Some Reef Articles in the News

[fishdrummer]

THE LIVING ROOM REEF ; SALTWATER AQUARIUMS GIVE THEIR OWNERS PEACE AND FUN

Aug 15 2006

The Capital Times & Wisconsin State Journal

 

Copyright © 2006 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.

When Tom Monsoor, 60, was looking for a hobby to carry him through retirement, he thought of the coral reefs he'd seen while snorkeling in the Bahamas 12 or 13 years ago.

Soon, he was in the Living Art Aquarium store at 8215 Plaza Drive, talking with owner Paul Sindermann. Monsoor, a nurse- anesthetist from Madison, wound up buying a 76-gallon aquarium with a coral reef in it. Worth about $5,000 including fish, corals, "live rock" from the ocean, and special lighting, Monsoor's setup teems with a variety of living corals and exotic fishes like starfish, clown fish, trigger fish, tangs, lion fish, damsels, hawk fish, wrasses and blenny.

It's a piece of the ocean in his condo.

"The first time I ever saw a reef snorkeling, I thought, I have to have a piece of that.' It's so beautiful, peaceful - you just don't see anything like that every day. You can sit and look at it for hours. It's like watching a campfire," Monsoor said.

Saltwater aquariums are riding a crest of increased interest, Sindermann said. "A lot more people are getting interested in it because we know a lot more about keeping things alive and the variety has never been so great, so exotic," Sindermann said. "With the growth of the Internet, a lot more people are aware you can have an aquarium, and people are realizing you don't have to be rich. Aquariums are becoming more and more available and economical."

The biggest trends in keeping saltwater aquariums are "live rock (from the ocean) with all sorts of organisms growing on it. You place your corals and other ... invertebrates such as sponges, clams, oysters and scallops on top of that." Freshwater aquariums are somewhat easier to care for, but the fish can't match those in saltwater tanks for brightness of color, he said.

This big myth' Jonathan Healy, owner of Aquatic Specialties aquarium store and Aquarium Superstores in Madison and Waukesha, said institutional saltwater aquariums are nothing new - his stores have installed three 500-gallon aquariums costing about $85,000 for a Madison medical clinic - but he agrees interest in saltwater fish tanks in homes is growing.

"In Madison, strangely enough, our saltwater sales are equal to if not more than our freshwater sales, so in this area we're seeing a rise in the saltwater community," Healy said. "I believe it's due to advances in technology (making it) easier to take care of the tank. There's been this big myth that saltwater's so hard and you have to test the water every day. The reality is, if it's set up properly, it almost takes care of itself, like its own ecosystem."

Healy said industry figures show that 13.5 million American households have freshwater tanks, compared to 800,000 saltwater households.

Like Tom Monsoor, Bob Bond fell in love with the ocean while snorkeling in the Caribbean. He had a 250-gallon saltwater tank in a previous house, but when he and his wife, Megan, built their home in rural Spring Green in 2001, they decided to incorporate a huge, 500- gallon aquarium. The aquarium and cabinets above and below it form a wall between the couple's theater room and game room.

"It's really peaceful and relaxing," Bond said. "You get mesmerized watching the fish swim around. The corals are softly swaying in the current. It's really beautiful."

Megan Bond said, "It's really fun to see the fish grow. And it's really sad when one dies. We used to name them after people we know, but we stopped doing that."

She added, "We've had the tank for five years and all of a sudden, (tiny) starfish were just there - a lot of them. They must have been hiding in the live rock."

'Gotta do it'

Bond didn't say how much his aquarium cost, but similar systems with reinforced steel and concrete, and custom glass, sell for as much as $40,000.

"I stopped into an aquarium store one day and said, I gotta do it,'" Bond, 52, said. "Most people start out small. I started out big. The bigger tanks are a little more forgiving. I have about 50 or more fish and lots of different corals. I feed them once a day, dead fish and shrimps."

His aquarium is serviced once a month by technicians from Aquatic Specialties, 3248 University Ave. "They come out for four hours or so. They change as much water as they can and put in all new saltwater. They test for and add chemicals, and clean up the system a bit," Bond said. A separate room holds all the plumbing associated with the aquarium. "I have 1,000 gallons of water flowing in the other room," he said.

Said Bob Bond, "To make an aquarium really go, you've got to have live rock from the bottom of the ocean. We have thousands of pounds in the bottom of ours. It comes mostly from Fiji. It gets flown in and you have to get it in water right away, so the organisms don't die."

Healy of Aquatic Specialties said a beginning saltwater enthusiast could buy a 75-gallon aquarium, stand, light, lid and filters for $500. "We basically ask the client what their goal is and ask them what their budget is," he said. "We do installation and maintenance," with service costing $45 an hour.

He added, "We tell people there's not much difference in price (from fresh water systems) if you want a saltwater fish system. What's more expensive is the saltwater reef systems, because you have to buy special lighting for between $1,500 and $2,000, and a protein skimmer for between $300 and $800."

