What is up with all the chemicals we use now in our reef tanks?

[pdxmonkeyboy]

You can rest easy because vibrant isn't an apparantly evil "chemical" it is a bacteria...

At the end of the day its about enjoying the tank. There are many ways to do this, I am just leary when people expound that one idea is inherently "better".. in this case "all natural". Bacteria in a bottle, phosban, carbon, etc.. those are all natural things.

 

[Paul B]

I personally don't like or want a pristine tank full of sticks. That is not the way the ocean is.
In my tank I have quite a bit of cyano, algae, flatworms, sponges, and everything else that is in the sea.
It is very healthy and natural and just the way I like it. I don't use any chemicals except Calcium and alk. Nothing ever had to be quarantined and everything only dies of old age.

 

[JCOLE]

Looks like you have more than just bubble algae there, maybe some hair algae as well ? Let us know how the vibrant works out.

Yeah majority of my hair algae is isolated to the newer dry rock I added to the tank. Must have been leaching some phosphates and the algae targeted it. I dont mind the hair algae. However, ONE bubble got past my dipping stage and has now taken over my tank. Will post results of Vibrant.

 

[JCOLE]

I was going to say it is because dry rock dominates the market since the bans. Looks like someone beat me to that thought.

That is some series bubble algae!

I think that is one of the main reasons. I started my tank with all dry rock almost two years ago. Took about a year before corals started looking right.

 

[JCOLE]

You can rest easy because vibrant isn't an apparantly evil "chemical" it is a bacteria...

At the end of the day its about enjoying the tank. There are many ways to do this, I am just leary when people expound that one idea is inherently "better".. in this case "all natural". Bacteria in a bottle, phosban, carbon, etc.. those are all natural things.

Yes I chose Vibrant because of the bacteria. I was looking at Fluconazole but decided on Vibrant instead. I dont think all natural is better. I just think we should be instructing the newer reefers that patience and natural removal should be first before dumping chemicals into a tank.

 

[sde1500]

I just think we should be instructing the newer reefers that patience and natural removal should be first before dumping chemicals into a tank.

This is the key part. Yes, chemicals, additives, bacteria in a bottle are all super helpful many times. But nothing is learned. Is that a problem? Maybe. Do you learn anything by just dosing something any time a problem you want to get rid of pops up? I have used flucanazole for GHA removal, it worked amazingly well. I've used chemiclean for cyano, worked great as well. Also worked to identify and change the problems causing them in the first place, then used the chemicals to get a boost in removal. My GHA now is very minor, and I haven't seen cyano in months. If it was just dose and move on, the problems would come back and I'd be none the wiser as to why.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

I personally don't like or want a pristine tank full of sticks. That is not the way the ocean is.
In my tank I have quite a bit of cyano, algae, flatworms, sponges, and everything else that is in the sea.
It is very healthy and natural and just the way I like it. I don't use any chemicals except Calcium and alk. Nothing ever had to be quarantined and everything only dies of old age.

Amen brother

 

[JCOLE]

I personally don't like or want a pristine tank full of sticks. That is not the way the ocean is.
In my tank I have quite a bit of cyano, algae, flatworms, sponges, and everything else that is in the sea.
It is very healthy and natural and just the way I like it. I don't use any chemicals except Calcium and alk. Nothing ever had to be quarantined and everything only dies of old age.

You sir are the exception!! Good looking tank. I love the bottle too!

 

[Breadman03]

Could be and I agree with that point. From what I read there's a bit of a backlash against uln systems as detrimental to the overall health. I prefer an lns system approach if you will. Reasonably low without starving then force feeding for color and growth. Ok, force feeding a bit too strong but you get the idea.

I think we needed to have ULNS to learn that falling just short of the goal was the real goal.

That is more to my point. I feel what should be taught is natural export methods first and chemicals as a last resort. Lookup any recent reefing youtube channels and they are all teaching and pushing the same products. GFO, Phosguard, NoPox, Chemi-Clean, etc. Rarely do I see naturally nutrient exports.

There's not a whole lot of money involved in algae, at least not compared to a $30/month bottle.

 

[JCOLE]

There's not a whole lot of money involved in algae, at least not compared to a $30/month bottle.

I think a lot has to do with this as well.

 

[WVNed]

The selective and appropriate use of "chemicals" let's me greatly speed up the time it takes to get to where I want to be.
Here is a tank that is 32 days old.

