Newest reef keeping techniques?

[graffitireef]

Im not new to the hobby and have been a long time lurker. I've done it for about 10 years with several different types of tanks but shut down my tank after it crashed in 2014. The stress of not having a tank is eating me up and Im planning a new build soon. I had done a DSB sumpless setup for my last tank but figure I'd do some research on better practices since, we are afterll wearing many different hats when we play amateur scientist with our reefs and always want to keep on top of the absolute best way to make sure our reef succeeds.

So, have there been any groundbreaking new advancements in reefkeeping in the past few years that people are changing to? I've been reading a lot about the Triton method which seems like it's just having a sump, protein skimmer, and using their additives and paying for them to test your water once a month. Doesnt seem too groundbreaking to me. Thought I'd ask you guys. Thanks!

 

[brandon429]

never keeping a filthy sandbed, change of the decade. todays top clean candidates focus most of the organics as coral feed/fish throughput and not stored up


by keeping house clean, can mass feed and put on mass without hassle. I think old school sandbedding might not ever come back at least for the masses. remote beds/things like that are still in play but there's a large shift towards less organic waste storage in the tanks.

you can reach into many sandbeds nowadays, grab sand, drop down, and it doesn't kill the whole tank.

 

[graffitireef]

never keeping a filthy sandbed, change of the decade.

Right!? I'm fairly certain it's the reason my tank crashed. I was influenced by an old timer that said he's done a DSB for 20 years with zero problems. Probably shouldve passed on his advice.

 

[brandon429]

the truth is Im a clean bed keeper

but we all came from the storage mode...

there are staunch practicers here today still and with old reefs. I always classified it as a niche approach

if twenty reefers are to set up reef tanks we track right now and they must keep them going for 5 yrs before eval, the clean running ones will have the least invasions, crashes in my opinion. its a safer mode to use as a general approach because a clean tank allows deep cleaning/resets as needed. we run large aquarium cure/turnaround threads and they involve sandbed cleaning or replacement as step one in 99% of cases.


a hands off tank is always fearing upset/instability and that's just the hesitation invasions need to take hold, its not about subtle differences in nutrient controls. successful giant sps tanks nowadays are found in ranging waters of N and P here, including levels some say wouldn't work.

see the article, reef tank params of the masters.

 

[brandon429]

people are adding microfauna to their tanks more often nowadays. using competition to beat things like dinos and cyano, vs chems and alterations

theyre using grazer balances to control algae, not tedious starving of nutrients which only fuels invaders from another trophic level.

that's a big one too, diversification. you can order five hundred gammarid shrimp from a few sources if mandarins were hungry etc, all kinds of refugium charger kits avail now

 

[graffitireef]

people are adding microfauna to their tanks more often nowadays. using competition to beat things like dinos and cyano, vs chems and alterations

theyre using grazer balances to control algae, not tedious starving of nutrients which only fuels invaders from another trophic level.

that's a big one too, diversification. you can order five hundred gammarid shrimp from a few sources if mandarins were hungry etc, all kinds of refugium charger kits avail now

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll check out that article too.

 

[Greybeard]

ICP-OES testing: Triton, ATI, there may be others now, offer ICP-OES testing of salt water. I feel it's a game changer. For the first time, we can actually see what is in our water, rather than guessing. Accuracy may be in question on certain elements, but it's a far, far wider window into our reefs than we've ever had before.

Vendor sponsored, specific, guided, holistic approaches to reefkeeping... Triton, Aquaforest, Zeo-vit, Red Sea... and probably others I'm unaware of. These vendors offer a tested, workable 'method' for maintaining a reef system. Can't say I'm entirely happy with any of them, but for a newcomer to the game, it sure as heck simplifies things... pick a 'system', and follow it... chances of success are dramatically improved over 'learn as you go', which is how I, and most others that I know, learned reefkeeping.

Nitrate and phosphate reduction... Used to be, we all struggled to reduce nitrate and phosphate... techniques are so good these days some of us are actually DOSING nitrate and phosphate!

 

[brandon429]

here was that read too

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/tank-parameters-of-some-masters.263/

 

[brandon429]

it should also be added

that a giant huge niche has branched off normal reefing in which we grow any sps or lps we want inside tiny jars and containers, without the problems large tanks face.


we don't use auto topoffs, 2010 called
heh

we use evaporation stoppage or restriction and our tiniest example has better salinity control than any reef active on this forum to date, using zero machinery. we don't evaporate.

its a total upending of reefing as it was known. small reefing has mighty benefits... cost for starters. a bit restricted on fish but not corals, I know someone with a vase worth three grand.

