Speakers

Paula Branshaw is a Marine Biologist who maintains the best aquarium in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metro-plex, The Dallas World Aquarium.

Hans-Werner Balling was born in 1965 in Mellrichstadt, Frankonia, Germany.

Biological education: 1981 till 1983 Technischer Assistent für naturkundliche Museen und Forschungsinstitute (Technical Assistant for Museums and Research Institutes of Natural Sciences) in the Senckenberg-Museum, Frankfurt.

1986 till end of 2000: attendance for public aquaria, mainly saltwater, in the Jura-Museum (Jurassic Museum) in Eichstaett, Bavaria. 1994 publication of a method for the balanced supplementation of calcium and bicarbonate in reef aquaria, now known as “Balling-Method”.

2001 till today: Employee at Dr. Biener GmbH, Wartenberg/Hessen, Germany, better known under the brand name “Tropic Marin”. Development of, amongst other products, PRO-REEF salt, PRO-CORAL K+ and A- ELEMENTS, REEF ACTIF and BIO-ACTIF salt.

Presentation #1: The Balling-Method – Balanced Calcium and Bicarbonate Addition Made Easy
Presentation #2: Organic Carbon Dosing in Low Nutrient Systems

This Speaker is being brought to you by the great folks at Tropic Marin!

Ret Talbot is an award-winning writer and photojournalist with nearly 20 years of experience covering stories from some of the more remote corners of the globe. From the icy summits of the Andes to the reefs of Papua New Guinea, his assignments have taken him off the beaten track and put his readers face-to-face with stories of adventure, new ideas and innovative approaches to commonplace issues.
A graduate of the prestigious writing programs at both Wheaton College and the University of St. Andrews, Talbot launched his career balancing work as a mountaineering and fly-fishing guide, freelance writer and English teacher. His articles appeared in publications such as Outdoor Sports, Rock & Ice, Fly Fisherman, Shallow Water Angler, and American Whitewater. While not in a river, on a glacier or at the head of a classroom, Talbot traveled extensively lecturing on his own expeditions to places like North Africa, Alaska, Norway, Ecuador, and Peru.

Since 2007, Talbot has worked as a fulltime freelance writer and photographer, penning stories for magazines and working on book-length projects. His most recent work has focused on marine ecosystems and the myriad interactions between humans and those ecosystems. From the artisanal fisheries of Pacific Islanders to the heavily politicized commercial fisheries of Hawaii, Talbot has spent much of the last year interviewing fishermen, politicians, scientists, environmentalists, and other fisheries stakeholders about the concept of sustainability.

Talbot frequently reports on the marine aquarium trade, and his articles can be found in a variety of trade publications. His aquarium-related books include The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Saltwater Aquariums (September 2009). He is a senior editor at CORAL Magazine, where he is currently working on a multi-year series of articles focused on sustainability and marine aquarium fisheries. Reporting from places as disparate as remote island nations across the Indo-Pacific and the massive import and wholesale facilities at Los Angeles International Airport, Talbot’s series of articles in CORAL have established the marine aquarium fishery as a microcosm for the complexities of international trade, socio-economic development and environmental conservation.

Ret and his wife Karen, an artist known for her fish paintings, split their time between Laguna Beach, California and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Christine Williams started keeping fish while she was still a fetus. While the aqueous environment did lend itself to the hobby, it limited her to freshwater species, and so she decided to be born several weeks early. Through sign language she demanded that her parents convert her crib into a reef aquarium and thus started her illustrious career in marine ornamentals.

After completing her studies in biochemistry and molecular microbiology she went to work at Animal ER where unfortunately she was not filmed for the Animal Planet channel (though her feet did make a cameo during a rescue segment). Currently she is the head of the Industrial Marine Microbiology team for her division of a very large international chemical company, where she spends her days mixing chemicals, microorganisms and plankton together and seeing if they will A) explode, B) glow in the dark, or C) make a good salsa. In order to further her skills she is also a graduate student at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Bob Fenner is a lifelong aquarist with an active and continuing involvement in the academic, journalistic, trade, and hobbyist sides of aquarium keeping. He is a former marine science and aquariology instructor at the University of California and in the California State University system.

