In 2013, Paul Roncal successfully launched PJ reefs, the first low maintenance saltwater aquarium for specific corals and organism. For the past 4 years, we have been listening to our customers and improving our product.
My journey began 10 years ago while attending medical school. I always enjoyed the science and complexity of miniature aquarium. Miniature aquariums were not as popular and required a lot of do it yourself (DIY.) All of my aquariums had some form of DIY hardware. I started realizing that very specific hardware and requirements can make a miniature saltwater aquarium an easy to maintain hobby. From that idea came PJ reefs.
PJ reefs believe that smaller saltwater aquariums help sustainability and education necessary to the conservation of reefs.
During the past 4 years, we've been searching for organisms that would complement such a miniature and low maintenance aquarium. We came upon the majestic and mini seahorse, Hippocampus zosterae.
We discovered that dwarf seahorses are resilient creatures with a large amount of young. The difficult thing was that they required live food. From this we brainstormed and created a system geared toward dwarf seahorses.
Out of this PJ reef 2.0 was created. We integrated a unique feeding mechanism. Using Sep-Artemia cysts and implementing magnets that people can feed their seahorses without worrying about raising live food all the time. We also implemented a new pump/filtration system that will allow the seahorses to live in a ecosystem that is unique for their needs.