Thinking Green

[Miss Wiggle]

Just curious really, how many of you are aware of/bothered about the environmental impact that fishkeeping has and do you do anything about it.

There's a few areas in which fishkeeping has an impact, firstly the obvious one is overfishing (think galaxy rasboras) however there are a lot of species that if it wasn't for aquarists keeping them in home aquaria, would be extinct or not far from by now. Humble White Cloud Mountain Minnow is an example I believe. Are you bothered where your fish come from, do you buy tank bred fish or wild caughts, or do you just get the species you want regardless of it's breeding?

Water consumption, so we're all told we shouldn't waste water, so how many of you re-use the water from your water changes. Water removed from the tank will be full of nutrients and are excellent to put on your garden.

Energy saving equipment, particularly on the marine side, there are a lot more low energy consumption products coming out, like hydor koralia powerheads and LED lighting. Anyone buy equipment specifically because it's got a low consumption rate?

And do you care about being environmentally conscious in the rest of your life, curious to know how many people use energy saving bulbs, recycle everything but don't think about how their hobby affects the planet.

Any other suggestions that people have for ways we can make the hobby more environmentally sound please post them here, be interested to see what people do.

 

[Colin_T]

Ruby barbs are another fish that has been saved by captive breeding.

I put all my tank water on the front lawn. It's a nice green lawn

I use fluoros on all my tanks but because I keep corals and plants they are on for a while each day, not good for the power bill or the environment considering we use coal fired power stations. I do run a blower instead of little air pumps and power filters. it uses 44watts of power and runs 20 + tanks. If I ran individual pumps and power filters i would use a lot more power. I recently ported my blower and doubled its air output without using any more power. The fish are being blown all over the tanks now.
I have looked into solar power to run the fish tanks but it costs way too much over here. A spare $40,000 will allow me to run my tanks all day every day free from the sun. Until solar panels and storage batteries become cheaper that is something that just won't happen.

Fluorescent globes aren't recyclable and aren't allowed in the normal rubbish so myself, and many others have collections of them growing in our garages. I am waiting for LED lights to become cheaper. They are available in the USA but are exhorbitantly expensive. Eventually they should become cheaper and then I will transfer to them.
Compact fluorescents are even worse than standard fluoro globes. They have plastic and electronic components that become carcinogenic after being used for a while. The globes have phosphorus and other nasty things in them. And the damn things melt when they get hot.

I re-use plastic carry bags from my LFS. They have nice black plastic bags and whenever I go visit them I take the bags and put my new fish in them. I also carry a back pack and use that to carry stuff home in. Got enough plastic bags here from the fish. If I am selling fish I use old fish bags or my fish buckets. I cycle to the shops around my area instead of driving my motormobile.

I prefer to catch my own fish as they are cleaner and disease free. Whereas the stuff in the shops is contaminated with horrible diseases like TB. And all those hideous drug resistant diseases being made in Asia. Yucko.
Nope, I'm happy stomping around in snake, leach and mosquito infested swamp land collecting my own.

Some of the fish I used to breed were on the threatened species list. We had more captive fish in Perth than there were in the wild. But I killed them so I guess I'm bad.

If I ever get my own place I am setting up a fish room with skylights so I won't need tank lights.

Finally I spend too much time on this computer so I am bad for the environment in that sense. Damn forums making me spend so much time here

 

[rdd1952]

It is something I think about. Although I have wild caught fish in my tanks, I probably wouldn't knowingly buy any more. The thought of overfishing them and us in the hobby leading to the extinction of a fish isn't a pleasant one. I know that sticking with tank bred fish severely cots into the species you can keep though.

I have sometimes wondered what my tank temps would be if I cut the heaters off altogether. When I had a couple betta tanks set up withou heaters, they generally ran about 76 degrees but those were smaller tanks where the lights could probably keep the water temp up. On the flip side, if the water in the 29 and 75 gallon tanks is able to stay close to 78 without the heaters, then they probably aren't on enough to impact the power anyway.

I must admit that I am terrible when it comes to recycling. I think that is just the norm in the US that too many of us are bad about not conserving. That definitely doesn't make it right though. Because of the severe drought we are in and the fact that the rivers and lakes around here are unbelieveable low, I hae really started to watch water consumption. I have cut back on my water changes to every 2 to 4 weeks (my tanks are understocked and over filtered so no real problems with that). I don't use my python to take water out because of the water wasted. I actually quit using it for hat purpose after about the second time. Have learned a trick now that lets me use it without wasting water though.

And last but not least, like Colin, I spend way too much time here (on the computer in general) using power on the computer.

 

[shroob]

I'd like to say I do something for the enviroment but honesty I don't, I mean I support it and that but I could do more.
With regards to fish keeping I relaise it must be a drain, I mean having 7 or so heaters, all the filters, lights and pumps etc. must must more electricity than the average home. The water I use for water changes could boil a 50 kettles a week I imagine easily and then theres the snake I have (heat map and lamp).

