We talk a lot about some pretty arcane subjects in this blog- and in this hobby, don’t we? Part of this is because most reefers are as complex as their aquariums…endlessly diverse, and generally quite interesting (okay, there are a few reefers who are just..dull. Hey, I’d be lying if I said otherwise, right?). Anyways, I don’t think that, in all of my ramblings here, that I’ve ever focused on the ONE key thing that your reef needs to be successful.
Yeah, you heard me. ONE KEY THING! One. Uno. Un.
That’s a rather assertive claim, coming from me, “Mr.-Don’t-Take-Anyone’s-Advice-Too-Seriously” himself, huh?
Okay, I’ll own it. I think I know the ONE thing that every reef needs to be successful.
Stability.
Yeah, that’s what every reef needs in order to be successful. Not a big skimmer, electronic controller, state-of-the-art sump, space shuttle-style plumbing scheme, over-the-top LED system. None of that.
The one thing that a reef system needs to be successful is stability.
Just like in aviation- stability in reef-keeping is super important.
Think about it for just a second, as you contemplate chastising me for a very gross over-generalization- something I’ve admonished everyone in the hobby never to do. The wild reefs are among nature’s most stable environments. They’re constantly under siege from external forces, aren’t they? We read about the impact of global warming, increasing acidity in the oceans, pollution, over-fishing, etc. What do all of those factors affect? Stability. Why are these factors so impactful and potentially dangerous? Because they threaten the stability of these fragile ecosystems.
Sure, we can make some rather blanket statements based on our 30 some years of experience with the reef keeping hobby that corals are really adaptable, hardy animals, coping with the rigors of collection, transport, acclimation, imposed propagation, etc., and still apparently thriving. True, many corals are more resilient than you’d initially believe, coming as they do from such seldom-changing environments. However, just because your Acropora manages to hang on for a while in sub-par lighting, water movement, and chemical parameters, does that mean it’s “adaptable”, right? Is it simply tenacious- clinging to life in an environment that is otherwise less-than acceptable to it? I think so, in any cases.
"Adaptable?" Or just lucky?
Does this mean it’s okay to provide an environment that is less than stable?
I don’t believe so,.
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: “Here’s ol’ Scott, sounding off about stability on one hand, and then telling us not to obsess over chasing numbers with our reef water chemistry…And he’s pushing Triton tests as a means to monitor all sorts of seemingly arcane parameters in our reefs. What gives here?”
(Okay, maybe you weren’t thinking all of THAT, but I’ll bet you were thinking about why I am such a big fan of stability.)
Fair question. Perhaps I can create a sort of analogy that makes sense (maybe- you know my analogies can go south quickly)…
Let’s say, for example, that you’re in captivity (just the SOUND of that sucks, huh?), plucked off the street by a human collector. You’re kept in a comfortably furnished apartment, with some plants, pizza, a nice couch, wifi, and all the DirectTV and Netflix you can handle. That’s sort of your new life. You’re confined to these four walls, day in and day out. Almost as soon as you arrive, the careful conditions that were arranged for you will start to deteriorate. The air gets a bit stale, some crumbs and such are accumulating on the floor (I don’t care how careful you are- you’ll leave crumbs when you eat pizza…), the bathrooms start getting a bit dirty, light bulbs start losing brightness; you’re sick of watching “Pacific Rim” and “Hunger Games” on TV (I mean, I am.)…
Within a few weeks, the apartment is a serious dorm-room-style mess. It needs a good cleaning. And you can’t leave. Ever. Fortunately, the housekeeper arrives. The bathrooms are cleaned., floors vacuumed, furniture refreshed, and linens changed. You can breathe again. Fast forward two weeks. Same situation. The place is a mess and you’re getting bit crazed from the clutter. And, you can’t ever leave.
And so on. Sure, ti seems okay from a “comfort provided” standpoint, but the reality is that you’re constantly forced to stay in the same place, and it keeps changing- swinging back and forth between extremely dirty, and otherwise tolerable. And, did I mention, you can never leave? Yeah, I did.
What does all of this mean to you, the resident?
You’re constantly having to adapt and deal with stress. Stress from a myriad of factors, ranging from the same food, sounds, four walls, to a dirty-then-clean-then-dirty environment. This seems innocuous at first, but the constant adaptation to changing conditions in a closed environment is quite stressful. Corals, hailing from the most stable environments on the planet, are simply not evolved to handle the stresses cause by environmental fluctuations without incurring some health issues as a result. When you factor in temperature swings, increasing/decreasing alkalinity, calcium, trace element levels, etc., it’s a recipe for stress, plain and simple.
Stress is a problem for corals. Period.
