The Reef Keeping Hobby

Reef Keeping is an amazing hobby. To borrow a phrase from The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide, reef keeping is a window into another world. Creatures from the ocean are in a different world than you or I: they breath differently, their motion is different, even gravity affects them differently than us here on land. Yet, with the new wonderful advances in technology, we are allowed to view the beautiful world of underwater reefs right in our own living room!

Reef Keeping is great for many other reasons than the sheer beauty of the creatures we see. There is an intellectual stimulation, I feel, that comes with no other pet. You have to know what you are doing to have success – you can’t just throw money at the hobby. It is quiet a feeling of accomplishment to have a healthy tank.

I have really learned to enjoy the cleaning of my tank. For my 210 gallon reef I spend about an hour to an hour and a half per week on maintenance. However, people always think of cleaning as a bad thing, and some really great things happen when one cleans their tank. First and most important, you really see what you have. You notice things that a quick glance would not afford you. In that look there might be great beauty, or you see something that needs your attention. Next, there is something very wonderful about having a simple chore, like cleaning a fish tank. My, as everyone’s life, is complicated. Job, family, bills, etc. Cleaning the tank is something that must be done and it is a time out from all of the above. I have learned to enjoy the time. Finally, what makes something yours? It is that you take care of it. Having a new tank is great, but the aquarium really becomes yours even more as you take care of it over the months and years. Watching a coral grow from a frag to a full colony, seeing clown fish finally take to the new anemone, watching your Bubble Tip Anemone split are all magical events. To know that you had a helping hand in those events is a big part of the satisfaction of owning a reef aquarium.

Also, having a reef aquarium keeps you connected to the earth. We hear about global warming every day on the news yet it really doesn’t affect you. Ocean dumping, pollution: this stuff doesn’t really have anything to do with us. Or so we think. Yet for me, my tank is a constant real reminder to me of how we have to share our whole planet with other species.

Either way, its all good.

So if you are thinking about keeping saltwater fish and/or live rock and other creatures, I say go ahead and take the plunge. More important than the “Wow’s” you will get when someone sees your beautiful aquarium, is the satisfaction that you are able to successfully take care of some of the worlds most beautiful creatures.

The Fashionable Urchin

Check out my new hat!

This Sea Urchin is definitely the prankster of the demo tank. Not content to pick up shells or coral and use them as camouflage, this little guy had to borrow one of the suction cups that was on the power head! Fortunately, this did not affect the angle or flow from the power head. If it had, I might have had to ask the urchin to remove his hat. In The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide, the same urchin roams around the tank with a Zooanthid coral on his back. He is great fun to watch as we never know what is going to grab his fancy. I don’t worry too much about my suction cup, as he always gets interested in something else, and will leave it for his next fashion statement. The Bumble Bee Snail that he also has on his back is not too happy about the ride, but then again, I am looking forward to what he has in mind for the summer.