Swedish fish - behind the scenes rebuilding a public aquarium

[Dr. Dendrostein]

We started fixing two old plastic tanks today. We got 8 tanks from the university of Gothenburg seven something years ago, they were about to throw them away. They have been outside since, so they are a bit cracked due to rainwater and ice.
We redid two of these five years ago, made propagation tanks out of them. In that case we needed to shorten them from 6 to 4 meter. We even made one less wide. It took some work.. But they are still up and running, and we will use them in the temporary Aquarium. So it was worth the job.
This time we will just make sure they will stay together and not leak. We won't repaint them, just fix the holes and the cracked corners.
So today we started off with the first layer of epoxy and fiber glass mat. Both me and my colleague had forgotten all about how we did it the last time
So this might not become the prettiest epoxy work, but this won't been anything else than just temporary tanks. On Monday we will polish it and do another layer.

View attachment 964518 View attachment 964519 View attachment 964520

I see air pockets. Youtube good source to learn. Doing good still.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

We started fixing two old plastic tanks today. We got 8 tanks from the university of Gothenburg seven something years ago, they were about to throw them away. They have been outside since, so they are a bit cracked due to rainwater and ice.
We redid two of these five years ago, made propagation tanks out of them. In that case we needed to shorten them from 6 to 4 meter. We even made one less wide. It took some work.. But they are still up and running, and we will use them in the temporary Aquarium. So it was worth the job.
This time we will just make sure they will stay together and not leak. We won't repaint them, just fix the holes and the cracked corners.
So today we started off with the first layer of epoxy and fiber glass mat. Both me and my colleague had forgotten all about how we did it the last time
So this might not become the prettiest epoxy work, but this won't been anything else than just temporary tanks. On Monday we will polish it and do another layer.

View attachment 964518 View attachment 964519 View attachment 964520

Don't quit your day job and do fiberglass.

 

[Sallstrom]

I see air pockets. Youtube good source to learn. Doing good still.

I know. Those corners were not even.. ;Meh I figure we'll go over the corners with sandpaper on Monday and see how to go from there. Might take a couple of layers to feel safe..
I will not quit my job to work with fibreglass instead. I promise

 

[Sallstrom]

I've started writing on something with the title "Chasing shortcuts". On my observations from R2R. I'm not sure I will ever dare to post that..

 

[Mortie31]

I am guessing that is the one that has a "self feeding" spinning Nozzle with 2 openings pointing backwards at about a 45° angle. Those 2 openings also angled about 15° off the same axis as the hose? (this provides the spinning motion)

Hooks up to your pressure washer handle and away you go.

Love those!

Ours at work is only about 12 meters long. Do they make them much longer?

We never got it stuck but we use it in an 8" diameter pipe about 4 meters long with 2 bends. Lots of clearance.

Sorry, can't easily convert cm in my head. A meter is very roughly a yard or 3 feet.

That’s genius I didn’t know they existed, I have a blocked bottom drain in my koi pond, and I’m not going snorkelling in the freezing weather... I might try one of these with my pressure washer... thanks chaps

 

[Brew12]

I've started writing on something with the title "Chasing shortcuts". On my observations from R2R. I'm not sure I will ever dare to post that..

I love the idea!

If you ever run out of silly shortcuts we like to take let me know. I'm sure I can tell you lots of other bad ideas that I have tried and continue to try to make reefing "easier".

 

[Sallstrom]

I love the idea!

If you ever run out of silly shortcuts we like to take let me know. I'm sure I can tell you lots of other bad ideas that I have tried and continue to try to make reefing "easier".

Thanks! I'm not sure it's "article material" or just me getting a bit tired of reading about the same mistakes over and over again and reacting to that
But at least it fun to write, so I've added a couple of things today. Maybe I'll send it to you or somebody else for a read through, to see if it's something worth sharing.

Edit. And I have also tried most of the shortcuts, so I'm not smarter than anybody else. But I do think by now some "old truths" would have been rewritten and some products abandoned.

