What VOIDS are in this hobby and where can we improve?

[Gmj4409]

The whole disease thing as noted multiple times above. The dosing & measurement of copper. Why don’t we have a digital (i.e. Hanna) test kit for saltwater copper? How many over/under copper dosing occur every day trying to read current tests?

 

[PaulK]

An automatic frozen food feeder. There’s definitely a big market for this. It could even be something simple like a mini freezer that has some mechanism for droping cubes into the tank.

 

[ThunderGoose]

Lots of good point here but what bugs me the most is unreliable and noisy equipment. I came downstairs this morning and the tank was making a lot of noise. It's something in the overflow/return system. It took me weeks to get it adjusted in the first place and I have no idea what changed to make it so noisy this morning. I find that very frustrating.

Same sort of thing with the skimmer. It took me months to get it functioning and it seems like every week or so it needs to be adjusted. Why? I don't know. The water level is steady, the chemistry parameters are steady, but right now my skimmate is wet and I'd prefer dry so I'll be messing with that again this weekend. Bleh.

 

[Nik Mason]

I would like a Bable fish so I can speak to a coral and ask it what's wrong, then I can ask the one just along in the tank why is it doing great when its neighbour wont come out to play,
sorry but I needed a bit of humour,
regards,
Nik

 

[keithdoc]

We need a definitive source of truth, a repository for evidence based information, and some simple bullet proof guides of equipment needed/next steps for those starting out - not anecdotes of 'what worked for me this one time, at band camp'.

I started this in 2005 with a 12g Aquapod, some live carib sea sand, 15G of their saltwater and 2 large pieces of LR with frags attached from Dr. Mac's PacificAquaculture. The system ran from day one without needing to cycle, and required very little other than small WC and ATO. That was a turnkey solution. Now everyone now wants to individualize their build, and the price to entry is high (with no guarantee of success).

It would be ideal if there were kits/build lists produced by the prosumer for beginner, intermediate, advance aquarists as they indicate what livestock they want to maintain . . . could generate a recommended build/setup/maintenance plan.

BRS is doing a great job with the "investigates" series. Live Aquaria/Divers Den does a great job with providing healthy livestock.
There are some amazing coral farmers out there as well.

R2R has some great stickies, and some truly awesome folks with knowledge who can reserve judgement . . . but we're not quite there yet

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Rules of thump?

As bacteria prefer to use ammonia instead of nitrate carbon dosing will shift the carrying capacity ( ammonia reduction) of the system from nitrification to assimilation into the food chain. No problem as long as dosing is continued. When dosing is stopped for some reason, not enough nitrification capacity may be available to take over as reinstalling the nitrification capacity needs time.

Is an incubation time of a month a "rule of thump" for starters or can we start carbon dosing from the start when adding commercial supplements promising to contain everything needed?


As far as I know SPS grow fine on self made rock, "dry"rock. Why would using live rock be a rule of tump?

What is live rock? Is this the rock harvested at sea, put in a boat and kept in the sun for some hours, Then rinsed with a pressure hose and kept for days ore weeks waiting for transport.?Transported in some newspaper for a few days to several weeks. Expensive by plane or less expensive by ship? Than brushed and cleaned and kept wet in old used seawater till sold?
Or is it pieces of rock cultivated at seashore, harvested and bagged without leaving the water and placed in quarantine at the customer within 8 hours.?
In most cases the original bacteria will be replaced by others, recycling the biomass. Original bacteria surviving may be those who are able to form endospores. (Bacillus en Clostridium) And are these types of bacteria we need? Autotropic nitrifying bacteria, as most bio-film forming bacteria, do not form endospores. In aquaria a lot of the work is done by Archaea, they do not form spores. Thus live rock provide the "biodiversity" needed?

Miracle mud? How old? How long bagged? What type of bacteria will survive? Don't we have the same diversity problem as with live rock? Why would miracle mud ad what is needed to be succesfull? Has someone published a bacterial content screening, fresh and after some time of storage?

