How wasteful is this Hobby?

FX CharityCorals · Dec 9, 2013

I love this hobby just as much as all of you. That's why we are here right? I was thinking though the other day on the impact this hobby has on resources. When you step back and look this hobby ,along with many others, seems to be very wasteful in terms of resources.

- We flush tons of water down the drain in regards to water changes and ro water and ro waste water
- Aquariums for the most part are one of the higher electrical consuming appliances in the house (This is changing though with tech)
- Lots of plastic bags
- Lots of styrofoam
- Livestock taken from the oceans of which many may not make it long in our tanks

Now on the bright side many of these problems are starting to be addressed ( aquaculturing corals and fish, energy efficient equipment)

What other things do you find that are wasteful in this hobby or other problems that are starting to be addressed?

calvo15290 · Dec 9, 2013

I recycle the bags and styrofoam and water the waist water and water change pretty much flush the water

Intricateart · Dec 9, 2013

On the upside, breeding techniques and raising and propagating methods are invaluable information for the scientific community which is now making an effort to conserve these miracles of nature in the wild.

rapture · Dec 9, 2013

If your smart you'll hook your waste from your ro to a pressurized container. Then pump that into your hot water heater. Wast water no more !!!!
As for plastic and styro? The hobby has nothing on Walmart , each how many people per day walk out of there with a plastic bag, most people that are into saltwater waste not! It's so expensive. I would say 80% of us or more have a used part on their tanks. Most of the stuff I have on my tanks I have acquired from someone else. And I don't even know how many items/corals/sand/rock I have given away for free. Also there are allot of people out there buying and breeding Ora , it's not like back in the 70s-80s where if you wanted a reef tank you had to be a diver or know one. Sorry just my 2 cents

jhoffa92 · Dec 9, 2013

rapture said:
If your smart you'll hook your waste from your ro to a pressurized container. Then pump that into your hot water heater. Wast water no more !!!!
As for plastic and styro? The hobby has nothing on Walmart , each how many people per day walk out of there with a plastic bag, most people that are into saltwater waste not! It's so expensive. I would say 80% of us or more have a used part on their tanks. Most of the stuff I have on my tanks I have acquired from someone else. And I don't even know how many items/corals/sand/rock I have given away for free. Also there are allot of people out there buying and breeding Ora , it's not like back in the 70s-80s where if you wanted a reef tank you had to be a diver or know one. Sorry just my 2 cents

I agree buddy people waste alot more things then us reefers we always look for a cheaper better method to all of our madness and we always share for free or for what we feel is more then fair I have a buddy that I got into this and he and I trafe corals or frag so our tanks stay stocked for cheap

gcrawford · Dec 9, 2013

I've wasted more money than anything, mostly on equipment that I wanted to try against the advice of others in the hobby. I had to try metal halides, mainly because I was interested in them and thought I could manage the heat with evaporative cooling. I bought fans, lowered the temps in the house, bought a large vat for top off and finally bought a chiller. After months of high utility bills, I sold the lights and chiller at about half what I paid and got a programmable LED fixture and couldn't be happier. (other than the loss of $$)

A fellow reefer advised me to go LED a couple years back and I thought she was nuts. Would have saved me about a grand if I would have listened.

KoleTang · Dec 9, 2013

I don't know why people say "don't waist water" all the time. Unless you live in a place with a lack of water, there is really no harm done (besides the hurt on your wallet). It ends up being treated and sent back out into the wild. It doesn't get eternally fouled once it goes down the drain.

gordonj1 · Dec 10, 2013

try explaining your aquarium to a visitor from a third world country and not look like an ***... "this is food we just look at" lol jk, but anyway I think it's a better use of resources than some hobbies out there and it leads to lighting a spark of passion in a future researcher who may or may not work to save the natural coral reefs. just my two cents.

revhtree · Dec 10, 2013

Interesting topic.

afdanw · Dec 10, 2013

I live in an apartment and put a Y adapter on my cloths washer to go to ny RO system. I run the waste right into the washer and use the waste water just to wash my cloths.

cdness · Dec 10, 2013

I think any hobby could be viewed as wasteful to be honest... However this hobby also gives back value that wouldn't have been realized if it wasn't for the hobby. Coral propagation, hobby level fish breeding, husbandry tactics, and the flow of ideas is better here than just in the scientific community. Also just think, the first captive bred batch of lightning maroon clowns were bred in the frozen midwest! Who would have thought that could happen. It's all because of the hobby we love that we have so many breakthroughs.

