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Oi!
OK Lets. So for all the time that humans have been trying to keep aminals in their home from the reef [+- since about 1870] all we can actually agree on is that the animals come from the oceans; require salt water; and die eventually.
Rock; sand; food; light; water movement; additives; etc. are alll up for grabs.
When I first got started about 5 years ago, [discounting the the tank that my brother started in the 60's when he and I had about 400 gal of tanks {like everyone in the 60's were going breed the 'best' fan tail guppies in the world} and after setting up the salt water tank waited for it to 'cycle' but at the time we didn't actually know about cycling, he just waited for the LFS to get some saltwater fish, but they never did and the tank became an algae factory so he finally through it out] I went to the local library since I was waiting for my 'current' reefing books to come in from my LFS and the books that the library has was one from the 50's and two from the 60's and one from the 70's but none from the 80's or 90's.
If you want a good idea of the 'searching in the dark' that was going on just a few decades ago, go to the library and look at the old books, or talk to the old 'reefers' at conferences like IMAC. You think that these discussions are 'silly' now, some of the advice that was given out in the old books then were absolutely arcain, now.
What we know now is light years ahead of what was discussed just a few years ago.................and what do I make of it.........we are still [somewhat] groping in the dark. Yes if you mention an under substrate filter now in a reef tank, most will cringe. But that was 'standard' just 20 years ago, and they kept things alive.
In one of the many books I have [sorry I don't know which one but after I say this some of you well know the passage] a ship captains wife had a salt water tank in 1880's [or some time back there] that had anemones that were brought back [slowly on sailing ships] and kept alive for years with her 'flicking' the water every morning while she had here morning tea. The tanks was up for years.
See, that worked.
All the discussion about this and that is just 'tweaking' from that tank in the 1800's.
Some things work, some things don't seem to work, we are all still tweaking. Some reefers can do one thing that would 'kill' a tank by others, ONE SYSTEM IS NOT THE END ALL BE ALL.
I enjoy these discussions about 0,00% differences in our ways of doing things, but lets face it people what works for one doesn't ALWAYS have to work for others, there are still way too many variables in every tank to say "this is the way, the light".
With that said lets get back to 'bashing one another'.
Cheers!
nigle
!~!
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