Bob is the author of The Conscientious Marine Aquarist and has been a regular contributor to a number of aquarium publications, including Freshwater and Marine Aquarium, Tropical Fish Hobbyist, SeaScope, Pet Dealer, and several foreign hobbyist and business periodicals. He has been a speaker and judge at many aquarium conferences and events, with subjects ranging from cyanide collection of reef fishes to koi, shell collecting, and environmental, aquarium trade, hobbyist, and scientific topics.

He has worked in all phases of the aquarium business — as collector, wholesaler, jobber, retailer, hatchery worker, designer, manager, and owner. Bob lives in San Diego, California, and is both an active Hash House Harrier and an avid scuba diver, having completed thousands of dives throughout the Indo-Pacific region, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Baja California, the tropical eastern Pacific, and the shorelines of his home state.

His WetWebMedia site can be found at:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com

Paul Whitby is originally from the UK, but
now resides in Oklahoma USA. While in the
UK, he received his Doctorate in the microbiology of fish diseases, specifically diseases
of fish with high economic importance and
has published several articles in this field as
well as medical microbiology. Currently he is
an Associate Professor at the University of
Oklahoma where he specializes in the microbiology of pediatric infectious diseases.

Paul is the current President of the Central
Oklahoma Marine Aquarium Society
(COMAS) and has had several articles published in Reef Keeping online magazine and
is also a staff writer for ReefBuilders. He has
published several reviews and articles on
COMAS, the development of a captive
propagation program to conserve coral species, as well as numerous reviews. In
October 2007 his SPS dominated display tank was selected as Reef Keeping
Magazine’s Tank of the Month. Paul has presented several marine aquarium related seminars at local clubs and conferences including Oklahoma’s CRASE and
Arkansas’ Reef Fest conferences, IMAC west and others.

He has been keeping saltwater aquariums for over 20 years and has owned a variety of tanks ranging from under 30 to in excess of 600 gallons. His current system, including filtration, is over 1,000 gallons.

Marc Levenson
http://www.reefaddicts.com

Known to many online as “Melev”, Marc Levenson has been in the hobby for about 10 years and his Percula clownfish (the first fish he bought) is still with him to this day. Marc run a website called www.melevsreef.com that is there to help hobbyists everywhere. His site started off as a single page many years ago, talking about his 29g, but then grew longer and longer. It was like a never-ending blog, until one day he started page 2 about a new project for his tank – a sump. Over time, the site grew to include additional topics of interest such as acrylic work, photography, solutions to pests, information about my tanks, lighting, feeding, and more. There is always something new being added as time permits. Now entire sections are themed so that you can stay in a particular line of thinking. He’s even begun the task of translating some popular pages into other languages to reach more individuals globally.

Marc has been online for years, originally running a BBS called The Kingdom, run on an Atari STe back when high speed was a 2400 baud modem. That site was up for 7 years. More recently, he’s been a part of a podcast for reefkeepers, www.reefcast.com which now has 25 different episodes available for download. Most of them are audio only in mp3 format but there are a few vidcasts mixed in for your viewing pleasure. It’s kept casual, fun, and still covers a variety of topics to help you be successful reefkeepers.

Marc has been a fan of MACNA since 2002, and was on the BOD for MASNA.org for over a year, then on the BOD for DFWMAS for at least 4 years. He’s been the club president of DFWMAS for three of those years, working to keep the membership growing and provide interesting content both online and at our monthly meetings. Marc has also, written a few magazine articles, and was a contributing author to an e-book called Reefkeeping Basics. www.reefkeepingbasics.com

Sanjay Joshi

2006 MASNA Award Winner

Sanjay Joshi in real life is a Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State University. He has been a reef addict since 1992, and currently keeps several reefs aquariums at home including a 500G SPS dominated reef. He also co-manages the 500G aquarium at Penn State.

He has published several articles in magazines such as Marine Fish and Reef Annual, Aquarium Frontiers, Aquarium Fish, and Advanced Aquarist. In addition he has been an invited speaker at several marine aquarium society meetings in the US and Europe. He received the MASNA award in 2006, for his contributions to the marine aquarium hobby.