Here is one 4 months old

A nudge here and there with the right stuff at the right time makes all the difference.
It beats the heck out of how I was doing it 10 years ago.

 

[Paul B]

You sir are the exception!! Good looking tank. I love the bottle too!

I don't want to be the exception. ;Wacky There are many bottles in the sea, I only have about 10 of them, but most of them came from the sea so I reduced ocean pollution.

 

[Urtie]

It's definitely true that many tanks look nothing like the ocean, and maybe we need a new name other than "reef tank" for the ones that don't (or maybe I just don't know it?).

Personally, I don't want my tank to look like the ocean at all. I love that clean, sterile look. Interesting to think about how different the two goals are!

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

It's definitely true that many tanks look nothing like the ocean, and maybe we need a new name other than "reef tank" for the ones that don't (or maybe I just don't know it?).

Personally, I don't want my tank to look like the ocean at all. I love that clean, sterile look. Interesting to think about how different the two goals are!

Wow, you just blew my mind! I didn't realize there was anyone who preferred the sterile look in a Display Tank. I figured it was built in to the name "reef" tank that the goal was to replicate a slice of the reef.

 

[sde1500]

Wow, you just blew my mind! I didn't realize there was anyone who preferred the sterile look in a Display Tank. I figured it was built in to the name "reef" tank that the goal was to replicate a slice of the reef.

Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.... Practically no one's tanks look like a real reef.

 

[Paul B]

Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.... Practically no one's tanks look like a real reef.

I have no idea, but about looking like a real reef, I do try to emulate that as much as I can. I have spent about 300 hours underwater and have seen a lot of reefs. No tank I have ever seen looks a lot like a real reef but many of us try. Of course a lot of us, like the above poster like a sterile look and that is perfectly fine. I once worked (as an electrician) in Barney's Clothes store in Manhattan. It is a very high end store with like $200.00 pairs of socks, (yes, some people are Morons)

But anyway, they had an 18' long, very thin tank with a shark and a bunch of other fish that were probable very sad. The fish were swimming around jewelry and crystal. Talk about sterile looking and not like a reef. I felt so bad for those fish that I wrote the owners a letter which of course was ignored.

The most my tank looked like a real reef was here, about 25
years ago when I used to add codium seaweed that I collected. Many people won't like it because it was not a stick tank, but I think it was very "reefy"

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.... Practically no one's tanks look like a real reef.

Not sarcasm. And you are correct, but I was thinking the reason is that we are just not very good at replicating the reef, not that we prefer a sterile look, which I tend to associate with frag tanks.

 

[Urtie]

But anyway, they had an 18' long, very thin tank with a shark and a bunch of other fish that were probable very sad. The fish were swimming around jewelry and crystal. Talk about sterile looking and not like a reef. I felt so bad for those fish that I wrote the owners a letter which of course was ignored.

Lol, I feel like I have to clarify that I don't want any crystals in my tank!

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

I think one of the coolest moments Since I started reefing was when I cycled my tank, I'm familiar with cycling tanks (long time freshwater hobbyist) but my tank was about as sterile as they can be (Caribsea life rock, textured ABS plastic Bare bottom) and I got some rubble from my bosses FOWLER and tossed it into one of my sump chambers, left a chunk of shrimp in the tank and left for Christmas vacation. The tank had been running for about a month prior to this with no life in it and always smelled like fresh made saltwater. A very sterile saline type smell. Upon my return while doing work on the tank I noticed a very different smell, not in a bad way though- my tank smelled like ocean!

Since then I have been fascinated by the 3-5 different kinds of living things that came into my tank through that rubble but only recently upon ordering my first set of corals have I realized how sterile my tank still is. Different kinds of algae, micro brittle stars, spirobid worms, limpets, pods and a plethora of other things. I'm counting the days that I can take my corals out of QT and add all of these incredible little things to my reef tank!

 

[atoll]

There are so many different kinds of reefs no 2 are the same. I dived and snorkeled in the Red Sea and even there I saw different reefs. EG the bombies I saw in Sharm were nothing like the reef at Ras Mohammed. I guess my tank is more like the ones I saw at Sharm but nowhere near the same scale. I try as much as is reasonably possible to recreate the reefs I saw at Sharm and what I think will feel happiest living in. I try as much as I can to replicate what mother nature provides, follow here example and you won't go far wrong.