more 2 cents

[piznac]

Some very good post here. Responsibilty is doing what we can do. Bringing something close to home often affects our opinon on it. I have been interested in reefs for many years now, and you hear how delicate the enivroment is. But IMO untill I began this hobby I had no idea.

One thing this hobby does (if you want to succeed) is force you to become a reef researcher. It forces you to understand more about this delicate thing. It also makes you realize just how delicate it is.

The one thing that truly amazed me about this hobby is the fact that many creatures can be produced in my living room. From live rock to corals, we are starting to learn more and more. Now if one feels that the best way they can help is to get out of the hobby,.. more power to them. I feel it is one of my responsibilities to hand down what I have learned to my children. Educate them on this most wonderful hobby so that we might be able to save our reefs in the future.

We can only do what we can. If I quit driving to work eveyday that would probably have the best impact on our earth. But that option does not exist for me. So we must comprimise,. car pooling, more energy efficient vehicles,.. ect. The same can be said about reef aquariums, be responsible in what you plan to keep. Try your best to produce as much as you can, to give back and help other reefers, so we dont continue to rape our oceans.

Like many said,. just my 2 cents.

-- a lurker

[piznac]

It would appear I clicked the wrong button. This was supposed to be in response to the "responsible reefkeeping" thread. Whoops sorry. It appears I cannot delete it,.

[antonsemrad]

So we must comprimise,. car pooling, more energy efficient vehicles,.. ect. The same can be said about reef aquariums, be responsible in what you plan to keep. Try your best to produce as much as you can, to give back and help other reefers, so we dont continue to rape our oceans.

I have been keeping reef tanks for over three years now, and over this time I have learned a great deal about ecosystems, from managing my tank. From this, awareness about our planet, and the changes occurring from us humans, has become increasingly apparent! Sometimes I feel guilty about the large amounts of electricity that it consumes, which is largely generated from the hydrocarbons that were previously sequestered beneath the earths crust. How much of an effect this is having on our planet has been fiercely debated in this forum, and elsewhere. My take on it is, its not sustainable, and the future is far from assured. I feel that I need to personally do what I can to conserve. And the tank is looking at me in the face. I try to use it as a teaching tool for myself and others, as an excuse for keeping it. Its kind of a catch 22.

Anton

[kathainbowen]

Actually, Anton, this is precisely why I'm getting interesting in a more aggressive study of tank propagation and expanding a larger trading network. Already, there are some species around the world which are only sustained by captive care (I do recall there are a few Poecilia species which are only in existence today because their native habitat was wiped out, but livebearer enthusiasts had the species in captivity).

Unfortunately, it is a catch 22, weighing your hydrocarbon usage over any benefit of the maintenance of species.

I'm hoping to try to get into researching the growing of white corals in the northern states and the release onto artificial reefs to enhance the speed of reef establishment. I want to get a research internship at Cook and go back to school this fall. However, at the moment, it's not a good idea to collect white coral specimens. So, until the end of the summer, I'm going to be playing with some of the "bread and butter" corals (*if such a thing could be said) to enhance the productivity of captive propagation in a bid to have a good, well rounded proposal ready for the fall.

.... I have a lot of free time at work.

But, if you've been glossing over what I just wrote, suffice it to say that I find using tanks to alternative advantages to be a good offset of your hydrocarbon usage. In your case, Anton, you say you use your tank as a teaching tool. In my case, I'm using my tanks as experimental breeding grounds. I know, it might still be hard to rationalize your hydrocarbon usage, but I hope it gives you some small comfort.

[The Chefin' Man]

Piz that is a very good point. I guess this is the same that I do with my kids too. They have been around reef aquariums and fresh water tanks all of their lives. They love them! My 8 year old daughter has a 55 gal fresh water tank, and a 12 gallon nano. My five year old son has the same nano. She does all of the maintance on her tanks and keeps records of them on efishtank.com. My son also helps out on his tank and is very interested with all of the ingredients that it takes to make a beautiful and sucessful tank. I hope that they do not loose interest in them and they continue to learn. My daughter did a science project at school last year on "how to frag a coral". Can you believe that. She did great with the project and got an A, the kids in the class were amazed and told their parents that they wanted to have a coral reef tank like hers and they want to cut them in half too. I wonder how many people cussed me out about that one (hehehe). Then again I wonder how many actually thanked me for it also.

[piznac]

My daughter did a science project at school last year on "how to frag a coral". Can you believe that.

Thats awesome man,.. wish my daughters got into it that much,..