 

[Brew12]

Thanks! I'm not sure it's "article material" or just me getting a bit tired of reading about the same mistakes over and over again and reacting to that
But at least it fun to write, so I've added a couple of things today. Maybe I'll send it to you or somebody else for a read through, to see if it's something worth sharing.

Edit. And I have also tried most of the shortcuts, so I'm not smarter than anybody else. But I do think by now some "old truths" would have been rewritten and some products abandoned.

This hobby has such an incredible learning curve. I think that is one reason I love it. Normally I get bored with hobbies fairly quickly but keeping a reef... I've spent hundreds of hours studying and still feel like I've only scratched the surface.

 

[Sallstrom]

Some Sunday thoughts..

Chasing shortcuts

Since I enjoy the Reef2Reef community, I spend a lot of time looking through the latest threads and trends. Working at a public aquarium I may not get into discussions about hobbyist's home tanks all that often. Even though I still feel like a reefing hobbyist inspite not having an aquarium at home anymore.
But I do like to read. That's how I got most of my knowledge in the first place. I read a lot and then tried to figure out who's worth listening to. So I'm more of a searcher than someone who asks many questions. I love the search function.
Sometimes I try do add a comment in a “problem-thread”, trying to give another option for a solution. But in the end it's up to each and everyone to make their own decisions about their tanks, so I don’t mind if they select another way handling there issue.

The most common thing I see in threads is the chase for shortcuts. Faster cycling, automatic measuring and dosing, products for killing algae, Cyanobacteria or other unwanted creatures in the tank, and so on.
I'm cautious from the start with everything that goes into an aquarium. Maybe that's from a story a heard 20 years ago about someone using a strong hand wash after his workday, then putting his hands into his tank and all the corals were dead the next day. So, I like to know what goes into the tanks I’m responsible for.

When new products comes along claiming they'll kill off this or that, but won't do any harm to the corals, I start to search and read about people's experiences with the product. I will not use it if I don’t find anyone else that had tried it before. I do not need to be in the frontline testing new techniques or products. I’m fine with that.
For most products sold to eradicate algae or cyanobacteria in aquariums, there will be story’s to find online. Most of the time you’ll find that it has worked fine for some, caused more problems for some and some claim their tanks has crashed.
So my common sense tells me that there's a chance that my tank, fish or corals would do bad if I were to add that product to my tank. And I'm not willing to take that chance since I think there're other opinions worth trying instead, at a lower risk of losing animals or stability in the aquarium. I do use ethanol which also could do harm to a tank if overdosed. But in that case I know what’s in the solution and at what dosage it might be too much.

It's not uncommon to see people treat their tanks with a product to get rid of “Green Hair algae”, and they’ll end up with Cyanobacteria. Then adding a new product to fight Cyanobacteria, and they’ll end up with Dinoflagellates. And so on. I understand that's frustrating. But most treatments affects the tank as a whole, the equilibrium we're after. Opportunists like a changing environment. So why don't we avoid changes if we can?

Beating Cyanobacteria for example might take time, patience, measuring and adjusting. To get rid of algae you need a clean up crew for the right type of algae. And they need to be given time to do their work. When your tank is five years old you might not need that big CUC, but that all depend on if the competition for the surface area on the rock is in such a way that unwanted algae no longer have any room to grow.
It takes time to get the tank to where you want it. If you give it time you can end up with a reef tank that tolerates more mistakes and less CUC.
Some might think there's a problem when there are algae in a reef tank. But most algae like just the same conditions as corals, so there's often nothing wrong with the water. Algae grow on the reefs too, in areas where there're less herbivores.
In an aquarium we need to figure out what eats what. Those animals eat Aiptasia anemones, those will eat Diatoms, those will eat GHA etc. I still haven't found any who eats Cyanobacteria yet though

Machines that automatically measure KH have been on the market for some time now. We've tested one for a year. It's great as long as it's correctly calibrated and doesn’t have any bubbles in the hoses. Our one has demanded some work to be accurate. And we’ve had to change a pump. We have continued to test KH manually, almost every day, to get numbers for comparing. If our machine would have adjusted our Core7(balling) automatically, there would have been a couple of crashes over the year. So for me letting those measurements decide dosing amounts are too much of a gamble. Just like adding a product that might affect your tanks in ways you don't want. So for me KH-machines are still just a fun toy, nothing I trust. I’m sure though they will be better in the future, and I would love a reliable machine that did all the testing. We are just not there yet.

