Personally, I see a continuation of hardware advances in both the lighting area as well as the biological arena for such things as nutrient uptake and whatnot. I don't think that any one way of maintaining a tank will rule all others (like the Ring of Power) as there are soooo many different ways to maintain a tank currently (ATS, Jaubert, heavy skimming, skimmerless, etc.). Each takes it's own set of maintenance practices but there's always more than one way to skin a cat. Specific setups may be found to be necessary -- if not critical -- for hard to keep corals like Goniopora and Dendronephthia or hard to keep fish like Mandarins.
I also see farming practices becoming more the norm as we continue to increase our knowledge about husbandry practices for fish, corals, invertibrates, etc. Already Tropicorium in Romulus, MI, has 90% of it's business in captively propagated corals with the remaining 10% being wild heads. I also see more and more hobbyists trading corals and starting up their own small farming operations even in their two bedroom apartments: http://www.farmertodd.com/presentation/default.htm
I believe we will find ways to keep (and have them thrive in our tanks) the hard to keep corals like Goniopora, Dendronephthia, various azooxanthellate corals, and others that were once thought to be next to impossible to keep. Already in the last 10 to 15 years people have learned how to keep (and make them thrive) hermatypic corals like Acropora, Porites, etc. Dendronephthia, Scleronephthia, etc are in the foreseeable future. FWIW, GARF's working on dendro's right now (and don't flame me for bringing the "G" word up either in this thread!
): http://www.garf.org/37/feed/feed.html Everyone has a role to play in the learning curve of husbandry. The key is detailed observation and continued experimentation by knowledgeable and dedicated hobbyists and researchers.
I also believe we will find out how to keep and even breed hard-to-keep fish like Mandarins. There are different people out there right now working on Mandarins like Terry B, Dwayne Sapp ( http://www.reefcentral.com/diy/culture_station.htm ), and others.
The key is education...
liquid
I also see farming practices becoming more the norm as we continue to increase our knowledge about husbandry practices for fish, corals, invertibrates, etc. Already Tropicorium in Romulus, MI, has 90% of it's business in captively propagated corals with the remaining 10% being wild heads. I also see more and more hobbyists trading corals and starting up their own small farming operations even in their two bedroom apartments: http://www.farmertodd.com/presentation/default.htm
I believe we will find ways to keep (and have them thrive in our tanks) the hard to keep corals like Goniopora, Dendronephthia, various azooxanthellate corals, and others that were once thought to be next to impossible to keep. Already in the last 10 to 15 years people have learned how to keep (and make them thrive) hermatypic corals like Acropora, Porites, etc. Dendronephthia, Scleronephthia, etc are in the foreseeable future. FWIW, GARF's working on dendro's right now (and don't flame me for bringing the "G" word up either in this thread!
I also believe we will find out how to keep and even breed hard-to-keep fish like Mandarins. There are different people out there right now working on Mandarins like Terry B, Dwayne Sapp ( http://www.reefcentral.com/diy/culture_station.htm ), and others.
The key is education...
liquid
