Zero Impact SPS Systems

[Dwarf Seahorses]

Does anyone here have a zero-impact SPS system? By zero-impact I mean everything is 100% aquacultured from the liverock and clean up crew to fish and corals. Environmentally friendly, raising coral reef awareness, and fish/corals are hardier as they are adapted to captive systems, it's a no brainer for me personally. Show those pictures if anyone has such a system!

I am setting up a zero impact SPS system soon, I want some inspiration.

 

[Craig Lambert]

Interesting question. My sps are all aquacultured, but I wasn't aware you could put together an aquacultured cleanup crew. As for fish I know quite a few people have captive raised clowns, but I'm not aware of what other fish would be available. Following along to learn.

 

[Dwarf Seahorses]

Quite a lot of other fish are captive bred, here's a link showing some (not all) of captive bred marine fish. Aquacultured corals as you know are quite readily available. Clams are available as well.

Inverts/clean up crews are pretty hard to get a hold of. Some places have some available, but there pretty limited.

 

[reefgeek84]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9717319#post9717319 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dwarf Seahorses
Quite a lot of other fish are captive bred, here's a link showing some (not all) of captive bred marine fish. Aquacultured corals as you know are quite readily available. Clams are available as well.

Inverts/clean up crews are pretty hard to get a hold of. Some places have some available, but there pretty limited.

Honestly, that is not very many fish that are captive bred...I can give you a bunch of more families that are very common in this trade that are not on that list...

I think it is possible to have aquacultured corals as the only ones in the tank, but I think everything else is going to be tough.

 

[Dwarf Seahorses]

True, there are many more wild caught fish than captive bred, but a lot of the popular species (tangs, clownfish, gobies, dottybacks, etc.) are captive bred.

I personally think the only hard part of going zero impact is the clean up crew, again very limited. Liverock, corals, fish, are easy to get.

 

[jacob30]

Great idea on zero impact reef. It is absolutely possible. Corals are easy part. The fish will be limited. Many species of clownfish, cardinals, gobies, and some dwarf angels. Tangs are not captive bred comercially if at all (please fill me in if you know of any). There are many tangs that are "pond" raised but the larvae are captured, so not really zero impact.

The rock is easy.

The clean up crew is easy (except maybe hermits but who needs them).

Great goal. I have thought of this as well if I were to start over.

I am also curious if anyone else has done this??

Jacob

 

[ReeferMonkey]

What does everyone think the zero impact point is for live rock? My impression is that most Pacific rock is coming from the debris created by storms, natural disasters, etc. Is there a way for anyone to guage what a sustainable amount of LR for export is? On the flip side you have acquacultured rock from Florida. Yes, they are creating the reef, but what is the cost to the place that the rock came from?

 

[Dwarf Seahorses]

I'm getting my LR from Tampa Bay Saltwater, it's aquacultured @ $5 per pound plus like $50 bucks for shipping to my nearest airport (luckily I'm not too far from Logan Airport).

I will get back to you on /what/where/how their rock is collected after I receive an e-mail. It might actually be terrestrial or man-made rock placed in their holding nets, but ti might also be something like coral rock.

 

[ReeferMonkey]

I'm pretty sure they mined calcium carbonate (coral rock) and dumped it on an open sand bed.

 

[jacob30]

The people at Tampa Bay Saltwater have actually created a coral reef where there was once nothing but sand. Buying aquacultured rock from them or other operations like them actually increases biodiversity in that area. This is very similar to the concept of an artificial reef like a shipwreck. I have some of TBS rock along with some Reefer Rock and they both are great. That is the combination I would go with if I were to start a zero impact reef.

The only minor problem with TBS rock is that it will come with some easily removable mantis and gorrila crabs. On the plus side it comes with huge amounts of life. After 2 years much of it remains. Some of the heavy nutrient/plankton loving organisms will decrease over time.

Jacob

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9720972#post9720972 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReeferMonkey
What does everyone think the zero impact point is for live rock? My impression is that most Pacific rock is coming from the debris created by storms, natural disasters, etc. Is there a way for anyone to guage what a sustainable amount of LR for export is? On the flip side you have acquacultured rock from Florida. Yes, they are creating the reef, but what is the cost to the place that the rock came from?

 

[ReeferMonkey]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9722815#post9722815 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jacob30
The people at Tampa Bay Saltwater have actually created a coral reef where there was once nothing but sand. Buying aquacultured rock from them or other operations like them actually increases biodiversity in that area. This is very similar to the concept of an artificial reef like a shipwreck. I have some of TBS rock along with some Reefer Rock and they both are great. That is the combination I would go with if I were to start a zero impact reef.

The only minor problem with TBS rock is that it will come with some easily removable mantis and gorrila crabs. On the plus side it comes with huge amounts of life. After 2 years much of it remains. Some of the heavy nutrient/plankton loving organisms will decrease over time.

Jacob

As devil's advocate, I'd like to point out that you're only seeing one side of the coin. What about the environmental impact at the excavation site for the million pounds of rock they dug up? Calfo and Fenner briefly touch on this point in Reef Invertebrates. Sure, you may temporarily increase biodiversity in that area, but what about the terrestrial environment that it's coming from? Also, how much Pacific rock can be sustainably harvested?