So the way I see it it’s a risk assessment. I don’t want to screw the whole tank up just because there’s a small problem. And if the corals are growing, you’re doing something right.
If I do do anything, I choose something that’s not too much of a risk. For Cyanobacteria in low nutrient tanks, I stick to KNO3 and KH2PO4 to raise the nutrients a bit. Not over night, but over a couple of month. I won’t see any change over night either, but in weeks or sometimes month. By doing that I don’t mess up anything else. Sure, nutrients are fuel for algae as well. But trying to starve the unwanted algae often just leads to unhappy corals, since they too need nutrients. So in the end, algae is just food for herbivores, and that leads us back to the need for a proper clean up crew.


Not sure why I wrote all that, but I started to write and that was what came out this time.. I'll stop now. Have a good Sunday!

 

[najer]

Some Sunday thoughts..

Chasing shortcuts

Since I enjoy the Reef2Reef community, I spend a lot of time looking through the latest threads and trends. Working at a public aquarium I may not get into discussions about hobbyist's home tanks all that often. Even though I still feel like a reefing hobbyist inspite not having an aquarium at home anymore.
But I do like to read. That's how I got most of my knowledge in the first place. I read a lot and then tried to figure out who's worth listening to. So I'm more of a searcher than someone who asks many questions. I love the search function.
Sometimes I try do add a comment in a “problem-thread”, trying to give another option for a solution. But in the end it's up to each and everyone to make their own decisions about their tanks, so I don’t mind if they select another way handling there issue.

The most common thing I see in threads is the chase for shortcuts. Faster cycling, automatic measuring and dosing, products for killing algae, Cyanobacteria or other unwanted creatures in the tank, and so on.
I'm cautious from the start with everything that goes into an aquarium. Maybe that's from a story a heard 20 years ago about someone using a strong hand wash after his workday, then putting his hands into his tank and all the corals were dead the next day. So, I like to know what goes into the tanks I’m responsible for.

When new products comes along claiming they'll kill off this or that, but won't do any harm to the corals, I start to search and read about people's experiences with the product. I will not use it if I don’t find anyone else that had tried it before. I do not need to be in the frontline testing new techniques or products. I’m fine with that.
For most products sold to eradicate algae or cyanobacteria in aquariums, there will be story’s to find online. Most of the time you’ll find that it has worked fine for some, caused more problems for some and some claim their tanks has crashed.
So my common sense tells me that there's a chance that my tank, fish or corals would do bad if I were to add that product to my tank. And I'm not willing to take that chance since I think there're other opinions worth trying instead, at a lower risk of losing animals or stability in the aquarium. I do use ethanol which also could do harm to a tank if overdosed. But in that case I know what’s in the solution and at what dosage it might be too much.

It's not uncommon to see people treat their tanks with a product to get rid of “Green Hair algae”, and they’ll end up with Cyanobacteria. Then adding a new product to fight Cyanobacteria, and they’ll end up with Dinoflagellates. And so on. I understand that's frustrating. But most treatments affects the tank as a whole, the equilibrium we're after. Opportunists like a changing environment. So why don't we avoid changes if we can?

