Building a 10 year Dream Reef Tank. (Aka- Ryan's first public speech!) | BRStv

[randyBRS]

Reef2Reef members!

How do you reach that goal of creating and sustaining a decade old reef tank? These are Ryan's thoughts from his speech at RAP-NY and how he plans to achieve this in his own home!

How old is your oldest tank? And for those of you voting in that 5+ year bracket....what advice can you provide to the rest of us to achieve the same???

 

[revhtree]

I was lucky enough to be able to sneak away from the booth to catch some of this great talk!

@Crabs McJones you made the video along with a few others from R2R!

 

[Crabs McJones]

I was lucky enough to be able to sneak away from the booth to catch some of this great talk!

@Crabs McJones you made the video along with a few others from R2R!

I'll have to watch this when I get home from work!

 

[Ryanbrs]

I'll have to watch this when I get home from work!

featured front and center at 17:24
Thank you
@Captain Quint
@Crabs McJones
@Dsnakes
@hdsoftail1065
@Katrina71

And all the other R2R members who spend so much time helping all of us build and maintain our dream tanks. Regardless of our current skill level always willing to help those in need

 

[Crabs McJones]

featured front and center at 17:24
Thank you
@Captain Quint
@Crabs McJones
@Dsnakes
@hdsoftail1065
@Katrina71

And all the other R2R members who spend so much time helping all of us build and maintain our dream tanks. Regardless of our current skill level always willing to help those in need

Congrats on the dream tank by the way!! I don't know how you do it, between BRS, here, the tank, and I believe you had another child recently (congrats by the way ) and the youtube series and testing, I barely find time anymore to clean the algae off my 75 ;Hilarious;Hilarious

 

[Katrina71]

I only try to pay forward the kindness shown to me on R2R. I have been extremely blessed with a whole new family! There are some very humble gentlemen that walk me through my struggles and dust off my tail when I have failures! Btw, my son is a much better reefer than myself, and he follows Ryan

 

[ReeferReefer]

4 years here. Just breaking the tank down this week. Here is to hoping for a decade on the new build.

 

[Dsnakes]

featured front and center at 17:24
Thank you
@Captain Quint
@Crabs McJones
@Dsnakes
@hdsoftail1065
@Katrina71

And all the other R2R members who spend so much time helping all of us build and maintain our dream tanks. Regardless of our current skill level always willing to help those in need

That is awesome Thank you! I’m currently at work and just skipped to the middle but I will be watching the whole video in a few hours!

We win gift cards right??

 

[hdsoftail1065]

That is awesome Thank you! I’m currently at work and just skipped to the middle but I will be watching the whole video in a few hours!

We win gift cards right??

I like how you think!

 

[Keesers]

Awesome video once again. Thank you for sharing. Great job Ryan can’t wait to see your build thread and videos of your dream tank at your house. Love BRS I learn new stuff everyday lol

 

[hdsoftail1065]

featured front and center at 17:24
Thank you
@Captain Quint
@Crabs McJones
@Dsnakes
@hdsoftail1065
@Katrina71

And all the other R2R members who spend so much time helping all of us build and maintain our dream tanks. Regardless of our current skill level always willing to help those in need

Thank you for the kind words @Ryanbrs.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nice feature of various members!!

 

[User1]

I wasn't aware that you did this there, great job. I'm only 20 minutes in and have to say it was fun to watch.

POKE THE BEAR!

No seriously, looks like you really enjoyed it and the positive vibe was felt here in Ca. Thank you for taking the time and effort to put this together and then deliver.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

I've never considered success in the hobby to be related to the age of an aquarium. I've always thought that the measure of my success was the amount of enjoyment and fun that I got out of it. The tank can run for as long as it's fun. Fish and coral are easy to re-home and I've never felt re-homing a fish to be irresponsible or disrespectful when it's easy to make sure it's going to a decent home of a proper size. I disagree that reef keeping is the most difficult pet, it's not even the most expensive when you consider maintaining the health of a dog or cat long term when it comes getting surgeries and paying for meds and treatments. I spent about a thousand bucks recently just to get my cats teeth cleaned and some bad teeth extracted and that's just this year so far. I had a cat years ago that required sub-cutaneous fluid injections every week. That was difficult. Difficulty wise, I've found high-tech freshwater planted aquariums such as Dutch style or Nature style to be as difficult as reefs as well.

