I have been in this hobby for 5 years. I have fought and battled for every single polyp in my reef. I am so proud of my successes and more knowledgeable because of my failures
Love that these are being discussed as misconceptions. Just a thought while listening to the first point… I find it easier to post about problems on reef forums than in the social media ether. On forums, I have a self-selected audience of only reefers, even if they’re new. In the ether, I may get responses on how to fix my reef problems from people who haven’t even gargled with saltwater. 😂
Collecting the "I've been through it, got my butt kicked by it, and beat it this way" from across a topic, and layering it with current scientific knowledge and understanding: is how we can collect and distill "best practices" as a hobby. Which is something (at this stage) few can agree on. But is something this hobby still needs. Those ugly truths about how we're all human, is how we keep pushing ahead. Because reefing is still very much an imperfect science & very much still an art. There's no shame in screwing it up. And I'm personally happy when I see content creators go the extra step and show how and where they've personally gotten it wrong. It's by far where viewers (like myself) learn the most. I also agree that this hobby needs to evolve the conversation on dipping. But that needs to be done responsibly, and not by armatures. In particular when discussing various antibiotics. There are numerous examples where misuse of treatment compounds by a community results in worse resistant pests down the road. And this hobby is not immune to that outcome. Hell, there are numerous instances from commercial aquaculture where it's already occurred. So yes, evolve the conversation. By do so in a way that avoids hazardous practices, such as whole tank treatments, or prophylactic antibiotic. Both of which mirror practices from other disciplines that proved foolhardy and lead to resistant pests.
In regards to the first point: I struggle with critiquing newbies on naive mistakes. I don't want to make them feel bad, but if they made a decision they need to be told it wasn't wise. For example, getting a big starfish and putting it in a 5-month old 30-gallon tank. That poor thing was given a death sentence. Calling them out needs to be done, but I don't want to dis-incentivise posting online... Baaah, it's a delicate maneuver, I guess.
It's all about *how* you communicate. In the example you give, you say "calling them out needs to be done" -- I respectfully disagree. "Calling them out" won't communicate what you are trying to, but if you patiently explain WHY their decisions are likely to result in the death of that starfish, and furthermore describe in detail what success regarding said starfish would look like, then you are far more likely to get through to your audience.
Phenomenal video. I really love where this is going. The people I thought would be my mentors in the beginning failed me miserably and I felt incredibly alone. While I realize every single tank is different, I truly believe finding a solid mentor can be the thing that makes or breaks you. Be the person that helps people, it really matters 💪🏼♥️
Early in my reefing journey I bought a second hand nano tank that came with a very nice rock scape, I gave the rock a quick rinse and set up my tank, not knowing that I should have cured the rock first & eliminate all the dead sponges etc. I battled hair algae and went through the ‘ugly’ phase for probably 6 months! Weekly maintenance was hours of manually removing the algae - very disheartening! But boy - I learned so much! My biggest advice to new reefers is RESEARCH BEFORE doing anything or putting anything into your tank!
I have never dipped, nor quarantined anything and I have 2 thriving SPS dominant tanks, I don't worry about pests or anything. And everyone is going to have aptasia, I stopped trying to address that as well. I stopped checking Po4 or No3 and my corals just grow and grow. What I have learned in 12 years is to just be chill with tanks and stop chasing numbers. Corals can tolerate a lot of variances. ive dumped gallons of kalk slurry in tank and ph was off the charts. I think I lost maybe 1 coral and no fish. Also stopped water changes as well. I use Ca reactor, Kalk reactors, and supplement with Replenish. That's it - everything survives and thrives.
Been into saltwater/reef tanks since 1990. I battled many issues through my career. Hair algae, ich, crashes due over heating, and even a tank fire. Took a 16 year break, now back at it again. My current system has had issues I have never encountered before. The slowest coralline growth ever, clowns killing hammers, flat worms. Just keep pushing forward. Thanks for making great videos. Than Is awesome ! Hoping to get to go to @tidalgardens in the near future.
Let's consider the reality. We purchase glass boxes and attempt to recreate a small slice of the ocean at home. We endure the competition of Life. From the smallest molecules to organisms of mobility etc. It's all an incredible cosmic soup of Life. Our planet breaths because of it.