Buying the fish, live rock, corals and other invertebrates all add to the cost.

Note of caution

The secret to keeping fish, whether freshwater or saltwater, is that the tank be ecologically balanced, Healy said. "To have a successful tank, the bacterial load must exceed the waste load ... to break down the waste created by the fish."

That's where live rock from the ocean comes in - it's loaded with beneficial bacteria that consume fish waste.

Healy sounded one note of caution about reef tanks: "What's harder about it is that the corals are so sensitive, a lot more sensitive than the fish. If the water is a little off, they can end up dying."

Caption: John Maniaci - State Journal Bob Bond enjoys the 500-gallon saltwater coral reef aquarium built into his rural Spring Green home. "It's really peaceful and relaxing," he says. The bright blue unicorn tang is named for the horn-like projection on its snout. The brightly colored long-nose hawk fish may grow to a length of about 4 inches. A stinging anemone provides a safe harbor to its symbiant friend, the clown fish.

 

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New York Man Grows Coral in His Basement

Clip By WILLIAM KATES

Associated Press Writer

Jul 19 2006

© 2006. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

DRYDEN, N.Y. (AP) - In upstate New York, famous for its snowy winters and far from any tropical ocean, Steve Lowes is growing coral reefs in his basement.

The 41-year-old English-born Lowes is raising dozens of coral species for his Web-based coral business, Reef Encounters, and is one of a growing breed of coral farmer who have found a niche supporting the booming hobby of keeping aquariums, which in 2005 was a $6.9 billion market.

And in the process, they are also helping scientists learn more about coral and are raising public awareness about a threatened species.

"It brings the ecosystem to life for people in a very effective way that's much more persuasive than reading about it in a book or looking at photographs," Lowes said.

Scientists have identified about 2,000 species of reef-building coral. The coral reefs are typically found in the warm salt waters in region between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn and cover about 1 percent of the earth's surface. The reefs, some millions of years old, are among the planet's most diverse and productive ecosystems.

Their value to the world economy is projected at more than $300 billion as a food source, for tourism appeal and in reducing shoreline erosion. However, they are threatened because of disease, natural disasters, pollution, overharvesting and global warming.

"There's something about life under the sea that attracts the human spirit. It starts with children," said Lowes, a scuba diver whose fascination with the sea began as a child watching Jacques Cousteau documentaries in the 1970s.

Lowes, a chemist for a pharmaceutical company, began growing coral as a hobby more than a decade ago while living in the United Kingdom. In 2002, he turned his "addiction" into a business and became a professional coral farmer.

Lowes raises 50 species and sells about 200 animals a month to upstate New York hobbyists and wholesalers. Depending on the species' rarity, they sell from $10 to $1,000 or more. He also helps install high-end reef aquarium systems, some of which can cost in excess of $30,000.

Home reef aquariums have been gaining popularity in the United States since the late 1980s, said Joe Yaillo, curator at Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, N.Y., which features a 20,000-gallon tank with the nation's largest live coral reef exhibit.

Lowes belongs to a loosely knit organization called the Upstate Reef Society with approximately 100 active members. Yaillo estimated there are more than 100 such groups across the United States.

Lowes' basement looks like a mad scientist's laboratory, with tens of thousands of dollars worth of lighting and filtration equipment hooked up to a 125-gallon aquarium and three large 100-gallon tanks.

He propagates his coral by breaking off millimeter-sized fragments and growing them in the tanks. They grow to about two inches in six months, when they are ready for sale and shipment. While its primary purpose is display, the aquarium also allows Lowes to study the interaction among the more than 60 species he keeps.

Lowes is investigating the ways corals' anti-fungal compounds could be useful to humans, one of many subjects he is working on with a Cornell University professor. Another is a project studying coral photosynthesis as part of an effort to develop improved lighting systems -- it bothers him that he must rely on fossil fuel to light and power his tanks.

By growing coral for home aquariums, hobbyists are reducing the need to harvest wild coral and have contributed significantly to the growing understanding of coral over the past 15 years, said Eric Borneman, a professor of coral reef biology at the University of Houston who has written extensively on coral.

"As scientists, we often only get snapshots of the coral we study, whether in the wild or in the lab," Borneman said. "Hobbyists are filling in the gaps by looking at coral every day, for much longer periods."

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On the Net:

Reef Encounters, http://www.reef-encounters.com

Atlantis Marine World, http://www.atlantismarineworld.com

[rocko918]

Moved to the Conservation Corner.

[Guest Larry-T]

We may headed toward the day when some marine species are extinct in the wild, but available through hobby breeders and specialty aquarium clubs. This has already happened in the case of a number of freshwater fish, including some species of killifish, livebearers, Lake Victoria Cichlids, and, now, the formerly common White Cloud Mountain Minnow, which is considered by most to be extinct in its original habitat. Nobody has seen them in the wild for years, but they will probably always be in the hobby.

[jason the filter freak]

It is a sad and fortunate event all at once :(