Hi. I don't know if you remember me but a couple of years ago I was setting up a new tank and wrote a letter to the editor about the great Bikini Atoll live rock I bought online. Unfortunately, shortly after starting out on my reef adventure, I became seriously ill. My hair fell out along with my teeth. It cost a bundle just to cure my bleeding gums, so I was forced to sell my beautiful setup to pay the medical bills. Maybe some of you were lucky enough to buy some of that fantastic live rock I sold on eBay. If so, please tell me how it worked out.

Well, I'm better now and last year I returned to the reefkeeping hobby. It's funny how this hobby is so addictive that many people make it the high point of their miserable, futile lives. This time I was able to go all-out. In my first attempt I was limited by the money I earned as a paperboy. Now I have plenty of cash as my Mom got a very, very large cash settlement of some kind from the company that sold me the live rock for my first tank. I have no idea why they gave us so much money, but it sure was a bunch.

With all this cash I was able to get a 1200 gallon glass aquarium and all the live rock and sand to fill it. It took awhile to cycle it using a tiny cocktail shrimp, as suggested in all the forums, but when it was finally cycled, I was ready to stock it.

A Trip to the LFS

I wasn't sure what I was going to get, but I knew I wanted something unique. Not the usual run-of-the-mill stuff that most egotistical reefers think is so great. When I got to the pet store I looked at their offerings. They had some sharks, but I knew from reading the posts on Reef Central that sharks do not do well in a reef tank. I considered an octopus but heard they get caught in pumps, often ending up looking like one of the featured dishes on the Iron Chef. Finally, the storeowner brought out a magnificent Polar bear, Ursus maritimus. I was awe struck! It was perfect, and I knew it would do well in my tank. In all the reading I've done about reefkeeping on Reef Central, I have never heard anyone mention a word about Polar bears not being reef safe or heard a word about them catching the dreaded Ich. In fact, there are no comments at all about these wonderful animals, so they must be ideal for anyone starting a reef tank. I even tried doing a search on Reef Central with no luck. Besides that, the storeowner gave me a great price on the bear so I jumped on it (I would later learn that jumping on a Polar bear is not that great an idea).

Setting up Your Bear Tank

When I got home my bear took to my tank like a duck does to water. He frolicked and cavorted but was a wee bit rambunctious. It was my fault because the pieces of live rock I had purchased were no more than 10 lbs. and a playing bear can toss around a piece of rock that size with no trouble at all. After some time, with some Portland cement and a lot of re-bar, I was able to make a single mountain of rock even the bear couldn't move.

When the bear frolics he tends to be tough on the glass in the tank. After several broken sides in the tank I had to have the local glass shop fabricate some really thick, tempered glass panels. You probably want to avoid acrylic or you'll be spending all your time cutting and filing the bear's claws to keep him from scratching the acrylic. On the next panel he breaks I think I'll try some 6" thick Starfire laminate. It should provide better color rendition and less distortion.

Other things you need for the tank are lights and, for an arctic reef, some chillers. I was lucky in that a local ice cream manufacturer had recently gone out of business and I got two of its 2.5-ton BTU chillers. Government surplus is always a good buy and on a government site I was able to buy some really good lights. They had just finished remodeling the Washington Monument so I got for a song the old lights they previously had used to illuminate it. Couple that with a few pumps and skimmers for my sump and I was ready to go.

It was obvious that with all this stuff I would need to do some wiring. I asked my good friend, WaterKeeper, to help but he thought it would be safer and wiser to talk to the power company people. They looked it over and said I would need something called a sub-station to make it all work. This is one of the few times that Reef Central let me down. I did a search on the DIY and Lighting Forums and found no posts on building your own sub-station. Well, besides being threatened to be banned for life from Reef Central for doing "stupid" searches, I was forced to hire an electrical contractor.

The contractor got the sub-station built and ran wires to one of the biggest fuse boxes I had ever seen at a house. Then I had a bad experience. The contractor sent a guy over to wire the lights, chillers, pumps, etc. and boy, was he ever mean! While working around the bear's tank, he was always teasing the poor bear. He'd eat lunch in front of the bear and wave tuna fish sandwiches at him without giving the always-hungry bear a bite. Then, with everything almost done, he walked off the site without saying a word. He must have been in a hurry as he left his tools, cell phone, belt buckle, watch and one of his shoes sitting next to the tank. His wife was almost as mean. When he didn't come home she pestered me day after day asking where he was. Now it appears that he had learned to be an electrician in the "Be all you can be" Army. There he became electric procurement officer for the Pentagon before he entered the private sector. I guess, even as mean as he was, some of the electrical contractors for the government liked him a lot. They gave him really big tips, which his wife found when she opened his safe deposit box. After she found this cash bonanza she didn't bother me anymore and seemed almost grateful he was gone.

One thing to note when wiring an arctic reef is to make sure to have spare outlets. I found that the bear wouldn't stay in the tank all the time and wanted to be out on land. By having extra outlets I was able to hook up a used snow making machine I bought to keep the basement environment to his liking. I do need to wear a parka, earmuffs, snowshoes and gloves when I go to see him or feed him.

