How can we make our hobby more "green"?

[jason the filter freak]

No I don't me green as in covered in algae.

I'm interested in all the employed, or reasonable to pull off methods, of reduce, reuse, recycle as it relates to our hobby? 

 

 

I'll start:

RODI waste- water a garden/plants bonus if you have a rain barrel you can also fill a watering can if you have indoor plants, fill ponds or pools, vehicle or gear rinse, doggy bath, fill toilet tanks, fill washing machines. 

 

Fleece rollers/filter floss- stop using it. Filter socks are so easy to employ and pretty darn easy to wash. Ideally you'd route your washer discharge though a filter sock on a utility since to catch micro plastics out puts. 

 

Water change water- If you're not vacuuming your sand bed AND you're pest free donating to someone who's cycling a tank can be very helpful or people with dirty FOWLR especially at higher volumes. (Don't discharge to the ocean please) also helpful for QT tank water changes if you meet the above criteria. 

 

Old glass tanks- QT tanks, sumps, water mixing container, reptile and amphibian tanks, green house tanks, you'd be surprised the amount of people looking for tanks with small cracks for reptiles on craigslist/Facebook marketplace/freecycle 

 

Old acrylic tanks- pretty much everything above plus cut down the large panes for scrap later fotlr misc projects like frag racks, sump baffles, skimmer stands etc. 

 

Old carbon- depending on what you use in your tank chemical wise you can add it to compost and use for soil fill. 

 

Old non-led lights- recycle at the very least, they can also be used in other applications for signage or lighting where par/color shift doesn't matter much. 

 

Old and or partially burnt out LEDs- fish room or under stand lighting, give them away to your local or non-local DIYer (many people would be willing to pay shipping for your not overly damaged LEDS as they can often be scavenged for parts 

 

PVC and hose cast offs from your plumbing- great for QT tanks (I strongly suggest painting a dark color with Krylon fusion or something as white isn't ideal for fish), also keep those 3"+ scraps I can't tell you how many times I've needed to shorten or just slightly lenghten plumbing projects. 

 

Old tank sand- Use for ground fill, driveway traction in the winter, or give away there are some people willing to put the work in to wash the sand for reuse.

 

Old tank rock- rinse, cure, and reuse, give away to someone who will rinse, cure, and reuse, can be used by someone with FOWLR or cichlid tanks if you used copper or something on them. 

 

Aptasia- check and see if someone is breeding aptasia eating Nudi or training a file fish before drying out those unrecoverable chunks of live rock

 

Asterina stars- if you're scraping them off in large quantities, first sorry, second see if someone local has harlequin shrimp.

 

Macro algae- if you're harvesting cheato or whatever else see if you can give it away to someone starting up a fuge also it can be composted

 

RODI filtration- Look for rechargable resin or refillable resin cartridges 

 

Frag plugs- once you've cut your coral off let them dry off to kill any potential pests then toss um in your sump. They'll be cured next time you need to frag something. 

 

Live rock rubble from aquascaping- same thing toss the rubble in your sump or unused back chamber, it makes great bio filtration. they also make awesome looking frag "plugs" that blend into aquascaping, If you have a pest free tank consider donating to someone starting up a tank. Can also be used for "pod piles". 

 

Shells from dead snails or hermits.- if there's no biomatter in them but you find them unsightly on your sand bed drop them back behind your live rock. Hermits will kill snails for their shells if they can't find readily available shells once they've outgrown theirs

 

Frag cups and fish bags- rinse these and keep them in the back of your fish closet. So much plastic that doesn't need to go to waste. Use them next time you sell corals. Putting those cups inside a bag is a great way to prevent leaks in the event the frag cup starts leaking. If you're accumulating large amounts of cups you're not using. See if your local fraggers want them before resorting to tossing them in your recycle bin.

 

Fish shipping containers and packing- keep them or give them away to your local fraggers. If you're gonna move your tank any time soon they're great for transport. Pro-tip: if you find yourself in need of shipping containers try your local fish store, PetSmart, or Petco moat of the time they just throw them out anyway. Super pro-tip: a lot of places get their fish in mylar coated bubble wrap sleeves instead of foam boxes. Cut the two side seams until theyre long sheets of mylar coated bubble wrap give them a rinse/dry them out and use them for reflective heat barriers in your attic. We had a guy come in for every fish shipment we got a PetSmart back in the day. We have him all the mylar coated bubble wrap and he brought in pictures many months later. He has done all his rafters in something like 800 square foot attic. 

 

Dead coral skeletons- not the best LR honestly but if you've got large size/quantities give them away on marketplace/craigslist etc. Many jewelry and decor makers love them for projects.

 

 

I could keep going but I wanna see what others have. 

[yagerboy]

We are doing crazy RPA things that fits.  Interested.  Possible business opportunity

[jason the filter freak]

42 minutes ago, yagerboy said:

We are doing crazy RPA things that fits.  Interested.  Possible business opportunity

RPA? Robotic process automation? I'm not sure I follow.

[yagerboy]

17 hours ago, jason the filter freak said:

RPA? Robotic process automation? I'm not sure I follow.

Sorry, wrong forum.