Now look, I’m not telling you to lock in on set numbers at the exclusion of everything else. I’m not telling you that a 2 degree day-night temperature change is going to be the demise of your reef. What I am proffering here is that you look into the overall environmental stability that you are providing your animals. This includes things like feeding, use of additives, changing salt mixes, etc. When you mix up environmental parameters, you’re forcing corals to adapt to changes that they are not evolved to do. Rather than obsessing on, for example, a magnesium level of exactly 1280ppm, you can lock in on a range within the target parameter of say, 1250-1350 ppm, and avoid rapid, wild deviations on either end. Raising or lowering magnesium levels by more than say,100ppm per day, creates potentially stressful conditions for your reef’s inhabitants.
Stability in a range is also about consistency.
A great reef like this one owes a good part of the credit to...stability.
Consistency in husbandry practices, brand of salt mixes, feeding, photoperiod, etc. is the name of the game. We often hear about the reefer that never seems to follow the age-old practice of regular water changes, changing filter pads, etc., yet has had an amazing reef for years. We’re quick to point out that he/she is just being “lucky”, and that the error of his/her ways will catch up at some point. And it never seems to, have you noticed that? Oh, I suspect that at some point, lax maintenance practices will catch up with you, but I also think that the fact that the environment in the subject reef tank is consistent (on whatever side of the range that it’s in), a variable is eliminated (environmental fluctuation). And THAT may be the reason for the apparent success of an otherwise “contrarian” reef system. Although parameters may not be optimal for long term growth and health of the corals, they are not constantly shifting, either, meaning that the “lesser of two evils” in this case may just be fluctuation, rather than parameters that don’t “meet the gold standard” of generally agreed-upon reef keeping practice.
And, I can even make a somewhat convincing argument that even regular water changes are a stress-infusing event for corals, forcing them to endure “resets” or changing parameters as a result of the change!
Strange, huh? And where does this leave us as reefers? What’s the best course of action?
In general, casual manipulating many environmental parameters in a reef can create potentially stressful situations. This problem is exacerbated by “casually” adding a “little bit of this and a little bit of that just because”, as has been customary in recent years. If you’re going to add something to your aquarium, or attempt to remove something, make sure that testing dictates that it’s necessary. In today’s high tech information-enabled reef keeping world, there is no need to guess about stuff like this. The data is there for the taking. Make changes based on your system’s actual needs, not supposition!
Not to sound like a broken record or a shill for Triton, but one of the coolest things we’ve been seeing as a result of these tests is reefers letting go of some long-held beliefs and maybe even a bad habit or two as a result of seeing their test results for the first time. Some of what we took for granted was not correct. Alternatively, some of what we thought was happening didn’t, meaning that, on the whole- we’re doing a basically good job as reefers! The real problems that we have seen thus far have been the result of either haphazard dosing of product for undefined reasons, undisciplined practices, or accumulations of deleterious substances caused by factors outside of the reefer’s control (ie, contaminated source water, additives, salt mixes, etc.).
Reducing variables and creating stability is a great reef aquarium husbandry practice, because it plays right into the evolved need of corals favoring a consistent set of environmental parameters. I therefore submit that it’s the single most important thing that your reef needs in order to be successful is consistency. So it’s not just about using the same salt or adding the same amount of the same product…It’s also about doing the same things repetitively- things that reduce environmental variables and inconsistencies that can negatively impact your corals. Developing-and maintaining-good habits. We should spend at least as much time plotting out how to keep our reef aquariums stable as we do deciding which LED lighting system to purchase. Indeed, factors such as stability should INFLUENCE our purchase decisions!
In the end, your corals will tell you if you're getting the job done, right?
So, in summary- whatever methodology and course of care you choose to provide your corals, be sure to do it with purpose, thoughtfulness, and consistency. What are a few things you can do as a reefer to promote consistency in your system? Here are five that come to mind right away; I’m sure you’ll have more:
*Acquire the largest aquarium that you can comfortably manage. Larger water capacity provides greater stability and environmental consistency
*Use the same products (ie; salt mixes, essential additives, etc.) regularly.
*Engage in the same husbandry protocols regularly (ie; water changes/no water changes, media replacement, feeding, etc.)
*Target ranges for water chemistry parameters that are easily achievable and maintainable, with any adjustments made solely as dictated by testing.
*Observe your system carefully and often to assure that conditions are not deteriorating. Establish routines for a variety of reef-related tasks.
In the end, reef keeping is really all about creating a controlled environment for animals that are utterly dependent on us- and managing a hobby that is enjoyable and not burdensome. Keeping live animals in captivity IS a responsibility, but it need not become a chore. In the end, it is supposed to be about fun, right?
Thoughts?
