POLL - Who are you?

[Sump Crab]

Are you a Coral Freak or a Naturalist?

When I see debates on here about everything from chemical additives to quarantine procedures and from feeding practices to hitchhikers I feel that in the end we reefers can be broken down into two major groups. The coral freaks and the naturalists.

Coral Freak: prefers to maintain a relatively sterile environment focusing mainly on growing and maintaining an aesthetically pleasing coral centric display.

Naturalist: prefers to replicate a natural reef as much as possible. The naturalist not only loves their fish and coral but also loves to find new and exciting hitchhikers within their little ecosystems and find joy in a not so sterile environment.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Don't pigeon hole me. I am a coral freak with naturalistic tendancies that doesn't put things into over simplified groups of chemicals and not chemicals.

Gfo is a chemical? What about your sand? You want me to type out the chemical formula for the rock in your tank?

 

[Sump Crab]

Don't pigeon hole me. I am a coral freak with naturalistic tendancies that doesn't put things into over simplified groups of chemicals and not chemicals.

Gfo is a chemical? What about your sand? You want me to type out the chemical formula for the rock in your tank?

Did I offend you or something? This is supposed to be fun. If you don't want to participate then move on.

 

[VKP01]

I notice this too lol. I’m definitely a Naturalist, I love making my tank look like the ocean and seeing how all the little organism work together and finding new (unharmful!!!) critters in the tank. Personally I could never run a clean sterile tank.

 

[MERKEY]

I'm still new (compared to a lot here) but over the past few years I have found my first tank is definitely more natural and what has come in the past has stayed. Just recently in the last year I have really started keeping parameters on point and noticed how everything loves it. We have started our 2nd tank and right off the bat just following simple rules it is a huge difference and a much more pleasant experience.

We wont go as technical as some real good refers on here but I also will watch everything closer and dose appropriately and wont over stock so things will thrive not just live and look pretty under lights.

I know I wont have a super clean SPS tank but that's not what I want

 

[smartwater101]

I'm a bit of a cynic, so you know what i voted for.

 

[Jon Fishman]

I try to run as sterile as possible to limit water changes, and need for additives etc (which I don’t use) so I can enjoy the corals etc and I welcome the hitchikers just not the algae and dirty looking tank

 

[Gareth elliott]

This is a little us or them for me.
I try to feed with as variety as possible to mimic how fish feed in the wild. I try to match the aquascape to their needs, ie lots of nooks for rock dwellers. I use bacteria additives before I use chemicals.
But I also keep shallow water corals and fish that are used to tides, daily temperature variations that I have no desire at this moment to recreate. I also treat for diseases with medicine or treatment chemicals.
In the end i would describe myself as an aquarist nothing more nothing less.