TOM Best Practices Idea

Charlene

Charlene

Certified Reef Fanatic
I was thinking it would be great to analyze the TOM winners to create a table showing how many common practices would be found throughout. Something like:

Lighting
==============
Metal Halide 30%
T5 30%
LED 15%


Filtration
==============
Filter Sock 75%
Biopellet 25%


Calcium Reator 50%
Dosed 2 Part 45%

Salt Mix:
IO 40%
Reef Crystals 30%
etc 99%



The idea would be to see if any best practices emerge.
 
Perhaps if someone could make a spreadsheet or a searchable database of the tom relevant data.
 
I've done this before but never kept a record. It was more just to see what the common theme was. I found there is no specific recipe that will give you a TOTM worthy tank. What I found was a solid husbandry schedule, dosing or CaRx for stability, lots of fish (most TOTMs), lots of high quality lighting, good flow, powerful filtration and not many additives (generally) more of the KISS method.

So to summarize:

solid husbandry/ wc schedule
stability of elements (kH, Ca, Mg)
lots of nutrition while still keeping low inorganic NO3 and PO4
powerful filtration (ATS, skimmer, BP, etc)
quality lighting
high flow
some run sand/ some BB but again this will fall back to husbandry and how one maintains their miniature ecosystem.
 
Are you starting from the very first TOTM? If so, that would be a nightmare to create a database for.

Would be a ridiculous and helpful one, but nonetheless time consuming to say the least...
 
I personally just went through about the last 3-4 years. I agree though it would be very time consuming thus why the person wanted someone else to do their work for them.
 
Cysco said:
I personally just went through about the last 3-4 years. I agree though it would be very time consuming thus why the person wanted someone else to do their work for them.
Click to expand...

Sorry you feel I'm simply wanting someone to do my work for me. I was thinking it MIGHT be helpful to look in a systematic way at what works and try to apply some science to it all rather not solely to admire what a super successful individual has created. I was curious what people thought and yes I want someone to help figure out what it would take. Not every idea is a good one and maybe someone could point out why this is not such a great idea. You are correct I don't have any idea how to make such a table nor do I have time. It would require a group effort and a lot of work by someone to make such a thing. But if someone did go to the trouble I would hope they would want to share it. It's hardly that I want someone else to do work for me but that perhaps we can save someone from some of the trials and errors and this might be a good thing for the hobby as a whole and help us to do a better job with our reef tanks. Perhaps someone here is good with databases and another likes to compile info. Everyone has different interests. The work is hard and tedious agreed but a tool such as this might make accessing all the info a little bit easier and to the point the group might discover something that has eluded us all.
 
Last edited:
plyle02 said:
Best advice I ever got was:
S-tability P-romotes S-uccess
Click to expand...
+1

I was curious about this as well but my eyes and head started to hurt just reading through 6 different TOTMs, let alone 3-4 years worth! Although it was a small sample size, the months that I read all use different salt mixes, some dose different supplements, most on a calcium reactors, different lights on different cycles, some with gfo and carbon, some not. Stability, to me at least, appeared to be the biggest factor in everything...and alot of fish :)
 
Charlene said:
Sorry you feel I'm simply wanting someone to do my work for me. I was thinking it MIGHT be helpful to look in a systematic way at what works and try to apply some science to it all rather not solely to admire what a super successful individual has created. I was curious what people thought and yes I want someone to help figure out what it would take. Not every idea is a good one and maybe someone could point out why this is not such a great idea. You are correct I don't have any idea how to make such a table nor do I have time. It would require a group effort and a lot of work by someone to make such a thing. But if someone did go to the trouble I would hope they would want to share it. It's hardly that I want someone else to do work for me but that perhaps we can save someone from some of the trials and errors and this might be a good thing for the hobby as a whole and help us to do a better job with our reef tanks. Perhaps someone here is good with databases and another likes to compile info. Everyone has different interests. The work is hard and tedious agreed but a tool such as this might make accessing all the info a little bit easier and to the point the group might discover something that has eluded us all.
Click to expand...


See my first post summary and you will see what I found after looking through a couple of years worth of totm. There is no magic recipe of equipment, salt, light , etc. and in my opinion is a huge waste of time to detail because all systems are different with respect to husbandry, light, salt,fish, cuc, dry rock, live rock, skimmer, ats, biopellets, gac, GFO , foods fed, how often fed. Do you see where I'm going with this? There are too many variables to correlate.

There are some common themes as I have stated in my summary above. These are general commonalities that most totm share. I just don't think it's worthwhile to sit down and detail every single aspect of these tanks. The main reason is just because you copy someone's system doesn't mean your tank will look like theirs.

My advice would be to follow my summary above as a guide and pay attention to the fine details of husbandry, light, flow, stability, etc.
 
You will find that TOTM success is mostly about keeping things stable.