I really wish that instead of telling people to examine likes and post counts on reef forum users(this part was super cringey) that you'd refer them to the published works of hobby experts like Fenner, Sprung, Delbeek, Borneman, Shimek, Joshi, Calfo, and more who have put in the hard work and have the real world experience. There are a ton of great books out there and the Reef Keeping magazine archive on Reef Central pretty much tells you all you need to know about good reef husbandry practices. Some of the tech has changed since those books and articles were written, but the core principles and practices have remained the same. Advanced Aquarist web site is awesome. Wet Web Media is a huge mess of knowledge. Coral magazine is also excellent and they have a fully online component now. I think BRS and R2R do a disservice to this hobby by constantly ignoring the huge wealth of legacy reef keeping knowledge that is already out there. I have nothing against the R2R members you mentioned, it's great they are trying to help hobbyists here. But for me, they are just a faceless avatar. A lot of forum goers just parrot what they've read on the forums and have little real world experience.

As a hobby veteran, I was hoping to gain some new insight or learn about innovations in the hobby, but this talk was mostly just your opinions on what makes a good reefer and some general advice on some do's and don'ts with virtually no new practical husbandry advice that hasn't been covered ad nauseam before it. I do appreciate your "good intention" though. Maybe some newbs will benefit. I can understand that you set a ten year reef as your own personal goal, but I don't think the average hobbyist can fathom keeping a reef that long, nor do they need to. It's just a hobby after all.

 

[HawaiianReef]

Great information!
This should definitely be a sticky on the New to Hobby and Saltwater forum for any newbies.

 

[Blasto Pala]

great tank...keep us posted pls

 

[TVV]

I've never considered success in the hobby to be related to the age of an aquarium. I've always thought that the measure of my success was the amount of enjoyment and fun that I got out of it. The tank can run for as long as it's fun. Fish and coral are easy to re-home and I've never felt re-homing a fish to be irresponsible or disrespectful when it's easy to make sure it's going to a decent home of a proper size. I disagree that reef keeping is the most difficult pet, it's not even the most expensive when you consider maintaining the health of a dog or cat long term when it comes getting surgeries and paying for meds and treatments. I spent about a thousand bucks recently just to get my cats teeth cleaned and some bad teeth extracted and that's just this year so far. I had a cat years ago that required sub-cutaneous fluid injections every week. That was difficult. Difficulty wise, I've found high-tech freshwater planted aquariums such as Dutch style or Nature style to be as difficult as reefs as well.

I really wish that instead of telling people to examine likes and post counts on reef forum users(this part was super cringey) that you'd refer them to the published works of hobby experts like Fenner, Sprung, Delbeek, Borneman, Shimek, Joshi, Calfo, and more who have put in the hard work and have the real world experience. There are a ton of great books out there and the Reef Keeping magazine archive on Reef Central pretty much tells you all you need to know about good reef husbandry practices. Some of the tech has changed since those books and articles were written, but the core principles and practices have remained the same. Advanced Aquarist web site is awesome. Wet Web Media is a huge mess of knowledge. Coral magazine is also excellent and they have a fully online component now. I think BRS and R2R do a disservice to this hobby by constantly ignoring the huge wealth of legacy reef keeping knowledge that is already out there. I have nothing against the R2R members you mentioned, it's great they are trying to help hobbyists here. But for me, they are just a faceless avatar. A lot of forum goers just parrot what they've read on the forums and have little real world experience.

As a hobby veteran, I was hoping to gain some new insight or learn about innovations in the hobby, but this talk was mostly just your opinions on what makes a good reefer and some general advice on some do's and don'ts with virtually no new practical husbandry advice that hasn't been covered ad nauseam before it. I do appreciate your "good intention" though. Maybe some newbs will benefit. I can understand that you set a ten year reef as your own personal goal, but I don't think the average hobbyist can fathom keeping a reef that long, nor do they need to. It's just a hobby after all.

Yet again another opinion, you seem well informed and know where to find the scientist and biologist. As you state, aquarium keeping is a hobby meant to be fun and challenging. The forums are a great mechanism to extend the fun and challenge. Communication with the reefing public on R2R and listening to BRS videos is part of the fun and very informative. If it were strictly science, it would only be fun to scientist. Yes, another opinion.

 

[Ryanbrs]

I've never considered success in the hobby to be related to the age of an aquarium. I've always thought that the measure of my success was the amount of enjoyment and fun that I got out of it. The tank can run for as long as it's fun. Fish and coral are easy to re-home and I've never felt re-homing a fish to be irresponsible or disrespectful when it's easy to make sure it's going to a decent home of a proper size. I disagree that reef keeping is the most difficult pet, it's not even the most expensive when you consider maintaining the health of a dog or cat long term when it comes getting surgeries and paying for meds and treatments. I spent about a thousand bucks recently just to get my cats teeth cleaned and some bad teeth extracted and that's just this year so far. I had a cat years ago that required sub-cutaneous fluid injections every week. That was difficult. Difficulty wise, I've found high-tech freshwater planted aquariums such as Dutch style or Nature style to be as difficult as reefs as well.

