Reefing the next 20 years

[Paul B]

What do people think the next twenty years of reefing will bring?
I think the next two decades will bring a halt to collecting animals in most places. Farm raised animals will be the big thing (maybe the only thing) Most or all rock will be farmed. LED lighting will be the norm. Much more people will be breeding and raising the fry for profit. More live food will be available. There will be a reef safe cure for ich, hair algae and cyano.
Better ways to cultivate anerobic bacteria to combat nitrates will be available. Bacteria will become custom grown for aquariums for our purposes.
Paul

 

[Snowboarda42]

A coating of some sort to keep coraline and whatnot off of your glass, maybe make it non reflective so my Anthias isn't so mad at his reflection :lol:

More powerheads similar to vortech's

A different type of skimmer

New technology we can't even think of right now, and we'll wonder how we kept things alive in our tanks. And of course the regular improvements on the technology we have now (skimming improvements, new chemicals, more efficient lighting, etc.)

 

[jedimike]

The market is growing and competition is increasing so prices should drop. I've only been in the hobby for a few years and I've seen large drops in livestock that is or can be propogated.

Awesome lighting will be highly affordable because of LED technology.

Hopefully there will be breakthroughs in breeding to reduce the strain on reef collecting.

 

[chadmace]

I'm sure there will be advances that at this point you wont even be able to think of. All it takes is some research and development and for all we know you have a few electrodes that connect to your computer and control the enitre enviroment. 20 years is alot of time.

 

[Paul B]

It is true that reefing has changed in the last 20 years but not as much as the first 20 years of reefing.
There were no powerheads, GFIC's, MH, PC, DSB, liquid calcium, calcium reactors or much of anything for salt water except the water.
The last twenty years has not changed for me much. Except for switching from regular flourescents to VHO, to MH, and adding an algae filter, my reef has not changed at all.
I never tried LED lighting but it seems to be the wave of the future. I have not checked out the spectrum of them yet.
We still don't have a reef safe treatment for ich and many tanks are still over run with cyano and hair algae just as they were 40 years ago. I personally don't play around with calcium, alk or magnesium much except to add it but I would imagine there will be an automatic way to do this in such a way that the water gets tested and the chemicals added when needed automatically. I think tanks will become more computerized with readouts as to temp, salinity, pollutants and chemicals. Corals, which hopefully will become farmed will become more user friendly and some of their survival secrets will be known. These animals should live hundreds of years, not months.
Glass is not a very good material to build tanks out of because of the green tint it gives to everything, acrylic is not that great either because of the scratching. I am hoping for something in between with the reflective qualities of plastic and the strength of glass.
Moorish Idols will also give up some secrets as they are a very beautiful and common fish.
No they are not rare by any means.
I will probably be looking at my reef from a nursing home. Hopefully with a good looking nurse

 

[o2manyfish]

I recently saw a presentation for Coral Aquaculture facility in South East Asia. They are able to farm corals in huge quantities (1000's of pcs per week) and will be providing Farm Raised G5-G7 corals to the US market in probably another 24 months.

But the neat thing is they are aquaculturing frags, not colonies.

As an onland aquaculturing facility they avoid CITIES and Quota issues, so their production is only limited to the size of their facilities. Initial photos are pretty impressive.

Not only are they doing the farming, but they are engineering the display system for the retail end. If everything works out, in a couple of years SPS corals for the hobbyist is going to be similar to buying bettas -- And at about the same price.

By committing to not selling until they have satisfied a G5 (G5 means the 5th generation of farmed raised corals), they have been given permission to collect corals from portions of the world where corals have never been collected for the hobby. The list of SPS available will be in the 100's of types not just a handful.

While we have seen an increased in aquacultured marine life, and a great increase in the quality of farmed livestock for the hobby, we have not seen where economically, aquacultured livestock helps the hobbyist. The hobbyist may feel more ethical and "green" about buying a farm raised clown fish, but the hobbyist doesn't save any $ GREEN $ by supporting aquaculture.

With Pacific Rim countries getting involved in aquaculture, I think the hobby may finally get a financial break. For those in the hobby for 20+ years we have seen that the livestock of the hobby is pretty stable. - 20 years ago a damsel was 2 or 3 bucks and flame angel was $40-50. So as hobby the livestock has managed to thwart inflation, economies, and the valuation of the dollar.

The other thing I have seen recently is an increase of extremely efficient means of variable water movement. Just this week someone showed me a pump that was 1/2 the size of a German in tank pump/powerhead rated at 4000+ GPH and moved just as much water in the tank and was consuming 12 watts of power. And it had varying speeds built into the pump! (US retail pricing probably around $50).

So hopefully the upcoming hobby in the immediate future will be saving us GREEN while supporting a more GREEN friendly hobby.

Dave B

 

[Snowboarda42]

Wow I really like the asia idea

 

[Paul B]

I don't think people know how much land there is uninhabited in the tropics especially islands where corals could be farmed. Some day these areas will be utilized. If you fly to the South Pacific you will be amazed at the islands that are devoid of human life (thank God)
These places are just gorgeous but there is no fresh water on the majority of them and most of them are rather small. Less than a mile long which is the reason they are uninhabited.
I dove on a few of these isles and I am totally spoiled and don't want to dive in the Caribbean anymore. There is just no comparisom.
When you get into the water you are immediately surrounded by curious reef sharks. Manta rays are as common as yellow tangs and whales come by to say hello.
Thankfully, there is no collecting in these places and the reefs are in full bloom.
Coral farming could take place in these places with out much worry of theft. There is no way to get to these places without not just a boat but a ship.
Frags could be secured and harvested a few years later with no care what so ever.
Of course, these Islands belong to some one and the logistics are hard to over come. I think it time, it will happen.
I would love to do it myself but unfortunately I doubt I will live long enough to see it.
(I am not dying or that old)
The salt water hobby is still in it's infancy and it is still cheaper to collect than farm as it still is for lobsters and crabs.