Until next time, keep things consistent, bit be sure to keep the “fun level” up…
Be sure to take advantage of our special R2R members-only discount code through 11/25/14 (R2R15).
Keep learning. keep sharing. Keep growing.
And stay wet.
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
Yeah, you heard me. ONE KEY THING! One. Uno. Un.
That’s a rather assertive claim, coming from me, “Mr.-Don’t-Take-Anyone’s-Advice-Too-Seriously” himself, huh?
Okay, I’ll own it. I think I know the ONE thing that every reef needs to be successful.
Stability.
Yeah, that’s what every reef needs in order to be successful. Not a big skimmer, electronic controller, state-of-the-art sump, space shuttle-style plumbing scheme, over-the-top LED system. None of that.
The one thing that a reef system needs to be successful is stability.
Just like in aviation- stability in reef-keeping is super important.
Think about it for just a second, as you contemplate chastising me for a very gross over-generalization- something I’ve admonished everyone in the hobby never to do. The wild reefs are among nature’s most stable environments. They’re constantly under siege from external forces, aren’t they? We read about the impact of global warming, increasing acidity in the oceans, pollution, over-fishing, etc. What do all of those factors affect? Stability. Why are these factors so impactful and potentially dangerous? Because they threaten the stability of these fragile ecosystems.
Sure, we can make some rather blanket statements based on our 30 some years of experience with the reef keeping hobby that corals are really adaptable, hardy animals, coping with the rigors of collection, transport, acclimation, imposed propagation, etc., and still apparently thriving. True, many corals are more resilient than you’d initially believe, coming as they do from such seldom-changing environments. However, just because your Acropora manages to hang on for a while in sub-par lighting, water movement, and chemical parameters, does that mean it’s “adaptable”, right? Is it simply tenacious- clinging to life in an environment that is otherwise less-than acceptable to it? I think so, in any cases.
"Adaptable?" Or just lucky?
Does this mean it’s okay to provide an environment that is less than stable?
I don’t believe so,.
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: “Here’s ol’ Scott, sounding off about stability on one hand, and then telling us not to obsess over chasing numbers with our reef water chemistry…And he’s pushing Triton tests as a means to monitor all sorts of seemingly arcane parameters in our reefs. What gives here?”
(Okay, maybe you weren’t thinking all of THAT, but I’ll bet you were thinking about why I am such a big fan of stability.)
Fair question. Perhaps I can create a sort of analogy that makes sense (maybe- you know my analogies can go south quickly)…
Let’s say, for example, that you’re in captivity (just the SOUND of that sucks, huh?), plucked off the street by a human collector. You’re kept in a comfortably furnished apartment, with some plants, pizza, a nice couch, wifi, and all the DirectTV and Netflix you can handle. That’s sort of your new life. You’re confined to these four walls, day in and day out. Almost as soon as you arrive, the careful conditions that were arranged for you will start to deteriorate. The air gets a bit stale, some crumbs and such are accumulating on the floor (I don’t care how careful you are- you’ll leave crumbs when you eat pizza…), the bathrooms start getting a bit dirty, light bulbs start losing brightness; you’re sick of watching “Pacific Rim” and “Hunger Games” on TV (I mean, I am.)…
Within a few weeks, the apartment is a serious dorm-room-style mess. It needs a good cleaning. And you can’t leave. Ever. Fortunately, the housekeeper arrives. The bathrooms are cleaned., floors vacuumed, furniture refreshed, and linens changed. You can breathe again. Fast forward two weeks. Same situation. The place is a mess and you’re getting bit crazed from the clutter. And, you can’t ever leave.
And so on. Sure, ti seems okay from a “comfort provided” standpoint, but the reality is that you’re constantly forced to stay in the same place, and it keeps changing- swinging back and forth between extremely dirty, and otherwise tolerable. And, did I mention, you can never leave? Yeah, I did.
What does all of this mean to you, the resident?
You’re constantly having to adapt and deal with stress. Stress from a myriad of factors, ranging from the same food, sounds, four walls, to a dirty-then-clean-then-dirty environment. This seems innocuous at first, but the constant adaptation to changing conditions in a closed environment is quite stressful. Corals, hailing from the most stable environments on the planet, are simply not evolved to handle the stresses cause by environmental fluctuations without incurring some health issues as a result. When you factor in temperature swings, increasing/decreasing alkalinity, calcium, trace element levels, etc., it’s a recipe for stress, plain and simple.
Stress is a problem for corals. Period.
