Masters To this day one of the most frequently asked questions I get, and actually that many “old time hobbyists” get is “How do I get rid of the algae in my tank. My first question then is “what are the parameters of your tank’s water? Invariably the answer is my tank’s...

The Past and Future of the Hobby At this time of year, we often look back on what has transpired in the past year both good and bad and think about it. For me, it was for the most part a good year in aquarium terms, as I wrote a fair amount, most of my tanks did well and I traveled more than I...

A Discussion of US and European Reefkeeping I do not consider reefkeeping to be a competitive activity, but during my recent trips to Europe and then travels around the states the most frequently asked questions I got were “Are the states better than us” or “how far ahead of us are the...