I really wish that instead of telling people to examine likes and post counts on reef forum users(this part was super cringey) that you'd refer them to the published works of hobby experts like Fenner, Sprung, Delbeek, Borneman, Shimek, Joshi, Calfo, and more who have put in the hard work and have the real world experience. There are a ton of great books out there and the Reef Keeping magazine archive on Reef Central pretty much tells you all you need to know about good reef husbandry practices. Some of the tech has changed since those books and articles were written, but the core principles and practices have remained the same. Advanced Aquarist web site is awesome. Wet Web Media is a huge mess of knowledge. Coral magazine is also excellent and they have a fully online component now. I think BRS and R2R do a disservice to this hobby by constantly ignoring the huge wealth of legacy reef keeping knowledge that is already out there. I have nothing against the R2R members you mentioned, it's great they are trying to help hobbyists here. But for me, they are just a faceless avatar. A lot of forum goers just parrot what they've read on the forums and have little real world experience.

As a hobby veteran, I was hoping to gain some new insight or learn about innovations in the hobby, but this talk was mostly just your opinions on what makes a good reefer and some general advice on some do's and don'ts with virtually no new practical husbandry advice that hasn't been covered ad nauseam before it. I do appreciate your "good intention" though. Maybe some newbs will benefit. I can understand that you set a ten year reef as your own personal goal, but I don't think the average hobbyist can fathom keeping a reef that long, nor do they need to. It's just a hobby after all.

I always appreciate your feedback. Healthy criticism always sharpens the conversation and gives a chance to dig a bit deeper.

The longevity of the tank isn't the direct measurement of success, particularly if you take down an otherwise successful tank and evolve it into something else that sparks interest. That is just the normal progression of a hobby. However, I would characterize my own tank as a less successful approach if it was taken down because it is overwhelmed with some form of algae or pest, large scale mortalities, or if I grossly misjudged the time requirements for a specific type or size of the tank.

As to the 10 year goal here. That's my own personal Everest and I shared in the presentation that yours will probably look different than mine. After 15 years in the hobby, I am finally willing to put what I consider to be a pretty large tank in my house, it's not going to be cheap, and I want my kids to share in my love of the pets as they grow up. A 10-year commitment is a realistic goal that matches the investment of time, money and emotion. In fact, I hope to exceed that.

People will debate how difficult this hobby is for ages and that's because once you know everything the application of that knowledge seems easy. Being an exceptional gardener, baker, brewer or fisherman is easy once you have all the knowledge and honed skillsets. It is the accumulation of knowledge and lessons learned from the application of knowledge that is difficult. The bar of success and difficulty to achieve it is just different for everyone as well. If I had to hone it down to one thing as a personal goal I'd say success for me means I am able to provide for the animals in a manner where they are able to live something resembling a natural lifespan they would have in the wild. These animals are capable of very long life spans so I may not achieve that but I can reach for it and maybe exceed it once you consider average life span in the wild rather than maximum lifespan. From all of these angles, I think the difficulty of owning a cat and a reef tank are starkly different and it is helpful to own that from the start. For what it is worth, a majority of the people I have met in the hobby actually appreciate that it is difficult. The level of difficulty is what makes it a constantly intreesting and evolving hobby.

On the part about hobby experts. All of those people have helped evolve the hobby in countless ways and much of what the hobby knows has come from the distribution of their knowledge. Everyone should absolutely use those resources. That said, I can share almost all of the most applicable knowledge that has transformed my tank(s) has been from speaking with a mentor directly. Meaning someone who has done it better than me and can apply their skills and knowledge to my direct application. This produces advice that will help me succeed. Most of the authors and stars of the hobby are not available to the average reefer in that manner, at least not in a scalable manner if everyone reached out to them. I think we need to own most of the direct advice specific to personal application comes from the community asking each other and sharing knowledge. That stream is filled with both great and terrible advice. All the advice based on personal bias and a reefer needs to find a way to identify who to listen to. Best results are those who share your tank desires, budget, and approach. I would never say the post to like ratio is going to achieve that for you but it is a way to start to hone it down. As a general statement, I think most people will agree that if the community has given someone 10,000 likes on 1,000 posts there is a higher degree of likelihood that person is respectful and helpful than if they have 10,000 posts and 50 votes of support. Not always but if you ask a question and get 20 different answers there has to be some actionable manor of honing down which person is most likely to help you succeed. Find them, tag them and ask a more specific question because they probably enjoy helping others

I will know the presentation was a success if more than a handful of people use the information to help be successful longer

 

[chefjpaul]

Thank you Ryan and the BRS team once again for the time and effort you all spend helping aide in the evolution of the hobby. (As you have always done).

Great video and collection of data!

 

[Katrina71]

@Ryanbrs I would love to have a BRS t-shirt with Poke The Bear!