A look into the Aquascapers’ Eco-Gorg lab

By on Sep 04, 2012

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Aquascapers is the latest project by Coral Morphologic, serving as the new retail and wholesale medium for the company’s livestock. Aquascapers also expanded its livestock selection. In addition to Coral Morphologic’s stunning selection of corallimorphs, Ricordea, Zoanthids, mushrooms and flower anemones but also adding gorgonians to the list of premium Caribbean corals. Sustainably collected, selected for the best colors, and mounted on plugs (which results in much better handling, and thus a better product for the consumer) these trademarked gorgonians dubbed ‘Eco-Gorgs‘ are a very welcome addition to the aquarium industry. When the opportunity presented itself to see the Aquascapers’ Eco-Gorg lab in person, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check it out.

The farm or ‘lab’ as Aquascapers likes to call it, is run much like the Eco-Gorgs themselves. Simple, yet very elegant and visually pleasing. Somewhat old school in the approach, yet with with a new breath of life that makes it just as modern as anything else. The lab is truly run as simple as possible. The whole system is under a greenhouse and is lit by natural lighting. No heating or cooling elements are used beside some big fans. Water filtration is provided by a single sandbed filter and some liverock.

The choice for water flow caught our attention most of all by using air to drive the water movement. The tubs are on a closed-system using 1.5HP pump to circulate the water. Using a simple airlifter method with airstones injecting air into the bottom of the PVC pipes in the corners. As air rises to the top, the rising air generates circular flow in the tubs as an inexpensive and energy-friendly alternative to water pumps or powerheads for each tub, besides it also has the added benefits of oxygenating the water. Nothing new or ground breaking since this method of flow has been around forever but it is neat to see it used in a modern environment.

The Eco-Gorgs are available through several different distributors and can simply be ordered through your local fish store. If ordering online is more your thing they can be ordered through the Aquascapers website as well.

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  • http://www.advancedaquarist.com/ Shane Graber

    Very similar to how Tropicorium has their coral vats setup for the last 15-20 years — airlifts and whatnot. I think Aquascapers’ is done much nicer though. :)

  • jake_harvey

    These guys are doing amazing stuff. One of my favorite livestock sources.

  • Mike

    So how long have they been growing these out? Or are all those pictured just collected ‘brood stock’

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathon-Gordon/11310867 Jonathon Gordon

    Perhaps cooling power of evaporation had something to do with their choice in flow… How many aquaculture greenhouses in Florida have had issues with heat and overall electric bill.

    Mike emphasis was put on how they were collected and no mention of aquaculture, mother colonies, or brood stock. From that we could assume this is a holding facility, but that may just be a gap in the article as it wasn’t written by Colin or Jared. I am sure they will grow out some of them, but haven’t seen that written anywhere.

  • http://www.Reefbuilders.com Joost de Vries

    As I understand it small fragments are taken from wild colonies, mounted on frag plugs and then grown out until encrusted. Rather than removing the whole 3ft+ colony and cutting it up (as is the case with most gorgonians available in the hobby) the mother colonies are left in the wild to grow back. Not exactly aquaculture, but sustainable collecting if you will.