-Logzor · Dec 10, 2013

Lots of things are wasteful, especially our hobby, I guess. It simply isn't a necessity. So is anything beyond necessity wasteful? I'm not certain. Football certainly isn't necessary. We waste massive amounts of resources; consuming land with stadiums, traveling to and from games, buying TV's to watch games, and so fourth. However we enjoy reef keeping and football enough that we can justify the costs. This doesn't really answer the question though...

So a question of how wasteful can only really be measured relative to something that is necessary and becomes more of a question of how much resources does the hobby consume.

So for a reef tank lets say we have to do water changes, top-off, etc. I probably pump 30g a week for mine, so that means I'm using up more like 60g (my RO/DI is 1:1). That's not bad considering the average person uses up to 80g per day.

With electricity, it's like running an extra couple of fridges or some other appliance, not terrible I guess.

We waste a lot more by living in houses bigger than we need, cars that consume too much gas, not living close to work, etc.

Velodog2 · Dec 10, 2013

Can't justify it by saying that other things waste even more. I minimize waste by keeping a small tank and running LED lights. I also get water from my own well in an area with no shortages.

I now do everything I can to get only tank-raised fish and coral frags. I don't care what everyone else does, but for myself I can't justify pulling animals off a reef and using energy to ship them and their water half-way around the world just for me to look at until they die. It's tough to admit, but I can't justify that.

On the plus side, I sometimes wonder if we are building safe-keeping repositories of reef life in our tanks that will help some of it survive future man-made extinction events in the wild. Interestingly, some day in the far future I could imagine the worlds repopulated reefs being much more colorful because they were started with corals that we originally selected for that attribute.

Railcar79 · Dec 10, 2013

It all depends on how you look at it. We waste water, in a sense. The "waste" goes to the water treatment plant then back into the tank through my RO, the only waste there is my money. Not sure about the styrofoam, my new freexer came with over 10 times the foam i have ever used for my fish, I had a small cooler from Dollar Tree, and now I have a different one since the last broke. The bags, I re use them for swaps. As for power, Is it a waste if you enjoy it? If so then a stove is a waste of power as is a TV and a Computer, ect. My TV uses more power than my tank. the only waste I see is money. no one wants to pay for used gear, so you take a huge hit selling the used stuff off.

ermartin · Dec 10, 2013

my rodi runs in my garage and the "waste" water tube is plumbed to my fountain outside and keeps it topped off. so i can WASTE electricity and run my outdoor fountain

KoleTang · Dec 10, 2013

ermartin said:
my rodi runs in my garage and the "waste" water tube is plumbed to my fountain outside and keeps it topped off. so i can waste electricity and run my outdoor fountain

lol

ChuckFu · Dec 11, 2013

I am luck and worked for a hospital. I acquired specimen cups and take them to the store to pick up frags.

On another note, I spent the past year in the Persian gulf, and set up a small system. I collected my coral from the wild. I know, taboo, especially since the coral is all but gone there. However, after that year, all pieces were healthier than when I collected them, and I replaced them from where I collected them. I wish I could do the same with what I have now.

Tradewinds · Dec 11, 2013

I think we waste more water per year showering. Not to say one shouldn't stay clean, but there are many ways to conserve water.

I like Rapture's idea to use a pressurized container to repurpose the RODI waste water, although I am not sure about how to get it into the hot water heater.

gcrawford, I'm on the same page, I think I've wasted more money than anything else.

sqcube4me · Dec 11, 2013

great topic .. never looked at it like this .. but i use my waste water to feed my plants ..

Diesel · Dec 11, 2013

Should I say Interesting....................NO!
There's nothing in this world that doesn't produce waste, some more than others.
There are plenty resources out there how to re-use your RO/DI waste (foundation watering system), even your saltwater waste.
In Europe I was dumping my saltwater in a large 5000 gal container and during the summer most of the water vapors so I made some rain...........right!
Water that was left or if there was any left other than a bunch of salt I used again in the winter to de-ice my driveway and walk ways around my property.
Well, kinda of a waste cause where did the salt go?
I think it gets interesting if we put more time and effort in being more responsible with our livestock.
Buying more aqua cultured/home grown corals or breeding fish is on the rise.
In the last 3 years I must say you see more home grown corals on the market and there are a lot of hobbyist that set their mind on a new build with only that.
But again there will be always waste.
Hobby waste Taxes................................. or a disposal fee on your salt you buy (same as the Tire industry) nobody wants to go there but if it long term benefits this hobby it might work.