I think many people get caught up in the equipment: skimmers, lights, pumps, and power heads, etc. You need to understand that those items are a means of achieving the right parameters and then using the equipment to keep them stable. Many people have chimed in with the acronym SPS (Stability Promotes Success), and that is really the big take away for getting a successful tank. Once you have things in order, whether it is water movement, water parameters, or lighting, you need to be able to keep everything balanced and stable over the long haul. There is no set it and forget on an SPS tank.

Frags grow into colonies, as they do it changes the water movement in the tank and creates dead spots, so you need to trim, move or rearrange corals and equipment to keep good flow everywhere.

As corals grow the consume more nutrients and elements, so you have to test even when you have been doing things a long time. The amount of alk/Ca/Mg P and N change over time.

Lighting is dynamic as well. A new tank with lots of frags, the lighting will be easy. When the frags grow into colonies you get shading that cause corals to not receive the light they used to, which can cause problems that have to be dealt with (fragging, or removing colonies).

It's all about getting the right mix and then keeping that VERY stable over months and then years.
 
JB NY said:
You will find that TOTM success is mostly about keeping things stable.

I think many people get caught up in the equipment: skimmers, lights, pumps, and power heads, etc. You need to understand that those items are a means of achieving the right parameters and then using the equipment to keep them stable. Many people have chimed in with the acronym SPS (Stability Promotes Success), and that is really the big take away for getting a successful tank. Once you have things in order, whether it is water movement, water parameters, or lighting, you need to be able to keep everything balanced and stable over the long haul. There is no set it and forget on an SPS tank.

Frags grow into colonies, as they do it changes the water movement in the tank and creates dead spots, so you need to trim, move or rearrange corals and equipment to keep good flow everywhere.

As corals grow the consume more nutrients and elements, so you have to test even when you have been doing things a long time. The amount of alk/Ca/Mg P and N change over time.

Lighting is dynamic as well. A new tank with lots of frags, the lighting will be easy. When the frags grow into colonies you get shading that cause corals to not receive the light they used to, which can cause problems that have to be dealt with (fragging, or removing colonies).

It's all about getting the right mix and then keeping that VERY stable over months and then years.
Click to expand...

Well said Joe!!!:beer:
 
I was NOT thinking of this project to be a "How to make a tank of the month in 100 steps". Wouldn't it just be terrific if thats all there was to it. :spin2:

The most difficult part for me when learning about what is involved in this hobby was the conflicting advice on very basic ideas and also on more complicated problems. By choosing TOTM tanks you gain two very important criteria. This particular forum on SPS tanks tends to have more seasoned participants. I would say you guys are above average. But you quickly learn you can get a lot of bad advice from users.

1. These tanks are the very best examples of success and well documented
2. By tradition much of the information is disclosed in a consistent manner.

I don't know that its practical to gather all the data from every tank but at least start compiling the most recent winners and work backwards seeing what emerges.

I would no more expect to be able to give a formula for a TOTM than would I expect to be able to play golf at the PGA level from taking a few lessons from Tiger Woods. It's just another tool not a magic bullet.

Condense what is already here into one place. It would still be up to the individual to do their research perhaps going back to the original page for more detail and to make their own conclusions.

If I do decide to do something I'll be sure to put it out here for all to see. If anyone has already done some of this already please send me a pm with what you have so far.
 
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Cysco said:
See my first post summary and you will see what I found after looking through a couple of years worth of totm. There is no magic recipe of equipment, salt, light , etc. and in my opinion is a huge waste of time to detail because all systems are different with respect to husbandry, light, salt,fish, cuc, dry rock, live rock, skimmer, ats, biopellets, gac, GFO , foods fed, how often fed. Do you see where I'm going with this? There are too many variables to correlate.

There are some common themes as I have stated in my summary above. These are general commonalities that most totm share. I just don't think it's worthwhile to sit down and detail every single aspect of these tanks. The main reason is just because you copy someone's system doesn't mean your tank will look like theirs.

My advice would be to follow my summary above as a guide and pay attention to the fine details of husbandry, light, flow, stability, etc.
Click to expand...

+1

Being a member here for over 12 years and being a member on at least 10 other reef forums, what is said by Cysco and JBNY is what I would say as well.

As for there being some sort of table; there was a thread a year or two ago...the data from compiled from about MANY years of TOTM from the main/biggest British Reef forum; ultimatereef.net

On that website the TOTM articles always list parameters as well. The thread is somewhere in the SPS forum.
 
Average parameters of TOTM

SG 1.02562 or ~ 34 ppt

pH 8.10

Ca 428.05

dkH 8.40

Mg 1,345.77

I think this is useful data and thanks for the link. I would recommend one go this direction of looking at parameters if you want something meaningful. Conversely I would not chase specific equipment as the success story. Joe might have a Precision Marine skimmer while Bob might use a Bubble Magus or Sue might run no skimmer and use a combo of ATS and Biopellets. The equipment is just a means to an end, as myself and JB said, it is more about the essentials. Flow, light, solid parameters, stability, bioload, etc.
 
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