The Future

 

Wow, now that’s a big title, so it had better be reduced straightaway! What ‘future’? It’s got to be marine aquariums of course, but excluding the gloom concerning the wild reefs.

In some areas that could be discussed the future is fairly apparent if only generally. For example, the car is going in one or two directions (or more) because of the increasing cost of fuel: they’ll be hydrogen or electrically powered, probably hybrid as well. This will take some time of course, as support structures are required for the new fuels (particularly hydrogen presumably) and perhaps more time needs to pass to allow the cost of conventional fuels to rise further increasing the pressure for change.

It’s more difficult with marine aquariums, basically a glass or acrylic box with seawater and livestock. It depends mainly on three areas for success: first, the marine aquarist needs to be reasonably basically knowledgeable, second the aquarium needs the correct support equipment and third Mother Nature needs to be happy (high quality seawater and habitat for the living inmates). Looking to the future on that basis doesn’t really turn up much as aquarists will probably remain the same mix as now. Glass and acrylic are, well, glass and acrylic (perhaps production methods could be improved but that’s not what’s being looked at). The support equipment such as heaters, skimmers, pumps etc could show a little more promise. Heaters generate heat with wattage and this is unlikely to change. Pumps could perhaps become more efficient in the use of energy and maybe in the way they move seawater, although there are pumps available now that give choices. Lighting seems to show the highest ‘future rating’ at least at the moment.

There are two types of lighting mainly in use, fluorescent tubes and metal halides. The former are used on fish only systems and also some reef systems. The latter are really for reef aquariums. Fluorescent lighting is reasonably cheap to buy and easy to install and a big plus is that running costs are not particularly high. Metal halides are also reasonably easy to install but the running costs are higher. Metal halides use quite a lot of electricity with bulbs being rated quite commonly at 250 and 400 watts, there are others more powerful. The light they emit is intense and the spectrum tailored. There isn’t any doubt that they are successful in adequately lighting many captive reefs but, as said, they cost a lot to run particularly when several bulbs are in use on a large reef. Another downside is the heat they emit, which can have an effect on the seawater warming it up. This could be helpful in reducing the requirement for heaters but of course the lights aren’t on all the time. In some circumstances this seawater heating effect demands the use of another electricity eating piece of equipment, the seawater ‘chiller’.

The future of lighting is here already but still developing. LED systems are being sold and have been tested by respected experts who have declared them to be fully acceptable for marine life. They have a more reasonable appetite for electricity. They are tailored for spectrum and do not heat up the seawater (some use fans to divert heat away). Advanced arrays can even be programmed to simulate clouds passing and the gradual change from day to dusk to dark and vice versa. The downside at the moment is cost.

So what else? Skimmer efficiency might well improve but that isn’t ‘future’ but normal day to day progress, and the scope for such progress must be fairly limited. Mother Nature isn’t going to be ‘futured’, nature is what it is (though evolving nature is not denied of course).

The marine system now has a main display aquarium with live rock (which may well be manufactured by the aquarist or stockist and not come from the wild reef). In many cases there’s a sump. Sumps nowadays perform one function such as for example a deep sand bed, or could have an additional section containing a material filter etc.

The future of the marine aquarium could be lighting that is, on a reef anyway, LED’s. The display aquarium will be of various sizes as now. There could be a fitted unit to go beneath the aquarium which will contain the filter and other seawater treatment equipment required depending on the type of aquarium, fish only or reef. This is happening now of course, but mostly in a restricted way. The unit fitted could be, subject to depth available, tiered, that is, seawater could leave the display aquarium and flow through a top row of say two or three units, fall to a lower row before being pumped back up to the display aquarium. The seawater could pass through for example a skimmer, heater, deep sand bed, algae bed, carbon/phosphate remover, and pump unit plus circulation if driven from below, not necessarily in that order.

Not much difference there really from now, the difference being that the system is entire and contained, more so than it is now. It would remove all equipment from the display, even pumps if piping were routed from below. The restriction would be, as it is now, on space availability below the display – it’s still necessary to service the various areas, plus lighting could be required.

We have wonderful successes with marine aquariums now. The systems have advanced so far from the former dead white coral decorated aquariums of not that long ago. The main advance has been that aquariums are now more natural. Allowing the aquarium to have more ‘natural’ areas available with the seawater passing through must be good? There also isn’t a reason why creatures that we don’t really want in the display aquarium couldn’t be kept provided that the environment is suitable, that is it isn’t cruel.

Looking at the above it’s clear that much of the ‘advance’ is being done by some advanced aquarists anyway, who use multiple units to house various items to ‘naturalize’ the system more. Also it could be that little will change with most aquarists as space limitations apply and the ability of science to advance the aquarium is restricted, given the requirements of nature. Any advance in the future will probably be much less than from the sterility of the past to the ‘natural’ aquarium of today.

It’s interesting though.

A Year Ago!

I’m always going on in the newsletter about how the time flies between the one I’m writing and the next. It’s true too, though time is constant of course it does seem to disappear at a phenomenal rate.

Now the start of May is here this website has been running for a year. Again, it is hard to believe.

It seems such a short time ago that the concept of the website arose – a source where beginner marine aquarists (and more experienced ones) could come and answer their queries, obtaining straightforward simply put information.

Individual texts (blogs if you like) have gone on being submitted under different categories at a rate of very nearly one a day, so using my mathematical genius there must be around 365 – I haven’t counted them! The most useful ones in our view have been put into the Articles list. All of them are divided into different categories to make any search easier.

