You know, about 3 years ago I started to read about reef tanks because after having a freshwater tank for 12 years I wanted to make the switch. I started to read magazines, some books, and then I found reefcentral and reefs.org. I remember reading about great topics and was so amazed how people was so helpfull to others. They would give their opinion and it was only that, an opinion. Somehow in the last year or two those opinions have slowly become gospel and now they are rules written in stone. Most of the really helpful people have even abandoned this and other forums because of some of the newer people that have worked their way in trying to impose their way as the only way and trying to equate their methods as the only way of doing things. Some are still left trying to fight the tide, but I can see how tiring it is to argue on every single reply about every single thing.
I met a guy at work a few weeks ago that found out I was "into aquariums". He goes on to tell me how he has the same little 29 gal tank since starting medical school. It is a fish only tank. He has 6 yellow tangs, 2 percula clowns, and 4 damsels. I went on to tell him how this was a no no and he tells me that with his little bit of gravel which he syphons weekly, his undergravel filter, feeding the same flakes for over 6 years, bleaching the dead corals he has in the tank every 2 weeks, changing 25% of the water every month, and his manual top off with tap water whenever he gets around it every 4-5 days all at once he has been able to have all the above fish for little over 6 years!!! I though he was mental so I went to his house and saw it. Stuffed in there were all the fish, healthy, big, and fat. No sign of disease whatsoever!! I had nothing else to say to him.
People come up with this rules out of thin air based on a bad or good experience and they turn it into written in stone rules:
-x amount of watts per gall for lighting
-x amount of watts per gal of heating
-x amount f sand
-x amount of inches of fish
-78 degrees is better even all reefs in the world range from 84 to even 92 in shallow reefs in belize during the summer.
-400 watt halides for x depth and 250 for y depth when in natural reefs the measured light at 100 feet depth is equivalent to a 1000 halide 2 inches above the water and the tank being 1 foot deep according to scientific published data.
-No UV or ozone in reefs is good. It is a killer of the plankton the corals eat! Have you ever seen tank water under a microscope? It is 99% bad stuff and 1% beneficial stuff!!
-etc. etc. etc.
They are guidelines people not rules or laws of nature. It is also a load of crap,if I can borrow the words of someone here, to say that if one disagrees with the majority here they have to "grow a thick skin" to take the verbal abuse of others. What happened to disagreement in a civil manner? You also ahve to be a little open to the idea that the way things are done or thought of here in the states may no be the way the rest of the world sees it. Are we right and them wrong? No, just looking at it differently. Please don't give me that lame sentence of "its what is best for the animals". If it was, none of us would have them in a glass box in out living room despite of how big or well equipped they are!! We would have them in the ocean!!!
-Can moorish idols be kept in aquariums? YES. No by most people, but most people that have aquariums don't have the kind of set ups Mihn or GT or a lot of other people here have!
-Can you have 5 or 7 yellow tangs in a 100 gal tank? YES. Eventually they will outgrow their space because of their natural growth capacity, so it is not a choice to last 10 years!!
-Can you keep 200 or so fish in a 700 gal tank? YES. Go to Ron's Saltwater Heaven in PA and you'll see his display 700+ gal tank with a 300 gal sump with more corals and rock you'll ever care to see and over 300 fish Healthy and doing well. And yes, he does use ozone and UV. And yes, the tank has been set up for years too. Oh, and yes, it only lit by NO and VHO bulbs without a DSB and a refigium!! And finally yes, I ahve been there to see it myself!!
-etc etc etc.
Some people here need to take a chill pill and chase it with some heavy drugs!! :x It is a hobby. I am sure if we were all locked up in a room we would be talking much more nicely to each other and would take the time to explain out position or choice instead of trying to shove it down someone's throat in the worst possible way. Maybe it is the reason most of the good people in this and other boards don't even bother replying as much as they would like to. Not fear, but lack of time, energy, and reason to argue. Maybe that is also the reason now more than half the daily posts here are about everything else but how to keep a reef aquarium. To each its own I guess.
I am not directing this to anyone in particular, so please spare me the lame high school attempts to pick a fight with me over every particular sentence here. Take it for what is worth since it is only my opinion.
