A Question for Kevin

[snorvich]

I seem to recall in a thread a while back that you said that you folks kept what amount to a refugium with tunicates, sponges and other filter feeders; this is similar to the Steve Tyree method if I recall correctly. Do you, by any chance sell seeding material if we wish to try the dual chamber refugium concept ourselves?

Thanks in advance; I know this is an off the wall question.

 

[dfs/la2]

snorvich,

Thank you for contacting us with your great question. We would be happy to check with our Aquaculture Coral and Marine Life Facility on Monday to get this answered. As soon as we have an answer we will post a reply.

Stacie R
Technical Support
Drs Foster and Smith

 

[DFS]

Steve,

At our Rhinelander Wisconsin Aquaculture Coral and Marine Life Facility, we utilize thousands of pounds of live rock in the sumps of each of our three main coral rows. These sumps are enclosed and are not exposed to any form of light. Over the years, an incredible population of fan worms, tunicates, sponges and other beneficial benthic organisms have colonized this rock. This adds biodiversity and stability to our systems, and also helps considerably with nutrient export.

After listening to Steve Tyree's presentation on Trizonal Tropical Reef Filtration Methods at MACNA 2002 (hosted by DFWMAS) I was convinced that this methodology was something I wanted to experiment with. Steve Tyree has an incredible amount of experience and is a major asset to our hobby and is a great guy to boot. Most of the folks here on RC know Steve from his work with stony corals, which started in the early 90’s.

Having incorporated some of Steve's methodologies on my personal aquariums with fantastic results, I made the decision to incorporate some of these ideas into the design of our facility, which has worked very well for us.

Unfortunately at this time we do not offer starter kits or seedling materials for sale on the LiveAquaria.com web site, but I will consider doing so in the future. We need to first make it feasible to harvest these organisms without damaging them, and also experiment with packing and shipping techniques to ensure their safe arrival.

Regards,
Kevin Kohen
Director of LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith

 

[snorvich]

Thanks. I am designing multi zone refugiums at the moment. I guess I will try and figure out how to seed the benthic zone; I already am saving aiptasia for the initial zone. Thanks Kevin. If you figure out how to sell this capability, I will be most interested.