Now look, I’m not telling you to lock in on set numbers at the exclusion of everything else. I’m not telling you that a 2 degree day-night temperature change is going to be the demise of your reef. What I am proffering here is that you look into the overall environmental stability that you are providing your animals. This includes things like feeding, use of additives, changing salt mixes, etc. When you mix up environmental parameters, you’re forcing corals to adapt to changes that they are not evolved to do. Rather than obsessing on, for example, a magnesium level of exactly 1280ppm, you can lock in on a range within the target parameter of say, 1250-1350 ppm, and avoid rapid, wild deviations on either end. Raising or lowering magnesium levels by more than say,100ppm per day, creates potentially stressful conditions for your reef’s inhabitants.
Stability in a range is also about consistency.
A great reef like this one owes a good part of the credit to...stability.
Consistency in husbandry practices, brand of salt mixes, feeding, photoperiod, etc. is the name of the game. We often hear about the reefer that never seems to follow the age-old practice of regular water changes, changing filter pads, etc., yet has had an amazing reef for years. We’re quick to point out that he/she is just being “lucky”, and that the error of his/her ways will catch up at some point. And it never seems to, have you noticed that? Oh, I suspect that at some point, lax maintenance practices will catch up with you, but I also think that the fact that the environment in the subject reef tank is consistent (on whatever side of the range that it’s in), a variable is eliminated (environmental fluctuation). And THAT may be the reason for the apparent success of an otherwise “contrarian” reef system. Although parameters may not be optimal for long term growth and health of the corals, they are not constantly shifting, either, meaning that the “lesser of two evils” in this case may just be fluctuation, rather than parameters that don’t “meet the gold standard” of generally agreed-upon reef keeping practice.
And, I can even make a somewhat convincing argument that even regular water changes are a stress-infusing event for corals, forcing them to endure “resets” or changing parameters as a result of the change!
Strange, huh? And where does this leave us as reefers? What’s the best course of action?
In general, casual manipulating many environmental parameters in a reef can create potentially stressful situations. This problem is exacerbated by “casually” adding a “little bit of this and a little bit of that just because”, as has been customary in recent years. If you’re going to add something to your aquarium, or attempt to remove something, make sure that testing dictates that it’s necessary. In today’s high tech information-enabled reef keeping world, there is no need to guess about stuff like this. The data is there for the taking. Make changes based on your system’s actual needs, not supposition!
Not to sound like a broken record or a shill for Triton, but one of the coolest things we’ve been seeing as a result of these tests is reefers letting go of some long-held beliefs and maybe even a bad habit or two as a result of seeing their test results for the first time. Some of what we took for granted was not correct. Alternatively, some of what we thought was happening didn’t, meaning that, on the whole- we’re doing a basically good job as reefers! The real problems that we have seen thus far have been the result of either haphazard dosing of product for undefined reasons, undisciplined practices, or accumulations of deleterious substances caused by factors outside of the reefer’s control (ie, contaminated source water, additives, salt mixes, etc.).
Reducing variables and creating stability is a great reef aquarium husbandry practice, because it plays right into the evolved need of corals favoring a consistent set of environmental parameters. I therefore submit that it’s the single most important thing that your reef needs in order to be successful is consistency. So it’s not just about using the same salt or adding the same amount of the same product…It’s also about doing the same things repetitively- things that reduce environmental variables and inconsistencies that can negatively impact your corals. Developing-and maintaining-good habits. We should spend at least as much time plotting out how to keep our reef aquariums stable as we do deciding which LED lighting system to purchase. Indeed, factors such as stability should INFLUENCE our purchase decisions!
In the end, your corals will tell you if you're getting the job done, right?
So, in summary- whatever methodology and course of care you choose to provide your corals, be sure to do it with purpose, thoughtfulness, and consistency. What are a few things you can do as a reefer to promote consistency in your system? Here are five that come to mind right away; I’m sure you’ll have more:
*Acquire the largest aquarium that you can comfortably manage. Larger water capacity provides greater stability and environmental consistency
*Use the same products (ie; salt mixes, essential additives, etc.) regularly.
*Engage in the same husbandry protocols regularly (ie; water changes/no water changes, media replacement, feeding, etc.)
*Target ranges for water chemistry parameters that are easily achievable and maintainable, with any adjustments made solely as dictated by testing.
*Observe your system carefully and often to assure that conditions are not deteriorating. Establish routines for a variety of reef-related tasks.
In the end, reef keeping is really all about creating a controlled environment for animals that are utterly dependent on us- and managing a hobby that is enjoyable and not burdensome. Keeping live animals in captivity IS a responsibility, but it need not become a chore. In the end, it is supposed to be about fun, right?
Thoughts?
Until next time, keep things consistent, bit be sure to keep the “fun level” up…
Be sure to take advantage of our special R2R members-only discount code through 11/25/14 (R2R15).
Keep learning. keep sharing. Keep growing.
And stay wet.
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
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