Coral ID please...

[messiah023]

Glad to hear your willing to kill poor living creatures to fuel your "experimental" needs. Keep up the great work.

[reeffreak]

Originally Posted by kmckienz

Thanks! Yes, it is definitely the encrusting variety.

As far as target feeding...forget it. It will either make it or not. Everyone said the same thing about the tubastrea and gorgonian and they are thriving. Now I do stir up the sand bed, stock copepods and squirt the mysis shrimp directly over head, but I don't do any of those other additives. I have too much other work to do to have the tank be a 2 hour a day feeding regiman.

My modo is, it will either survive in my mini ecosystem or not. I won't replace anything that does not.

So far just about everything in my tank everyone says is hard to care for. My theory is I think you guys do too many water changes and keep disturbing the balance of the system. I have fresh water tanks that I have not changed/cleaned the filters in years and the only water added it top off. Now I do clean my protein skimmer filter, but I have stopped cleaning the biowheel filters (for now..as I am experimenting).

I realize this tank is young (5 months now) but I have read about a lot of crashes in the tanks of people who do regular water changes and follow all the "rules"

What can I say..I am a rebel... (who's willing to lose everything for the sake of the experiment)

What an ignorant and arrogant thing to say?Tell me when they've been thriving for over a year,not a couple of months.....and that goes for the gonioporas too.

[kmckienz]

I was not trying to be arrogant. I was simply stating what I am doing with MY tank. I fully suspect there are many other people not doing daily to weekly water changes who are just too afraid to speak up for fear of the attack that will come (just like you are doing to me).

Messiah, nothing has died yet in my tank (knocks on wood). Eventually something is going to die...that's life. In the Ocean these species survive without some human coming up with a turkey baster to feed them. If the were NOT thriving then of course I would suppliment their diet, but they are currently doing well and therefore I am not tampering with what is working. I feed my tank twice a day, clean the glass and substrate once a week, and do water top offs and testing once a week. I am far from hurting my animals or being cruel.

We have people on here who are hunters and kill large mammals for fun (and I bet a lot of fisherman on here too who EAT fish.. that's not cruel..torture it by hooking it in the mouth and then cutting it's head off) And unless you all are strict vegetarians I think it is really hypocritical to say I am being cruel to a bunch of fish!!!!! And on the "experimental needs" comment from Messiah, exactly how do you think they test drugs/medications that you take, the doctor prescribes and new surgical procedures and techniques? Who went into outer space first? Man? nope..animals. and yes.. you hit a nerve, congratulations.

P.S. To those that hunt and fish, please don't take offense, I was just trying to make a point in regards to someone calling my following different tank protocols cruel to my pet fish.

[yote]

Hunters DO NOT willingly mistreat animals.Far from it.A true hunter respects the animals they hunt.Most will spend a full year waiting for one shot to make a quick clean kill,so the animal doesnt suffer.So dont stick the hunters in there with people that dont want to take the time thats needed to keep a tank up.

[kmckienz]

Yote,

My tank is doing great. Exactly why should I change how I am managing it if all the fish and coral are thriving?

I am not a cruel person, if something was not doing well I would resolve the issue with it and do what needs to be done. I have a friend with a 300 gallon tank. If something did not thrive and was going to require more attention than I want to give, than I would give it to my friend.

It is not like I do not have a plan and course of action to insure the survival of the fish and coral if they can't live in my tank conditions.

I have a 10 acre farm with 9 German Shepherds, 6 horses, and 4 cats. I take care of them all in addition to the upkeep of the farm. All are doing well. It is not like I don't know how to take the time to care for animals. It is what I do with my entire life. If I have found a way to make my fish tank take a little less time to maintain while all the animals in it are doing well what is the issue?

[yote]

Because the fish will acclimate to the build up of waste in the water to a certian point.It'll eventually get to the point you'll have issues with the health of the fish and corals.
Water changes are oil changes in your car,truck,or tractor.Preventive maintance.Its easier and cheaper to head problems off before they get out of hand.

[kmckienz]

My nitrates are never above 15 and usually stay around 10. All my other levels are also within the normal range.

I opt to test my parameters once a week and do my water top off. If my parameters were not within normal than I would do whatever procedure needed to be done to get it balanced.

My parameters have been normal every week since the 3rd week the tank was running.

[yote]

What about the trace elements and minerals the fish and corals need?Without water changes,the animals arent getting the everything they need to stay healthy.

[kmckienz]

In order to keep my tank from getting too warm I leave the hood open with a fan running on it for cooling by way of evaporation. Because of this, my top offs are about 2-3 gallons of water a week. I top off with bottled water that has minerals added. I tested it for everything and had good levels. My well water is hard water with a lot of minerals. I sometimes will use that but not often because of the nitrates being off hte charts in it.

[Bifferwine]

There are elements that are essential for coral health that you can only get from two places: salt mixes (you'd get it in your tank through regular water changes) and additives (like Kent Marine's Essential Elements). So if you are not doing water changes to replenish those elements, you should be dosing for them using an additive.