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.

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 Todd Gardner.

Todd is a professor of Aquaculture at Carteret Community College in Morehead City, NC, and an Aquaculture Specialist for Biota Inc. which specializes in sustainably cultured marine fishes and invertebrates for aquariums. His life and his career have been shaped by his passion for marine life and he has written numerous scientific and popular articles about his research and experiences collecting, keeping, and culturing marine organisms.

Todd’s professional background includes work on a National Geographic documentary, commercial fish farming at C-quest Hatchery in Puerto Rico, and an 11-year term at the Long Island Aquarium where he spent much of his time developing techniques for raising difficult marine fish larvae. To date he has raised more than 50 species. In 2013 Todd received the prestigious Aquarist of the Year Award from the Marine Aquarium Society of North America (MASNA). In his spare time, Todd dives, photographs marine life, runs marathons, and plays the guitar.

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. Mike was named the 2022 MASNA Award recipient.

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 and Dr. Andrew Bouwma, a science educator and hobbyist.

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

Andy has a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has published research on tropical ecology and science education. For the last 16 years, Andy has focused on teaching a variety of university courses in biology and conservation. Andy has kept aquariums for his whole life but started focusing on saltwater about 12 years ago. Andy currently maintains several systems with a focus on Acropora and Goniopora. Andy is also a power user of the Aquabiomics service and has a lot of data on his tanks.