Beating Cyanobacteria for example might take time, patience, measuring and adjusting. To get rid of algae you need a clean up crew for the right type of algae. And they need to be given time to do their work. When your tank is five years old you might not need that big CUC, but that all depend on if the competition for the surface area on the rock is in such a way that unwanted algae no longer have any room to grow.
It takes time to get the tank to where you want it. If you give it time you can end up with a reef tank that tolerates more mistakes and less CUC.
Some might think there's a problem when there are algae in a reef tank. But most algae like just the same conditions as corals, so there's often nothing wrong with the water. Algae grow on the reefs too, in areas where there're less herbivores.
In an aquarium we need to figure out what eats what. Those animals eat Aiptasia anemones, those will eat Diatoms, those will eat GHA etc. I still haven't found any who eats Cyanobacteria yet though

Machines that automatically measure KH have been on the market for some time now. We've tested one for a year. It's great as long as it's correctly calibrated and doesn’t have any bubbles in the hoses. Our one has demanded some work to be accurate. And we’ve had to change a pump. We have continued to test KH manually, almost every day, to get numbers for comparing. If our machine would have adjusted our Core7(balling) automatically, there would have been a couple of crashes over the year. So for me letting those measurements decide dosing amounts are too much of a gamble. Just like adding a product that might affect your tanks in ways you don't want. So for me KH-machines are still just a fun toy, nothing I trust. I’m sure though they will be better in the future, and I would love a reliable machine that did all the testing. We are just not there yet.

So the way I see it it’s a risk assessment. I don’t want to screw the whole tank up just because there’s a small problem. And if the corals are growing, you’re doing something right.
If I do do anything, I choose something that’s not too much of a risk. For Cyanobacteria in low nutrient tanks, I stick to KNO3 and KH2PO4 to raise the nutrients a bit. Not over night, but over a couple of month. I won’t see any change over night either, but in weeks or sometimes month. By doing that I don’t mess up anything else. Sure, nutrients are fuel for algae as well. But trying to starve the unwanted algae often just leads to unhappy corals, since they too need nutrients. So in the end, algae is just food for herbivores, and that leads us back to the need for a proper clean up crew.


Not sure why I wrote all that, but I started to write and that was what came out this time.. I'll stop now. Have a good Sunday!

Two drains, 2 return pumps, two heaters, manual dosing and top ups, how complicated does it need to be?
Great piece!

 

[Sallstrom]

Exactly @najer ! Great tank
Thanks!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Some Sunday thoughts..

Chasing shortcuts

Since I enjoy the Reef2Reef community, I spend a lot of time looking through the latest threads and trends. Working at a public aquarium I may not get into discussions about hobbyist's home tanks all that often. Even though I still feel like a reefing hobbyist inspite not having an aquarium at home anymore.
But I do like to read. That's how I got most of my knowledge in the first place. I read a lot and then tried to figure out who's worth listening to. So I'm more of a searcher than someone who asks many questions. I love the search function.
Sometimes I try do add a comment in a “problem-thread”, trying to give another option for a solution. But in the end it's up to each and everyone to make their own decisions about their tanks, so I don’t mind if they select another way handling there issue.

The most common thing I see in threads is the chase for shortcuts. Faster cycling, automatic measuring and dosing, products for killing algae, Cyanobacteria or other unwanted creatures in the tank, and so on.
I'm cautious from the start with everything that goes into an aquarium. Maybe that's from a story a heard 20 years ago about someone using a strong hand wash after his workday, then putting his hands into his tank and all the corals were dead the next day. So, I like to know what goes into the tanks I’m responsible for.

When new products comes along claiming they'll kill off this or that, but won't do any harm to the corals, I start to search and read about people's experiences with the product. I will not use it if I don’t find anyone else that had tried it before. I do not need to be in the frontline testing new techniques or products. I’m fine with that.
For most products sold to eradicate algae or cyanobacteria in aquariums, there will be story’s to find online. Most of the time you’ll find that it has worked fine for some, caused more problems for some and some claim their tanks has crashed.
So my common sense tells me that there's a chance that my tank, fish or corals would do bad if I were to add that product to my tank. And I'm not willing to take that chance since I think there're other opinions worth trying instead, at a lower risk of losing animals or stability in the aquarium. I do use ethanol which also could do harm to a tank if overdosed. But in that case I know what’s in the solution and at what dosage it might be too much.

It's not uncommon to see people treat their tanks with a product to get rid of “Green Hair algae”, and they’ll end up with Cyanobacteria. Then adding a new product to fight Cyanobacteria, and they’ll end up with Dinoflagellates. And so on. I understand that's frustrating. But most treatments affects the tank as a whole, the equilibrium we're after. Opportunists like a changing environment. So why don't we avoid changes if we can?

