Eco-friendly approach

dear reefers and fellow aquarists, im trying to be as much as i can eco-friendly while enjoying this hobby and would appreciate any input and assistance in this matter. im new to reefing and i will always consider myself as a noob. so many species and so many variables and so much to learn.
i put set of rules for myself to follow and would appreciate suggestions about adding or modifying any of them.
1- buy tank bred and raised fish, corals and invert. if anyone knows about such species please let me know the names. i know so far that clownfish are bred in tanks, zoas and some mushrooms are fragged and tank raised.
2- if a specie i like is not in #1 category buy it from a quitting aquarist.
3- consider only species that are proven to do well in captivity. so anemones (nems) are out. and take into consideration the life span of each specie in nature vs captivity.
4- try to find used equipment b4 buying new. and consider the high efficient ones (ie. less electricity consumption)
so far all my equipment are bought used (tank, stand, hood, filter, lights) all except 2 power heads. sand, rocks and tang also from other tanks and clown is tank raised.

 

Wow- that's really insightful!!

I think you are absolutely on the right track there!!!

 

I may be too late here, but if you're really serious about an overall eco-friendly pictures, you'll want LED's for lighting. Anything else comparable to them is an energy muncher.

Also, any coral labeled as "aquacultured" has been grown in a closed system. There's a whole lot of corals available. The mother colony for the frags (which are then mounted, grown bigger in a closed system) are often wild collected. Just an FYI; not sure if that's in accords with your mindset. It's a "mostly" sustainable way of coral propagation. However, some mother colonies once upon a time started as an aquacultured frag themselves.

It's pretty safe to assume any fish was wild collected, unless is specifically labeled as tank bread.

 

Nice topic.

 

Well done, you could add purchasing dry rock instead of live so that reefs are not being damaged for rock.

 

thanks all for your input. i did not know that there is aquacultured corals. i know about live rocks, i was considering buying aquacultured LR until i found some on craigslist. dry rock are more ecofriendly than LR but we are still disturbing the ecosystem to get them. so i would rate the recycled LR as #1 then dry rock as 2.
about the lights i have the least efficient 1s, 4x56W t5 bulbs with no individual reflector. im planning to build my own led panel but it requires a budget. probably by next summer ill get to that.
ill start looking out in the lfs around for aquacultured corals and if there is any reputable internet store that sells them i would like to visit it.
thanks again, your the best 3reefers

 

liveaquaria.com is one of those reputable stores, along with bluezooaquatics.com . If you go to the LFSs, look for corals from ORA. Those are aquacultured. My LFS also sells aquacultured corals that they have their own mother colonies of, mostly ORA frags they bought long ago.

 

Great post and start.

Here is something I wrote on this subject you might find helpful:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-articles-how-tos/low-impact-aquariums-54072.html

 

I love my used equipment. if you do it right and purchased well cared for things you can do quite well. as others ahve stated, LED lighting has come a long way lately and is starting to be a very viable option for light supplementation as well as full reliance in the tank.


Best of luck to you on your build. There are Tons of Aquacultured corals available and most any reefer witha thriving tank woudl be more than happy to sell you chunks of coral to seed your tank.