- Location
- Maplewood, NJ
Hey guys!
I am new to the forum but not new to the hobby. I am actually an Aquarist/Marine Mammal Trainer at Turtle Back Zoo. I run a small aquarium, a shark and ray touch pool, and I train sea lions. Before I did this, I worked in at LFS for a few years and worked my way into zoos and aquariums bouncing around the US. Its a pretty awesome full time gig. Anyway, when I got to the zoo, our tropical currents aquarium was a little lack luster. So I came up with a plan to renovate and switch over our coral inserts into live reefs.
Lets just say these inserts had major algae and a lot of the filtration had severe maintenance problems. This was mainly caused by high staff turnover rates in the section.
Over the past few months I ripped out the inserts in our smaller tanks and have put in LR. we got new ecotech/kessil lights and they are amazing. We also just got our first few corals in. It is a struggle to get surplussed corals and it may surprise some of you.. But they also dont just hand out money to buy coral haha. So we are working o getting that. Anyway, when I am back at work I will make sure to snap some photos so you can see the progress on these tanks. Its going to be pretty cool!
I am super excited to be apart of the club here. I was a member of the Atlanta Reef Club for a long time. Also if anyone has questions, I am more than willing to answer!
Thanks guys and I look forward to talking with you!
I am new to the forum but not new to the hobby. I am actually an Aquarist/Marine Mammal Trainer at Turtle Back Zoo. I run a small aquarium, a shark and ray touch pool, and I train sea lions. Before I did this, I worked in at LFS for a few years and worked my way into zoos and aquariums bouncing around the US. Its a pretty awesome full time gig. Anyway, when I got to the zoo, our tropical currents aquarium was a little lack luster. So I came up with a plan to renovate and switch over our coral inserts into live reefs.
Lets just say these inserts had major algae and a lot of the filtration had severe maintenance problems. This was mainly caused by high staff turnover rates in the section.
Over the past few months I ripped out the inserts in our smaller tanks and have put in LR. we got new ecotech/kessil lights and they are amazing. We also just got our first few corals in. It is a struggle to get surplussed corals and it may surprise some of you.. But they also dont just hand out money to buy coral haha. So we are working o getting that. Anyway, when I am back at work I will make sure to snap some photos so you can see the progress on these tanks. Its going to be pretty cool!
I am super excited to be apart of the club here. I was a member of the Atlanta Reef Club for a long time. Also if anyone has questions, I am more than willing to answer!
Thanks guys and I look forward to talking with you!