Great Barrier Reef At Low Tide

I would love to go with a bucket down to that shore.

Question> Would you If you live near a reef, get you LR LS and fish/inverts yourself?


If you were realy close you could pump seawater in so you would never have to do a water change.

I'm fairly sure it is illegal to take coral from the wild without a license (notwithstanding the ethical issues) though I have seen a few huge tanks where they run a constant pump of seawater into the tank instead of any filtration.

"I'm fairly sure it is illegal to take coral from the wild without a license " Yes I know, the UK have laws in place but I'm guilty of taking shells, sand and NSW from the coasts of the UK. Just wondering if people would or not. I guess you wouldn't andywg?

I wouldn't have time for fish tanks if I lived that close to the great barrier reef because I would spend my life diving there!!

timmystood said:

I wouldn't have time for fish tanks if I lived that close to the great barrier reef because I would spend my life diving there!!

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AMEN to that timmy, I'd do the same

HAH! I would love to go diving there!! But, unfortuanately I can't afford it right now

Other than that, wouldn't it be illegal? Besides, who hasn't committed some crime in their life? (if you have went over the speed limit, technically you're guilty of a crime.)

SB

Well I dug my 8 G nano from the loft last week and am just looking for some Halides to suit it and will hopefully be setting mine up using NSW (as long as the Test Results look good)

I personally wouldn't, the GBR has enough of a hard time with over enthousiastic tourists, fishermen, the fishkeeping hobby and crown of thorns starfish.

I know there are some that would say that as fishkeepers it's no different to going to a shop, etc but the way I see it, the fish/corals/liverock/etc in a shop have already been collected so why should I take more from an already exploited and fragile system? Besides, even fishstore suppliers are only allowed to collect from certain places at certain times of the year, etc. If they are regulated and forced to conduct their trade in a way which has the least amount of impact to the enviroment then who am I to just waltz on down to any place I want and rip up chunks of habitat willy-nilly. We create a percentage of disruption to reefs as it is so as fishkeepers we should be responsible enough to limit that disruption as much as possible for the good of the enviorment, the organisms that live there and ourselves as well.

Just my 2c worth.

Not only would i not collect due tothe ethical and ecological reasons etc but i also wouldnt collect simply because i could not be sure what would be on hte rock. WHen you get cure rock from your lfs at least you know its free from 90% of unwanted guests, ok the odd mantis shrimp or teddybear crab etc but its highly unlikely you will get worse than this. You could easily collect a bluering octopus or any other very nasty predator and place it in your tank unwittingly.

As for using NSW for yor tank. I have dnoe this for many years with great success. Howewver now i use artificial salt simply due to the large amount of water i do during water changes now.

How many GPD is your RO unit rated at Nav?

Im pretty sure its illegal to collect anything between ow and high tide marks, and anything below a certain depth (Sorry, doint have all the details).

Many inverts you collect in tide pools belong there, IE, they dont live submerged 100% of the time. This leads to snails/crabs around your house, who escape the tank.

Algae/Macro would be cool to collect but again, probably illegal.

I'm at the tide pools twice a week for work. There are protected areas and not protected areas. If I had a temperate tank and kept it all as in indiginous region tank I'd probably collect locally. Get some anenomes, maybe a hermit crab or 10, some seahares, starfish, crabs, urchins, etc.

Part of the fun of living so close to the beach is that tere are research facilties that give out free research grade salt water. It is filtered to .1 micron and then ran through a sterilization unit. It's the cleanest water available anywhere and it is free up to the first 500g's a day. Not bad for a hobbyist like myself. The PH is only at 8.1 but everything else is perfect.

How many GPD is your RO unit rated at Nav?

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Mine rated @ 50 GPD. However it has never produced this quantity and to be honest this rating is only accurate in laboratory tests at high pressure. Its probably more accurate to look at half this rating.

I collect Rockpool Shrimp from the rockpools around West Looe in Cornwall and i'm planning on setting up a 'natural' rockpool sometime soon

Definetly illegal, plus the whole point of having a reef tank, is so that you dont have to mess up mother nature. Most reefs take decades to build and that is why its illegal to break, anchor or even stand on most reefs.....especially the "Great Barrier Reef". In conclusion buy livestocks that are aquacultured and from companies that doesnt have the reputation of destroying beautiful Reefs.