Beating Cyanobacteria for example might take time, patience, measuring and adjusting. To get rid of algae you need a clean up crew for the right type of algae. And they need to be given time to do their work. When your tank is five years old you might not need that big CUC, but that all depend on if the competition for the surface area on the rock is in such a way that unwanted algae no longer have any room to grow.
It takes time to get the tank to where you want it. If you give it time you can end up with a reef tank that tolerates more mistakes and less CUC.
Some might think there's a problem when there are algae in a reef tank. But most algae like just the same conditions as corals, so there's often nothing wrong with the water. Algae grow on the reefs too, in areas where there're less herbivores.
In an aquarium we need to figure out what eats what. Those animals eat Aiptasia anemones, those will eat Diatoms, those will eat GHA etc. I still haven't found any who eats Cyanobacteria yet though

Machines that automatically measure KH have been on the market for some time now. We've tested one for a year. It's great as long as it's correctly calibrated and doesn’t have any bubbles in the hoses. Our one has demanded some work to be accurate. And we’ve had to change a pump. We have continued to test KH manually, almost every day, to get numbers for comparing. If our machine would have adjusted our Core7(balling) automatically, there would have been a couple of crashes over the year. So for me letting those measurements decide dosing amounts are too much of a gamble. Just like adding a product that might affect your tanks in ways you don't want. So for me KH-machines are still just a fun toy, nothing I trust. I’m sure though they will be better in the future, and I would love a reliable machine that did all the testing. We are just not there yet.

So the way I see it it’s a risk assessment. I don’t want to screw the whole tank up just because there’s a small problem. And if the corals are growing, you’re doing something right.
If I do do anything, I choose something that’s not too much of a risk. For Cyanobacteria in low nutrient tanks, I stick to KNO3 and KH2PO4 to raise the nutrients a bit. Not over night, but over a couple of month. I won’t see any change over night either, but in weeks or sometimes month. By doing that I don’t mess up anything else. Sure, nutrients are fuel for algae as well. But trying to starve the unwanted algae often just leads to unhappy corals, since they too need nutrients. So in the end, algae is just food for herbivores, and that leads us back to the need for a proper clean up crew.


Not sure why I wrote all that, but I started to write and that was what came out this time.. I'll stop now. Have a good Sunday!

Half way through I remembered I was not reading an article, but a thread post. This was excellent and I fully agree.

 

[Sallstrom]

Half way through I remembered I was not reading an article, but a thread post. This was excellent and I fully agree.

Thank you! I started writing after reading an article, thinking I might write one myself. But reading through my text, I didn't think it was good enough. It's a bit hard to be clever and fun in another language than your mother tongue

Anyhow, I get a little frustrated seeing all threads about using one or another product or medicine even though there are so many story's on things going bad after using them(in reef tanks). I can't understand how people are willing to take such a risk when having animals in a box of water(expensive ones too). Would they take the same risks with their dogs for example?

 

[NY_Caveman]

Thank you! I started writing after reading an article, thinking I might write one myself. But reading through my text, I didn't think it was good enough. It's a bit hard to be clever and fun in another language than your mother tongue

Anyhow, I get a little frustrated seeing all threads about using one or another product or medicine even though there are so many story's on things going bad after using them(in reef tanks). I can't understand how people are willing to take such a risk when having animals in a box of water(expensive ones too). Would they take the same risks with their dogs for example?

I think people would take risks with their dogs if a veterinarian gave poor advice. They probably research the advice less than reefkeepers do as well because they trust a professional implicitly. A veterinarian is a dog mechanic and they are guessing a lot of the time as well.

With reefs we are generally on our own and people panic, guess and add critters on whims with no research. Even those of us who have done this for years make simple mistakes and errors in haste. Having a forum like this gives people a chance compared to twenty years ago though.

