ZoWhat
7500 Club Member
A major problem with Reefing IMO is;
to be successful at Reefing corals, you have to be within an acceptable range of SIMULATING the NSW found in nature reefs. Not the NSW found at the end of some pier in Florida or California. But NSW in very exotic reefs in very specific locales in the world
We have:
* artificial lights
* artificial synthetic salts
* synthetic dosing elements
* artificial export methods,
... in a very confined space that only comes so close to simulating a natural reef
It's a daunting and depressing hardwork attempt if you sit down and think about it.
It all falls short bc NSW around natural reefs are so complex.... that decades of Marine Biology has yet to produce a single one-stop shop in a bottle for reefing magic.
Things that are missing in our grande simulated glass boxes are:
* proper, very specific strains of bacteria (and protists) that must go thru regenerative cycles. Easy? Not likely.
* proper algae, phytoplankton and other living micro-organisms that we can't even test for... or even have a recipe for
Some tanks are successful, usually because enough time has passed to mature the aforementioned processes
But most likely a successful reef tank is bc of DUMB LUCK in hitting the proper range of NSW that the corals need
I would expect a 80-90+% failure rate inside the first year bc we are impatient and are always changing methods and approaches.... totally screwing what lil synergy we had going for us.
If I lived closer the the Ocean I would consider NSW.... but again any NSW close to the U.S. doesn't contain the bacteria, algae, phytoplankton and micro-organisms that the NSW around exotic natural reefs provide.
It is a CRAZY hobby bc we are ALL are attempting to simulate Nature and failure rates are high bc its all an artificial simulation.
to be successful at Reefing corals, you have to be within an acceptable range of SIMULATING the NSW found in nature reefs. Not the NSW found at the end of some pier in Florida or California. But NSW in very exotic reefs in very specific locales in the world
We have:
* artificial lights
* artificial synthetic salts
* synthetic dosing elements
* artificial export methods,
... in a very confined space that only comes so close to simulating a natural reef
It's a daunting and depressing hardwork attempt if you sit down and think about it.
It all falls short bc NSW around natural reefs are so complex.... that decades of Marine Biology has yet to produce a single one-stop shop in a bottle for reefing magic.
Things that are missing in our grande simulated glass boxes are:
* proper, very specific strains of bacteria (and protists) that must go thru regenerative cycles. Easy? Not likely.
* proper algae, phytoplankton and other living micro-organisms that we can't even test for... or even have a recipe for
Some tanks are successful, usually because enough time has passed to mature the aforementioned processes
But most likely a successful reef tank is bc of DUMB LUCK in hitting the proper range of NSW that the corals need
I would expect a 80-90+% failure rate inside the first year bc we are impatient and are always changing methods and approaches.... totally screwing what lil synergy we had going for us.
If I lived closer the the Ocean I would consider NSW.... but again any NSW close to the U.S. doesn't contain the bacteria, algae, phytoplankton and micro-organisms that the NSW around exotic natural reefs provide.
It is a CRAZY hobby bc we are ALL are attempting to simulate Nature and failure rates are high bc its all an artificial simulation.
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