Acropora

The Bali Aquarium Armageddon Tenuis is just mind blowing!

好几years now, the ‘Homewrecker’ Acropora tenuis has been high on the wish list of many reefers. We thought it will be difficult to beat that one, and take years before we would see any other tenuis…

Acropora russelli, the Ultimate LOW Light, Deep Water Plating Acro

In our quest to find the rarest Corals possible, somewhere in Indonesia we came across in a secret location sheltering a large field of Acropora ruselli, and boy, it was a sight to remember. This reef habitat was made up…

Kevin’s Reef Tank Is An LPS Masterpiece

We’re really been enjoying checking out all your aquariums on Instagram including this LPS masterpiece which popped up under #reefbuilders. We reached out to Kevin aka Yaboikevin42 to learn more about his tanks and to get a few tips on…

Pikachu Acropora microclados, a New OG Reef Tank Coral?

With the recent reopening of Maricultured Indonesian corals, we (at Bali Aquarium) finally got back some corals that we terribly missed. Some corals are very popular for brief periods of time but other times like with the Pikachu Acropora which…

Acropora striata, a Skinny Version of the Beloved Tenuis Acro

For many years, we’ve been intrigued by an Acropora tenuis look alike, a convincing impersonator with skinny tapering branches. This is a coral we occasionally encountered from time to time, in many different places around the Indonesian archipelago but for…

The Shape of Corals is Linked to How they Feed

It’s been over 20 years since I started culturing corals in the ocean and in dedicated aquariums. I always believed that the shape of a corals was mainly determined by trying to expose as much surface to light while withstanding…

Is Acropora convexa the Next Holy Grail Acro?

It’s been a while since we wrote about Australian corals but with all this down time, we finally can find the time to write about things that inspired us in our previous journeys.During our Ultra Coral Australia trips on the…

Acropora lokani is SPS Royalty Among Acros

Acropora lokani is a very common deeper water Acropora that is common in Indonesia and widespread through the Indo-Pacific. The lokani Acro has been farmed by the thousands for many years, decades even, so in that time we thought we’d…

Coral-Bacteria Communities are WAY More Important than Anyone Thought

Reading through different coral scientific publication, we came across one, that could be quite relevant for us reef aquarist. In this publication published in Nature, scientist from the Red Sea Research center, from the King Abdullah University of Science and…

Acropora sukarnoi is Australia’s Own Elkhorn Coral

Russel Kelley, Jake Adams, Nic DosSantos and I just came back from a very productive expedition to the Great Barrier Reef, in a collaboration between Reef Builders and Ultra Corals Australia. Using a large ocean worthy cruise vessel and four…