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View Full Version : a 'pristine' tank? Maybe not so great an idea...


Sk8r
10/17/2011, 04:44 PM
This is probably the worst hobby on earth for people strongly invested in 'control' of their environment.

For those trying to keep certain fishes, especially the 'film' eaters and algae eaters, the invertebrate munchers---which applies to a very wide range of fish, including angels, tangs, etc...probably the best sort of tank is a) large, because if you are providing a natural diet based on a lot of fauna and flora, it has to be large enough to let these grazers do their thing, and then have it grow back for their next pass. It is a b) varied tank, with quality live rock and a lot of serendipitous life, because these munchables need their own food chain in order to survive, and not all those food chains are totally pretty, top to bottom.

New hobbyists often panic at the first sight of a spionid worm or film on the sand or glass, and rush for the nuclear strike remedy to everything...which may be robbing certain species of what would be a nice treat in their diet, or in the case of some hard-to-keep species like the Hector's Goby---their whole diet.

Don't panic because your tank is not white any more. White is not a lively color. A little brown, purple, odd algae, or whatever, even those pesky aiptasia, are not a calamity. Don't run and get something 'to eat it' in a small tank---because there's no hope that, a week after, it's going to grow back fast enough to be eaten again, and you'll end up adding stuff to keep your 'eater' alive. In a larger tank, all these messy colors mean there's food to be had and a nice environment for the grazers. Otherwise your fishfood has to be adequate. With mandys, the little Hector's Gobies, many angels, and the butterflies, etc---fishfood isn't adequate. So don't even try to go there until you have a really 'messy' big fuge pumping no-see-ums into the tank; or a tank big enough to let these grazers graze, come back and find it all regrown.

You can't be Everything. You can't grow great sps (colored sticks) that live in nutrient poor water and get their nourishment from the sun, and then think you're also going to have a film-eating species. You can't take advice to get a killer skimmer, meant for sps, and apply it to a tank the species of which really depend on nutrient in the water, or film on the rocks.

This is why we urge everybody thinking about a particular fish to read the Wikis on it, read the dealers' info, and ask a lot of questions, not to get a bunch of people chanting, yeah, man, sounds cool---not the most reasoned response---but to get some info from people who actually successfully keep those species for years.

Make sense? The ocean's big. It has a lot of habitats. Your tank, however big, can't be anything but a slice of a habitat type. It can't combine environments.

So do what you do well. And get a second tank or wait til you move if you want to do something different. Life's long and there's time.

indatank
10/17/2011, 05:53 PM
Funny thing is you always hear about certain species of aquaria needs a certain water condition but in the ocean how is it achieved? most of us have some deep water animals and some shallow

Sk8r
10/18/2011, 09:54 AM
Exactly.
But the minute some new hobbyists spot something alive that they didn't specifically order, they try to kill it.

Serendipity: finding things you never expected. This hobby is full of it. Don't kill it: put it in your fuge, unless it tends to spread (another good reason to have a fuge.) The only thing on my personal hit list is caulerpa macro---but a well-balanced tank can usually handle things and keep them in moderation. I've had hydroids, aiptasia, asterina starfish, various worms, spionids, and the only obnoxious bloom I've had besides caulerpa is a little problem with aiptasia. Pep shrimp knock that back to a rasonable level, though it takes quite a while to eliminate it (until you buy the next specimen on a rock).

The more diverse your tank, imho, the healthier the fish, and *perhaps* the less likely your tank will have a huge bloom of something really noxious---all the eco-niches and food supply being taken up with things growing in decent moderation. Your cleaning-crew taking care of spare food includes all those crawly things and the obnoxious pep shrimp and the hydroids and sponges and such---remember that a food chain extends to organisms your naked eye cannot see. As long as these hitchhiker species are not killing a coral speciman or a fish, they're not hurting anything, nor are likely to. Bubble algae isn't an unpretty texture: visitors are often fascinated by it and think it's pretty. Even aiptasia in a fish-only---why not? What's it hurting? It's CUC. Some fish EAT diatoms. Cyano's no big deal: turn your lights out and its biomass cycles either to your skimmer (the beach of your tank) or to some other organism who thinks it's delicious.

In the ocean, you have a patchwork quillt of life. A calico environment. It goes dark for days as clouds roll over; it has tides, and currents of varying temperature. It has day and night. It's not same-old, same-old, even in the tropics, which have some of the most violent weather on the planet.

So welcome variety in your tank. Ask what it is: every bit of knowledge is valuable. But don't panic. It's nature at its finest.