Aquaculture

We strongly believe that aquacultured products are the best choice for the marine aquarist. Aquacultured products are typically far more successful in captivity, and minimize the impact on natural coral reefs and ecosystems.

Please take a moment to read about our propagation, or see the links at the bottom of this page for more information about Aquaculture.

Our Approach

We grow all of our coral under metal halide (HQI) lighting to best replicate conditions in the home aquarium. While not necessary, we've found HQI lighting to yield the highest growth rates while being the most economical choice for our facility. Most of our corals will also do well under high output fluorescent lighting and lower-wattage HQI.

We practice sustainable propagation. There is a big difference between us and frag "chop shops" - we nurture and maintain viable mother colonies that our cuttings are taken from. We individually remove small areas (often single polyps) from these colonies to seed the new rock, and let it grow out from there. The process is a lot slower, but the results are worth the effort.

We're always on the lookout for outstanding zoanthids; we grow new mother colonies from these purchases with the goal of propagating them in the years to come.

Our filtration and water maintainence is quite simple. We run a large protein skimmer, and the system filters through a 150 gallon live-rock sump. Macro-algae is utilized for nutrient export, and the grow out tanks are maintained by a cleaning crew of peppermint shrimp, snails and crabs. It's a natural approach that has proven very effective. We run a large calcium reactor to maintain Ca and dKh levels, and suppliment with Purple-Up and Aquaphillic A/B.

All new arrivals are dipped to remove parasites, and quarantined for observation. While we work hard to make sure your purchases are free of unwanted hitchhikers, we always recommend you follow the same approach.

Disposal

When the time comes to say goodbye, we implore you to please dispose of your livestock in a manner that does not introduce invasive species into your local waterways. Please find a local hobbyist or store to donate unwanted livestock to - never release non-native ornamentals into your local waters.

Why Aquaculture?

Here are a few facts about wild collection

Indonesia exports approximately 900,000 stony corals each year. Fiji is the primary supplier of live rock and the second largest exporter of stony coral, with a trade that has doubled or tripled in volume each year for the past five years. In 1997, more than 600 metric tons of live rock was harvested from Fijian reefs, 95 percent of it destined for the United States.

Since 1985, trade in marine ornamentals has been increasing at an average rate of 14 percent annually.

Only 5 to 7 percent of Indonesia’s reefs were estimated in 1996 to have excellent coral cover.

Dr. Andrew Bruckner - National Marine Fisheries Service’s Office of Protected Resources

Read the full article here

The cost of destroying or mismanaging one square kilometer (0.62 square miles) of reef results in losses between US $137,000 and US $1.2 million over a 25 year period

According to the CITES database, in 1996, permitted coral exports produced 2.5 million pieces of live coral

About 3,000 tons (2,721,600 kg) of coral enter international trade each year for use in aquariums, according to the Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association

The Coral Reef Alliance

Read the full article here

Aquaculture Links and Reading

Florida Division of Aquaculture	http://www.floridaaquaculture.com/
The Coral Reef Alliance	http://www.coralreefalliance.org
NOAA Coral Health Monitoring Program	http://www.coral.noaa.gov/
U.S. Coral Reef Task Force	http://www.coralreef.gov/