14 months into hobby. Red cyno outbreak several times. Flatworm outbreak once even after dipping everything before going in.. lost two fish due to jumping. Almost gave up after not being able to beat the cyno but never did. Love my tank
@@paulrod53 took all my torches out dipped twice in a week and got a six line. Luckily all my torches were heavily infested and not so much throughout my whole tank. But it was bad on the torches
(~23:40)Thanks for talking about energy transfer. This process was introduced to me in biology as FRET, Frequency Resonance Energy Transfer. Pigments that resonate at higher energy level link to secondary pigment that absorb a portion of the total energy and emit the rest as light. Only works "downhill" though.
I have battled with hair and bubble algae and while the bubble algae just took some emerald crabs to wipe them out. Hair algae on the other hand seems to be on me, for lack of husbandry. When I stick to weekly water and filter changes I can keep the algae at bay. I also notice it takes weeks to months to see the fruits of your labor so patience is key.
I did a no water change tank for years. It ran great but it transitioned to no water change, it didn't start there. Also, if you think it's less work or less expensive; your wrong, or are doing it wrong. Oh and it was a 200 gallon net system. Going smaller would be unadvised.
I used to dip, but now I just inspect. I feel like it puts unnecessary stress on the coral. I've lost a few during/shortly after dipping and really just don't do it unless I see something now.
ryans comments at 34:15 about attrition also applies to quarantining corals. i've quarantineed everything that goes into my tank. putting corals through 75 days of quarantine in a fishless system with bi weekly dips is rough on the corals. my survival rate through that process is pretty low
You can do no water changes to your system. Only when. 1 it's a mature tank. 2. You do weekly IPC tests to see what Trac elements are needed to dose, and there are no contaminants in the water. This is how you can get away with no water changes. On big systems, it's worth it. Small system not so.
My Reef tank is doing good now but I’ve had problems and I know that there is always a real chance for a problem I just do my best to hopefully and I mean hopefully minimize the problem when it happens
Agreed. Or at least a list of things that can’t handle peroxide. Here’s the first one..... candy cane/trumpets. They fall apart immediately. Works on the algae where there is no flesh however. (Found out the hard way)🤬
If it were as simple as abc , billion dollar pet store chains would be stocked constantly. give that a thought... hands on time and experience are invaluable
Great video! Listening to you, I noticed that a knowledge base similar to Wikipedia dedicated to our hobby would be very useful, especially for people entering the hobby.
Its not about who's had problems, most of us have. Its about the preventatives and reconizing early Any issues to take steps that work and have patience.
It’s true, if you are practicing the reeftank hobby without issues for years then you are very good at it, me for instance am in the hobby for 15 years now, when I started with the hobby I began with sps corals from the beginning, after 15 years I still test the water EVERY DAY and I have never had any problem, I have never and will never use something to automate things, the only electronic devices I use is a ph monitor and a Seneye reef
The no water change thing is weird. How could "I don't clean my tank" be a flex? That would be like being proud that your house is airtight and no air can get in or out even though there's a funny smell now. You need fresh air. The fish probably appreciate new clean water also.
This was funny listening to the no water change part. All of the things they said could apply to sps. You have to set it up with that intention. The point of setting up the ecosystem is so that it doesn't need you.
You can only learn by failing you can only take so much information but how you use that information is different to other people my best advice for anyone is time and patience and adjust slowly nothing happens overnight
Im about to show my failures bleached little frags because of temperature ac is broke in my house. Pain of not wanting to loose live animals and what you spent your hard earned money on things you can not control in your situation.
Exactly! I remember asking Rodney Mullen, a long time ago, about his approach to skateboarding, and how he explains what he does for a living. He simply replied "I fall down a lot!!" lol
the "i dont do water changes" thing really isn't for most corals. your corals use different elements to build itself. if you never dose calcium or do water changes, you will run out of it. I have gotten there in my fresh water tank but i also have plants in it. it's a balance for sure. i've also gone about a month without putting food in it and a couple months without even adding water. went 6 months no water change. dont do this with corals though man.
I know this guy has a giant over-built/over-designed “farm”, but is anyone actually impressed with what he is producing? I watched a tour of his “farm” recently, and I’ll he did was complain about every system having PH issues and not being “perfect”. Is he buying this kind of coverage?