The electronic books that can be downloaded continue to go out in a steady flow. These too were prepared to lead an aquarist on the sometimes confusing path to a successful reef or fish only aquarium. They are certainly comprehensive and cover everything from the absolute beginning to maintenance after it is all done. They’re good – but we would say that wouldn’t we! Fortunately, many purchasers of the books have confirmed the point, which makes the considerable effort of producing them in the first place worthwhile.

The website doesn’t look as it did when it first began. It is now very comprehensive in the home page area from blogs to articles etc. Then there is the latest addition, the ’social area.’ This includes a forum and a chat room. Aquarists can have their own accounts and view videos etc, and additionally put up their own blogs, videos and photographs etc. There is more to the social area than that too.

It could well be that a further enhancement will appear before long. New aquarists need equipment and other supplies at competitive prices from a reliable source. So do aquarists who have set their aquariums up. So a possible ’shop’ is being looked into. That would be the icing on the cake in a way – how to set up an aquarium put simply, and reliable equipment at competitive prices when the knowledge is gained. We’ll have to wait and see how things progress.

All the website enhancements are done by Peter, who is as committed as I am in the drive to provide a really comprehensive service without any mumbo-jumbo techno speak.

I cannot guarantee it as the internet is a big place, but I haven’t seen a website such as this one before. Peter created it and should be proud.

We are both delighted at the comments that have been received, they have been positive overall. The numbers using the website are very high. We both hope that the information provided continues to be of use over the next year. Above all else, we hope that there are happy successful marine aquarists who are really enjoying the hobby.

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Introducing – Aquarists Online Social

Some of you may have wondered recently why a lot of the posts and articles have been published by John and why I have been so quiet.

Three reasons really.

1. I have been exceptionally busy in my ‘day job’.

2. I have been ill of late with a touch of the flu.

3. I have been busy in the background getting a new application ready for you all to use.

The first two aren’t really that interesting but the third one (hopefully) is.

So what have I been doing?

Well basically we looked at our domain name a while ago. We chose this domain name as we are two ‘aquarists online’. But then we got thinking as to how other people may read the domain name and we suddenly realised that some of our visitors may already be aquarists looking to ‘hang out’ online with other aquarists.

A plan developed….

After a lot of research a software package was chosen to host our new application and the development began.

So what is the new application?

Have you ever heard of MySpace?

How about Facebook?

I bet you have. These are great sites yet they are also very general in their nature. The application we now have ready for use is a mixture of both MySpace and Facebook all rolled into one and is aimed directly at Aquarists – people like you and I.

Probably you are asking youself – why?

And also what benefit can I get from that?

Great questions.

I shall cover the first one first – why – I believe that the internet is a fascinating place, a place full of information and resources but it is a very cold place to be. There is very little interaction between reader and website. The whole of the Aquarists Online website is aimed at interaction – comments on articles, the community forum which is actually being integrated into this new application. I am a firm believer in chatting, socialising and meeting people. A great man once said to me – ‘If you surround yourself with successful people you will also be a success’

So onto the second one – what’s in it for you – quite a lot I believe. This can be an area where you can interact with others, you can share things, chat about things, ask questions, answer questions, show off your aquarium, have your own blog etc etc etc. Below is a list of features which you can find inside Aquarists Online Social

Before that though I thought I should briefly cover why we called it ‘Aquarists Online Social’ – We did think about calling it something short and snappy but when we looked at this well to be honest it looked quite meaningless. We called it this purely down to the fact that Aquarists can come Online and be Social with other aquarists. I know, i know not very imaginative!

Another point I believe needs covering before I cover the features is that we have integrated the existing forum inside the new application. We have managed to retain all member accounts as well as posts etc. I know that quite a few of you are already members on the forum, however at the moment you do not have an account in Aquarists Online Social. The good news is that you will not lose your forum membership. All you need to do is sign up to Aquarists Online Social using the same username as your forum username and the scripts under the hood will align the two together. Short, sweet and simple – it only takes two minutes and you are good to go.

Of course there are also people who are not a member of the forum. So can you join? Of course you can. This area of Aquarists Online is for anyone who is interested in Saltwater Aquariums. It is an area for us all to ;hang out’ teach, learn and ultimately enjoy.

There are areas of Aquarists Online Social which we aim to implement and improve in the future, however we want to do this based upon what our readers/visitors want rather than what we believe they should have. We host it but at the end of the day this is for all of us and I for one am not going to dictate what you are going to get.

Anyway let’s have a look at an overview of the features :

Streaming of videos directly from sites like YouTube, MySpace, Google etc…
Public and private photo galleries.
Public and private personal blogs.
Integrated community forum.
Polls module loaded so that all members can create a poll.
Concise groups area with various features.
Classifieds section if you are looking to purchase and/or sell items.
Integrated events module.
Instant Messenger loaded which provides an easy way for you to communicate with other members.
Chat & Shoutbox module loaded.
Your own individual account page.
Your own personal profile page.

As you can see there is quite a lot of functionality loaded on Aquarists Online Social.

I hope that you are as excited as we are by now. Both John and myself have created our memberships and look forward to socialising with you more inside Aquarists Online Social.

So what are you waiting for click on the link below, sign up and let’s get social!

http://www.aquaristsonline.com/social

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