 

[Sallstrom]

I think people would take risks with their dogs if a veterinarian gave poor advice. They probably research the advice less than reefkeepers do as well because they trust a professional implicitly. A veterinarian is a dog mechanic and they are guessing a lot of the time as well.

With reefs we are generally on our own and people panic, guess and add critters on whims with no research. Even those of us who have done this for years make simple mistakes and errors in haste. Having a forum like this gives people a chance compared to twenty years ago though.

That's true.
Might have been a bad comparison, how people treat their dogs. I hope no one got offended

Also true about being on your own as a reefer. 20 years ago there were a couple of books that we trusted. Now there's the forums and social media, an endless source of information. Hard to know what's good or not so good advices.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Some Sunday thoughts..

Chasing shortcuts

Since I enjoy the Reef2Reef community, I spend a lot of time looking through the latest threads and trends. Working at a public aquarium I may not get into discussions about hobbyist's home tanks all that often. Even though I still feel like a reefing hobbyist inspite not having an aquarium at home anymore.
But I do like to read. That's how I got most of my knowledge in the first place. I read a lot and then tried to figure out who's worth listening to. So I'm more of a searcher than someone who asks many questions. I love the search function.
Sometimes I try do add a comment in a “problem-thread”, trying to give another option for a solution. But in the end it's up to each and everyone to make their own decisions about their tanks, so I don’t mind if they select another way handling there issue.

The most common thing I see in threads is the chase for shortcuts. Faster cycling, automatic measuring and dosing, products for killing algae, Cyanobacteria or other unwanted creatures in the tank, and so on.
I'm cautious from the start with everything that goes into an aquarium. Maybe that's from a story a heard 20 years ago about someone using a strong hand wash after his workday, then putting his hands into his tank and all the corals were dead the next day. So, I like to know what goes into the tanks I’m responsible for.

When new products comes along claiming they'll kill off this or that, but won't do any harm to the corals, I start to search and read about people's experiences with the product. I will not use it if I don’t find anyone else that had tried it before. I do not need to be in the frontline testing new techniques or products. I’m fine with that.
For most products sold to eradicate algae or cyanobacteria in aquariums, there will be story’s to find online. Most of the time you’ll find that it has worked fine for some, caused more problems for some and some claim their tanks has crashed.
So my common sense tells me that there's a chance that my tank, fish or corals would do bad if I were to add that product to my tank. And I'm not willing to take that chance since I think there're other opinions worth trying instead, at a lower risk of losing animals or stability in the aquarium. I do use ethanol which also could do harm to a tank if overdosed. But in that case I know what’s in the solution and at what dosage it might be too much.

It's not uncommon to see people treat their tanks with a product to get rid of “Green Hair algae”, and they’ll end up with Cyanobacteria. Then adding a new product to fight Cyanobacteria, and they’ll end up with Dinoflagellates. And so on. I understand that's frustrating. But most treatments affects the tank as a whole, the equilibrium we're after. Opportunists like a changing environment. So why don't we avoid changes if we can?

Beating Cyanobacteria for example might take time, patience, measuring and adjusting. To get rid of algae you need a clean up crew for the right type of algae. And they need to be given time to do their work. When your tank is five years old you might not need that big CUC, but that all depend on if the competition for the surface area on the rock is in such a way that unwanted algae no longer have any room to grow.
It takes time to get the tank to where you want it. If you give it time you can end up with a reef tank that tolerates more mistakes and less CUC.
Some might think there's a problem when there are algae in a reef tank. But most algae like just the same conditions as corals, so there's often nothing wrong with the water. Algae grow on the reefs too, in areas where there're less herbivores.
In an aquarium we need to figure out what eats what. Those animals eat Aiptasia anemones, those will eat Diatoms, those will eat GHA etc. I still haven't found any who eats Cyanobacteria yet though

Machines that automatically measure KH have been on the market for some time now. We've tested one for a year. It's great as long as it's correctly calibrated and doesn’t have any bubbles in the hoses. Our one has demanded some work to be accurate. And we’ve had to change a pump. We have continued to test KH manually, almost every day, to get numbers for comparing. If our machine would have adjusted our Core7(balling) automatically, there would have been a couple of crashes over the year. So for me letting those measurements decide dosing amounts are too much of a gamble. Just like adding a product that might affect your tanks in ways you don't want. So for me KH-machines are still just a fun toy, nothing I trust. I’m sure though they will be better in the future, and I would love a reliable machine that did all the testing. We are just not there yet.

