this hobby has come a loooong way…
when i set up my first 60 gallon reef, it had softies and was lit by Phillips actinic and 65k t12 tubes. some stuff did really well and lots didn't.
A couple years later in 96 i think, when i set up my second 125 gallon reef and installed Venture 65k metal halide bulbs, i started to be able to keep some brown staghorn corals. Right at this time i also watched in dismay as green hair algae began to take over my tank.
Reading everything i could.. as well as the best magazine in the frickin world (in my opinion, at the time) Advanced Aquarist- the printed version, I discovered the concept of plenums and sand beds. After installing a plenum on my reef, i happily watched the hair algae melt away.
This is when people like Borneman and Sprung- amongst others i don't recall were writing about Jaubert and Eng.. amongst other pioneers i don't recall.
What I'm getting at, as i date myself, is that i think there have been many watershed moments in this hobby like the development of protein skimmers, then the implementation of plenums and the dsb, mh lighting….
they are largely related to nutrient control…
Now, perhaps back then we had nutrient levels 10x as high as Thale's tank… i wouldn't know since i never tested for nutrients back then. But i never really had widespread success until i began employing lots of dsbs and skimming a lot.
my most successful tank, here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...497916&page=31 relied on skimming, cheato, wcs and dsb.
even back in 2010, gfo like rowaphos had been on the market for about 3 years but there was no mention of no3 or po4 in my tank specs because i don't think i really tested much.. I was obviously aware of the need to control n and p, but I was of the "i let my corals tell me how the chemistry is" school. As are most people employing a dsb, i find..
nobody asked me about them either because they weren't such a concern... yet….
that tank employed a HUGE skimmer, a HUGE cheato ball lit by a 250w mh bulb and a dsb. It had around 40 fish in the tank and i fed heavily, multiple times a day… the growth as phenomenal and colours were amazing. i have no idea what the nutrient levels were..
It came down for a house reno 3 years ago..
fast forward to today.. i have every test kit under the sun and i know my numbers but my new tank doesn't look as good and the corals are growing sloooooow. I set it up with a sand bed and cheato and watched my no3 drop to 0 and my po4 climb to .3… i had a freak out and pulled out the sand, added biopellest and started dosing no3…. i think that my tank looked better when the dsb had the n at 0 and p out of control.. if i didn't have a p04 test kit to make myself crazy with, i wouldn't have changed anything and, who knows, maybe the tank would have been better off… now, I'm too scared to add the dsb back for fear of the potential spike in p….
talk about chasing and being ruled by the numbers……
having rambled on for too long, despite what this thread is about, i feel that nutrient control is extremely important and i don't think I could live with my reef having n of around 10 and p over 1ppm….. unless i had my old tank and somebody tested my water back then and told me my n and p were where Thales' are now….
If that had happened, i would have been happy with my numbers…..
Thales, I am honestly perplexed by your fantastic looking tank… i would love to see a current video or some top down shots or your corals.. i must say that i am honestly shocked that sps even survive in our tank..
Personally, i feel that your tank an anomaly… but this is not the first time or the last time that this hobby will surprise, humiliate and most importantly, teach me something……