Rappin' With ReefBum

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Julian Sprung and Colin Foord. Julian is the owner of Two Little Fishies, co-author of a revolutionary series of books called The Reef Aquarium, a frequent speaker at reef keeping conferences and a legend in our hobby.Colin is a marine biologist and has a website called Coral Morphologic that provides a unique perspective on the hobby by combining science and art to help convey was it going on with endangered reefs around the world. He has a very cool live stream going on that you should check out of an urban coral reef in Miami. Coralcitycamera.com.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Dong Zou from AcroGarden. Dong has a PhD in chemistry and worked for several pharmaceutical companies in various therapeutic areas including anti-inflammatory, cancer, pain management and anti-infectious diseases. He developed his first interest in marine invertebrates when he was working as a post doc at the University of Virginia. He has been in aquarium hobby since he was in college and he got into the saltwater hobby in 2004 after setting up his first marine fish tank for a Nemo and after he discovered the Boston Reefers Society. About 10 years ago, he cofounded his first company on drug discovery. Soon after that, he was able to combine his passion for coral and his experience in the pharmaceutical industry and cofounded a new company, eCove BioMarine. This company focused on aquaculture coral for drug discovery and bone grafting. His current company, AcroGarden Inc, was then founded to hold the intellectual properties and to study coral farming. AcroGarden is now his primary focus. The company produces aqua-cultured coral, mainly SPS, for the hobby.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Walt Smith, who is the founder of Walt Smith International. The company’s operations are based in Fiji and they have played a pivotal role in supplying ornamental coral and fish to aquariums and hobbyists worldwide, while advocating for the preservation of Fiji's rich marine ecosystems. Many of you probably have heard of Walt, he has been a pioneer in the Marine Ornamental industry since 1972, and thus he has quite an extensive background in the reef keeping world.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE/recorded talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Doug Dorrat, who is the owner and operator of Frag Farm UK.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Paul Allen, who is the President of the Boston Reefers Society.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Will Bramucci, who owns Epic Aquaculture.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Phil Gilbert from Polyp Lab. Phil is the CEO of Polyp Lab.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Joe Muscat from Tusi Corals. Joe’s incredible tank has been a Reef2Reef tank of the month a couple of times. The tank was also featured on the World Wide Corals YouTube channel as well as on Mok-Yi’s Innapropriate Reefer’s channel. The tank was also featured in the September/October 2023 edition of CORAL Magazine.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Rey Riveron from Pirates Reef Corals.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Steve Weast, a.k.a. OregonReef.Steve’s 1000 gallon reef tank was one of the most iconic reef tank of its time. Very inspirational tank. He took a break from keeping reef aquariums but is now back with a stunning 400 gallon tank. His website, oregonreef.com, chronicles his reef keeping journey.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Jeff Turner from Reef Aquaria Design.Jeff has been involved with coral reef conservation, marine aquariums and ornamental aquaculture for a lifetime. Some accomplishments include being a member of the Florida Marine Aquarium Society since 1962 and President/Owner of Exotic Aquaria, Inc. from 1980 through 1998, which is when he merged his company with Oceans, Reefs, and Aquariums, Inc. or ORA.He designed, built, installed, and provided all aquacultured corals and marine fish for the Indo Pacific Coral Reef Aquarium located in the Sant Ocean Hall for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in 2008.He has been the Florida Marine Life Association Vice President since 1995 and has been the current President since 2013. He is also a board member for the Rising Tide Conservation, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary SAC Committee Member for Marine Life and a Non-Native Fish and Wildlife Technical Assistance Group Member for Marine Life.Additionally, he is the Owner/President/CEO of Reef Aquaria Design, Inc., Boyd Enterprises and Jellyfish Art, LLC.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Dr. Alex J. Hall, who is an aquatic veterinarian.Alex practices in New York. He is interested in all facets of aquatic medicine, with a particular focus on tropical fish and coral disease. His personal tanks include a 180-gallon mixed reef, 55-Gallon Bubble-tip Anemone tank, with 3 additional frag tanks attached.