A month ago there was a talk about Coral Bleaching. Actually, this was not the first time I heard about it. Before the talk, a few weeks before at a dinner the talk centered on how the depth of Coral Bleaching has gone more deeper than before. This meant that the factors that led to Coral Bleaching – heat – has gone deeper. But this was not the first time I heard or seen Coral Bleaching. It was years ago.
This was the time when at that time the keepinh of Corals in aquarium became a fad. The most simple set-up was the use of live rocks – rocks covered with marine algae – and protein skimmer – a filtration tube that used cylinders with wooden diffusers – to clean the water. The algae would biologically clean the water while the protein skimmer would chemically clean the water via adsorption – using the foam generated to attract chemical wastes.
Of course the more complex system used UV filters, Ion-resin filters and powerhead pumps.
Corals were sourced from shops in Cartimar.
Another important equipment used in the Coral Aquarium was of course one of the most important need of certain corals – light. Full Spectrum and other types of flourescent lamps were used. Some even used Metal Halide lamps – this were of course used for other invertebrates like Giant Clams.
Of course one of the best source of light was the Sun … but not everyone of course wanted to use this source. Since you could not control the amount of Sun light easily as one could control light.
The hobby thrived. Until Summer of course. And this was because during Summer the temperature would go up. And as big as aquariums can get it could not get as vast and large as the Sea. And this is where the problem started. When the temperature increased the corals bleached and died.
Chillers then became a necessity. Chillers maintained the temperature of the aquarium water at a constant cool level. Keeping the corals happy and alive. Chillers came in different prices – very expensive prices – we are talking in the thousands. Some were creative. Basically a chiller uses a pump attached to a tube to deliver to a medium that would cool it down and bring it back to the aquarium. Some passed the tube through an ice box filled with ice. Others drilled holes in and out of their freezer and passed the tube (usually coiled to increase) contact. Some of the more advanced used a liquid to cool the water. And some even used beverage dispensers to cool the water.
Chillers of course increased the cost of keeping a Coral Aquarium
And when brown-outs came this added another cost. Power supply was expensive whether it was Generators or inverters.
Coral Aquarium keeping became truly a rich man’s pastime. But despite this problems still happened. I believe the lack of size and complexity of the aquarium system led to the eventual collapse. Perhaps that is why there was a high turn over rate of Coral Aquarium Keepers. One observed there was a boom in Coral Aquarium keepers during the cool months and a pronounced decline during summer. I do not know if this is still true to this day. Only a dedicated few were able to keep such aquariums.
Perhaps .. No I firmly believe that only a set of qualified and licensed persons should keep them. And more importantly keep them only for education and research purposes.