So the way I see it it’s a risk assessment. I don’t want to screw the whole tank up just because there’s a small problem. And if the corals are growing, you’re doing something right.
If I do do anything, I choose something that’s not too much of a risk. For Cyanobacteria in low nutrient tanks, I stick to KNO3 and KH2PO4 to raise the nutrients a bit. Not over night, but over a couple of month. I won’t see any change over night either, but in weeks or sometimes month. By doing that I don’t mess up anything else. Sure, nutrients are fuel for algae as well. But trying to starve the unwanted algae often just leads to unhappy corals, since they too need nutrients. So in the end, algae is just food for herbivores, and that leads us back to the need for a proper clean up crew.


Not sure why I wrote all that, but I started to write and that was what came out this time.. I'll stop now. Have a good Sunday!

Excellent! Well said, and I agree whole-heartedly.

My background is ecology. My approach to reef aquariums is from the holistic ecosystem side, and as such, I don’t spend a lot of time trying to micromanage the players in the game...whether they’re the players on the team we like, or players on the opposing team.

The best we can do is to set up as good of an environment possible, with as much accommodation as possible for all of the organisms we want, and then just let it go...with some gentle nudging and guiding from our part.

I think of it as ‘managed negligence’. I came at it out of necessity, given that most of the reef tanks I manage for others get very little attention other than what I give. The more you do it, though, the most faith you start to put in the system and the organisms.

 

[Sallstrom]

Excellent! Well said, and I agree whole-heartedly.

My background is ecology. My approach to reef aquariums is from the holistic ecosystem side, and as such, I don’t spend a lot of time trying to micromanage the players in the game...whether they’re the players on the team we like, or players on the opposing team.

The best we can do is to set up as good of an environment possible, with as much accommodation as possible for all of the organisms we want, and then just let it go...with some gentle nudging and guiding from our part.

I think of it as ‘managed negligence’. I came at it out of necessity, given that most of the reef tanks I manage for others get very little attention other than what I give. The more you do it, though, the most faith you start to put in the system and the organisms.

Thanks!

I totally agree. I like the ‘managed negligence’. I've also developed that kind of husbandry over the years. It's fun to see what happens if you don't do anything or just raise one addetive 1ml and wait for a month. Most tanks work things out themselves just given some time(and sometimes some addetives too). And running several tanks you must find animals to take care of some of the jobs, otherwise there wouldn't be possible time wise.

I didn't get into all the shortcuts we do take. But that might be something to write about next weekend I think we do many things alike there.

 

[Alfrareef]

Some Sunday thoughts..

Chasing shortcuts

Since I enjoy the Reef2Reef community, I spend a lot of time looking through the latest threads and trends. Working at a public aquarium I may not get into discussions about hobbyist's home tanks all that often. Even though I still feel like a reefing hobbyist inspite not having an aquarium at home anymore.
But I do like to read. That's how I got most of my knowledge in the first place. I read a lot and then tried to figure out who's worth listening to. So I'm more of a searcher than someone who asks many questions. I love the search function.
Sometimes I try do add a comment in a “problem-thread”, trying to give another option for a solution. But in the end it's up to each and everyone to make their own decisions about their tanks, so I don’t mind if they select another way handling there issue.

The most common thing I see in threads is the chase for shortcuts. Faster cycling, automatic measuring and dosing, products for killing algae, Cyanobacteria or other unwanted creatures in the tank, and so on.
I'm cautious from the start with everything that goes into an aquarium. Maybe that's from a story a heard 20 years ago about someone using a strong hand wash after his workday, then putting his hands into his tank and all the corals were dead the next day. So, I like to know what goes into the tanks I’m responsible for.