Richard Ross

Richard Ross currently works as an Aquatic Biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium in the California Academy of Sciences, maintaining many exhibits including the 212,000 gallon Philippine Coral Reef (and going to PI in May to collect corals and cephalopods for the Aquarium). He has kept saltwater animals for over 25 years, and has worked in aquarium maintenance, retail, wholesale and has consulted for a coral farm/fish collecting station in the South Pacific. Richard enjoys all aspects of the aquarium hobby and is a regular author for trade publications, a frequent speaker at aquarium conferences and was a founder of one of the largest and most progressive reef clubs in Northern California, Bay Area Reefers. He is an avid underwater videographer and has been fortunate to scuba dive all over the world. At home he maintains a 300 gallon reef system and a 250 gallon cephalopod/fish breeding system, and was one of the first people to close the life cycle of Sepia bandensis. When not doing all that stuff, he enjoys spending time with his patient wife, his incredible daughter and their menagerie of animals, both wet and dry.

Julian Sprung

2004 MASNA Award Winner

Julian Sprung was born in 1966 in Miami Beach, Florida and is a graduate of the University of Florida, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Zoology. He is President of the aquarium industry company Two Little Fishies, Inc. that he co-founded in 1991.

Julian has been keeping marine aquariums for more than 30 years, and is an aquarium design consultant, author, and photographer. He has dived in various Caribbean locales as well as in the Red Sea, Australia, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Japan, France, Croatia, Maine, and Oregon.

Julian’s books include The Reef Aquarium, volumes One, Two and Three, which he co-authored with J. Charles Delbeek, Corals: A Quick Reference Guide, Invertebrates: A Quick Reference Guide, and Algae: A Problem Solver Guide. Julian resides in Miami Beach with his wife and son, five marine aquariums, one freshwater aquarium, and a Westie.

Matt Pedersen

2009 MASNA Award Winner

Matt Pedersen is an full-time interactive software developer and part-time fly fishing guide. Matt also has experience as a professional orchid breeder and certified fly rod builder. Matt is originally from Chicago, IL and current living in Duluth, MN, USA with his very understanding wife, Renee, and their young son Ethan.

Matt has been a marine aquarist for 24 years, and an aquarist for 29+. After spending time on every side of the aquarium industry (retail, commercial and private maintenance & installation, wholesale, hatchery), he currently considers himself a “professional hobbyist”. Most recently, Matt has currently spawned 23 species of marine fish, successfully raising 9 of them to date including one worldwide first (the Harlequin Filefish, Oxymonacanthus longirostris), as well as attempted another 6 invertebrate species to date (excluing those that tend to propagate with no special intervention). Most all of this was accomplished with less than 100 gallons of total working capacity, and all in closed culture. In 2010, Matt Pedersen was selected as the breeder of choice to work with the now famous “PNG Lightning Maroon Clownfish” from the SEASMART program, and chronicles the efforts to propagate this one-of-a-kind fish online at The Lightning Project.

Matt Pedersen is credited with starting MOFIB (Marine Ornamental Fish & Invertebrate Breeder’s Association) and has written for multiple aquarium-related publications including Coral, Koralle, Practical Fish Keeping, Marine Habitat, Reef Hobbyist Magazine and Reef Builders. Matt has spoken at numerous aquarium clubs and events from coast to coast. He currently sits on the MBI (Marine Breeding Initiative) Council, a project dedicated to bringing the concept of a unified Marine Breeder’s Award Program to hobbyist organizations across the country and around the globe. Matt believes that captive propagation is the one fail safe that ensures the long term viability of our hobby and industry if, or when, all other measures fail. In 2009, Matt was awarded “Aquarist of the Year” honors by both IMAC West and MASNA in recognition of his accomplishments and contributions to the marine aquarium hobby. Matt is a strong proponent of being a lifelong learner and open sharer of knowledge, knowing that every hobbyist and industry member has the potential to make a discovery or contribute in some great way to our entire community.

Scott Fellman

My name is Scott Fellman, and I’m the consummate “reef geek”! I bleed saltwater!

Much of my life centers around tweaking my protein skimmer, scraping algae, cleaning up spills, or figuring out how to unglue my fingers. I’ve been keeping marine aquariums since I was 12 years old, and during that time, I have maintained all sorts of aquariums, fish bowls, plastic boxes, and just about anything that can hold water. My passions are aquascaping and marine biotope aquariums. I love this hobby and the crazy people in it!

