Reefbusters: Share your favorite reefing myths!

[OrionN]

Growth is my key indicator, others choose color …but this is just my experience but I’ve had corals grow at ludicrous speed and never witnessed any polyp extension…

Agree, especially with the angels I keep in my tank.

 

[OrionN]

Redfield ratio
Nutrients cause algae
Don’t chase pH
Algae scrubbers keep hair algae out of the display
Most packaging and marketing claims sadly

The list is long and growing

Excessive nutrients is the cause for some algae. I never check pH of my tank. I don’t even have anything to check pH. Algae scrubber keep the nutrients level low and out compete other algae. You still need CUC and grazers. Nothing ever stop algae from growing, just slow it down. It is all come down to keep algae growth slow and have enough grazers to handle that growth. I don’t think anybody who keep scrubbers should claim or imply that it is the only thing to keep algae under control. It was certainly one of the methods I used successfully before.

 

[OrionN]

Most Hitchhiker's are bad

Most hikers are good. We pay good money for LS and LR, so much that non reefers thinks we are crazy to pay so much, rock and sand, just to get these hikers into our tanks.

 

[OrionN]

you need a lot of flow

You need correct environment for the animals you want to keep. Some require high intermittent flow while others prefers very low flow. Only fake corals or dead coral skeletons does not care about flow

 

[OrionN]

Reef tanks need porosity

The surface area is important whether it is in the sand, rock or media. Unlike freshwater tank, if you don’t have the surface area in a salt water, it won’t work. Sand have a huge amount of surface area, that is why in a tank with good sand bed, it is very stable and hard to get nitrate level up. It is very true that we can provide this a lot better with sand and various porous media materials than with rock. Most of the manufacture rocks are poor and does not factor in tank filtration. In the old days, we keep reef tank with just real actual live rock, no sand and no filter media. The Berlin method, one of the earliest methods of successful reef keeping just use Liverock and skimmer. The skimmers we had back then were not anywhere near as good as a poor one these days.

This is not a myth. You need surface area somewhere.

 

[OrionN]

Six line wrasse is a death sentence to all fish in the tank, copperband are timid and shy, and can easily be out competed for food, once a coral turns white it's dead, it takes thousands to run a successful sps reef, black boxes don't do a good job growing coral, canister filters are not good enough for a salt water tank, you need a sump in a reef tank, you can't keep a sailfin tang in a 20 gallon tank, ok that last one is true.........

I just posted this in another thread. I just cut and paste here:

I did not only hear about it, but experienced it first hand , front roll sit. I had a 420 DT. I had a Sixline pair and a Mandarin pair, along with a lot of other fishes. After 18+ months together, fat and spawning regularly, the Sixline coordinated and peck out the eyes of the Madarin female. It was my bad luck to actually see it. It was over in seconds. They attached within second of each other.
They totally ignored the Madarin before and after the attack. I caught the Sixline pair, sentenced them to death but commuted it to banishment forever from any territories under my rule instead. I only keep Sixline only once since. A friend go out of the country and send me all the contents of his tank. That Sixline died of old age after under my care for 3 years. In the frag system.

My pair of Sixline went to the LFS, I euthanized the female Mandarin. Maybe this was similar to something you heard.

 

[Reefer Matt]

No Purple Tang in a 75 gallon…uh oh.

 

[jft]

That canister filters are BAD for Reef Tanks while I have been running them since 1984 with GREAT RESULTS FOR EHEIM! HAHA HA More baloney from KNOW IT ALLS!!!

 

[OrionN]

Larger tanks are more stable

experiences both small, 5 gal and large 420 DT with total volume of 520, I can tell everybody that large tank is more stable, good and bad. Once it go down hill it take a lot to change direction.
In small tank thermal instability is a big part of it. Nutrients load and elaboration are other factors. Most people don’t have the support equipment for small tank, even with the supporting equipment, the change result is too drastic, temp shoot up when the light or the heater turn on, the salinity shoot down when we top off, the one ir two fish we have in it produce way too much nutrient for the system proportional wise than the 30+ fishes in my 520 gal system. The healthy coral suck up too much of nutrient A in the pics tank and it can’t growth… … …

It is matter if thermal instability or not, it is unstable, and we can’t keep sensitive animals in small tanks, that is not as a result of physical size.

 

[OrionN]

That canister filters are BAD for Reef Tanks while I have been running them since 1984 with GREAT RESULTS FOR EHEIM! HAHA HA More baloney from KNOW IT ALLS!!!