 

[brandon429]

https://www.coralreeftn.com/shop.php
.
look at all the live copepods they offer! ordering some right now. two strains for my tank, ill resell the rest back to lfs likely for trade credit.

any reef tank on the planet can benefit from adding those. universal additive right there, from the smallest pico to Pauls large old reef, those pods are just plain good. check out their custom phyto...amazing stuff.

reminds me of two suppliers old schoolers used: caronlina biological and aquatic-eco.com

 

[graffitireef]

it should also be added

that a giant huge niche has branched off normal reefing in which we grow any sps or lps we want inside tiny jars and containers, without the problems large tanks face.


we don't use auto topoffs, 2010 called
heh

we use evaporation stoppage or restriction and our tiniest example has better salinity control than any reef active on this forum to date, using zero machinery. we don't evaporate.

its a total upending of reefing as it was known. small reefing has mighty benefits... cost for starters. a bit restricted on fish but not corals, I know someone with a vase worth three grand.

No kidding! Any literature on this or threads? What would I even search for?

 

[brandon429]

check this out
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/it’s-jarring-2g-jar-sps-pico.334396/page-7

 

[brandon429]

this is in my opinion the pros and cons of micro reefing

-cheapest possible way to produce coral mass ever. all you do is feed only just before water changes so the excess is taken out and the corals stay fat, nothing to rot in the system. feed is once a week or so, since no fish, no daily requirement, and things progress nice n slow vs daily feeding which would put algae in most small tanks fast

-access to all areas. all new tanks get algae, we can cheat ours clean by taking out the rock, killing the algae, then putting it back cheated clean for more coral to just grow over. A 220 gallon tank is stuck with its algae in the lower portions, inaccessible. must treat the whole tank/water/param palette to hopefully possibly affect it. we killed it nine days ago.

-incredibly long lived. mine's 12 yrs old.

-full water changes are the answer to everything.

-I don't own any reefing testers other than salinity and temp. not a single param is needed to know other than that and we don't care what brand of water you use, they all work with weekly incremental work.

-salinity control off the charts. mine requires topoff once or twice a week.


cons:

-no fish in most due to too small

-elbows can wreck your whole setup

-clearly if anything goes weird, a small setup dies fast but it wont be from within. takes something external to cause that, a system of sand, rock, bubbling water and a few corals doesn't do things unpredictably.

 

[mkj]

my new favorite term of the week "giant huge niche" LOL. I don't think those words are supposed to go together.

 

[Sallstrom]

Im not new to the hobby and have been a long time lurker. I've done it for about 10 years with several different types of tanks but shut down my tank after it crashed in 2014. The stress of not having a tank is eating me up and Im planning a new build soon. I had done a DSB sumpless setup for my last tank but figure I'd do some research on better practices since, we are afterll wearing many different hats when we play amateur scientist with our reefs and always want to keep on top of the absolute best way to make sure our reef succeeds.

So, have there been any groundbreaking new advancements in reefkeeping in the past few years that people are changing to? I've been reading a lot about the Triton method which seems like it's just having a sump, protein skimmer, and using their additives and paying for them to test your water once a month. Doesnt seem too groundbreaking to me. Thought I'd ask you guys. Thanks!

IMO Triton offer choices. Send in the test and see how your water is. You can use their method and supplement, or you can do everything your own way. You can make up your own method, and check if you're on the right coarse by do another ICP test some time later.
So what Triton has done to me who work at a public aquarium is give me a tool to figure out the method to run different tank. Not all tanks are SPS tanks. We run a cold water kelp tank with help from ICP tests and Tritons additives for example
This way feels a lot better than colourful bottles with unknown stuff that's supposed to make your corals more pink. At least to me

/ David

 

[Greybeard]

So what Triton has done to me who work at a public aquarium is give me a tool to figure out the method to run different tank.
/ David

Yup. I'm no professional, don't run a public aquarium, but that's exactly what I see with Triton. It's a window into the health of our aquariums that was not available before. A much wider window that we could ever get with regular test kits. ICP testing, really, not Triton... they started it, but there's others doing it now. Doesn't matter if you never use any of the other products or techniques that Triton (or ATI, CoralView... whoever) provide. The ICP testing itself is an excellent tool for use by aquarium keepers of all skill levels.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

IMO The only things that have changed recently in this hobby are the advances in led lighting and the amount of marketing we see.

Everything else seems to work just as it did 20 years ago.