New in reef tech: What technologies are poised to make the biggest improvements this next year?

[Peace River]

New in reef tech: What technologies are poised to make the biggest improvements this next year?

Will we see a year of new technology with true jumps forward in innovation or will it be a year of small iterations, renaming, and repackaging of existing tech? Where do you expect to be the biggest changes – lighting, controllers, pumps, testing, monitoring, dosing, or all the above? Even if you aren’t expecting notable advances in technology, where would you like to see innovation and what would it look like? Please share your thoughts about what technologies that you think are poised to make the biggest improvements this next year!

Photo by @TUSI

 

[Ron Reefman]

Being as old school as I am, it's hard to see any improvements that will mean much to me. But that's just me. Heck, I switched from a serious 90g reef with a sump & refugium to a couple of 40g aio tanks.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I like a mix of old and new. I run t5s , protein skimmer, manually dose, my sump is a trigger 30, a basic 3 chamber very simple. All old school, but run a tunzi auto top off and refuge in my center camber with led grow lights. My skimmer is the basic octo 110 classic. The 1 thing I want to see is better water testing for the other important things that make a reef healthy beyond cal mag and alk. For me it's. now just a ' hope I'm adding the right amount.

 

[revhtree]

Gosh I love new products and love seeing products get better but I can't imagine what could be next!

 

[BurtMacklin]

I like a mix of old and new. I run t5s , protein skimmer, manually dose, my sump is a trigger 30, a basic 3 chamber very simple. All old school, but run a tunzi auto top off and refuge in my center camber with led grow lights. My skimmer is the basic octo 110 classic. The 1 thing I want to see is better water testing for the other important things that make a reef healthy beyond cal mag and alk. For me it's. now just a ' hope I'm adding the right amount.

Have you considered this test kit?

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Have you considered this test kit?

No, but worth a try.

 

[Eye H8 Empty V]

I’m excited for CoralVue to release a the Kraken. I’m an Audio/Video Engineer by trade so cable management is something I’m OCD about. I’ve got a spaghetti under my tank and it’s driving me nuts!

 

[Slocke]

I just saw BRS new videos on lighting and must admit I think I might have been sold by those new AI lights the Blades. I admit I just switched from strips to source point and did notice SPS were getting more shadow. I think I may go for a hybrid now.

 

[Crustaceon]

The ONE thing that would revolutionize this hobby if invented would be replaceable cartridges or tablets that you could float in your sump/display and would either release alk/cal/mg when levels dip to a certain point or would absorb/convert N03/P04 if they rose to a certain level. Imagine having an "8dkh" or ".04 ppm P04" tablet that gradually dissolved away and kept those parameters at those levels. I'm sure there's a chemist or two here who have thought about this.

 

[mattdg]

My focus lately has been backup power. Maybe a solar or auto transfer battery bank built specifically for reef aquariums. Something that will switch from grid to battery, in a power outage, but also run the entire system more efficiently, during off peak.

 

[flashsmith]

I think we're at the point that one is as good as another. There's a lot of rebranding particularly with pumps. A light is a light anymore etc... Eventually hobbyists will figure that out on a larger scale. The latest and greatest is just 99% hype and 1% innovation in this hobby. Just like the just released AI light bar. They just had to have their own I guess. I've got all kinds of innovations I wasted money on.

 

[design.maddie]

I think the next big jump is skimmer pumps and their controllers. DC pumps bring so many new options.

On my mind lately though is lighting. I want my HQIs back so badly. I know it is probably considered going back in tech but they were so amazing. I miss them so much.

 

[Lord_Mort]

There is an EXCELLENT video from BRS that talks about lighting and touches on how our hobby (industry) evolves.
It relates to this thread in many ways. In it, they discuss lighting and go beyond PAR and discuss PUR. They even get into spectrum and how it relates to corals and how future lighting can be adapted to serve us (and more importantly, our animals) better. (They also discuss the new AI Blades)
It's an hour long but I highly recommend it. (And yes, I watched the whole thing) =)

 

[GillMeister]

I would be happiest if, rather than introducing new technologies, certain manufacturers would focus on the reliability and usability of their products. At this time we certainly have what we need to maintain stable systems so long as the equipment holds up.

 

[RSNJReef]

I like a mix of old and new. I run t5s , protein skimmer, manually dose, my sump is a trigger 30, a basic 3 chamber very simple. All old school, but run a tunzi auto top off and refuge in my center camber with led grow lights. My skimmer is the basic octo 110 classic. The 1 thing I want to see is better water testing for the other important things that make a reef healthy beyond cal mag and alk. For me it's. now just a ' hope I'm adding the right amount.

