Do you leave prefer a natural reef tank or the super clean look?

[gizmodo]

I've been looking around and I've been getting inspired by some Japanese reefers that gravitate towards a more natural look that includes all the natural algaes and various forms of life that would normally found on a natural piece of LR. Often times this is because some of their tanks use rocks collected locally from their local reefs. In some ways I suppose that this could be easier and in other ways it has a higher probability of introducing pests.

On the complete opposite end, we have hyper curated and high maintenance tanks that are less likely to introduce pests. Create almost a clean canvas background effect for our coral and fish and are a testament to tank husbandry.

Sustainability, pests, curation and effort aside, which look do you prefer?

 

[shakacuz]

i don't use live rock, but used live seeded rock(media and sand), if that makes sense. i just don't want to add any harmful critters or unseen critters that can cause trouble in my tank. eventually everything becomes a "natural look" with coralline algae, algae growing on it.

 

[gizmodo]

i don't use live rock, but used live seeded rock(media and sand), if that makes sense. i just don't want to add any harmful critters or unseen critters that can cause trouble in my tank. eventfully everything becomes a "natural look" with coralline algae, algae growing on it.

Makes sense. I for the longest time was of the party of sterile dry rock until recently. In a small system, I have to agree that artificial rock that we culture is cleaner and safer because things can go wrong a lot faster and we don't necessarily have the room to add in a natural predator to deal with a harmful pest. I'm willing to try natural wet rock in a new system without coral because I've come to like the look of oceanic live rock.

 

[Reeferbadness]

I leave old shells, broken off pieces of coral etc on the sand bed since this is what it would look like in a natural reef. I do try (mostly unsuccesfully without the help of a goby, turbo snails and 4 or 5 urchins) to keep algae to a minimum and blow the sand bed with a turkey baster when i do water changes (also vaccuum the bed but can't do that everywhere).

 

[gizmodo]

I leave old shells, broken off pieces of coral etc on the sand bed since this is what it would look like in a natural reef. I do try (mostly unsuccesfully without the help of a goby, turbo snails and 4 or 5 urchins) to keep algae to a minimum and blow the sand bed with a turkey baster when i do water changes (also vaccuum the bed but can't do that everywhere).

My father introduced me to reefing close to 20 years ago now and I have to say I like the natural look now that I've gotten older. Very nice tank!

 

[BrokenReefer]

Natural, I don’t have the time to keep a tank spotless and that looks unnatural to me. Personal opinion since it’s in my house. I don’t mind algae or dirty sand, everything happens for a reason and finding the natural solution to keeping it clean is what I am after.

 

[GARRIGA]

Reefs have algae

 

[Doctorgori]

I prefer it to look naturally clean

 

[gizmodo]

Reefs have algae

yes they do. I'm not as scared anymore of GHA and other micro and macroalgae

 

[GARRIGA]

yes they do. I'm not as scared anymore of GHA and other micro and macroalgae

Controlled mine with astraea although they need often replace that and should GHA get too long they starve. Play all mine because tank went wild plus Dino attack. Not sure if Dino what killed them. Disaster

 

[shakacuz]

Makes sense. I for the longest time was of the party of sterile dry rock until recently. In a small system, I have to agree that artificial rock that we culture is cleaner and safer because things can go wrong a lot faster and we don't necessarily have the room to add in a natural predator to deal with a harmful pest. I'm willing to try natural wet rock in a new system without coral because I've come to like the look of oceanic live rock.

i don’t have the space for a bigger tank, so i went with the assumption of a smaller tank. good catch!

 

[AlyciaMarie]

I prefer the natural look for my tank.

 

[steveschuerger]

Natural even the frag racks , except the one I have some new corals on, are designed to look like part of the rock-work

 

[gizmodo]

Controlled mine with astraea although they need often replace that and should GHA get too long they starve. Play all mine because tank went wild plus Dino attack. Not sure if Dino what killed them. Disaster

I had a really bad tank crash caused by a failed heater but I had two survivors, a blastomussa merleti and some rasta zoas. I didn't want to take a total loss since I had small amounts of life still on the rock work. So I chose to restart the system with the corals still in the water. My qt system was down at the time. Man did I ever have algae. first it was bubble algae, which was strange, then GHA. With time and a small cuc added (the old one perished in the crash sadly), I managed to beat GHA and bubble algae. It took me about 5 months and I have to say the rocks look better than before the crash. Full or coraline algae. I want to add sponges, feather dusters and wtv I can get my hands on. The last 8 months has taught me patience and discipline.

 

[gizmodo]

Natural even the frag racks , except the one I have some new corals on, are designed to look like part of the rock-work

Really nice setup. Reminds me of my fathers 180 before it had a seam burst

 

[Alexraptor]

Been going with the natural look for nearly 20 years, since the very beginning.

I even allow for a measure of controlled competition. That is i let my corals attack each other and aggressively compete for space, as long as it does not jepordize the existence of a colony. So I try to plan ahead whenever I place out corals and envision the space they may occupy in 5-10 years time.

 

[gizmodo]

I started my tank as an artificial dry rock system that was completely sterile and I'm slowly converting it to a more natural look. I used to have a hand in my fathers 180 and I would've shown you guys but unfortunately it had a seam burst in the middle of the night and nobody was around to do anything about it and we lost everything. This is all I have left lol.

My 20 Gallon now almost fully recovered

My father's 180 after the devastation

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I like the a natural look, to me it's timeless.

 

[Tnops]

its like all the best looking tanks out there somewhat replicate a part of the reef

neon vibrant pieces have their place but IMO when a tank has only rainbow corals it looks off-balance

 

[William Chiavetta]

I prefer it to look naturally clean

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