When new products comes along claiming they'll kill off this or that, but won't do any harm to the corals, I start to search and read about people's experiences with the product. I will not use it if I don’t find anyone else that had tried it before. I do not need to be in the frontline testing new techniques or products. I’m fine with that.
For most products sold to eradicate algae or cyanobacteria in aquariums, there will be story’s to find online. Most of the time you’ll find that it has worked fine for some, caused more problems for some and some claim their tanks has crashed.
So my common sense tells me that there's a chance that my tank, fish or corals would do bad if I were to add that product to my tank. And I'm not willing to take that chance since I think there're other opinions worth trying instead, at a lower risk of losing animals or stability in the aquarium. I do use ethanol which also could do harm to a tank if overdosed. But in that case I know what’s in the solution and at what dosage it might be too much.

It's not uncommon to see people treat their tanks with a product to get rid of “Green Hair algae”, and they’ll end up with Cyanobacteria. Then adding a new product to fight Cyanobacteria, and they’ll end up with Dinoflagellates. And so on. I understand that's frustrating. But most treatments affects the tank as a whole, the equilibrium we're after. Opportunists like a changing environment. So why don't we avoid changes if we can?

Beating Cyanobacteria for example might take time, patience, measuring and adjusting. To get rid of algae you need a clean up crew for the right type of algae. And they need to be given time to do their work. When your tank is five years old you might not need that big CUC, but that all depend on if the competition for the surface area on the rock is in such a way that unwanted algae no longer have any room to grow.
It takes time to get the tank to where you want it. If you give it time you can end up with a reef tank that tolerates more mistakes and less CUC.
Some might think there's a problem when there are algae in a reef tank. But most algae like just the same conditions as corals, so there's often nothing wrong with the water. Algae grow on the reefs too, in areas where there're less herbivores.
In an aquarium we need to figure out what eats what. Those animals eat Aiptasia anemones, those will eat Diatoms, those will eat GHA etc. I still haven't found any who eats Cyanobacteria yet though

Machines that automatically measure KH have been on the market for some time now. We've tested one for a year. It's great as long as it's correctly calibrated and doesn’t have any bubbles in the hoses. Our one has demanded some work to be accurate. And we’ve had to change a pump. We have continued to test KH manually, almost every day, to get numbers for comparing. If our machine would have adjusted our Core7(balling) automatically, there would have been a couple of crashes over the year. So for me letting those measurements decide dosing amounts are too much of a gamble. Just like adding a product that might affect your tanks in ways you don't want. So for me KH-machines are still just a fun toy, nothing I trust. I’m sure though they will be better in the future, and I would love a reliable machine that did all the testing. We are just not there yet.

So the way I see it it’s a risk assessment. I don’t want to screw the whole tank up just because there’s a small problem. And if the corals are growing, you’re doing something right.
If I do do anything, I choose something that’s not too much of a risk. For Cyanobacteria in low nutrient tanks, I stick to KNO3 and KH2PO4 to raise the nutrients a bit. Not over night, but over a couple of month. I won’t see any change over night either, but in weeks or sometimes month. By doing that I don’t mess up anything else. Sure, nutrients are fuel for algae as well. But trying to starve the unwanted algae often just leads to unhappy corals, since they too need nutrients. So in the end, algae is just food for herbivores, and that leads us back to the need for a proper clean up crew.


Not sure why I wrote all that, but I started to write and that was what came out this time.. I'll stop now. Have a good Sunday!

Great speech! Totally agree!!
Inside my tank most of the animals are workers... contributing for the tank welfare. And the CUC it’s huge....

 

[mort]

I've always run my tanks using the "Tullock" philosophy, less technology more biology. It always amazes me how some aim for a sterile, non diverse system when a little warts an all does wonders.

 

[Sallstrom]

Great speech! Totally agree!!
Inside my tank most of the animals are workers... contributing for the tank welfare. And the CUC it’s huge....

Thanks!
I'm in the mood for writing at the moment, so there might come some more soon. Good therapy when having a lot of things on my mind