RANT? Prattle? Yammer? Observation?

[GuppyHJD]

I am not sure what to title this - Rant seems too strong but ??

I have a 120g mixed reef tank that is 30 months old. I have killed a handful of coral frags. I have had a few frags grow alot. My parameters over time have slowly moved where I want them. With one bottom out of nutrients and the dinoflagellates problem. As I look at my tank I realize that when I went to the local fish/coral store or coral shows, I bought corals that when I put them in my tank, I often put them in locations that were not ideal for the proper flow or where they will grow in relation to near corals.

I recently went into my favorite coral store, selected an Amazeballs goni frag, and asked "where in the tank is best for this coral?". The answer was "lower third of the tank" in "easy flow" that makes the coral wave in the water.

If I go to a garden center to buy a plant, the better stores have tags / signs that show the sun needs, water needs, height, drainage, fertilizer needs and usually a photo of a mature plant.

Will the aquarium industry get to this level of support?

I really wish there was a way to know if that 1" little frag succeeds - how big will it get? How far away do I need to put the next coral. ( I have a torch stinging the heck out of a chalice that was placed too close ).

 

[snackpack]

The sun is the sun, shade is shade, watering is easily measured, as is fertilizer.

Are your lights and flow and tank dimensions the same as mine? There's no way to create a neat little card to give all the info one might need to keep a coral thriving in their own slice of ocean.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

One of the biggest problems in understanding the battle is the fact that many of the corals we keep never see each other in the wild. That is right we mix corals from different oceans that would never be in contact with each other ever. We also mix soft corals, deep water corals, non photosynthetic corals and anemones in shallow tanks with flow rates that they might never experience in the wild. A mixed tank is a mixed bag of success with some winning and some losing. We might do better with a species or biotype aquarium that caters to the specific needs of those corals in regards to flow, temperature, light, and filtration. Most of the tanks I see are collections of nubs of various corals from very different waters. I see very few tanks that create a true collection of corals from a specific biotope. Perhaps this is where we make some mistakes. I built a new tank and I am looking for a supplier to help me collect perhaps 6 to 10 coral types from the same biotope. It would seem to be easier to target that goal instead of trying to gather a collection of nubs that might try to kill each other. Just my own twisted thoughts lol!

 

[fish farmer]

I am not sure what to title this - Rant seems too strong but ??

I have a 120g mixed reef tank that is 30 months old. I have killed a handful of coral frags. I have had a few frags grow alot. My parameters over time have slowly moved where I want them. With one bottom out of nutrients and the dinoflagellates problem. As I look at my tank I realize that when I went to the local fish/coral store or coral shows, I bought corals that when I put them in my tank, I often put them in locations that were not ideal for the proper flow or where they will grow in relation to near corals.

I recently went into my favorite coral store, selected an Amazeballs goni frag, and asked "where in the tank is best for this coral?". The answer was "lower third of the tank" in "easy flow" that makes the coral wave in the water.

If I go to a garden center to buy a plant, the better stores have tags / signs that show the sun needs, water needs, height, drainage, fertilizer needs and usually a photo of a mature plant.

Will the aquarium industry get to this level of support?

I really wish there was a way to know if that 1" little frag succeeds - how big will it get? How far away do I need to put the next coral. ( I have a torch stinging the heck out of a chalice that was placed too close ).

The lower third of your tank might be higher light than my tank....did your LFS ask what your PAR levels are.....we don't even get a real genus and species when we buy corals.

The best thing is research types of coral you like with books or online before you set foot in a LFS or shop online.

 

[doubleshot00]

To many variables in a reef tank. We all setup our tanks differently. This is why I'm always asking questions about flow and most people are raising there shoulders. Also most of us are a one person/tank experiment. What worked for you may not work for the next.

But it would be nice to see pamphlets or universal information out there. I look at Tidal Gardens for where i should put corals in my tank. I feel big coral companies know the most about flow and lighting.

Gonis IMO are the hardest coral to keep alive for me. Mine do best in the middle of my tank on the sand bed.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

If I go to a garden center to buy a plant, the better stores have tags / signs that show the sun needs, water needs, height, drainage, fertilizer needs and usually a photo of a mature plant.

Will the aquarium industry get to this level of support?

I could see the industry reaching the point where they give generic lighting and flow guidelines for individual corals, but - as mentioned - there are too many other variables in each situation for them to account for in stores (such as what neighbors it may play nicely with from a certain distance). To be fair this is true for plants too - some plants (such as Black Walnut trees) will intentionally poison the ground around them in an attempt to get rid of any competitors for space, but knowing what plants use strategies like this and which plants they may harm would be way too much info list on the tags in the store. (The toxin produced by Black Walnut trees is called juglone, for anyone who’s interested.)

That said, I agree that some guidelines for corals would be helpful. Personally, I’d like to see something like “Strong Light - 500-650 PAR, Moderate Random Flow - 3-3.5 cm/sec,” or “Strong Light - 1100-1150 PAR, Weak Laminar Flow - 0.5-1cm/sec,” (I have no idea what flow rates would be strong/moderate/weak, as I’ve only seen this method of measuring flow used once in study on barnacle feeding, but it seems like it would be more useful for beginners than just High/Medium/Low Flow) since what is considered strong, moderate, or weak may very greatly depending on a number of factors; but I recognize that’s unrealistic at this point.

Also, just as a side note on the plant light/water/etc. tags - I admit to wishing these were a little more detailed too, as full sun could potentially mean anything from like 500-2000 PAR, anything from like 8-16 hours of direct light per day, etc.; and similar issues exist with the watering guidelines (especially if the plant comes from an area with a true wet/dry season setup rather than a four seasons setup). That said, I recognize these tags are generally “good enough” to at least keep most plants alive for the average gardener, and I really appreciate that they have them (so I can definitely see the appeal of a similar setup for corals).

Edit: Substrate guidelines (i.e. Rock or Sand) would be nice too.

 

[MnFish1]

I am not sure what to title this - Rant seems too strong but ??

I have a 120g mixed reef tank that is 30 months old. I have killed a handful of coral frags. I have had a few frags grow alot. My parameters over time have slowly moved where I want them. With one bottom out of nutrients and the dinoflagellates problem. As I look at my tank I realize that when I went to the local fish/coral store or coral shows, I bought corals that when I put them in my tank, I often put them in locations that were not ideal for the proper flow or where they will grow in relation to near corals.

I recently went into my favorite coral store, selected an Amazeballs goni frag, and asked "where in the tank is best for this coral?". The answer was "lower third of the tank" in "easy flow" that makes the coral wave in the water.

If I go to a garden center to buy a plant, the better stores have tags / signs that show the sun needs, water needs, height, drainage, fertilizer needs and usually a photo of a mature plant.

Will the aquarium industry get to this level of support?

I really wish there was a way to know if that 1" little frag succeeds - how big will it get? How far away do I need to put the next coral. ( I have a torch stinging the heck out of a chalice that was placed too close ).

FYI - there are many sites that sell coral that have all of their living parameters. Hope this helps.