So as a part of another post it was suggested that I set up a post for the 'alternate' methods. Gonna tag in @Paul B because he follows this path also and his experience is different from mine.
How I 'manage' ... read ignore fish disease. My experience.
I will put this out there because I think that it is semi-relevant. I have been in salt water for 35 years. I lived on the reef in the Philippines for 3 years worked at countless aquarium stores in the salt water section, owned a failed store for 2 years and have been actually reefing for 25 years. Blah blah blah ... that's out of the way.
When I made my first saltwater aquarium it was a 10 gallon that was a convert from my freshwater tank, so UG with air lift tubes and plastic decorations. I did use crushed coral for a substrate and I had a Penn Plax hood that covered the entire tank. Back then I was young and poor and lived in the back water of the salt water industry. I used tap water and it was city water, for make up and to mix. I used Instant Ocean salt. I was pretty lazy on water changes. I had a Niger trigger, and needless to say he didn't last long.
When I was in high school I worked in a fish store that had salt water and shamefully by hook or by crook I got creatures for my tank. I was able with the job and the store discount to upgrade to a 55 gallon breeder. I also upgraded other things like powered lift heads, but I couldn't keep anything alive for any length of time. The fish would die mysteriously or they would get some crazy disease. Hilariously I saw the same patter play out at the store I worked for. The owner's thinking I am sure was to simply move stock as quickly as possible to minimize loss. Loss leading was his modus operandi.
After high school I joined the military and then stationed 'permanently' in the Philippines. I was trying to set up a tank there and had a beautiful wood stand made (that cracked terribly lol), but I never got around to setting it up because I could dive everyday if I wanted and invested in dive gear instead. And expensive stereo equipment FWIW This is where I started to learn about what was really going on in aquariums. You can't always dive most of the year the visibility is garbage. The reason is because of the wave action. It stirs up the silt and sand. This didn't strike me as being important until later. Also there was a guy there with the nickname Drippy Dave, and he had a 20 breeder with literally a sponge bubbler and a bare bottom. He would buy fish out of the nets of the fisherman and put them in his tank. It was crazy to me that he kept so many fish in that tank with only the sponge. He also kept them much longer than I had seen in the store that I worked in. This was also important.
After I got out of the military and I got a job that paid well I really started to get into reefing. My first reefs were once again fish killing algae infested jokes. The fish would die inexplicably or get disease or never eat. Always the same. After many years of restarting my tank (like that was ever the problem) and upgrading the size of the tank (like that too was ever the problem) I ended up moving to Phoenix. I was arrogant and thought I could start a store, so I did. Oooopppss that was dumb. I lost my ... ummm ... money and lots of it. I had a tank though that was pivotal for me. I bought the store from somebody and the systems were quite old. There was a 175 gallon tank that was a display tank that was so full of rock I had to wonder why somebody would do this to a tank. The tank look terrible I so I took it down and rebuilt the stand. I saved the rock into a large connected fish system. I rebuilt the tank and put some of the rock back into the tank. I remember the wave action in the Philippines and so I bought an Dolphin AmpMaster tank with a Berlin skimmer in a small sump on the tank. HOLY COW!!! Nothing died in that tank. I put a Powder Blue in the tank with ich and literally the next day the ich was gone and didn't come back for the time I had the fish (a month or so). Also the live rock that I dumped into the large fish system became the basis for my live rock curing through literal randomness. I would bring in the Walt Smith half dead crap (best stuff at the time) pull off the sponges and visible death rinse in fresh salt water and the rock would be cured in 3 days ... it was crazy.
This last part is where I departed ways with fish disease. The 175 I had was turning the full tank volume over every minute and the VHO lighting was 2 feet off of the top of the water with nothing impeding the gas exchange. I was surface skimming the water for the open system and all of the flow from the closed system was directed at the top of the water. Also I from that point forward ALWAYS used cured live rock. THIS is the basis that I use to keep disease at bay. I have refined things over the years but this main point has stuck with me. Mostly now my fish death is due to jumpers or me forgetting that gas exchange is really important even for a half fast tank.
Also I am going to start thinking about @Paul B 's thinking on food. Currently I have so many amphipods my fish don't even really eat the flake that I put in.