I’ve mentored fellow hobbyists since 2002 on Bob Fenner’s WetWebMedia.com site, and I was Co-Editor of WWM’s Conscientious Aquarist online magazine for a couple of years. I served as president of my local club, the Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County, in 2006. I’ve written a number of articles for Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine, Ultramarine UK, Marine Fish and Reef USA Annual, “C” Journal, and other online venues. I write a weekly blog on the Reef Builders web site, where I blog on a variety of reef-related topics.

In addition to my writing, I have racked up the frequent-flyer miles, travelling all over the U.S. speaking at clubs and events about all sorts of reef-related stuff. I presented at MACNA XIX in Pittsburgh, IMAC 2008 in Chicago, MACNA XX in Atlanta, and MACNA XI in Atlantic City, MACNA XXII in Orlando,as well as IMAC West in Long Beach, and Reef-a-Palooza in SoCal This is my fifth time presenting at MACNA, and I’m thrilled as ever to be here! I’m really trying to complete a book on marine biotope aquaria and aquascaping before this century is over, and I’m sure my aquarium is due for a water change at some point!

When I’m not trying to replicate the ocean in my aquariums, I’m usually surfing in it at my local beach, dining at new restaurants (another great love), watching ice hockey, or SCUBA diving.

Tony Vargas
Tony Vargas started his aquatic adventures at the age of seven, with Guppies in a pickle jar. Shortly thereafter, he was breeding a large host of freshwater tropical’s. In the early eighties he took a giant leap forward and assembled his very first salt water aquarium (fish only). Moving on to more challenging waters, in the mid 1980′s, he took another leap forward and experimented with marine invertebrates and corals. Moving forward in the late eighties a handful of aquarist including Tony were among the first in United States to successfully keep and maintain Acropora alive in captivity, long term. Tony began to share this experiences and knowledge 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 text book on Acropora titled “Staghorn Corals of the World”.

Today, Tony SCUBA dives around the world taking underwater photos and observing many of these creatures in their natural environment. With his writings he has effectively communicated his experiences and observations. Tony has traveled the States and Europe giving lectures and consultations on corals, reef fish husbandry, and complete system design.

Recently, Tony has completed work on his forthcoming book titled “The Coral Reef Aquarium”. This book focuses on the basics of reef keeping, how to properly assemble a coral reef aquarium (five great examples), and the long term care of these critters in a captive environment. Forward by Sanjay Joshi and Preface by J. Charles Delbeek.

Joe Yaiullo
Mr. Yaiullo is one of the world’s most highly regarded Aquarium authorities. He has consulted with many public Aquariums worldwide, and has also presented reef-keeping lectures throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Prior to co-founding the Atlantis Aquarium, Yaiullo worked with the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, and served as Exhibits Director at the Okeanos Ocean Research Foundation. While working as a Senior Aquarist with the New York Aquarium, he played an integral role in the design and construction of the 22,000-square foot Discovery Cove building, winner of the 1990 American Zoo and Aquarium Association Certificate of Achievement award.

Yaiullo is a graduate of Southampton College, Long Island University (Southampton, NY).

Justin Credabel
Justin Credabel is orginially from New London, Connecticut. He recently transplanted to Los Angeles to grow more coral than ever before. He spent the first 12 years of his career on the retail side of fish and coral, where he helped unlock the mysteries of Goniopora.

He went to found the non-profit Applied Sustainable Aquaculture to conduct research on coral propagation, and educate the public about coral aquaculture and the importance of coral in the wild. At the Coral Research Lab at the Science and Technology Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut Justin further refined the techniques of fusing mulitple coral together to create new varieties, and micro-culture techniques. Justin also founded the Coral Bank, a living stocks collection of coral in captivity, during his time at the Science Magnet school. The website is www.coralbank.org

Justin is now at Exotic Reef Imports in Los Angeles where he is developing the aquaculture division, and establishing new strains of captive grown coral, including many species of Goniopora, and new varieties of fused coral. Justin is also in the band Incognito Sofa Love, signed to Tribe Muzik. He is often joined by is friends and daughters in the creation of music and videos.