There is no such thing as " dry rock" once in seawater. The bacterial diversity present may be more useful as on imported live rock. There will be no such thing as undesirable diversity as included in live rock.

Isn't a coral a piece of real live rock? Aren't corals cultivated in there natural environment the best live rock? They are full of useful living bacteria, on them and in them. Must they be cultivated in there natural environment to contain the correct diversity? How miracle mud ads bacteria needed by corrals as these specific bacteria grow in, on and in the neighbourhood of the corrals.

Why using expensive live rock? What can it do what a cheap biofilter can not do better? Why FOWLR tanks are used?

Why should using live rock or miracle mud be a " rule of thump"?

Is banning the biofilter a " rule of thump"

A tank without a skimmer. Why not? Why not use GAC instead? Must the use of a skimmer be a "rule of thump"?

My opinion

In this hobby there are two main rules op thump: patience and common sense.

 

[madducks42]

I would like a Bable fish so I can speak to a coral and ask it what's wrong, then I can ask the one just along in the tank why is it doing great when its neighbour wont come out to play,
sorry but I needed a bit of humour,
regards,
Nik

I request that this bable fish does not crawl into our ears. Otherwise I fully support this and a vogon poetry slam.

 

[erky]

an in tank cure for aefw!

 

[XNavyDiver]

I would like a better understanding of the science. We have lots of rules of thumb in the hobby, and most of them are good enough guidelines and you can keep a successful tank if you follow them. But, we don't yet know the actual science or mechanism behind a lot of them. A good example of this is organic carbon dosing (biopellets, vodka, vinegar, sugar, etc). We know that it reduces nitrates and phosphates to some degree. We believe that a bacterium or bacteria are responsible for the reduction. We haven't, to the best of my knowledge, described these bacteria, nor do we know much about them or how they grow. The only thing we know for sure is to ramp up the organic carbon dose slowly, keep the water well oxygenated, and ramp it down slowly.

While knowing the exact bacteria that grow from organic carbon dosing might not be the most useful, especially if the dosing accomplishes the results, there are other topics where more understanding would help a lot. For example, lots of reefers that start tanks with dry rock have trouble getting corals (particularly SPS) to grow. Even Mike Paletta, a legend in the hobby, failed to grow SPS successfully for almost a year after setting up a tank with dry rock. By his own account, he only started seeing success after he introduced some live rock and Miracle Mud. Mike theorizes that dry rock lacks biodiversity, and that adding the live rock and Miracle Mud gave his tank the biodiversity it needed to be successful. Again, an interesting theory, and the results seem to be reproducible.. but how can we translate that into usable information in the hobby? We're left with a rule of thumb (always add live rock or Miracle Mud to a dry rock-only tank), which works well enough.. but what specifically is this "biodiversity?" How does it specifically help SPS grow in a reef aquaria? Clearly there's something we don't understand about the micro flora and fauna populations in a reef tank. I think the hobby would benefit greatly by getting away from "rules of thumb" and starting to understand why things work instead of just what to do and when.

+1

 

[Salty.Reefer]

The biggest issue or item missing is LFS and On line stores that QT their fish before placing them in there display tanks and selling them. And then have customers who will not complain about paying 10% to 20% more for it.

That is for sure my dream. Tbh I wouldn’t mind paying 50% more (depending on the original cost of course. I also not buying peppermint angel fish or other crazy stuff). I get so discouraged when my options at the lfs look kinda skinny or have a struggling/ dead tank mate. I didn’t have any fish for over 6 months for this reason alone.

I would love more captive-bred fish. I have no problem paying double or triple the cost to get a captive-bred fish. Seems like other than clownfish there are very few captive-bred options.

I think this is one of the biggest voids in the hobby. It sucks to think about the life a fish could have had in the wild. This Espically stings when it dies in QT or jumps from the tank.

