SERA was founded in 1970 by Josef Ravnak, a well-respected seller of live pet-food. At this time, a new process called lyophilization was being introduced and was already highly acclaimed for preserving food animals with optimal retention of their nutrients and vitamins. Mr. Ravnak capitalized on this innovation, and over the years has continually improved sera’s product quality through advanced production methods and stringent quality control. Today – more than thirty years later – sera freeze-dried (FD) foods are the refined result of this original process, and they represent an important part of the sera product line.
The early years
During the company’s first years the product line was continuously expanded and optimized, and sera vipan flakes, the company’s flagship food, was introduced in 1972. The company focus broadened to include the aquarium hobby as a whole and throughout the decade they developed water conditioners, such as sera aquatan and sera morena – aquatic plant fertilizers, such as sera florena – and aquarium fish medications, such as sera costapur and sera baktopur. The first series of water testing kits were also developed.
Towards the end of the seventies, sera turned to the garden pond sector and developed a complete range of pond care products to equal the quality of those in their popular aquarium lines. Turtle and other reptile products were also being added at this time.
Throughout the eighties, sera continued to raise the company profile by increasing the product lines with innovative and scientifically advanced foods, vitamins, and technological products. During these years the acclaimed sera Bio-Denitrator was launched, which was the first mechanism to actively target the biological breakdown of nitrate in an aquarium. sera continued its development into natural biological methods for maintaining clean water, and the highly effective sera siporax media for bio-filters was introduced to the public and was requested by the US Space program – where it is still used today.
sera today
With more than 200 products in the assortment, a team of scientists at its Heinsburg, Germany headquarters, international product distribution, and subsidiaries in North America, France, Italy, Chile and Japan – sera has gained a reputation as one of the leading forces in aquaculture today.
As technology progresses, pressured by the demands of the scientists, sera has been at the industry forefront in developing new forms of food such as the flake, tablet, freeze-dried, and granulates that can now meet the individual nutritional requirements and natural feeding habits of the animals it was formulated for. Specialty foods such as long-term sera holiday tabs, Koi Snacks for hand feeding, and Catfish chips for a nutritional treat based on natural textures are only a few of the novel new additions that have combined nutrition with variety.
Along with developments in foods, sera continues to add and refine water conditioners for biological cleaning and algae control, and technical products such as filters, pumps, CO2 units, UV filters, lamps, testing instruments, and accessories.
Education and information are paramount to sera, and through our seminars, guide book series, sera News periodicals, and computer-aided resources such as sera-The CD and the Internet-based sera Laboratory for online water testing – sera passes along the latest information that research has to offer.
In all these ways, sera has developed and continues to develop its products according to the company’s founding philosophy "For a water world according to nature."
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A SERA Planted Tank
This 20 gallon high tank has been set up for three months, using the SERA plant products. I started with the SERA substrate “floredepot”, which I covered with an inch or two of brown gravel. The light is a Hagen GLO T5 reflector with two 24 watt lamps in it – one white and one actinic blue. The filter is a small Hi-Q outside power filter. After initially planting the tank, I used the SERA CO2 system which consists of adding a tablet every day or so. I am also adding the SERA plant food products as per their directions. There is a daily dose of one, a weekly dose of another, and tabs that can be used to spot feed. These I think are making a real difference in the growth of the plants. I use plants that I know do well in my water conditions, which is fairly soft and acid water. The plants in the tank are 4 types of crypts, regular Java fern and long leafed Java fern, slender leafed hygro, red ludwigia and rotal indica, Anubias nana, and a few Amazon swords.All in all, this is a really nice tank. As some of you may know, I am NOT a high-tech plant guy. I want my tanks to have nice plants, and when I set up a tank like this 20H specifically to be a planted tank I only use plants that I know do well in my water conditions, and ones that do not absolutely require CO2 and very high light levels. I also keep my tanks primarily for the fish, and I keep a lot of fish in each tank. This 20 high has 25 large neons, 3 Apisto cacuotoides, 6 cory cats, a large SAE and a very large yoyo botia, along with 3 flower shrimp. Yes -- it is overcrowded. But with heavy active plant growth it is just fine.
The most interesting thing is, if you look in the upper left corner/side of the tank you can see the roots that the slender-leafed hygro is sending down to the gravel. At the same time, it is also growing out of the top of the water. Other plants that have been doing best are the two long leafed crypts and the narrow leaf Java fern. This tank is nothing that any and all of you guys couldn't do, using the SERA planted tank products
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