I can only console myself that I'm probably 'greener' in others in other aspects.

Ideas for 'green' fishkeeping could be use a solar pannel to generate electricity or warm water, recycle water change water and collect your own via rainwater (though there are some dangers in this). Other ideas could be to reduce stocking capasity so water changes are needed less often. All I could come up with for now.

 

[cursedblad3]

Other ideas could be to reduce stocking capasity so water changes are needed less often. All I could come up with for now.

Though this could lead to more tanks, more lighting, more filters, more heating etc.

 

[shroob]

Ah, touche. Though I guess people who take this option will have to restrain themselves (or turn the TV off standby)

 

[Naughtygirlrlw]

I use fish water to water all my house plants, then spring through fall I use it to water my outdoor garden and plants.
Fish keeping wise I don't conserve/recycle much more than water but I do recycle glass, plastic, cans, and paper.
I also bought and reuse cloth shopping bags for grocery shopping. I consider being a vegetarian probably the most earth friendly thing I do.

 

[smmetz]

If you have tons of money to throw away, and are an Al Gore fan, you can buy "carbon credits" and then have huge, power hungry tanks all you want! I personally don't buy that theory though!

Some people have a central filter system, which reduces electric use. Usually those people have a room with all their tanks though. Also, they can run 1 heater in the large sump. Some even heat the whole fish room up to teh desired temp, since it is usually cheaper than a bunch of heaters.

 

[Colin_T]

I consider being a vegetarian probably the most earth friendly thing I do.

vegetarians destoy the planet by eating all the plants that keep the air clean. And if you ate more cows there would be less cow farts in the air and global warming wouldn't be such an issue
only joking
Being a veg head means you don't have a roast cooking in the oven for hours at a time, save power there. And it takes less energy to pull up a couple of plants than it does to knock a cow on the head and chop it up.

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Here's something everyone can do, turn the heaters down a couple of degrees. Instead of running the tanks at 26C run them at 22 or 24C. I run mine at 22C for anmeones and corals and 18C for the fish. Most barbs, tetras & catfish can tolerate these for a few months over winter. And if they are in the water while the temperature goes down they will not be stressed by the drop.

Don't drop the temp too much if you keep angels and discus.

 

[Seed]

Just curious really, how many of you are aware of/bothered about the environmental impact that fishkeeping has and do you do anything about it.

There's a few areas in which fishkeeping has an impact, firstly the obvious one is overfishing (think galaxy rasboras) however there are a lot of species that if it wasn't for aquarists keeping them in home aquaria, would be extinct or not far from by now. Humble White Cloud Mountain Minnow is an example I believe. Are you bothered where your fish come from, do you buy tank bred fish or wild caughts, or do you just get the species you want regardless of it's breeding?

Water consumption, so we're all told we shouldn't waste water, so how many of you re-use the water from your water changes. Water removed from the tank will be full of nutrients and are excellent to put on your garden.

Energy saving equipment, particularly on the marine side, there are a lot more low energy consumption products coming out, like hydor koralia powerheads and LED lighting. Anyone buy equipment specifically because it's got a low consumption rate?

And do you care about being environmentally conscious in the rest of your life, curious to know how many people use energy saving bulbs, recycle everything but don't think about how their hobby affects the planet.

Any other suggestions that people have for ways we can make the hobby more environmentally sound please post them here, be interested to see what people do.

When I buy fish, if at all possible I buy them as youngsters. My thinking on this is that youngsters may be more likely to be from a breeder than from the wild.

As far as water consumption goes, I use what I can to water the plants. Not just because it is less wasteful, actually, but because it has nitrates in it, as well as trace elements, so I figure it is good for the plants. But, IMO the toilet uses more water per week than my fishtank does. Not to say that the fishtank doesn't contribute on top of that, but 30 gallons a week (at most) isn't that bad.

After three years I have yet to have the need to replace the bulbs in my main tank. As far as green goes, your lighting is potentially the most evnironmentally unfriendly part of it, aside from your testing equipment. Fluorescent bulbs should be disposed of properly because they contain some mercury.

I haven't seen low power usage stuff for sale at any of my LFS. If I had I would have tried it out, electricity in Califnornia can get expensive. THe most power consumptive part of the tank is potentially the heater I would wager, I have two 300 watt heaters. That's equivalent to six incandescent light bulbs when they are both on. When this occured to me I decided to keep the tanks a couple degrees above room temperature, and I turn them off entirely in the summer because it gets quite hot where I live.

Liquid testing equipment is potentially hazardous. I believe the API ammonia test contains mercury II chloride (HgCl2). Unfortunately I know of no way to dispose of it. It is something that bothers me actually every time I dump it down the drain. It is a miniscule amount, for sure, but it still bugs me.