 

[srm077]

We need a definitive source of truth, a repository for evidence based information, and some simple bullet proof guides of equipment needed/next steps for those starting out - not anecdotes of 'what worked for me this one time, at band camp'.

I started this in 2005 with a 12g Aquapod, some live carib sea sand, 15G of their saltwater and 2 large pieces of LR with frags attached from Dr. Mac's PacificAquaculture. The system ran from day one without needing to cycle, and required very little other than small WC and ATO. That was a turnkey solution. Now everyone now wants to individualize their build, and the price to entry is high (with no guarantee of success).

It would be ideal if there were kits/build lists produced by the prosumer for beginner, intermediate, advance aquarists as they indicate what livestock they want to maintain . . . could generate a recommended build/setup/maintenance plan.

BRS is doing a great job with the "investigates" series. Live Aquaria/Divers Den does a great job with providing healthy livestock.
There are some amazing coral farmers out there as well.

R2R has some great stickies, and some truly awesome folks with knowledge who can reserve judgement . . . but we're not quite there yet

Could not agree with this more. If it were not for the BRS videos, I'd be screwed. I purchased a home with a 750 gallon reef tank that had been neglected and these BRS videos have helped tremendously. Also why I have no problem spending a few more bucks on items from them and not Amazon. thanks @Ryanbrs and the rest of the team there. I'd have a dead 750 if it was not for you guys.

 

[moray69]

Some sort of technology that repels any algae from the inner tank surface. Glass or acrylic. I hate scraping coralline algae from my acrylic tank.

 

[Cory]

Some sort of technology that repels any algae from the inner tank surface. Glass or acrylic. I hate scraping coralline algae from my acrylic tank.

This already exists. Some sort of nanotechnology coating you apply to the glass before filling it with water. And the rocks too. Cant remember the name...

 

[moray69]

This already exists. Some sort of nanotechnology coating you apply to the glass before filling it with water. And the rocks too. Cant remember the name...

Holy smokes, really? I'm gonna have to do more research.

 

[Velcro]

A way to figure out whose advice is worth considering. Forums give people a platform to preach their gospel with no way to validate their statements. I see so much bad advace given all the time.

 

[Velcro]

This hobby has a complete lack of cohesive, sensible advice for beginners. For example, there are over 3,100 replies in the dino thread. How is a beginner supposed to make heads or tails out of that thread? If one didn't know better and were reading that thread, they could think that you NEED a microscope to properly identify the type you have, otherwise your treatment plan wont work. What? Seriously? I don't even need to know much about biology to fix this issue, let alone a microscope. It's easy to see the dinos get worse with increased lighting, so we can assume they are photosynthetic to at least some extent. That means to fix the issue, all you need to do is temporarily reduce your lighting and/or nutrient levels to starve them off. How much specifically? Don't know, keep going till the problem is fixed. I can tell you with 100% confidence that if I blocked out all light to the tank for 2 months, the dinos would be gone... There you go, problem solved in 1 post. Why are there another 3, 099 replies? Talk about completely over analyzing the situation...

Many Dino's don't thrive off excess nutrients, but the opposite. Lack of nitrate and phosphate fuels many strains...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This already exists. Some sort of nanotechnology coating you apply to the glass before filling it with water. And the rocks too. Cant remember the name...

One such technology nearing the commercial market (not for aquariums) is a loose organic coating on the surface. It requires significant flow to work, as adhering stuff needs to be washed off. The idea is if flows along the surface easily.

It's expensive (that isn't our limitation, primarily) and will likely be ruined and then hard to replace as it gets scraped up unless it is fitted with an organic replenishing system. A couple of companies are pursuing it (not for aquariums) for things like boat hulls. The boat hulls will require recoating periodically as the organic compounds are released to the water. One company is Adaptive Surface Technologies:

http://adaptivesurface.tech/

I believe the technology on ships may also require reservoirs of organics that constantly refresh the surface.

 

[RichReef]

Something to balance or equal out the 16 to 1 nitrate to phosphate export ratio.