There are literally 1000’s ways of keeping reef tanks, and each tank is different. You just need to know what your tank does and how to handle it.
Canister filter good point is it is an effective mechanical filter and keep the water clear. The bad part is to have to clean it often. The really bad part is if you do broadcast feeding for all the tanks animal automatically like me, it will suck up a lot of the food and just spoil and degraded in the canister and spew out nutrients.
The way I keep my tank, it will be detrimental to my tank. Hat’s off to you for keeping a good reef however you do it. We just need to doing things that is working for us, and know the how and why of various equipment that we use.

 

[OrionN]

Why?
With the exception of thermal stability, no one has been able to put forward an argument as to why that would be true.

It does not matter what cause the instability, it is less stable. Although it is easier to correct once something go wrong.

 

[OrionN]

I guess I am a “Myst Buster” Buster.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Heres a myth, water changes are necessary.
- This 75g tank was filled with new sw 11 years ago, and I’ve done 3-4 water changes. 5g or less each time.

Here’s a myth. Skimmers are needed.
- this tank does not use a skimmer

Here’s a myth - mechanical filtration is important. We need to have filter roller or socks or some type of mech filtration
-this tank has none of that

Here’s a myth - you need a controller system
- not here

Here’s a myth - a reef needs a lot of time to keep it clean and healthy
-my weekly tank maintenance is 5 minutes, including cleaning the glass.
- Once a month I’ll test all parameters, takes 20 min.

Heres a myth - you NEED to spend a fortune on lights and supplement bars
- this tank is lit by a single reefbreeders photon 48v2, run at a max of 40% power. It’s a $900 light new and I got it used for under 500$

Here’s a myth - sandbeds are constant work, and you need to siphon/stir/clean them
-this sand has been here for 10 years and has never been manually cleaned in any way. I do have a conch and nassarius snails. But manually cleaning/stirring/vacuuming - not once


Enjoy my myth reinforcing, and myth breaking tank

While “must have” almost anything is a myth if someone claims it, many of your claimed myths, if written as “can improve many aquaria not doing them” is not easily disproven.

 

[Garf]

I guess I am a “Myst Buster” Buster.

Well, you think you are, I guess.

The surface area is important whether it is in the sand, rock or media. Unlike freshwater tank, if you don’t have the surface area in a salt water, it won’t work. Sand have a huge amount of surface area, that is why in a tank with good sand bed, it is very stable and hard to get nitrate level up. It is very true that we can provide this a lot better with sand and various porous media materials than with rock. Most of the manufacture rocks are poor and does not factor in tank filtration. In the old days, we keep reef tank with just real actual live rock, no sand and no filter media. The Berlin method, one of the earliest methods of successful reef keeping just use Liverock and skimmer. The skimmers we had back then were not anywhere near as good as a poor one these days.

This is not a myth. You need surface area somewhere.

Porosity and surface area are distant cousins, not brothers.

 

[Reefering1]

Porosity and surface area are distant cousins, not brothers.

Why wouldn't porosity amount to surface area, everything else equal

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The surface area is important whether it is in the sand, rock or media. Unlike freshwater tank, if you don’t have the surface area in a salt water, it won’t work.

What do you believe happens if you have inadequate surface area?

I'm not convinced it is needed in many reef tanks at all. I'm starting more and more to believe that it is undesirable in many tanks. I think it is a mistake to assume the nitrogen cycle is something to be maximized.

So let's put that as a myth of mine: it is always good to provide surfaces for nitrifying bacteria.

Corollary: nitrifying bacteria are necessarily good bacteria (I hate that term good bacteria, BTW).

 

[OrionN]

Well, you think you are, I guess.

Porosity and surface area are distant cousins, not brothers.

I will let the readers decide this for themselves.
Cheers.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Why wouldn't porosity amount to surface area, everything else equal

As an in depth science question, porosity always depends on how you define it. IE, what pores are large enough for what you want to accomplish.

GAC can have a huge surface area that is only accessible to tiny molecules, as opposed to bacteria.

 

[Garf]

Why wouldn't porosity amount to surface area, everything else equal

What Randy said, lol. I deliberately went non porous on my recent tank. Even the bag of sand I've got in the sump is washed every week.

 

[Reefering1]

As an in depth science question, porosity always depends on how you define it. IE, what pores are large enough for what you want to accomplish.

GAC can have a huge surface area that is only accessible to tiny molecules, as opposed to bacteria.

Ok... I would consider GAC very porous and was unaware the pores are too small for bacteria. As bacteria and water would be what I had in mind to "get in there".
Makes sense, thank you!!