Meet The Creator Of The Porites Engine: Alex Morash

Alex Morash is the creator of the Porites Engine and founder of Porites.AI. Alex is a research director at a national non-profit organization and holds a graduate degree from Northeastern University. While he is not a marine biologist, he is an avid coral reef aquarist who has been involved in the hobby for years.

To those who know Alex, it is not really a surprise that he created the Porites Engine. As a research director known for maintaining rigorous standards who is also a reef aquarist looking for scientific answers to his coral questions, the Porites Engine is a natural extension of his interests, matched with his high standards. While in grad school, Alex did PhD core coursework in research methods, the philosophy of science, and on the scientific method itself. Combine this background with his time as a journalist instilled in him rigorous research standards. He has taken this into his work as a research director, where he is known for being very demanding when it comes to detailed citations — as many a researcher who has worked for Alex can begrudgingly attest.

Alex has a long professional career that has made him a respected member of his field. His current work as a research director at a national organization is focused on the economics related to worker wages, and his graduate degree is in Political Science with a focus on political economy. Prior to that, he has worked in journalism with over 200 bylines in nearly a dozen outlets, and served as editor-in-chief of the Rhode Island based news outlet Options Magazine. His other work included serving as the personal editor and researcher for a former Massachusetts governor, media director for a national advocacy group, press secretary for a major party in Florida, and was the economic researcher at the media watchdog Media Matters for America.

His passion for the coral reef hobby comes from Alex’s life, which has always been connected to the sea. Growing up on Cape Cod, it was normal for Alex to learn how to sail boats and explore saltwater marshes and shoreline ecosystems on school trips around town. Even as an adult he has never lived far from the water, be it living in the Ocean State, or today in sunny Fort Lauderdale. This love of the ocean became a passion for the reef hobby.

Alex loves all the many different corals out there and is a self-described “stick head.” He has been keeping acropora in nano tanks successfully for the last three years. Currently, he maintains multiple small saltwater tanks, with his “largest” being a 20-gallon SPS tank, and his 6-gallon tank that houses a few soft corals, along with a hammer, frogspawn, and a few monitopora. He does have a 1-gallon, but he only keeps spare clippings of marcoalgea in there. He will be the first to admit he wishes he had started with a tank larger than 20 gallons and wants to one day get a bigger tank, but first, he wants to make Porites.AI a success.

Everything in his aquariums, other than blue-legged hermit crabs and astrea snails, is aquacultured or maricultured (he jokes even the occasional apatasia is aquacultured). This was not entirely on purpose; it’s just that the few pieces he’s had that were not aquacultured just did not do well in tank environments. At the same time, those experiences have led him to often advise that aquacultured and maricultured really makes for a better reefing experience, especially for newer aquirists and is also more sustainable for the hobby. Nearly all of his corals and fish come from Tidal Gardens, ORA, Biota, and Top Shelf (if he had a bigger tank, he’d have representation from even more groups, such as Cherry Corals). Some shipped directly, and others came by way of his local fish store.

Alex is happy to discuss what has worked for him and hear from others on their successes, which is why he can’t wait to build out the Porites community forums.