Sumps

One of the things you really need for a bear tank is a sump. A big sump! What you don't need is to worry about overflows. That is why you can use tempered glass in the tank. There is no need to drill as whenever the bear jumps into the tank, almost its entire contents end up on the floor. I found this out when I had the bear in the room above my Dad's den, where he keeps his collection of rare baseball cards. Every time the bear took a plunge, the water ran down and the Ted Williams or Roger Maris cards would become a soggy mess. Needless to say, it made my Dad mad. I therefore moved the bear's tank to the basement and built a sump around it. I didn't put anything in the sump but some skimmers. I currently have 14 Seaclones in the sump. I know that Seaclones have a bad reputation, but when you have a Polar bear there is plenty of protein to skim. I added level switches that start the 20 horsepower return pumps and skimmers as the tank fills and shut them off when the sump runs dry.

Actually, with a bear tank the best tool for protein removal is a good shovel. You end up removing protein from the main tank several times each day. Originally, I had a DSB in the tank but it just made shoveling harder and de-nitrification is almost non-existent at 29° F anyway.

Tankmates

Originally, I thought my Mom's cat, Furball, would be a good companion for my bear. I was really wrong on that as the cat took one look at the bear and hasn't come out from under the bed in Mom's room since. I think we need to rename him Scaredy Cat.

Since the tank was pretty well set up I figured it was time to get my bear some friends other than a cat. Although my tank is big, I didn't think a whale would be a good choice. It would probably be as bad as trying to keep a shark, or any type of Tang, in a tank that is less than 20,000 gallons. Therefore, I decided on penguins. They seemed perfect but it was short-lived. I had them for only one day. I guess my Mom or Dad must have left something open and allowed them to escape. All I know is that I went to school and when I came back they were all gone. I think they were shedding as the skimmers were collecting lots of feathers and a reddish brown froth filled the collection cups. The bear must have missed them, as he didn't touch his food at all that evening.

Well, after some research I found that I shouldn't buy more penguins. Nope, penguins live at the South Pole and Polar bears at the North. I think I'll try seals next. They live up North and I can get some online from a supplier in Nome, Alaska. I sure wish Henry Schultz would do an article on Polar bears. I like those compatibility charts he makes on what you can keep with what.

Feeding Your Bear

Boy, let me tell you, a Polar bear can really eat! The sad part is no LFS stocks anything like Tetra Flake Food for Polar bears. This means you're going to need to get to be real good friends with the people that run the fish section at the supermarket. I keep an eye out for specials. This week they have whole salmon for $4.99 a pound. The store has an order of some coming in today. They usually give me a 10% discount on an entire truckload of salmon, and it helps me stay within budget.

Last Fall I also found that the bear loves Girl Scout cookies. Two members of the local troop came by selling cookies. They wanted to see the bear so we went down to the basement. I thought I would buy a couple of boxes of those peanut butter ones and went upstairs to fetch my wallet. When I got back the scouts were gone but there were open boxes of cookies scattered about. I don't know why the girls didn't stay and take my order. They left things like their beanies, jewelry and merit badges behind. I could tell the bear filled up on cookies, as he didn't eat much that day. I do feel bad I didn't get to pay the girls for all the cookies the bear must have eaten.

Bear in Mind

My Mom will be calling me for dinner soon, so I'd better wrap this up.

Unlike fish, Polar bears hibernate for a good portion of the winter. This can really save on your food and lighting bills. This fact alone makes keeping Polar bears no more expensive than keeping say, a school of Marlins.

Daily 100% water changes are more-or-less standard practice. Bears produce a lot of detritus that will increase levels of ammonia, nitrate and phosphates in your reef. Unless you do large water changes these are sure to build up over time. Besides, shoveling out many pounds of detritus daily in SCUBA gear is a real chore.

Keep in mind that bears are very strong. Make sure that the doors on the room where your Arctic Reef tank is located are very strong. Last August, in what could have been a tragedy, my bear knocked down the basement and front doors while my family and I were gone. When I finally got home I was in a panic. The bear was nowhere to be found. To make matters worse, some kids turned up missing from the elementary school down the street. There were police and fire trucks with sirens blaring everywhere. Finally, after much searching, we found the bear hiding in the woods near the retirement home nearby. He was so scared. All of those loud sirens and flashing lights would have been enough to scare anyone. Luckily, we were able to calm him down and return him home. Since then we have installed reinforced steel doors on our house. It is strange but they still haven't found those missing kids and that very same day some senior citizens wandered off too.

My next plan is to find a female Polar bear for sale. Once I have one of those I can write up a FAQ for Frank Marini's Breeders Forum. Who knows, you might see me offering tank-raised Polar bears on the Selling and Trading Forums.

Well, let me hear from you other bearkeepers out there. Don't be shy and keep the wonders of having such a great marine mammal in your tank from other reefkeepers. Maybe one day we can even get our own forum.

References:

Goose, Mother; circa 1765, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, 12 p.

Grimm, Wilhelm and Jacob; 1812, Little Red Riding Hood, Rotkäppchen, 141 p.

Italia, Bob; 1996, The Chicago Bears (Inside the NFL), Abdo & Daughters, 242 p.