triggerfish1976
- Thread starter mflamb
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triggerfish1976
New member
Here is the original thread I started in case you missed it Mike.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1311130
I sort of abandoned it but I meant to go into more detail on how they do things over there that allows them to have such beautiful tanks.
I will start out with the livestock.
Thai hobbyists seem to have access to pretty much everything due to the limited enforcement on importation of livestock and the importance they place on rare fish and corals. I saw a few fish that we will probably never see in the US anytime soon like Sea Dragons. When I saw these I automatically assumed that they were illegal but they are actually captive bred and fetch more money than most of us Americans are willing to pay so they go to Asian countries like Japan and Thailand where they fetch insane amounts of money. The value put on rare fish over there is pretty crazy. Even crazier is the lengths hobbyists go to keep corals. Most stony corals are technically illegal to buy and sell but they figure out ways to bypass the authorities in order to posses them. It is also illegal to collect coral from Thai waters which is fine for them because most of the SPS corals found there are generally in the green and brown hues. I have seen some nice red and blue tabling SPS while diving there but these are few and far between. Most of the SPS corals are imported from other nearby countries but I didn't see anything that I would consider unique to their trade. Most of the SPS that I saw for sale were mainly wild colonies with a few AC'ed frags here and there.
The corals that I was most impressed by were the LPS. We are tallking dinner plate size Scolymia's, Acan's, and Lobo's. Most of these are brought in from AUS and fetch top dollar.
Tank Husbandy: The tanks that I had a pleasure seeing were all immaculate. They were some of the cleanest setups I have ever seen. They are maticulous about keeping the sides of the tank perfectly clean and I didn't see one spec. of nuisance algae any where.
The SPS tank that I took so many pics of is probably the most well respected tank in Thailand. he guy spends 4 hours every day maintaining this tank. This sort of commitment is pretty much common place with most hobbyists over there. I believe this is the key to their success because their systems are setup no different than ours. They all use oversized skimmers, intense lighting, high flow, filter socks, calcium reactors, refugiums, some had sand beds and some didn't, and phosphate reactors.
The only differences that I noted are the low fish bioloads, no clean up crews, and most of the refugiums were very large and shallow w/ Miracle Mud substrates. They prune the fuge algae daily and throw it away. I asked them about the miracle mud and supposedly it has been a staple in refugiums for many years. They couldn't give me any real data as to why the like it but they find that it doesn't cause nutirent problems like sand does.
The salt of choice seems to be Reef Crystals, and almost every tank had a Calcium Reactor.
The tank parameters are pretty much on par with our standards for reef tanks.
I will post some more pics tomorrow and a video showing the crazy flow in one of the tanks I visited.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1311130
I sort of abandoned it but I meant to go into more detail on how they do things over there that allows them to have such beautiful tanks.
I will start out with the livestock.
Thai hobbyists seem to have access to pretty much everything due to the limited enforcement on importation of livestock and the importance they place on rare fish and corals. I saw a few fish that we will probably never see in the US anytime soon like Sea Dragons. When I saw these I automatically assumed that they were illegal but they are actually captive bred and fetch more money than most of us Americans are willing to pay so they go to Asian countries like Japan and Thailand where they fetch insane amounts of money. The value put on rare fish over there is pretty crazy. Even crazier is the lengths hobbyists go to keep corals. Most stony corals are technically illegal to buy and sell but they figure out ways to bypass the authorities in order to posses them. It is also illegal to collect coral from Thai waters which is fine for them because most of the SPS corals found there are generally in the green and brown hues. I have seen some nice red and blue tabling SPS while diving there but these are few and far between. Most of the SPS corals are imported from other nearby countries but I didn't see anything that I would consider unique to their trade. Most of the SPS that I saw for sale were mainly wild colonies with a few AC'ed frags here and there.
The corals that I was most impressed by were the LPS. We are tallking dinner plate size Scolymia's, Acan's, and Lobo's. Most of these are brought in from AUS and fetch top dollar.
Tank Husbandy: The tanks that I had a pleasure seeing were all immaculate. They were some of the cleanest setups I have ever seen. They are maticulous about keeping the sides of the tank perfectly clean and I didn't see one spec. of nuisance algae any where.
The SPS tank that I took so many pics of is probably the most well respected tank in Thailand. he guy spends 4 hours every day maintaining this tank. This sort of commitment is pretty much common place with most hobbyists over there. I believe this is the key to their success because their systems are setup no different than ours. They all use oversized skimmers, intense lighting, high flow, filter socks, calcium reactors, refugiums, some had sand beds and some didn't, and phosphate reactors.
The only differences that I noted are the low fish bioloads, no clean up crews, and most of the refugiums were very large and shallow w/ Miracle Mud substrates. They prune the fuge algae daily and throw it away. I asked them about the miracle mud and supposedly it has been a staple in refugiums for many years. They couldn't give me any real data as to why the like it but they find that it doesn't cause nutirent problems like sand does.
The salt of choice seems to be Reef Crystals, and almost every tank had a Calcium Reactor.
The tank parameters are pretty much on par with our standards for reef tanks.
I will post some more pics tomorrow and a video showing the crazy flow in one of the tanks I visited.
triggerfish1976
New member
I think you hit the nail on the head regarding the clean up crews. there thinking is snails can only clean so much of the tank so why waste the money and increase the bioload when we can just clean the tank ourselves.
The saltwater aquarium community is very tight and all equipment has to be imported so everyone pretty much uses the same drygoods.
Here is a list of a few of the brands they use:
Skimmer: Bubble King, ATB, Deltec
lighting: They love radium and aqua connect metal halide bulbs. Most of the ballasts were off brand asian ballasts but I did see a couple of icecaps.
Calciun reactors: Shuran
Additives: Brightwell Aquatics is very popular mainly due to their packaging and selection. I saw that stuff everywhere.
Salt: Reef Crystals
The saltwater aquarium community is very tight and all equipment has to be imported so everyone pretty much uses the same drygoods.
Here is a list of a few of the brands they use:
Skimmer: Bubble King, ATB, Deltec
lighting: They love radium and aqua connect metal halide bulbs. Most of the ballasts were off brand asian ballasts but I did see a couple of icecaps.
Calciun reactors: Shuran
Additives: Brightwell Aquatics is very popular mainly due to their packaging and selection. I saw that stuff everywhere.
Salt: Reef Crystals
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