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 Gene Diveglia from Reef Labs.

Gene is co-owner of Reef Labs, Inc., a Tampa, FL based water analysis laboratory that performs analytical testing, including ICP water tests for saltwater tanks and aquaculture systems.

Gene is passionate about everything related with science and technology, and you can see his signature in every aspect of Reef Labs, Inc. “The ICP lab” aims to provide its customers with exceptional results and proven successful practices.

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 Barnett Shutman from RVS Fishworld. Among other operations, Barnett runs RVS Fishworld. Barnett is responsible for importing most Filipino, Red Sea and all Madagascar and Papua New Guinea fish. Barnett has spent 39 years building export facilities throughout the world, working hand in hand with fisheries is the Philippines, Eritrea, Madagascar, Belize, Fiji, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Djibouti, Tonga, East Timor, Indonesia, Palau and Papua New Guinea.

His goal is to give sustainable livelihoods to folks in coastal communities by educating them on how to collect live ornamental tropical fish in an environmentally safe way through the proper use of monofilament nets. His company, RVS Fishworld, conducts net training programs in most regions of the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

Through RVS 4 Star Restoration, they are working to restore degraded reefs throughout the Philippines. RVS Fishworld has brought numerous new species to hobbyists and has expanded the known range of several species through their collection efforts. Barnett was honored when one of the fish they discovered, the exceedingly beautiful magma wrasse, was described as Cirrhilabrus shutmani, after his family name. Barnett also owns Indo Pacific Direct in NY, which imports his fish.

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 Vincent Chalias, a coral farming pioneer. 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 hobbyist Peter Dinh, a.k.a. Bayarea Reef on Instagram and YouTube.

Peter is a professional videographer and he creates some incredible videos of his reef tank that he posts to his Instagram account. He will share some tips on how to capture and produce better videos.

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 reef keeping legends Dr. Sanjay Joshi and Mike Paletta.

Sanjay has written many articles about reef keeping and has been a speaker at several national marine aquarium society meetings and local clubs. In "real life" Sanjay is a professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State University.

Mike has also written a lot of articles for many publications and has published two books: The New Marine Aquarium and Ultimate Marine Aquariums. Mike has also been a speaker at many reef keeping conferences in the US and around the world.

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. Eli Meyer from AquaBiomics.

Eli is a coral biologist and aquarium hobbyist and he owns AquaBiomics. AquaBiomics is a company that can analyze the microbiome of an aquarium using DNA sequencing. They can diagnose issues and identify strategies for promoting a healthy microbiome.

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 from ACI Aquaculture. Chris is the owner of ACI Aquaculture, a coral wholesaler that is located in Plant City, Florida.

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. Dean Miller from the Living Coral Biobank. Dr. Miller is a marine biologist, film maker, photographer and the managing director and project coordinator of Great Barrier Reef Legacy, a non-profit organization based in Port Douglas Australia dedicated to conservation of coral reefs around the world with an array of innovative projects.

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. Dong has been in aquarium hobby since he was in college and initially focused on keeping fancy designer goldfish and discus. 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 Dong's 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 Luca Martino from Mahina Corals.

Luca is a hobbyist who is obsessed with pushing the understanding of the hobby. He also likes to assess certain assumptions in the hobby. His background is chemical engineering, and in his professional life he builds, starts up, and runs pharma and food manufacturing facilities.