About Broke Reefers

I Couldn't Find Reef T-Shirts I Wanted. So I Made Them.

Broke Reefers started because I wanted something that turned out to be surprisingly hard to find: reef keeping T-shirts I'd actually want to wear. Not generic aquarium graphics. Not another tee that just says I love fish. I wanted designs that felt like they came from inside the hobby, about the things reefers actually talk about, obsess over, and laugh about at 1am while staring at a frag rack. I couldn't find it. So I started making it.

Born from the Hobby

I'm Fred, the reefer behind Broke Reefers. I've been part of the reef keeping community for many years, building my own reefs, sharing what I've learned, and helping other hobbyists with theirs. I've been a member of Reef2Reef since 2013, and in 2018 I started the "Need Help With Your Aquascape?" thread, offering to help fellow reefers improve their aquascapes. That simple offer grew into a long running community resource with thousands of replies and 200,000+ views.

Years later, it's still a sticky thread in Reef2Reef's Aquascape Discussion forum. Along the way, my contributions were recognized with Reef2Reef's Excellence Award, and my own tank, Rêverie Reef, was featured as a Reef Tank 365, documented over the years through its planning, aquascaping, coral growth, fish, equipment, wins, mistakes, and everything in between.

In December 2021, Rêverie Reef also received one of the recognitions I'm most proud of when it was selected as Ultimate Reef's Tank of the Month. The feature told the story of my aquarium in detail, from its unusual dimensions and carefully planned aquascape to the fish, corals and thinking behind the system. For me, it was especially meaningful because Rêverie had never been about simply filling a tank with beautiful corals. I had always approached it as a complete composition, where aquascaping, coral growth, negative space and the behavior and wellbeing of the animals all had to work together.

Seeing years of planning, experimenting, learning and watching the reef evolve recognised by another established reef keeping community was something very special. And, in many ways, that same approach eventually found its way into Broke Reefers: make something for the hobby that I would genuinely want for myself.

Why Broke Reefers?

Because reef keeping has a rare talent: emptying your wallet while convincing you that you absolutely need just one more coral. But being a Broke Reefer was never really about how much you spend. It's knowing your alkalinity better than your bank balance. It's staying up too late because something in the tank looks off. It's planning a holiday around who's going to babysit the reef. It's staring at a rock for twenty minutes because you spotted a new polyp. It's telling yourself this is definitely the last equipment upgrade. And it's trying to explain to a perfectly reasonable person why that tiny colorful frag was absolutely worth what you paid for it.

If any of that sounds familiar, you're one of us. That's what I wanted Broke Reefers to be.
Not generic aquarium merch with a clownfish slapped on it. I wanted T-shirts another reefer could look at and immediately get the joke, inspired by the animals we keep, the problems we fight, the ridiculous things we do, and the strange little language we've built around this hobby.

Every design starts there. I make the reef T-shirts I went looking for in the first place: tees I'd wear myself, made for people who don't need the joke explained to them.
Whether you're planning your first reef, obsessing over your latest coral, battling something you definitely didn't introduce on purpose, or running an automated system that costs more than you'd ever admit to your family, you're in the right place.

Welcome to Broke Reefers.
Made by a reefer, for reefers.