Hi Everyone,
Found this article today. People are really starting to catch on to the idea of marine aquariums. Sounds like this guy’s got a “killer” setup – tangs, lionfish, hawk fish and a bunch of differentcorals.
Saltwater aquariums give their owners peace and fun
by BRENDA INGERSOLL
When Tom Monsoor, 60, was looking for a hobby to carry him through retirement, he thought of the coral reefs he’d seen while snorkeling in the Bahamas 12 or 13 years ago.
Soon, he was in the Living Art Aquarium store at 8215 Plaza Drive, talking with owner Paul Sindermann. Monsoor, a nurse-anesthetist from Madison, wound up buying a 76- gallon aquarium with a coral reef in it. Worth about $5,000 including fish, corals, “live rock” from the ocean, and special lighting, Monsoor’s setup teems with a variety of living corals and exotic fishes like starfish, clown fish, trigger fish, tangs, lion fish, damsels, hawk fish, wrasses and blenny.
It’s a piece of the ocean in his condo.
“The first time I ever saw a reef snorkeling, I thought, ‘I have to have a piece of that.’ It’s so beautiful, peaceful – you just don’t see anything like that every day. You can sit and look at it for hours. It’s like watching a campfire,” Monsoor said.
Saltwater aquariums are riding a crest of increased interest, Sindermann said. “A lot more people are getting interested in it because we know a lot more about keeping things alive and the variety has never been so great, so exotic,” Sindermann said. “With the growth of the Internet, a lot more people are aware you can have an aquarium, and people are realizing you don’t have to be rich. Aquariums are becoming more and more available and economical.”
The biggest trends in keeping saltwater aquariums are “live rock (from the ocean) with all sorts of organisms growing on it. You place your corals and other . . . invertebrates such as sponges, clams, oysters and scallops on top of that.” Freshwater aquariums are somewhat easier to care for, but the fish can’t match those in saltwater tanks for brightness of color, he said.
Jonathan Healy, owner of Aquatic Specialties aquarium store and Aquarium Superstores in Madison and Waukesha, said institutional saltwater aquariums are nothing new – his stores have installed three 500-gallon aquariums costing about $85,000 for a Madison medical clinic – but he agrees interest in saltwater fish tanks in homes is growing.
“In Madison, strangely enough, our saltwater sales are equal to if not more than our freshwater sales, so in this area we’re seeing a rise in the saltwater community,” Healy said. “I believe it’s due to advances in technology (making it) easier to take care of the tank. There’s been this big myth that saltwater’s so hard and you have to test the water every day. The reality is, if it’s set up properly, it almost takes care of itself, like its own ecosystem.”
Healy said industry figures show that 13.5 million American households have freshwater tanks, compared to 800,000 saltwater households.
Like Tom Monsoor, Bob Bond fell in love with the ocean while snorkeling in the Caribbean. He had a 250-gallon saltwater tank in a previous house, but when he and his wife, Megan, built their home in rural Spring Green in 2001, they decided to incorporate a huge, 500-gallon aquarium. The aquarium and cabinets above and below it form a wall between the couple’s theater room and game room.
“It’s really peaceful and relaxing,” Bond said. “You get mesmerized watching the fish swim around. The corals are softly swaying in the current. It’s really beautiful.”
Megan Bond said, “It’s really fun to see the fish grow. And it’s really sad when one dies. We used to name them after people we know, but we stopped doing that.”
She added, “We’ve had the tank for five years and all of a sudden, (tiny) starfish were just there – a lot of them. They must have been hiding in the live rock.”
Bond didn’t say how much his aquarium cost, but similar systems with reinforced steel and concrete, and custom glass, sell for as much as $40,000.
“I stopped into an aquarium store one day and said, ‘I gotta do it,’ ” Bond, 52, said. “Most people start out small. I started out big. The bigger tanks are a little more forgiving. I have about 50 or more fish and lots of different corals. I feed them once a day, dead fish and shrimps.”
His aquarium is serviced once a month by technicians from Aquatic Specialties, 3248 University Ave. “They come out for four hours or so. They change as much water as they can and put in all new saltwater. They test for and add chemicals, and clean up the system a bit,” Bond said. A separate room holds all the plumbing associated with the aquarium, which would fit right in at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. “I have 1,000 gallons of water flowing in the other room,” he said.
Said Bob Bond, “To make an aquarium really go, you’ve got to have live rock from the bottom of the ocean. We have thousands of pounds in the bottom of ours. It comes mostly from Fiji. It gets flown in and you have to get it in water right away, so the organisms don’t die.”
Healy of Aquatic Specialties said a beginning saltwater enthusiast could buy a 75-gallon aquarium, stand, light, lid and filters for $500. “We basically ask the client what their goal is and ask them what their budget is,” he said. “We do installation and maintenance,” with service costing $45 an hour.
He added, “We tell people there’s not much difference in price (from fresh water systems) if you want a saltwater fish system. What’s more expensive is the saltwater reef systems, because you have to buy special lighting for between $1,500 and $2,000, and a protein skimmer for between $300 and $800.”
Buying the fish, live rock, corals and other invertebrates all add to the cost.
The secret to keeping fish, whether freshwater or saltwater, is that the tank be ecologically balanced, Healy said. “To have a successful tank, the bacterial load must exceed the waste load . . . to break down the waste created by the fish.”
That’s where live rock from the ocean comes in – it’s loaded with beneficial bacteria that consume fish waste.
Healy sounded one note of caution about reef tanks: “What’s harder about it is that the corals are so sensitive, a lot more sensitive than the fish. If the water is a little off, they can end up dying.”
© 2006