What is Settled Science in Reefing?

[Reefer Matt]

Alright let’s talk about something that none of us might agree on. What is “Settled Science” in reefing? We may all want the facts, but if scientists are still studying the ocean, how can we have them? Thoughts?

 

[corosato]

saltwater is required in a reef aquarium

 

[ReeferMo]

I can see this thread going from message #1 to #987,000 in a week

 

[KrisReef]

God's got the most awesom reefs on the planet, and they are hard to emulate but easy to use to manipulate people who just want to protect them by speaking to the emotions instead of reality.

That we don't know much is the best thing to ponder, ime.

 

[ReeferMo]

lights are expensive
this science and fact was settled and peer reviewed by my wallet

 

[56longroof]

About the only conclusive thing in this hobby is nobody can totally agree on anything. Not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[D.WhiteShark]

Not trusting the science is a fundamental part of the science.

 

[Macropharyngodon]

Maybe that tank volume is directly proportional to the health of most fish?
Not saying necessary, or all fish. But the majority benefit from larger volumes is pretty common knowledge.

 

[Thales]

There is very little robust science in the hobby or industry, we get most of it from tangental sources like reef research or electronics or spa pumps. People think there is more 'settled' stuff in the hobby than there actually is (and there is no shortage of people that will be happy to tell you how it is really). Also, relying on scientific papers is often problematic because our tanks are different than the ocean - finally, the range for phosphate is expanding as more anecdote comes in.
What is 'settled' is constantly changing due to new information and experience.
There is no central body, or institute, that actually studies what goes on in our tanks. If anyone is interested in such a project please contact me.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I can see this thread going from message #1 to #987,000 in a week

Nah, my threads rarely go past one page. I tend to say the quiet part out loud. Lol!

 

[Biokabe]

I'll resist the urge to crack wise, and instead treat the question sincerely. I'd break it into two parts - what even is settled science when it comes to reefkeeping, and how much of what we know can really qualify there?

First off, I'd treat reefing knowledge as mostly separate from science. I don't think most of what happens in our hobby is nearly rigorous and precise enough that we should be treating it as anything on the order of a health study or a report from CERN. There's too much variation in our test beds, there's far too much left up to vague pronunciations, and there is little objective industry standard that we can use as a control to really isolate what is going on in our tanks. Frankly, there just isn't the money or the public interest available to establish most of our reefkeeping practices as settled science in the traditional sense of the word. We don't have a General Relativity of reefkeeping, and I don't think we ever will.

So "settled science" in reefkeeping, I would more classify as recognized best practices. These are things that, while we might not understand the mechanism of why they seem to be helpful, have been used and studied by enough of a critical mass of reefkeepers that we can confidently say that they are, in fact, helpful. Sometimes we do have explanations for why they seem to work, and sometimes we don't, but regardless we can say that they work.

So with that said, here are some things that I think we can classify as settled science in reefkeeping:

• Water changes are beneficial (before the anti-WC crowd comes at me - I'm not saying that they are necessary).
• Photosynthetic corals require light, and this light needs to possess certain qualities in both spectrum and intensity depending on the specific coral.
• Water flow, likewise, is necessary, with the specific qualities determined by the corals in question.
• Corals extract minerals and nutrients necessary for their metabolism from the water column, and their demand for these elements can outpace the normal resupply provided by water changes.
• Porous rock is almost certainly necessary to serve as the medium for beneficial bacterial growth.
• "Live rock" - rock allowed to mature and grow life in the actual ocean - seems to give tanks the best foundation for success.

By no means is that an exhaustive list, but I think those are all fairly non-controversial statements backed up by thousands of successful tanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There are a great many things that are settled science and are important to reefing, whether reefers know it or not.

But the application of those things in the highly variable world of all reef tanks taken as a whole is often not at all straightforward, despite folks wanting it to be so.

As an example, virtually all organisms in a reef tank MUST get iron.

But that leaves a host of unanswered questions.

Does that mean reef tanks benefit from dosing iron?
Do foods add enough iron?
Does the utility for supplemental iron vary by organism?
What about husbandry techniques that may add or remove it (GFO, skimming, GAC, water changes, types of foods used?

A simple and clear scientific fact can become quite complicated when one asks it to direct how to care for a reef tank.

 

[Reefer Matt]

A simple and clear scientific fact can become quite complicated when one asks it to direct how to care for a reef tank.

I believe this is where experience comes in, but even then, every tank is different. Chemistry is one of the sciences that I also think is settled in reefing, but like you said, how and where it is applied may yield different results. My advice as an intuitive Reefer is to try something and see if it works. I believe they do a lot of that in the scientific community as well. We just have to be ready to react ahead of time if the expected results don’t go as anticipated. But I learned a lot by simply looking at and touching my tanks.

 

[Freenow54]

Alright let’s talk about something that none of us might agree on. What is “Settled Science” in reefing? We may all want the facts, but if scientists are still studying the ocean, how can we have them? Thoughts?

I will ask Doctor Proton and get back to you. I believe its a mental state of wanting to succeed or illness

 

[Freenow54]

Sorry I did not see Doctor Proton has already Responded

 

[Freenow54]

God's got the most awesom reefs on the planet, and they are hard to emulate but easy to use to manipulate people who just want to protect them by speaking to the emotions instead of reality.

That we don't know much is the best thing to ponder, ime.

Perfect That's it the pursuit of perfection. Which is unattainable but worthy of pleasing God

 

[Reefer Matt]

It just goes to show that even though there’s a lot of science going on in our tanks, there’s few guarantees of “do this and get that” in reefing. It’s mostly an experiment we are trying to keep alive and thriving, and there are a lot of variables in doing it.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

It just goes to show that even though there’s a lot of science going on in our tanks, there’s few guarantees of “do this and get that” in reefing. It’s mostly an experiment we are trying to keep alive and thriving, and there are a lot of variables in doing it.