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Julian Sprung, Charles Delbeek, Dr. Sanjay Joshi & Mike Paletta. All of these gentlemen have made major contributions to the hobby over the years, yet they don’t necessarily agree on everything when it comes to keeping and maintaining a successful reef tank. And that’s cool because there are many ways to reef, right? There is no single blueprint for having a healthy, thriving reef tank. One thing that sparked this get together is a difference in opinion on dosing ammonia to a reef tank, which will be one of many topics of discussion.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with coral farming pioneer Vincent Chalias.Vincent is a marine biologist, a diver and a passionate underwater photographer who has helped to document corals by contributing photos and articles to a number of publications in Europe and the US.He set up the first Indonesian Coral mariculture farms at the beginning of the century and spent over 20 years in Indonesia running these operations. These days Vincent is more focused on reef restoration.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Andrew Sandler from Polo Reef.Andrew is the creator of the famous 17,000 gallon reef tank in his home and is the Founder & CEO of Polo Reef.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Claude Schuhmacher and Mike Paletta.Claude is the CEO of Fauna Marin while Mike Paletta has written reef keeping articles, books and is blogging now for Polo Reef. Mike is also a frequent speaker at reef keeping conferences. We are going to be talking about the Fauna Marin Bolus Method.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Tony Vargas.Tony is an author, lecturer, consultant and an admitted reefaholic.He started his aquatic adventures at the age of seven with Guppies in a pickle jar. In the early eighties he assembled his first salt water aquarium (fish only). Moving on to more challenging waters, in the mid 1980's he experimented with marine invertebrates and corals. In the late eighties a handful of aquarist including Tony were among the first in the United States to successfully maintain Acropora alive in captivity. Tony began to share his experiences with others through the many articles he wrote in a column titled "Feature Coral" for FAMA magazine. One of the Acropora articles in FAMA was acknowledge in Carden Wallace's text book on Acropora titled Staghorn Corals of the World.Today Tony SCUBA dives around the world taking underwater photos and observing reef creatures in their natural environment. In addition to writing about his experiences and observations, Tony travels to give lectures and consultations on coral and reef fish husbandry, and aquarium system design.He now manages an aquarium shop in Qatar.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Leng Sy from EcoSystem Aquarium. In 1979, Leng, who is of Chinese descent, fled Vietnam with his family, through Cambodia, to a refugee camp in Thailand to pursue freedom and find opportunity. In early May, 1981, Leng and his family arrived in the United States, speaking broken English and with not a penny to their name! Thanks to the kindness and support of the people of Cambridge, Wisconsin, the U.S. government, and his uncle Lim (who was once in the Cambodian navy) and his family, Leng and his family were able to pick themselves up and start new lives in this wonderful new country. In the summer of 1989, Leng graduated from UCLA with a degree in mathematics and a minor in pre-med. Although he had been interested in keeping fish since he was a child, it was in 1987 that Leng was introduced to the hobby by his older brother and then later by his classmate, Claude Nanjo. It was the first time he had ever seen marine tropical fish! Currently, Leng is the President/CEO of EcoSystem Aquarium

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Ty Ta from Black Label Aquatics.Ty has been keeping reef tanks since 2004. He spends his days collecting and propagating the choicest acros and is a huge advocate of aquacultured corals. His education in Ocean and Coastal Resources at Texas A&M University at Galveston prepared him for the task of running a coral propagation business and helped him move forward with the creation of Black Label Aquatics, which was formerly known as FarmerTyFrags.com. He sells corals on Blacklabelaquatics.com, with a large emphasis on acros. Ty is a scientist, daddy daycare dude, and self-proclaimed coral slinger.

Rappin' With ReefBum is a LIVE talk show with host Keith Berkelhamer and guests from the reef keeping community. In this episode I chat with Greg Carroll. Greg is a very accomplished reef keeper who has won tank of the month honors on Reef Central, is president of the Southern California Marine Aquarium Society, and is one of the founders of Reefapalooza.