[MDPinUSA]

This is a long post made by a pioneer marine fish breeder (1971), an individual that has intimate contact with coral reproduction (1974), the first captive reproducetion of chambered nautilus (1979), (all in 100% artifical sea water and currently responsible for about 30%-35% of the worlds marine salt needs.

Dear Fellow Marine Aquarium Keepers:

The fate of all natural reefs are in the hands of those that understand conservation.

The fate of corals kept in captivity are in the hands of reef aquarium keepers.

Earlier in this thread I posted (#80) .... "I have met Eric, seen his presentations and read much of his material. I am not surprised that live stock died in his hands. I believe he is better qualified at taking underwater photos vs. captive live stock management."

I have been reluctant to post the following. The following background information pertains to this thread.

I attended one of Eric Bornemans presentations on reef aquarium keeping in Sept. 2005 in California. On the way over to his presentation I said to my SO (significant other).... "Don't let me expect too much from this man".

During his talk he gave a visually stimulating power point presentation. In this presentation charts and graphs were shown along with verbal information as to their meaning. Shown were underwater as well as his personal aquarium photos.

One split screen slide showed a reef sea bottom photo on the left and one of his aquarium photos on the right. He stated "I cannot keep the diversity of sea life found on the reef in my aquariums."

Later in his presentation he stated that he did not have a filter, skimmer or make water changes on his aquarium.

He stated that after a water change is corals appeared to suffer. He gave the brand of marine salt he was using.

I thought.... No filter... no skimmer.... no water changes... and he is using (IMO) a poor choice of marine salt. No wonder this guy cannot keep a variety of captive marine life.

In his presentation he stated that he mixed 35 grams of his chosen marine salts into one liter of fresh water and it resulted with 32 ppt. He believed the reason 35 grams of marine salts mixed in one liter of fresh water measured low (32 ppt.) vs. 35 ppt. had something to do with marine salts.

I got the feeling as others in the audience did that Eric believed all marine salts mixed like this.

One attendee stated something to the effect that.... These salt makers better get their stuff together! -- Eric planted the seed that all marine salts had one problem or another.

I raised my hand and asked why he (Eric) thought his brand of marine salts mixed to a low salinity. He started to talk about something else. I asked again. He talked about something half related to the question I posed. I stopped asking this question as I did not want to upstage his presentation.

After his presentation the usual group of reef groupies lined up to shake his hand thus allowing them to have fond memories of the event.

The meeting ended about 22:00 and the facility was locked down. Eric and I stood outside under an outdoor light and chatted for almost one hour. It was prearranged that I would give him two 25 gallon size packages of BIO-SEA Marinemix for a "salt study". My SO sat in the car.

I asked Eric three times, in three different ways why he thought that 35 grams of marine salts mixed into one liter of clean fresh water hydrated a low salinity solution. He had no clue.

I asked him if he understood about hydrates in marine salts? He gave me a blank look. I broke it down simpler. I informed him that some brands contain more moisture than others. The moisture (water) comes from the choice of ingredients and their hydrates. E.g. Calcium can be totally without moisture (anhydrous), or with 2 molecules of water (2H20), or more. -- I got a deeper blank stare.

I stopped talking about marine salt chemistry as I realized this well known aqua guru that has made dozens and dozens, possibly hundreds+ of hobby oriented presentations was totally clueless about basic marine salt chemistry.

I.e. Here is a guy that is going for a Ph.D., is popular among many marine aquarium hobbyists and: a) openly indicated he did not make water changes, used a filter, skimmer, etc. b) could not keep a wide variety of marine organisms in his tanks, (many of which thrive in many others aquariums) c) had no idea about hydrates in marine salts.

He asked me about hW Marinemix manufactured in Germany. He told me he heard it was a pretty good marine salt. But he could not find any to test or use.

I took a half step back, tried to conceal my amusement and replied with the following...... "You are from Houston, TX, right?" He said "yes." I said... hW Marinemix has been imported into the USA from Germany since the mid to late 1960's by Hawaiian Marine Imports, located in ........ Houston, TX. -- I thought, this guy has never visited any LFS in his home town. At least not in the last 3+ decades.

I have no idea if he misled US Govt. officials into granting him a collecting permit, over collected and/or took over sized corals, violated other permits conditions, had direct contact with their captive destination, had anything to do with any sales that might have been made, replaced lost corals with fauna from another ocean, etc?

However IMO his aquarium keeping skills are limited. As a researcher, in regards to locating a local product available for 35+ years are poor at best. Most importantly, like many with a great amount of education/information they can exhibit very little understanding.

Like many Ph.D.'s or teachers, it is impossible to tell them anything. But he is not a Ph.D. or a teacher!

I made this long post for several reasons:

1) I had to get this off my chest. This described event as well as this thread topic are definitely related.

2) Here is someone traveling around to hobby groups and expounding what is limited to ill researched to half baked information. There are hundreds to thousands of hobbyists that lap this rubbish nonsense up!

3) How can anyone with these marine aquarium keeping skills and research ability be granted a US Govt. collecting and custody permit for doing anything but looking at corals (in someone else's aquarium)?

4) His salt study offered in 2006 presented at the last MACNA cannot be taken serious. E.g. Is there any salt water hobbyist that has kept a marine aquarium that performs 100% water changes as a routine?

The BIO-SEA I gave him ended up at Inland Marine for their salt study. No Aqua Craft Products marine salts were part of Eric's 2006 salt study. The Inland salt test was botched as bad as Eric's effort. But in different ways.

5) There are too many glorified hobbyists with ego maniacal personalities that travel around or post on the internet for totally self serving reasons.

On the way back home my SO and openly discussed the value of his presentation. Not one good word was said by either of us.