Well, I have been thinking about this for a while, and though I don't feel we're nearly ready for such an undertaking at this point in our club, I am interested in others thoughts. So here it is:
We all know well kept reef tanks draw tremendous amounts of attention, so wouldn't it be nice to have a club run reef tank in a public place, most likely the mall. I am not talking about a 300 gal custom acrylic monster. Rather a 75 -125 reef ready, with a nice stand and canopy. It would have to be nearly 100% sponsorship funded. The stand and canopy could be advertising space that would be sold to fund the project. We would also have to rely on vendor and local LFS sponsorship as well. I have read many accounts of other clubs doing these types of projects, some successful and other not so. Keep in mind this is just an idea and I have not spoken with anyone about it, so this is all speculation. That being said, here are a few things I was thinking. It would need be within eye sight of a mall employee to prevent tampering by onlookers (probably right next to customer service or similar), it would need to be well built, with locks on both the canopy and stand, and there would have to be a strict maintenance schedule. It would likely be a welcome addition to the mall, and would do a great job to grow awareness of the club and the marine aquarium hobby as a whole.
Anyway, as I said, this is just a pipe dream at this point, but maybe it's something we could look forward to as the club grows. I'd love to hear your thoughts....so let them fly.
Ben
We all know well kept reef tanks draw tremendous amounts of attention, so wouldn't it be nice to have a club run reef tank in a public place, most likely the mall. I am not talking about a 300 gal custom acrylic monster. Rather a 75 -125 reef ready, with a nice stand and canopy. It would have to be nearly 100% sponsorship funded. The stand and canopy could be advertising space that would be sold to fund the project. We would also have to rely on vendor and local LFS sponsorship as well. I have read many accounts of other clubs doing these types of projects, some successful and other not so. Keep in mind this is just an idea and I have not spoken with anyone about it, so this is all speculation. That being said, here are a few things I was thinking. It would need be within eye sight of a mall employee to prevent tampering by onlookers (probably right next to customer service or similar), it would need to be well built, with locks on both the canopy and stand, and there would have to be a strict maintenance schedule. It would likely be a welcome addition to the mall, and would do a great job to grow awareness of the club and the marine aquarium hobby as a whole.
Anyway, as I said, this is just a pipe dream at this point, but maybe it's something we could look forward to as the club grows. I'd love to hear your thoughts....so let them fly.
Ben
