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Paul B
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Reef Tank 365
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Rock Pool Reef Keepers
I just got back from my morning walk, Thank God summer is coming. Anyway getting back to the tank. We discussed how to aquascape to keep the fish as stressful as we can.
This is another home made rock. It is bent PVC pipe with a cement covering.
This is a coral reef in Bora Bora. I took this probably 20 years ago.. You can make out a moorish Idol on the bottom center. It is hard to see but the bottom is nothing but passages through the rock and every fish will dive in when you, or those sharks get close. They will not get scratched and they will all fit in because of their lateral line.
This was my tank just when I moved everything here from my old house "before" I put the corals back in. Everything was in vats for the move.
The aquascape is nothing but holes and passageways through the entire 6' tank so the fish can traverse anywhere they want without being seen.
It looks more like this here. I think this was a year or two ago.
So beside the aquascape to reduce stress we need bacteria on those rocks. Bacteria are more important than anything else you can add to the tank. We can get the correct bacteria from live rock but remember when we buy anything from a store that rock may have been there for a year or two so the compliment of bacteria on that rock may be just the same bacteria as the store owner has in his tanks. Of course it could have been in the sea last week. We just don't know but it's the best we have.
I feel if you want to set up a tank with 100% dry rock and ASW, do something else. Get a different hobby, perhaps hang gliding or bungee jumping which would be much easier than trying to start a reef tank that way. Yes, it can be done and was done many times but I am sure most if not all of them had problems.
Such a tank has none of the correct bacteria. We are not talking about gut bacteria here just normal bacteria that will process ammonia which the fish excrete, nitrates which also comes from waste products and phosphate. Those things will build up in a tank without sufficient bacteria causing all sorts of problems forcing many of us to go on the disease forum thinking the fish are sick. They are sick, but not from disease, from unwanted pollutants.
If we put a fish in a tank with ASW and dry rock with nothing else, it will die in a short time due to ammonia poisoning. This is very common and the fish usually dies with his mouth wide open and his gills flared out. Fish have little tolerance to ammonia but the correct bacteria will get out the ammonia in no time and any tank with a little age on it will not have a problem.
This is one reason we see on disease forums a tank full of dying fish with no likely disease problems. It's to new of a tank to have all that life in it and not enough bacteria to process it.
Just 2 days ago I had to go to a wake. My friends son came up to me and said he started a reef tank. Right away I cringed because I knew what was coming next. I asked: What do you have in the tank? He said urchins, crabs, anemone crabs a "bunch" of damsels and a couple of small tangs. I asked when did you set up the tank? 6 weeks ago. I hope he lost my number because those animals are going to die.
Those fish will get sick and he will add all sorts of"treatments" that his LFS will gladly sell him. In a year, he will sell everything and get out of the hobby and get a job in Home Depot loading toilet bowls into mini vans.
His tank is way to new to add almost anything, especially tangs and anemone crabs which are filter feeders.
It takes time to build up enough and the correct type of bacteria for almost anything to live correctly and bacteria in a bottle (whatever that is) won't help.
We need a variety of bacteria, viruses and funguses to thrive and eventually get along so the tank runs on auto pilot. That will take a couple of years and not weeks.
My wife is up, I need to make breakfast so I will have to get back to this
This is another home made rock. It is bent PVC pipe with a cement covering.
This is a coral reef in Bora Bora. I took this probably 20 years ago.. You can make out a moorish Idol on the bottom center. It is hard to see but the bottom is nothing but passages through the rock and every fish will dive in when you, or those sharks get close. They will not get scratched and they will all fit in because of their lateral line.
This was my tank just when I moved everything here from my old house "before" I put the corals back in. Everything was in vats for the move.
The aquascape is nothing but holes and passageways through the entire 6' tank so the fish can traverse anywhere they want without being seen.
It looks more like this here. I think this was a year or two ago.
So beside the aquascape to reduce stress we need bacteria on those rocks. Bacteria are more important than anything else you can add to the tank. We can get the correct bacteria from live rock but remember when we buy anything from a store that rock may have been there for a year or two so the compliment of bacteria on that rock may be just the same bacteria as the store owner has in his tanks. Of course it could have been in the sea last week. We just don't know but it's the best we have.
I feel if you want to set up a tank with 100% dry rock and ASW, do something else. Get a different hobby, perhaps hang gliding or bungee jumping which would be much easier than trying to start a reef tank that way. Yes, it can be done and was done many times but I am sure most if not all of them had problems.
Such a tank has none of the correct bacteria. We are not talking about gut bacteria here just normal bacteria that will process ammonia which the fish excrete, nitrates which also comes from waste products and phosphate. Those things will build up in a tank without sufficient bacteria causing all sorts of problems forcing many of us to go on the disease forum thinking the fish are sick. They are sick, but not from disease, from unwanted pollutants.
If we put a fish in a tank with ASW and dry rock with nothing else, it will die in a short time due to ammonia poisoning. This is very common and the fish usually dies with his mouth wide open and his gills flared out. Fish have little tolerance to ammonia but the correct bacteria will get out the ammonia in no time and any tank with a little age on it will not have a problem.
This is one reason we see on disease forums a tank full of dying fish with no likely disease problems. It's to new of a tank to have all that life in it and not enough bacteria to process it.
Just 2 days ago I had to go to a wake. My friends son came up to me and said he started a reef tank. Right away I cringed because I knew what was coming next. I asked: What do you have in the tank? He said urchins, crabs, anemone crabs a "bunch" of damsels and a couple of small tangs. I asked when did you set up the tank? 6 weeks ago. I hope he lost my number because those animals are going to die.
Those fish will get sick and he will add all sorts of"treatments" that his LFS will gladly sell him. In a year, he will sell everything and get out of the hobby and get a job in Home Depot loading toilet bowls into mini vans.
His tank is way to new to add almost anything, especially tangs and anemone crabs which are filter feeders.
It takes time to build up enough and the correct type of bacteria for almost anything to live correctly and bacteria in a bottle (whatever that is) won't help.
We need a variety of bacteria, viruses and funguses to thrive and eventually get along so the tank runs on auto pilot. That will take a couple of years and not weeks.
My wife is up, I need to make breakfast so I will have to get back to this
