Why are many people such control freaks?

[nynick]

There is a lot of stuff in there that you can not see. As nice as critters are, a diverse microbial culture will be very hard to get without good live rock.

Saying no thanks to a very rich ecosystem because there might be an Aiptasia or something on a rock seems a little silly to me.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

If I see something I'm not familiar with, I'll try and catch it and then get someone to ID it here before I decide it's fate. That way I'm not arbitrarily killing animals for no reason.

 

[vitz]

A few minutes ago I answered a thread with an identification question. I just looked at the images provided and confirmed the id, but then I read the OP and it was something along the lines of: "please help me id this so I can get rid of it". Before the poster even knew what it was...

And it actually made me sad. I mean a reef tank is a very complex system with tons of critters that we never purposely put in. There are probably thousands of creatures in each of our tanks that started out as hitchhikers. Most of them benign or even beneficial. Only very few things can become pests or problems. So why do so many people want to actually kill these animals? Is it just because they were unplanned? Or are they so afraid of getting a pest?

It's the same with crabs or bristle worms - there are tons of those that will never harm anything in a reef tank. I have a huge (2-3" carapace) black crab in one of my tanks that just grazes on algae and leaves everybody alone. If it would start munching on stuff, then I'd relocate it.

It's different with animals that are confirmed predators or otherwise harmful. But even those can in many cases be relocated to the refugium or given away to fellow hobbyists (e.g. in the case of mantis shrimp).

/rant

i'm dying to challenge you to back that statement up in a proper fashion, but i'll just point out that you have absolutely NO idea how many creatures are living in the biofilm alone that covers every square millimeter of surface area in any system or what proportion of them can be a problem, under which circumstances. it's a bit of a highly assertive assumptive statement, and may not be accurate

in many years of reefkeeping and communicating with other reefers the only consensus i've seen that eliminates more problems that it produces (on this subject) is the philosophy, when it comes to things that are visible, at least, 'if you don't know it, yank it'

looking for things that aren't what you specifically intended to enter into your system can avoid buying a sympodium only to have it destroyed by a mimicking nudi- it's not knowing that it's a nudi, but rather knowing that it isn't a sympodium, that's the more important qualifier for making call on overall 'compatibility', imo. ymmv ;-p

 

[nynick]

The amount of creatures that live on liverock would be counted in the millions, or billions even...a bit like a lot of the food we eat, the beds we sleep in or the inside of our mouths. Every piece of LR would be different so of course this is an assumptive statement, it is understood by everyone including the writer......I assume.

People have been valuing the diversity of LR for 30+ years with very few problems. With this new idea of starting with dryrock forums are all of a sudden set ablaze with fear mongering. I have never even met anyone that had problems other than Bubble algae and Aiptasia, both easily fixed, from LR. I have heard of the odd mantis or crab that needed trapping but that is it. I am just waiting for the first proclamation that it causes cancer.

 

[jimmy frag]

iv heard 99% of pests come from a frag & not from live rock. and now you suggest that it causes cancer. Hmmmm !

 

[Unome]

One thing the hitchhiker debate always makes me think of is the American tendency to live in ultra-sterile environments ourselves, filled with antimicrobial soaps, germ-killing chemicals, and tendency to define anything that isn't hermetically sealed as "unclean". A generation of raising kids who've been intentionally removed from exposure to illnesses and colds has resulted in a generation of kids who have no immunity to anything.

I remember Homecoming at my grandmother's church in the 60's/70's.

For those not familiar with Homecoming, it is a day of church where special guests are invited to preach and sing. Everybody brings some food and it was placed on some tables outside the church. The idea was you would have Sunday a.m. service, everyone go outside to eat, go back for some special preaching/singing and then go back out to eat again later. It was usually an all day event.

I remember eating potato salad that had been sitting outside on tables under trees with the potato salad only being covered by a dish towel. We're talking about a food with mayonnaise and eggs sitting outside getting warm. I can't recall anyone ever getting sick from eating the food.

 

[ReachTheSky]

As with any other part of your body, your immune system gets stronger the more it is worked and strained. If it is not consistently challenged, then it will get weaker.

The way of life in the first world is usually much, much cleaner than some other places. It's not uncommon for tourists to get sick from eating the food or drinking the water from less sanitary places they visit while the locals have no problems at all.

 

[HumbleFish]

I'm usually a control freak about my reef tanks - everything has to be manicured and perfectly placed.

But I decided to take a break from all that; my current reef is a mixture of softies, LPS, and even some Monti Caps. All thrown in together. I just let whatever happens happen (i.e. GSP is growing over Monti Caps, Lemonpeel Angel is picking at frogspawn).

War of the ocean, baby!!!

 

[Mudbeaver]

I think i can undertand the motivation. The newb who reads a lot on these sites reads about pandemics of hair algea and unknown hitchikers and then the trouble people go through to get rid of those and when its his turn , what ever was not put by him in his tank, must be destroyed. The same goes for an experienced aquarist who lived through a pandemic of his own. If he sees something unidentified and remembers his past experiences he's less incline to experiement than the aquarist who had never got these bad situations complicated his life. It not a question of control, its a question of going through situations that can be preventable. When you have to go through your tank with traps , do water changes every day or what ever for any period of time because you didn't act soon enough...you act deffensively.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Just another good example of how this hobby feeds so many different points of view. Why don't we all agree that we can do whatever we want with our tank and you can do whatever you want with your tank. And if you ask a question, be prepared to get 5 different opinions. There is no need for all the defensiveness. Some want sterile and some want real reef natural and the rest are somewhere along the continuum in between.

 

[jdhuyvetter]

Some want sterile and some want real reef natural and the rest are somewhere along the continuum in between.

And some of us still don't know what we want!

 

[Mudbeaver]

Just another good example of how this hobby feeds so many different points of view. Why don't we all agree that we can do whatever we want with our tank and you can do whatever you want with your tank. And if you ask a question, be prepared to get 5 different opinions. There is no need for all the defensiveness. Some want sterile and some want real reef natural and the rest are somewhere along the continuum in between.

+10 on that one :dance::fun4::wavehand::thumbsup::mixed::beer::celeb3::wave: