SANJAY JOSHI

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. Dr. Joshi is actively involved in educating the hobby on various topics through his publications in reef magazines and lectures. He has published articles in magazines such as Advanced Aquarist, Reefs Magazine, Coral, Marine Fish and Reef Annual, Aquarium Frontiers, and Aquarium Fish. 

JOHN HUDSON

John has been keeping aquariums since 1993 at the age of 19. In 2011 he and his wife Lisa started the KGTropicals YouTube channel to educate new fish keepers and get them through the pitfalls of a new aquarium.

MARC LEVENSON

Marc “melev” Levenson has been in the hobby since 1998, blogging his experiences about his own reef on melevsreef.com to help others learn husbandry skills. Most recently he’s become an online personality with tens of thousands of followers on his YouTube channel (melevsreef) also geared at helping other reefers through his personal experiences. His website’s articles, blogs, and Critter ID cover topics like pest control, feeding techniques, working with acrylics, reef photography and water chemistry to name a few.

MICHAEL PALETTA

Michael Paletta has been keeping marine aquariums (specifically reef aquariums) since the 1980s. He is a well-known aquarist who has traveled worldwide giving presentations about various aspects of the aquarium hobby. Mike is also the author of The New Marine Aquarium and Ultimate Marine Aquariums from T.F.H. Publications.

JOE YAIULLO

As a kid, Joe spent much of his childhood maintaining home aquariums and exploring the marine life surrounding Long Island, New York. Now he gets paid to basically do what he did as a kid and has been keeping reef tanks for over 29 years.

Joe earned a B.S. in Marine Science from LIU Southampton College’s marine science program, and worked for 8 years (1987-1995) at the NY Aquarium in Brooklyn, New York as Senior Aquarist. Starting in 1987, Joe pioneered what is now common practice in reef keeping today and upped his game in 1993 with the establishment of a 1400-gallon reef tank, which at the time was the largest successful reef tank in the Western Hemisphere. In 1992, he began to shape his plan for a world-class aquarium on Long Island’s East End. In 2000, after toiling for eight long years, his plans and vision became a reality with the opening of Atlantis Marine World Aquarium in Riverhead, NY (now known as the Long Island Aquarium). On that day, the public was able to see his 20,000-gallon reef tank, which was the largest closed system reef tank in the Western Hemisphere, and second largest in the world at that time. In 2003, Joe was awarded The Distinguished Alumni Award from Southampton College for his contributions to the community.

Joe, an admitted “Coralaholic”, currently feeds his ever increasing addiction with nurturing his 20,000 gallon reef tank, which contains corals that date back over 26 years. While he has admitted his addiction, he has no plans of seeking a cure and enjoys talking with reef keepers from around the world.

Joe has been featured in many reef keeping books and magazines, and has presented lectures in Canada, Germany, Sweden, Finland, England, Fiji, Monaco, France, The Netherlands, and Italy and throughout the USA including several MACNA’s dating back to 1994.

The Long Island Aquarium is a world-class aquarium, so even though it’s on a larger scale, Curator and Co-founder Joe Yaiullo still considers it his entire “DIY” project.

TAZAWA TANKS

PRIMETIME AQUATICS

Jason started keeping fish at the age of six and has almost 40 years of freshwater fish-keeping experience. His background includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology and Chemical Science as well as a Graduate Certificate in Aquaculture and Fish Health. He and his family started Prime Time Aquatics to help people of all ages and experience succeed in the freshwater fish-keeping hobby