Absolutely not trying to be a smart alec here, but do you know about the ati and triton icp tests for trace elements?

 

[StatelineReefer]

For once I'm going to be skeptical...

I know, Right? Beacon of positiivity I usually am, I don't actually expect anything out of the industry this year.

Lighting? Hasn't changed much. Users and companies are just learning how to be more effective with what's already there.

Controllers? Testing? Automation? Two companies have this one, and both of them are coming out with new toys and tweaks all the time, the problem is nothing talks to anything else. Incompatible Ecosystems. I want my toys to play nice.

Pumps? They still move water, I'm still waiting for pico powerheads... my 1.2g cube wants water movement.

Monitoring/Dosing... Kamoer just came out with their monitoring platform. Too new, and the existing units have issues with consistency and accuracy. I'll keep dosing and testing myself for now.

Microbiome testing... There's not much to say on this one, is there. You either have bacteria in certain proportions, or you don't. The trick is figuring out your imbalance and then FIXING it. Why your bacterial population is at an imbalance is as important as that initial census.

 

[Fredda]

I think the biggest improvement will be in Led lightning, think we move from the powerful "puck style" to more even spread stripes or larger "pucks".

Someone discussed cartridges earlier and i can recommend the cartridges from Juwel. Just empty them and refill with what u like (carbon, gfo in bag, bio media etc), That has been saving space for me. Easy to just slide the cartridges between baffles in the sump or stack them in the sump. (Easy to clean and maintain also)

Iknow that was not what u really where looking for in that post but still a tip that could help someone out a little

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Absolutely not trying to be a smart alec here, but do you know about the ati and triton icp tests for trace elements?

Well I voted for microbiome testing. That you can not just get from a icp, these are the 19 or so bacteria and other organisms that make up your biodiversity for a healthy thriving reef tank.

 

[epidemos82]

I am going to go out there and say that the microbiome testing is a gimmick. I am in the field of bacterial genomics, and we know very little about the human microbiome and its relationship to human health, despite countless studies on the topic. There are some clear examples where select bacteria become more dominant and cause issues, but in terms of what people label as "dysbiosis", we really don't have a clue. And even if we did, identifying the problem is the easiest part. We know very little about how to shift the composition of the gut microbiome. Taking pro-biotics barely moves the needle. So, trying to translate that to understanding reef health is just silly. The best way to replicate the ocean is not by adding some hodgepodge of bacteria to the tank, it's by taking sand and rock out of the ocean and putting them into the tank. So if we want to talk innovation, then there should be some discussion on how we replicate that microbial diversity without having to destroy a reef and without introducing all the nasties into our tanks. Just my .02

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I am going to go out there and say that the microbiome testing is a gimmick. I am in the field of bacterial genomics, and we know very little about the human microbiome and its relationship to human health, despite countless studies on the topic. There are some clear examples where select bacteria become more dominant and cause issues, but in terms of what people label as "dysbiosis", we really don't have a clue. And even if we did, identifying the problem is the easiest part. We know very little about how to shift the composition of the gut microbiome. Taking pro-biotics barely moves the needle. So, trying to translate that to understanding reef health is just silly. The best way to replicate the ocean is not by adding some hodgepodge of bacteria to the tank, it's by taking sand and rock out of the ocean and putting them into the tank. So if we want to talk innovation, then there should be some discussion on how we replicate that microbial diversity without having to destroy a reef and without introducing all the nasties into our tanks. Just my .02

Well, we have that. Companies are selling sands and muds with the biodiversity from the ocean also including the little micro creatures worms ECT. We know though dna testing of healthy reefs and then taking that information and testing on tanks using science they have come up with an idea of what is needed and not needed in our reef tanks. Whether you feel it is bunk, snake oil or sales gimmick, for me and my reef, it has worked. There are reefers out there doing the testing and showing the results. They are admitting that what they thought about reefing has changed do to the results of there work. A some reefers reef like we factory farm for our food, adding this fertilizer and that man made this to dead soil. Yes you can grow food but what quality. Then you have the farmers who rotate crops, grow cover crops, use manure, compost national fertilizers and don't need pesticides and grow healthy food that you don't have eat probiotics to have healthy digestive system. Just another way of looking at things I guess..............