the front glass and how and what algae is growing there tells a lot
Eye ball method
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ReefBeta
Valuable Member
I have been using eyeballing method for way too long and is actively work myself away from it. Getting complacence is dangerous for my tank. I had the tank doing well (well, at least I thought it was, by looking at it) for several years, but never got the growth rate others have. In the best of tanks, the same type of acro can grow from an inch frag to a palm size in a year and a half. In mine tank it took more than 3 years and still not reach that size.
It took me too long to realized that what I thought it "looked good to me" was not good enough. I skipped some water changes because it still "looked good to me". Parameters might swing, bad stuff might accumulate, I didn't know about that because it still "looked good to me". There are times that I can definitive see some corals are not happy, and I just did some water change and they turn visibly better the next couple days. But what I didn't see is the slow down, stop, regression in their growth, that's why in the long timeline, even they grew just fine, their growth rate was a lot slower. If I were to test more often, I may be able to realize the problem in my tank before it put visible affect on my corals, so that they don't need to take a break from growth to recover, even just a week or two. I always have couple "sensitive" corals, those that show the first sight when things going south. They scarified themselves to serve as canneries, I should be grateful. But as the result, they barely put up much growth because they spent too much time in recovery.
Now I am working my way up to graduate from eyeball method, to detect problem before the corals can feel it. So I tested, and I automated testings, and automate more maintenance tasks. I still miss things, the cannery spiecmen still tells me that I screwed up, but I still keep trying to get the animals I love out of cannery service as much as possible.
It took me too long to realized that what I thought it "looked good to me" was not good enough. I skipped some water changes because it still "looked good to me". Parameters might swing, bad stuff might accumulate, I didn't know about that because it still "looked good to me". There are times that I can definitive see some corals are not happy, and I just did some water change and they turn visibly better the next couple days. But what I didn't see is the slow down, stop, regression in their growth, that's why in the long timeline, even they grew just fine, their growth rate was a lot slower. If I were to test more often, I may be able to realize the problem in my tank before it put visible affect on my corals, so that they don't need to take a break from growth to recover, even just a week or two. I always have couple "sensitive" corals, those that show the first sight when things going south. They scarified themselves to serve as canneries, I should be grateful. But as the result, they barely put up much growth because they spent too much time in recovery.
Now I am working my way up to graduate from eyeball method, to detect problem before the corals can feel it. So I tested, and I automated testings, and automate more maintenance tasks. I still miss things, the cannery spiecmen still tells me that I screwed up, but I still keep trying to get the animals I love out of cannery service as much as possible.
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Tankkeepers
Valuable Member
Glad your starting to get good results I wish a few of the corals I have would slow down in growth like the finger leather iv had to cut it way back twice now and everything else is growing as fast or faster then normal but I also don't skip matnence just becouse it looks fine I blow everything of daily with a turkey baster change filter every 3 days change carbon once a month rotate cemipure blue monthly 2 bags out of 4 at a time clean equitment as needed and do a 25 percent water change weekly
ReefBeta
Valuable Member
Oh, I was way passed those fast growers even before I started my eyeball method period. Xenia, finger leather, green palys, big head zoas, red monti cap, purple stylophora, all out grown the tank and removed by that point. I was talking about higher end acro and acan that I wanted them to grow faster most badly but didn't.
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Tankkeepers
Valuable Member
Only one of those I have is the finger leather the rest are high end zoas and palys original one have went from 3 heads to over 30 in a few months time some flordia ricordias high end pink tip clove polyps 2 diffent duncans iv had less the a month one is already getting 5 new heads in it only has 1 currently and I was refering to the gorgonian as the other thats griwing alittle to fast but thats a good sign everything is happy I'm going to have to cut for the second time and gorgonians are by no means fast growing even the photosynthetic type I have but it is growing really fast and I'm getting ready to add the last piece of coral which will be an acro just gotta find the right color to match the rest of the tank
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Tankkeepers
Valuable Member
And wile I know leathers are fast growing this one is ridiculous went from finger size to large hand size in about a months time cut it back to finger went back to hand sized cut again to finger and less then a month later its almost hand sized again
Close inspection of your reef on a daily or twice daily basis is certainly awesome but imo should be used in conjunction with good testing. Your eye can only tell you if something has gone wrong. Testing can tell you must sooner if something is off.
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I have often stated " I let the fish and coral talk to me before i react"
No sense making changes if all are happy. I inspect everything during feeding
No sense making changes if all are happy. I inspect everything during feeding
jasonrusso
2500 Club Member
I'm all for testing, but if everything is doing really well, I don't care what the tests say. I'm not going to mess with things to make a good situation "better." I sometimes test to see where everything is so I can remember it.
sghera64
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I consider testing to be a leading, predictive and influenceable of the future state of the living things in our system. How the heath of the coral and fish appear to our senses is a lagging or terminal measure. Reacting to testing parameters gives us some lead time to correct something that is off ‘before’ we see the impact on life in the system.
If we have a consistent process of adding food, additives, light, water changes, changing socks, etc. we possibly have an even earlier leading predictor of success. Missing water changes, leaving filter socks in for a long time, missing kalkwsser additions should predict a negative shift in testing parameters, which we can correct even before testing even indicates a problem.
