A Reefing Thought Experiment

[PJPS]

We’ll think of various aspects of reefing and map it to something else, tonight was fitness for ourselves.  We find it helpful to to think about things from different viewpoints and see if we spot something that was previously a blind spot.  Hopefully this exercise does just that.

 

Reef Food - Human Food

For ourselves a healthy diet consists of high-quality and high variety.  Same for a reef tank.  A high quality complete marine food (LRS, Rods, CAM) and quality marine flakes and pellets (we like vitalis, but anything Fauna would be a good bet).  We don’t usually feed dry food, but occasionally some is tossed in the gumbo.

 

So as a base there’s the complete frozen, that takes care of the fish and inverts no matter what.  Any extra is either softy/LPS food, or destined for filtration.

 

Add a liquid and a probiotic powdered food, and everything has their favourite dish in the buffet.

 

Reef Aminos - Human Aminos

This is essentially identical.  The most useful amino acids to supplement for either organism are those they cannot produce themselves.  We’ve found these are extremely important.  There’s a massive difference between a tank getting aminos and one not.

 

As for individual products, we’ve found 2LF Acropower to be the one that performs best for us, but we haven’t tried Fauna Marin, and their nutrition products are definitely quality.

 

Reef Dosing & Trace - Human Vitamins & Supplements etc

Both are replacing individual “elements” that are depleted in measurable ways.  An ICP for a tank or a blood panel for humans.

 

For example, while the calcium is processed differently into structural elements, both organisms need calcium and magnesium supplementation. We don’t bother doing ICP tests, and rely entirely on the trace elements in the All For Reef

 

Reef Flow - Human Cardio & Excretion 

Water is the nutrient carrying liquid, pumped throughout the organisms with pumps and powerheads.  It’s also the excretory system that evacuates down the returns.  In a reef tank this is a single system, in humans they’re separated.

 

This is what often makes nutrient balance tricky.  In human terms, a portion of your meal is thrown, uneaten, into an overflowing toilet (tank filtration).  This is on top of regular toilet usage. In the aquarium, the toilet is not flushed until mechanical filtration is changed, and a water change is an opened window.

 

Unlike a human body, a reef tank is a full ecosystem, so some of the waste becomes food for something else.  Conceivably, you could balance the inputs to the point of not needing a filtration.  Don’t chase this dragon, just do your maintenance.  But definitely adjust your inputs to a filtration schedule you can manage.

 

Reef Lighting - The Sun

This particular comparison is often misunderstood. The goal is not to re-create the power of the sun.  The goal is to provide the same benefits to the organisms that the sun provides to those organisms in nature.

 

This is a mix of power, spectrum, and spread.  All are important, and relatively simple to explain.  We fail to understand why people have difficulty with this, but here is our lighting thought process for nanos.

 

• The more spread the better.  The less spread, the less fool proof, the easier you should take it on intensity.
• Pick a Kelvin value you like.  No channel tweaking unless you know what you’re doing (2+ years).
• Start the lights low and build them up slowly.  For PAR think 75 ish for an average.  Softies and a ton of LPS love those light intensities.  125 will grow many, maybe most, Montipora.

 

If you want things “brighter” drop Kelvin before boosting intensity.  We’ve found coral don’t mind spectrum shifts between Kelvins nearly as much as too much intensity.  If changing Kelvin spectrum bulbs in MH was fine, why would LED be any more harmful?

 

In human terms does the spectrum or intensity burn your skin?  We have no idea, but it’s something to find out.  We figure it’s mostly UV intensity, but 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

 

Anyway, just an interesting idea to think through.  We find trying to find comparisons and paraphrasing excellent ways to further explore our understanding of anything.  Just thought this might be useful to someone, if not you’re welcome to ignore it 🇨🇦

 

PJ and Carrie

[Fish out of Water]

A very interesting thought comparison. Would the skimmer relate to the same function as the Liver or Kidneys in a human body. Removing waste and impurities? I would also like to hear your thoughts on lighting duration. Following along.

[PJPS]

Excellent!  Perfect comparison.  The skimmer and chemical media play very similar roles in that they help separate waste and the liquid nutrient carrier.  Your liver and kidneys have the same end result.  Arguably the beneficial parts of both organs happen in living things (beneficial enzymatic processes etc), but for this comparison, those tools and organs result in the same "detoxifying" net effect.

 

That's exactly the sort of "a ha" thought it's meant to provoke.  Who knows if it'll be relevant yet, but it may provoke you to look at an aspect of your tank differently and lead you in interesting places.  Always discuss new ideas with keepers you trust, as sometimes you think your plan is groundbreaking, only for someone to spot a massive oversight.  But it's the combo of lateral thinking and "peer review" that sometimes does lead to something novel AND an improvement :).

 

Glad this got at least 1 person thinking!  I am sure there will be others, this community has some quality users that could give MACNA talks if pushed. 

[Fish out of Water]

It definitely makes sense to be thinking in similar comparisons. Albeit, not all outcomes/events will be the same in each case and that's what makes it interesting. If this subject was a full on book. I would be happy to read it.

 

This community does have some amazingly talented people and I believe it is particularly due to the subject matter. Reef keepers are a niche group of people with biological, technical, entrepreneurial, experimental, and philosophical skills that involve themselves in all these topics as a hobby. The breakthroughs in this industry are in large part due to hobbyists with a lot of work and experience to push the proverbial envelope a little further.