 

[Tolak]

I just picked up some wild caught angels, these are earmarked for breeding. Wild blood crossed into tank-bred angels makes for a strong, healthy fish. I took 6 fish away from the wild, and plan on giving many more strong healthy fish back to the hobby. I rewrote our club’s species maintenance program last year; this program is intended for the ongoing keeping and breeding of endangered fish. Little by little I’m switching our bulbs to compact flouro’s, as well as installing dimmers when I have electrical work to do.

All but two of my tanks are in one well insulated room, one linear air pump that draws 60w for filtration, A duct cut into the main trunk of my forced air heating supply to heat the room. The tanks do have electric heaters, but the room sits at 78-80F, so they run minimally. Nice glass block window provides light during the day, the rest are flouro fixtures to provide working light in the evening. I’m running about 1/4w of light per gallon, which is fine since I don’t do plants.

I have 3 incandescent bulbs that I use, one in the bbs hatchery, two 40w bulbs in ceiling fixtures, on dimmers. I’ve found fish don’t like the sudden transition from light to darkness, I use these when shutting down the lights at night, giving a 5 second transition from dim light to darkness.

It’s 7F outside now, expected to hit zero. If I pumped the water outside during winter I would have a major ice problem. Our sewers go through the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District; they clean it up & return it to the lake. This is one of the few things I don’t mind paying taxes for. I have my veggie garden set up with landscaping fabric & mulch; I water about twice yearly. The wife’s flowerbox gets water from the 65 gallon upstairs, she thought I was nuts at first, until the flowers grew out of the box.

I don’t recycle household waste & such, but I have a buddy who does. I save recyclables for him, he’s helped me with various things, and money is tight for him.

 

[Colin_T]

Little by little I’m switching our bulbs to compact flouro’s, as well as installing dimmers when I have electrical work to do.

Compact fluoros can't be used with dimmers.

Besides that the majority seem to be doing a little bit where possible. It has a lot ot do with government as well. If they brought in legislation we could fix the whole mess pretty quickly. Our gov had a policy for a few years stating any new car sold in the country had to be more efficient than previous models. That ran out a couple of years ago and all of a sudden every new car was using a lot more fuel than they had been for 20 years. Why would a gov stop that sort of policy? They should have tightened it further and said all new cars must use at least 1 litre per km less fuel than previous models, and a new model must be produced at least every 3 years.
If they did that then cars would be running on fumes now. Instead they suck down fuel like they did in the 60s and 70s.
And why not ban V8s. No-one needs a V8 in this day and age. You can't take them up to top speed and fuel injected 6s are a lot more powerful than V8s from the past.
They should also make most cars manuals instead of automatics. Cars with manual gearboxes use between 1 + 2 litres per 100km less than their automatic counterparts. With several billion cars on the road that's a lot of fuel.
And why do the oil companies get to have a say about what government environmental policy is? The gov needs to grow some balls and tell the oil companies to produce better fuels and alternative fuels.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nice to know that there are some people out there who care at least!!

at the moment we aren't brilliant, but we're very restricted by where we live.

we have a tiny back to back terraced house, so our house is joined to the houses on either side and to the house behind, then our front door goes straight onto the pavement, so no garden whatsoever, we have a few pots and hanging baskets outside and some house plants, I do water them with used water from the tank where possible, but we still have to throw a lot of it away.

Because we've no garden we also don't have our own outside bins, there are communal 'bin yards' every 4 houses in the terrace share a bin yard (where the outside loo's used to be) and there's communal bins in there. Unfortunatley some of the people we share with are scruffy gits, just throw they're rubbish on the floor in there, don't even put it in the bin half the time. it's disgusting (complained to the council, nothing happens). We've no recycling bin in there but even if we did, the other people wouldn't use it properly so it'd all end up mixed in together and then it's no good to anyone. Our kitchen is roughly 1 metre by 3 metres so we have no space at all to collect recyclables and take them to recycling centres.

We've just closed down the marine tank which was the big power consumer, we plan to set another one up when we move house (hopefully next year) but we've agreed that it's worth doing properly, so we'll just save up and get a good chunk of money to get it started so we can use LED lighting and energy efficient pumps etc etc. Make the whole thing more environmentally sound.

We have had wild caught fish before, but we don't now. thankfully more and more species (particularly marines) are now being captive bred and things like cultured corals are more readily available now. I'm going to try and just keep captive bred fish in the next marine tank... dunno how sucessful I'll be but I want to give it a go.

But as Tolak pointed out, we do need to bring in wild caught fish for breeding from time to time, otherwise the gene pool will get really watered down (just look at neon tetras, used to be hardy, now weak as a kitten). however there's an obvious difference in taking a few individuals for breeding than to taking thousands of fish from their native habitat and selling them all on.

good point about test kits, I've never thought about that. Anyone suggest a good way to dispose of them?