Welcome to Reef Currents

The Marine Aquarium and Reef Society of Houston (MARSH) is excited to announce Houston’s Third annual Reef Keeping trade show and educational conference. In cooperation with The Coral Farmers Market(sm) (CFM), MARSH will be hosting 3 speakers and coral vendors from all around the country for one day of education and shopping. This is a great opportunity for those in the Houston area to hear some great speakers and get a chance to visit with coral vendors specializing in tank raised corals.

Please visit our sites for more information about MARSH and C.F.M..

This 2016 Reef Currents event is the third annual run by marsh-reef.org. We are now selling vendor hall, speaker, and raffle item tickets. We are also accepting applications for vendor booths and show sponsors. This is scheduled to be the best Reef Currents event to date. The show will also be one of the largest displays of the absolute best exotic captive grown corals Houston has to offer to the buying public. We expect hundreds to attend. Reef Currents is a must see for all reefers!

2016 Speakers

Michael Paletta

Michael Paletta has been keeping marine tanks since 1980 and reef tanks since 1985. During the past 30 years he has written over 200 articles on marine fish and invertebrates in both the US and Europe. His first book “The Modern Marine Aquarium” is an attempt to simplify marine fish keeping for the beginning hobbyist while at the same time incorporating advances that have been made due to reef keeping.  His second book “Ultimate Marine Aquariums” illustrates how far the hobby has come in the past 15 years. In this book are examples of just about every type of reef tank using different methodologies and technology. Michael has enjoyed speaking at over 150 marine societies and national conferences in North America, Canada, South America and Europe. Michael has appeared on both local and national radio shows to discuss the hobby and to help new hobbyists become successful. Currently Michael has 300, 90. 75, 40 and 26- gallon reef tanks of various types set up in his home. He has helped in the set up of over 200 tanks throughout the U.S, including several tanks over 4,000 gallons in capacity. Michael is currently writing a weekly blog on ReefBuilders and has done over 20 videos for American Reef. Michael also acted as a consultant with the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the Pittsburgh Zoo Aquarium. Michael has B.S. from Dickinson College and a Master’s degree from Yale University. Michael has also been a technical consultant for several equipment manufacturers and online companies. Michael is currently employed in sales in the biotechnology field.

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 tropicals. In the early eighties he took a giant leap forward and assembled his very first saltwater 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 aquarists 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 the Carden Wallace text book on Acropora titled "Staghorn Corals of the World".

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.

In August of 2011 Tony released his book titled "The Coral Reef Aquarium", which was the best selling Aquarium book in our digital era.  The book focused 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.

Currently, Tony is working his forthcoming book titled "The Coral Reef Aquarium Vol 2".

Marc Levenson

Known to many online as "melev", Marc Levenson has been in the hobby for since 1998. Marc owns and runs two websites: melevsreef.com & reefaddicts.com that are there to help hobbyists everywhere. His site started off as a single page many years ago, then grew to include additional topics of interest such as acrylic work, photography, solutions to pests, information about his reef tanks, lighting, feeding, critter ID and more. Podcasts, videos, product reviews and articles provide answers to many of the questions raised by hobbyists worldwide.

If words and pictures weren’t enough, Marc also delved into additional media:

Podcasting: From 2006 to 2009, about three dozen shows were released on Reefcast.com Do a search on iTunes for "reefcast" to find past episodes. Mostly audio downloads in mp3 format, but some were vidcasts. Then beginning in 2010, Reef Addicts’ podcast commenced, and can be found on iTunes as well. Search for "reefaddicts" for shows.

Videos: Reefaddicts has more than 40 videos available via the YouTube.com/reefaddicts, and more videos can be found on YouTube.com/melevsreef

Marc has been a fan of MACNA since 2002 and hasn’t missed one since. He was on the BOD (Board of Directors) for MASNA, and is still on the BOD for DFWMAS since 2004. He was the club president of DFWMAS for three years, working to keep the membership growing and provide interesting content both online and at the monthly meetings. Marc has magazine articles in print, and was a contributing author to "Reefkeeping Basics." He was editor of Reefkeeping Magazine for 14 months, and travels to speak to clubs across the nation. When he’s not busy with that, he builds custom acrylic wares and sells RO/DI systems and other products via his online store. His current tanks are a 400g reef and a 60g anemone cube.

2016 Venue

Sheraton North Houston at George Bush Intercontinental

15700 John F. Kennedy Boulevard · Houston, Texas, 77032

Phone: (281) 442-5100 · Hotel Reservations: 888-627-7085

Be sure to tell reservation staff you are attending the Reef Currents Event.

2016 Sponsors

2016 Vendors

2016 Raffle List

2016 Event Schedule