TOM Best Practices Idea

[phenom5]

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

IMO/IME, you could've stopped right there. Most of the things you listed fall under solid husbandry, or are tools used to get to solid husbandry, and IME a successful SPS tank begins and ends there.

Adequate lighting, adequate flow, and good, stable parameters. How people get there is as varied as the number of tanks we see on these forums.

 

[Cysco]

IMO/IME, you could've stopped right there. Most of the things you listed fall under solid husbandry, or are tools used to get to solid husbandry, and IME a successful SPS tank begins and ends there.

Adequate lighting, adequate flow, and good, stable parameters. How people get there is as varied as the number of tanks we see on these forums.

+1....100% agree

I think at this point I am trying to save Charlene wasted hours of chasing something that isn't there.

 

[Charlene]

Here is some base parameters with link to TOTM:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...UUd3UlZha1hiTlQzUTFqY201N0E&usp=sharing#gid=0

I get it and agree. The spreadsheet with all the TOTM params would have taken a lot of time. Wow. Very impressed! To take this data further would be interesting but might require a full fledged research grant. If you wanted to say drill down on large, halide tanks to find out the photo periods or color temp of bulbs you'd need to really add a lot of data. To maintain it would be a full time job as well. As far as this hobby is concerned sometimes it does indeed feel like I'm chasing something that is just not there. My goal is a tank that looks beautiful and is reasonable to maintain. As you move closer to perfection the cost in time and money seems to become exponentially larger. Even great tanks crash. Keeping SPS Corals is definitely one of the more challenging aspects of the saltwater world.

 

[v1...rotate]

What a fantastic link. A very interesting read. Sorry... my ALK lowered the average. In fact my ALK was around 5.5 at the time but I rounded up

My number one tip to a successful SPS tank is Stability. Stability not just in water parameters but also lighting, dosing and water changes. Everything goes hand in hand.

 

[JB NY]

If you wanted to say drill down on large, halide tanks to find out the photo periods or color temp of bulbs you'd need to really add a lot of data.... As far as this hobby is concerned sometimes it does indeed feel like I'm chasing something that is just not there. My goal is a tank that looks beautiful and is reasonable to maintain.

One of the interesting things about reef keeping and SPS tanks, is that no two are exactly alike. Everyone does things just a little bit different. And that is probably why people find getting a handle on doing an SPS tank for the first time so maddening.

Just to take your example of reef lighting. You would think that if you looked at what someone else who was TOTM and just followed their lighting example, then that is one less thing to worry about. Right? But those lights and that photo period might not be optimal for your set up. Maybe you have higher or lower nutrients in your tank, maybe your selection of SPS need to be acclimated differently or there is some other reason that's causing your coral to look pale or brown or not grow in the tank. My point is, it's not till you have be doing it for a while and get a little experience that you realize that maybe you need adjust the photo period, or move the corals, or something else. So even lighting is not as simple as just do what the other guy did.

 

[Charlene]

One of the interesting things about reef keeping and SPS tanks, is that no two are exactly alike. Everyone does things just a little bit different. And that is probably why people find getting a handle on doing an SPS tank for the first time so maddening.

Just to take your example of reef lighting. You would think that if you looked at what someone else who was TOTM and just followed their lighting example, then that is one less thing to worry about. Right? But those lights and that photo period might not be optimal for your set up. Maybe you have higher or lower nutrients in your tank, maybe your selection of SPS need to be acclimated differently or there is some other reason that's causing your coral to look pale or brown or not grow in the tank. My point is, it's not till you have be doing it for a while and get a little experience that you realize that maybe you need adjust the photo period, or move the corals, or something else. So even lighting is not as simple as just do what the other guy did.

Well said. The funny thing is though while I agree with you; one would think mimicking the ocean at a specific depth and the sunlight that occurs in this water would mean there was a "best practice" for treating water and producing light. The corals expect a very specific environment surely there is an optimal way to reproduce it? The photo period doesn't vary much in the real world why it matters in a reef tank is counter intuitive. In some ways I wonder are we still in the dark age of our understanding of the ocean and our means to reproduce it?

 

[JB NY]

You can't produce the environment they come from that's the hard part for people to get. Sure you can get close with the 4 or 5 things we measure in our tanks. But the light is very different, stronger and different spectrum. Water movement is never anything close to a real reef. The amount of food and nutrients that are in the ocean is just huge compared to what we can provide in a tank. Corals are much more adaptive than people think, and it's that adaptive ability that allows us to be able to keep them in our little glass boxes.

Stand on the shoulders of the giants who figured out how to keep these animals alive and thriving in our tanks, and use that knowledge as best you can to produce your own little reef.

 

[Oldude]

Interesting thread. That spreadsheet is pretty impressive and was obviously a lot of work. Thanks for that.
As mentioned solid husbandry is key for any successful reef but there are a lot of variables to the equation and not everything that works for one person will work well for another so you find what works for you and then work hard applying those techniques to get the desired results. This sounds corny and not very scientific but personally I believe the most common denominator between "TOM" nominees is an obsessive "passion" for the hobby that continually pushes them to strive to make their reef better than it was the day before.

 

[Henchmen27]

Here is some base parameters with link to TOTM:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...UUd3UlZha1hiTlQzUTFqY201N0E&usp=sharing#gid=0

This is awesome! Thanks!

 

[itche_scratche]

Very nice spreadsheet

 

[las]

Great thread- OCD and reefing... I guess that's why I'm drawn to it

 

[ridetheducati]

Allow for empirical knowledge, skill, and luck.