At Reef Playground Inc., its our goal to be the most environmentally conscious aquarium service company possible. That’s because we realize that the animals we maintain in our aquariums and ponds come from regions that are under major threat. These animals give us a wonderful glimpse into their world with every aquarium we maintain and it is our believe that we have a responsibility to keep the places they come from intact and thriving.

 

And in all honesty, we haven’t been pulling our weight when it comes to being environmentally conscious. We simply dropped the ball. We recently did a self-evaluation of our own company and we came across several areas in which we could make huge improvements. The main two that we feel need the most work and need to be addressed urgently is our water use and livestock sourcing.

 

The first and more important, is the amount of water we use. Our RO/DI systems are extremely wasteful. For every one gallon of Reef ready water we make, we lose about 2-3. And that simply cannot continue. Reef Playground is located in Los Angeles, and in case you haven’t noticed, we’re in a seriously bad drought. As a result, we will no longer be using RODI water as our source. Right now, we are switching over to a direct inline filtration model. So no more RO or DI. This means our water will have more TDS’. We are now working on designing new operating procedures in which we can provide water with higher TDS levels and not harm some of the more sensitive species of fish and invertebrates. It’ll be difficult, but we believe it needs to be done. We simply cannot continue using water at the same levels that we currently do. Further down the line, we hope to implement the SlingShot water filtration system which will allow us to create the purest and cleanest water on a 1:1 ratio.

 

We have also decided to now take a minimalist approach to the animals we source. Meaning we should have as little or no impact on the wild ecosystems from which our animals come. This means cutting out livestock that is caught in the wild and instead focusing on providing our clients with the highest quality captive bred livestock possible. We will no longer be stocking certain saltwater fish, corals, and invertebrates. Instead, we will be working with captive breeders like ORA and ReefGen to supply our future livestock as well as propagate some of our own.

 

Tackling these two blaring pitfalls in our company, and really in our industry, are just the first steps in saving the diverse ecosystems that are vanishing right in front of our eyes.

 

If you have an idea on how we could be more environmentally conscious, let us know! Send us an e-mail @ service@reefplayground.net or contact us via Facebook today. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter stay up to date with important and fun aquarium info.

 

-Serge