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 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.

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 Chris Meckley, who is the owner of ACI Aquaculture in Plant City, Florida. ACI is a coral wholesaler and Chris runs the business with his wife Amanda and their staff.

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 Chris Wood from Captiv8 Aquaculture.

Chris is a marine biogeochemist and the Chief Science Officer of Captiv8 Aquaculture. He is also the founder and sole owner of Captiv8. The company’s R&D draws from Chris’ experience and two additional scientists, with a total of four PhDs.

Chris entered the aquatics industry in 2000 as a marine scientist and product development and support specialist, and since that time has worked with aquarists and organizations throughout the world to improve outcomes with aquarium systems and recirculating aquatic ecosystems. Some of the organizations that have used his formulations include the Smithsonian Institute, Disney, NASA, and the Israeli Government, as well as several aquaculture operations in the U.S, including ACI 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 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 Dr. Gregory Barord, who is a marine biologist and the head of the Marine Biology Program at Des Moines Iowa Public Schools.

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 Jim Graham, who is also known as Telegraham.

Jim has been a reef keeping hobbyist for about 11 years. He likes to take equipment apart to study build quality and to better understand how things function. He has operated on a number of products from GHL, Neptune and other manufacturers. The data from his tests have yielded some very unique and un-biased insights.

Jim is retired Air Force, formerly assigned to the KC-135 aerial refueller, the B-2 Stealth Bomber, and the YAL-1A Airborn Laser. Additionally, Jim appreciates kind people and is a fan of technology.