 

[jacob30]

There is an environmental impact in everyting we do good and bad. Yes if they left a big smoking hole afterwards it would take many years to recover and there would be a terrestial envi impact. Chances are it is still an active quarry. IMO the envi impact of taking wild harvested rock is far greater.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9723248#post9723248 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReeferMonkey
As devil's advocate, I'd like to point out that you're only seeing one side of the coin. What about the environmental impact at the excavation site for the million pounds of rock they dug up? Calfo and Fenner briefly touch on this point in Reef Invertebrates. Sure, you may temporarily increase biodiversity in that area, but what about the terrestrial environment that it's coming from? Also, how much Pacific rock can be sustainably harvested?

 

[the_anti_honda]

Everything in my small tank would fit into this category except for my six line wrasse.

Corals are all aquacultured

Rock was collected (dead) rock. But it had no direct impact from being taken form the reef.

Sand was mined so thats probably not really helping any but it wasn't from the ocean.

CUC consists of aqua cultured snails

I take that back my feather dusters are wild caught..

 

[Covey]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9720972#post9720972 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReeferMonkey
What does everyone think the zero impact point is for live rock? My impression is that most Pacific rock is coming from the debris created by storms, natural disasters, etc. Is there a way for anyone to guage what a sustainable amount of LR for export is? On the flip side you have acquacultured rock from Florida. Yes, they are creating the reef, but what is the cost to the place that the rock came from?

If nature created the debris fields nature has a use for them.

And does anyone actually buy the "it's just storm damage" theory. We as hobbyist import a TONS of rock. That's all storm damage...

There are plenty of DIY rock options and since you save a fortune while being environmentally friend I would go with that being the easiest.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1094586

 

[reefman8471]

Aquacultured

Aquacultured

Tangs are not captive bred because their larval stage is very long. They families that I am aware of that have captive raised species are;
clownfish, damselfish, gobies, dottybacks, cardinalfish, seahorses and pipefish. All of these have short larval stages or in the case of the Banggai Cardinalfish they are mouth brooders.

James

 

[Dwarf Seahorses]

It doesn't matter if rock was collected from terrestrial lands, the point of a zero impact tank is to not affect the ocean. Some may say that it's just like trading one for the other, but I don't believe that as coral reefs are the most endangered environments in the world where many (granted not most) terrestrial environments are still healthy.

I take my tang comment back, I thought they were full blown aquacultured, meaning their life began in a closed system but I guess not.

 

[Al]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9717105#post9717105 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Craig Lambert
Interesting question. My sps are all aquacultured, but I wasn't aware you could put together an aquacultured cleanup crew.

You can get an aquacultured cleanup crew. Try Inland Aquatics. True, their detritivore kits do not include hermit crabs, but you don't really need them.

 

[sfsuphysics]

I'm curious at what point do you consider stuff not have come from the oceans? Do you count buying live rock from an existing tank that originally came from the ocean? It's "recycled" in a way? Or do you count the countless "aquaculture" businesses out there that cherry pick nice pieces that came directly from the ocean, but sell frags from those instead of the whole colony? Seems like a mighty fine line between environmentally friendly and aquaculture, the reason I say this is that you don't see too many aquaculture places with only the same pieces, sure they might trade for other ones, but as a business many have probably diversified their sellable stock as well as replenished their supplies.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9800647#post9800647 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sfsuphysics
I'm curious at what point do you consider stuff not have come from the oceans? Do you count buying live rock from an existing tank that originally came from the ocean? It's "recycled" in a way? Or do you count the countless "aquaculture" businesses out there that cherry pick nice pieces that came directly from the ocean, but sell frags from those instead of the whole colony? Seems like a mighty fine line between environmentally friendly and aquaculture, the reason I say this is that you don't see too many aquaculture places with only the same pieces, sure they might trade for other ones, but as a business many have probably diversified their sellable stock as well as replenished their supplies.

Exactly. "Aquacultured" means nothing more than a frag grown onto a chunk of limestone. Where did the mother colony come from? Who knows, but possibly ripped from the reef. There is no standard in nomenclature for this hobby, so this is almost a moot point. What business A calls "aquacultured" may not at all fit what I think is "Aquacultured". And how many generations away is "aquacultured"? If you can ever call an asexuaklly propogated specimen a generation. Too many questions, too few answers.

 

[LockeOak]

I think it's a fine goal, I'm trying to make my tank zero-impact as well. I'm pretty certain that all of the corals in the tank are aquacultured in the sense that they are fragments of corals that have grown in the tanks of other hobbyists (i.e. no polyps that exist in my tank ever existed in the ocean), plus they are all very common and easily obtained. I have never bought a coral from a LFS. I have no fish but plan on getting a captive-bred ocellaris pair. The only things in my tank that I'm not certain of their origin are certain members of the cleanup crew and the live rock. For my next tank I'll likely go the DIY live rock route and be more careful about finding aquacultured snails and crew members.