Pinch me I must be dreaming. I’ve been a big fan of Reef Builders and have made it a part of my daily-dose of reef knowledge and was stoked to be asked to do some contributing pieces on Blue-Collar Reefing but was honored when they approached me to become more of a permanent fixture on the writing staff.

Boy, have I been lagging lately on posting. Its been a crazy month and at the end of the day I haven’t been able to get those bits of inspiration down in digital form–my apologies! I did have this idea after reading Scott Fellman’s post on tips to save electricity and money, so I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the tips and tricks I’ve found for saving money on fish, coral, equipment and more. Some of these are probably familiar to you and maybe a few are new to you, either way I hope you enjoy.

Looking to take a gamble? Oceanpro Aquatics has just the right thing for you. Similar to Woot!’s “Bag of Crap,” Oceanpro is offering their own version of randomness – the Big Box of Crap! For only $19.99 you take the risk of getting something totally useless or making a score of a few hundred bucks worth of goodies!

Another great vendor I was able to spend some time with at IMAC West was Piscine Energetics makers of a great product PE Mysis. Since the show, I’ve also heard a few great chats on the great product on Blue Zoo Radio with host Frank Reece and PE’s Nuri Fisher and the story behind this great food for your reef critters is just a fantastic as the product. I ended up leaving the show with four packs of PE Mysis and so far, they are a hit.

The much-anticipated release of Seachem’s AquaVitro line of aquarium salt brings some good news to reefers looking to know EXACTLY what their batch of salt contains. Seachem’s Salinity salt has two major factors I am anticipating — it being hand crafted and batch testing and labeling to give you the exact specs from your bucket.

One of the many vendors I was able to spend some time with at the recent IMAC West conference was Teco makers of the SeaChill line of aquarium chillers released to the public this year. What caught my eye was the free lemonade (and margaritas later in the day) they had in a cool media reactor chilled to a refreshing 36° F by one of their chillers! Teco is known for their quality products and if looks are just as important to you as function with your chiller, the SeaChill line is just for you.

Well IMAC West was a blast and I’m back in the saddle after a long and interesting weekend! This inaugural event had a lot of great speakers, vendors and coral farmers on hand but did lack some of the foot traffic we were all hoping for. Needless to say, I took advantage of the event and tried to get some face time with as many vendors as I could and will be reporting as much as I can the next few weeks.

Well it’s less than two days into the work week but it feels like much longer! It’s been a knock-down, drag-out yet productive battle so far and the glue holding it all together like a frag on a plug is knowing I’ll be heading down to IMAC West this weekend!

After seeing the SonicScrubber in the most recent Dr.’s Foster & Smith catalog I thought it would be a handy tool to help scrub off algae and gunk from powerheads, rocks and deposits off of glass. We were walking through Walmart a few weeks back and saw them in the automotive section and I mentioned I wanted to grab one of these sometime to my fiance and guess what I got on Father’s Day? No, not a tie or coffee mug! I got one of these puppies and I do have to say it was well worth the price.

One of the first things we really get whacked across the noggin with in the hobby is the initial sticker shock of an adequate lighting system. But once you see a good reef lighting system in person, you soon realize the money is usually pretty well spent and you begin to understand the excitement your fellow hobbyists feel when new advances are made in aquarium lighting. Just about a year ago, I posted a video from CNET on a new plasma light coming on the market from LUXIM and do believe I was one of the first to actually champion its development in the hobby. Well in just the last week, I’ve discovered that the plasma light is MUCH closer to reality than I originally thought!