If someone achieves a highly stable routine of lighting, water quality maintenance (carbon, change-outs, mechanical filtration, additions), temperature, food, livestock loading, etc. then theoretically, testing should produce stable results and system health should be stable too. That might give someone the feeling that they can monitor the system health by visual observation alone, when in reality success is owed to consistent and stable husbandry.
If we have a consistent process of adding food, additives, light, water changes, changing socks, etc. we possibly have an even earlier leading predictor of success. Missing water changes, leaving filter socks in for a long time, missing kalkwsser additions should predict a negative shift in testing parameters, which we can correct even before testing even indicates a problem.
If someone achieves a highly stable routine of lighting, water quality maintenance (carbon, change-outs, mechanical filtration, additions), temperature, food, livestock loading, etc. then theoretically, testing should produce stable results and system health should be stable too. That might give someone the feeling that they can monitor the system health by visual observation alone, when in reality success is owed to consistent and stable husbandry.
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Tankkeepers
Valuable Member
I would partly agree with this success is always owed to a good routine however I have personally had cases in the past were the tests said everything was fine however you could look at the tank and clearly see it was not
vlangel
Seahorse whisperer
I have noticed that there are reef keepers who are gifted at different aspects of reef keeping. We each have our areas of natural ability that play into how we keep a reef.
I also rarely, (never say never) test parameters. I am what I would describe as an observation reef keeper. I hate testing and find it very tedious. Like the original poster, I look at my reef and gauge its health by how the coral and macro algae look. I can do that because I have been keeping reef tanks since the 90s, I avoid sps coral that need a lot of alk, calcium and magnesium to grow, and I do a weekly water change that re-sets my parameters and keeps them in check for the livestock that I keep.
Finally for me, fish have always been my 1st love. I keep coral/macro algae to have a beautiful natural enviroment for my fish. I mostly choose coral that like a nutrient rich enviroment, ( which my many fish provide) and this allows me to enjoy my hobby in the most satisfying stress free way. I would encourage each aquarist to assess their own strengths and design their reef by catering to those strengths. If you are an analytical person who is precise and likes to measure things, then I say go for it and test parameters and enjoy the challenge of keeping acros. However if you are a free spirit who relies on your gut, then perhaps a prominently softie/lps tank is more suited to you. Get to know yourself and that will help you enjoy your hobby with the least frustration.
I also rarely, (never say never) test parameters. I am what I would describe as an observation reef keeper. I hate testing and find it very tedious. Like the original poster, I look at my reef and gauge its health by how the coral and macro algae look. I can do that because I have been keeping reef tanks since the 90s, I avoid sps coral that need a lot of alk, calcium and magnesium to grow, and I do a weekly water change that re-sets my parameters and keeps them in check for the livestock that I keep.
Finally for me, fish have always been my 1st love. I keep coral/macro algae to have a beautiful natural enviroment for my fish. I mostly choose coral that like a nutrient rich enviroment, ( which my many fish provide) and this allows me to enjoy my hobby in the most satisfying stress free way. I would encourage each aquarist to assess their own strengths and design their reef by catering to those strengths. If you are an analytical person who is precise and likes to measure things, then I say go for it and test parameters and enjoy the challenge of keeping acros. However if you are a free spirit who relies on your gut, then perhaps a prominently softie/lps tank is more suited to you. Get to know yourself and that will help you enjoy your hobby with the least frustration.
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Tankkeepers
Valuable Member
Fantastic post I wish I could express myself this well very very well written and I could not agree more and this is exactly what iv been trying to say bravo
vlangel
Seahorse whisperer
Thank you! Since I have been reef keeping for a long time I spent some of that time trying to make myself be a round peg going into a square hole. I felt to prove my abilities and experience that I should be moving into an sps/acro aquarium. For me that was purely an exercise of frustration. This hobby should be fun and none of us has to prove anything. If I want a challenge, I raise baby clownfish or seahorses. I only did both of those once but it was rewarding. I love the tank I have now and that is what every aquarist should strive for.
It’s an interesting concept and I echo what many others have said, that you can tell a lot by looking at your tank and you can certainly tell if something is wrong. However this is going to vary a lot on the livestock you keep. Softies are mostly tough and will bounce back from looking bad and don’t consume much of the big 3 elements. However there are many coral, particularly types of sps, that you absolutely don’t want to stress enough to look bad, by the time we notice it the stress is done and if it doesn’t die after correction the coral will die if keep stressing it every week or two. Testing lets me know where I am on the acceptable range before the stress occurs. Now with a very dialed in system that testing can be spaced out, but I sure wouldn’t wait until corals looked “off” to test.
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Tankkeepers
Valuable Member
I would fully agree that you have to setup your tank to be able to do what I do I woukd never go without test if I has a sps heavy tank as they require testing as part of the basic routine
ReefBeta
Valuable Member
Exactly. When sps is stressed to a visible state, it will take many months to recover. If that is allowed to continue to happen, it won't grow much at all.