Maybe this can help someone, but I don't think so because so many seem to believe that living in sterile hospitals is good for living beings.
How I 'manage' ... read ignore fish disease. My experience.
I will put this out there because I think that it is semi-relevant. I have been in salt water for 35 years. I lived on the reef in the Philippines for 3 years worked at countless aquarium stores in the salt water section, owned a failed store for 2 years and have been actually reefing for 25 years. Blah blah blah ... that's out of the way.
When I made my first saltwater aquarium it was a 10 gallon that was a convert from my freshwater tank, so UG with air lift tubes and plastic decorations. I did use crushed coral for a substrate and I had a Penn Plax hood that covered the entire tank. Back then I was young and poor and lived in the back water of the salt water industry. I used tap water and it was city water, for make up and to mix. I used Instant Ocean salt. I was pretty lazy on water changes. I had a Niger trigger, and needless to say he didn't last long.
When I was in high school I worked in a fish store that had salt water and shamefully by hook or by crook I got creatures for my tank. I was able with the job and the store discount to upgrade to a 55 gallon breeder. I also upgraded other things like powered lift heads, but I couldn't keep anything alive for any length of time. The fish would die mysteriously or they would get some crazy disease. Hilariously I saw the same patter play out at the store I worked for. The owner's thinking I am sure was to simply move stock as quickly as possible to minimize loss. Loss leading was his modus operandi.
After high school I joined the military and then stationed 'permanently' in the Philippines. I was trying to set up a tank there and had a beautiful wood stand made (that cracked terribly lol), but I never got around to setting it up because I could dive everyday if I wanted and invested in dive gear instead. And expensive stereo equipment FWIW This is where I started to learn about what was really going on in aquariums. You can't always dive most of the year the visibility is garbage. The reason is because of the wave action. It stirs up the silt and sand. This didn't strike me as being important until later. Also there was a guy there with the nickname Drippy Dave, and he had a 20 breeder with literally a sponge bubbler and a bare bottom. He would buy fish out of the nets of the fisherman and put them in his tank. It was crazy to me that he kept so many fish in that tank with only the sponge. He also kept them much longer than I had seen in the store that I worked in. This was also important.
After I got out of the military and I got a job that paid well I really started to get into reefing. My first reefs were once again fish killing algae infested jokes. The fish would die inexplicably or get disease or never eat. Always the same. After many years of restarting my tank (like that was ever the problem) and upgrading the size of the tank (like that too was ever the problem) I ended up moving to Phoenix. I was arrogant and thought I could start a store, so I did. Oooopppss that was dumb. I lost my ... ummm ... money and lots of it. I had a tank though that was pivotal for me. I bought the store from somebody and the systems were quite old. There was a 175 gallon tank that was a display tank that was so full of rock I had to wonder why somebody would do this to a tank. The tank look terrible I so I took it down and rebuilt the stand. I saved the rock into a large connected fish system. I rebuilt the tank and put some of the rock back into the tank. I remember the wave action in the Philippines and so I bought an Dolphin AmpMaster tank with a Berlin skimmer in a small sump on the tank. HOLY COW!!! Nothing died in that tank. I put a Powder Blue in the tank with ich and literally the next day the ich was gone and didn't come back for the time I had the fish (a month or so). Also the live rock that I dumped into the large fish system became the basis for my live rock curing through literal randomness. I would bring in the Walt Smith half dead crap (best stuff at the time) pull off the sponges and visible death rinse in fresh salt water and the rock would be cured in 3 days ... it was crazy.
This last part is where I departed ways with fish disease. The 175 I had was turning the full tank volume over every minute and the VHO lighting was 2 feet off of the top of the water with nothing impeding the gas exchange. I was surface skimming the water for the open system and all of the flow from the closed system was directed at the top of the water. Also I from that point forward ALWAYS used cured live rock. THIS is the basis that I use to keep disease at bay. I have refined things over the years but this main point has stuck with me. Mostly now my fish death is due to jumpers or me forgetting that gas exchange is really important even for a half fast tank.
Also I am going to start thinking about @Paul B 's thinking on food. Currently I have so many amphipods my fish don't even really eat the flake that I put in.
Maybe this can help someone, but I don't think so because so many seem to believe that living in sterile hospitals is good for living beings.
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