My personal reefing philosophies

I wanted to share with you my personal philosophies on reefing as they have evolved over the years.

The first is setting up new systems.

Think of setting up a new system as developing a new ecosystem. This is where the inhabitants work and live together. Setting up a tank, putting in a few pieces of rock and a piece of dead shrimp does not make an ecosystem.

Lets start with the basics of live on the reef. Plankton. I am setting up my new systems now, and I wont even consider adding my first fish until the system is teeming with plankton. What does plankton do? Lots of things. There are many different types of plankton, but the ones we want most in our systems is pods. Copepods, isopods, and I will even throw mysid shrimp into this category. These pods serve several important functions. First they are scavengers. They eat uneaten food and fish poop helping to keep your ecosystem clean. Second they are a food source. I know it is hard to believe, but they dont have pellet, flake, or frozen food in the oceans. Plankton is a main source of food for them.

And dont forget your corals. Your corals gets a large part of their energy through photosynthesis. But they are also animals and they need to eat. SPS especially eat a large amount of copepods.

 

My second philosophy is fish populations.

You want to have a lot of fish? Fine but make sure you have the support system it needs. This means a large efficient skimmer, biological filtration (refugium or algae scrubber), and water changes.

I also really like fish in pairs or harms. We have all seen how clownfish will pair up act together. Believe it or not, most other species go well together too. Again, in the ocean you dont see the angel fish hanging out with tangs. If you want to add fish, experience them in pairs or harems, they will be much healthier, happy, and entertaining.

Note, make sure you research your purchases as some fish do not tolerate each other and will fight to the death

 

Another one is feeding.

Often times I think of my fish as behaving similar to my children.

Now they love icecream, and happy devour it every time I give it to them. But what do you think it would do to their health if that is all they ate?

Treat your fish the same way. If you give them one food choice (IE flake or pellet) day after day, sooner or later their health will start suffering. I recommend feeding a wide variety of foods on a random basis. And if you really care about your fish, a good quality frozen food will be one of them. Rods Food and LRS both have a wide variety of ingredients in them.

 

no it was supposed to be in general forums

 

I really dont know enough about algae scrubbers to give you an educated opinion.

That being said, GFO does one thing well, it removes phosphates IF set up correctly, and IF you change the GFO regularly.

I am a really really big fan of refugiums. One, it takes out nitrates & phosphates through biological filtration. Two, it give a place for tons of pods, mysids, and other beneficial organisms to live, reproduce and clean your water. Plus many fish will eat the algaes grown there. You can make a refugium look as cool as your display system if you want.

 

lol, not a whole lot to update right now. I have a 125 QT cycling, and I am walking the talk by seeding it with plankton before even thinking of bringing in fish. I plan on bringing in fish and corals into the QT mid January.

 

Here is another one I have and never thought to post.

Treat every animal in your system like you paid $1000 for it. Coral, fish, shrimp etc.

Really value every animal, and do your best to keep it alive and thriving. Then if you ever do spend the money on something, you really know how to take care of it.

It always makes me sad when someone throws out a cheap fish or coral with the comment, it is only a $5 damsel, or it is only red cap. It may not have value to you, but it may to others.

Anyway, off my soap box for the night.

 

I only waited a day, not sure if it makes a difference or not but plankton is a little stronger when it comes to ammonia and nitrates.

So you get a 2 for 1. Cycling your tank, establishing an ecosystem