A change in perspective

[jdavid]

Clay4AU;926940 wrote: You worry too much, its not good for you. This hobby should help you relax not keep you stressed out.

Before I was ever in this hobby, my brother kept a reef tank. It was full of soft corals and polyps. I don't think he had a single stony coral in his entire system. But still, it fascinated me, and I spent hours upon hours in his room staring at his beautiful reef. Just watching the fish and corals.. something that I rarely do with my own tank. It did</em> relieve stress! Something changed. I'm so focused on building a "better" reef. Or a "better" system.
You know what the coolest coral I've seen in the past few months is? Not a Scolymia, or an ultra acan colony. The coolest coral I've seen and the one that I really want was a http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+321+467&pcatid=467">fox coral</a> (Link provided in case you've never seen one, because I never had either). I completely lost touch with this fascination that I had about keeping, and sustaining, these beautiful corals in one's own bedroom, or living room. And yes. I like blue/green chromis. I like them a lot. They have great color, They add movement to a tank, and as a friend of mine said "They let the other fish know it's OK" :)

When I build my new system, I'm going to focus on creating something elegant, something like this:

[IMG]http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/the-elegance-of-simplicity">The elegance of simplicity.</a>
[QUOTE=][B]<span style="font-size: 13px;">The elegance of simplicity</span>[/B]
[B]By Leonard Ho - Posted Jan 29, 2014 10:00 AM
This is the 80 gallon rimless reef aquarium of Nathan Hall. Nathan eschews the trappings of trendy reefkeeping for something much more simple (in the best possible sense of the word). He manages to distill reefkeeping to its fundamental beauty.[/B]

Watching Nathan's video, I can't help but relive my early days reefkeeping ... days before exotic rockwork, "designer" corals, unobtainium fish, fancy lighting that requires a pHD degree to operate, and dosing everything under the kitchen sink.

Simple, healthy, big coral colonies swaying in the current &#8212; I ask you: What more do we really need?

Nathan describes his system:

My 80 Gallon rimless reef aquarium. Mostly soft corals and LPS with a Derasa clam. Equipment consists of 6x39W T5HO, 40 gallon sump, Avast Marine CS-1 skimmer. I perform weekly 10 gallon water changes with Reef Crystals salt.
[/QUOTE]
<div class="gc_ifarem_title">80 Gallon Rimless "Lagoon" Reef Aquarium in HD - YouTube</div><iframe style="width: 70%; height: 400px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/B391RZHcFRw"></iframe>

Now tell me that is not a beautiful reef tank.

 

[heathlindner25]

Very nice tank in the vid.

 

[wildernets]

It is beautiful. And I see your point. However, for me my tank is a separation from the norm. I enjoy working on it and planning for new challenges dealing with it.

 

[clay4au]

It's all in how you look at it.
I hardly ever actually mess with my display but I am in the frag tanks and sump almost daily.
That helps me to relax(focus my ADD/OCD somewhere), kind of like gardening just under water.

I haven't had a display in the living room for over 6 months now while in process of replacing flooring that was ruined by an ato malfunction(kinda stressful but remodeling did need to be done). Anyway, daily I look forward to the day I can lay on my couch and watch a tank again. At this point I could care less what was in it.

 

[jdavid]

Clay4AU;931059 wrote: It's all in how you look at it.
I hardly ever actually mess with my display but I am in the frag tanks and sump almost daily.
That helps me to relax(focus my ADD/OCD somewhere), kind of like gardening just under water.

I haven't had a display in the living room for over 6 months now while in process of replacing flooring that was ruined by an ato malfunction(kinda stressful but remodeling did need to be done). Anyway, daily I look forward to the day I can lay on my couch and watch a tank again. At this point I could care less what was in it.

Clam tank. True I will have to maintain CA ALK MAG and keep up with water changes, but once the pumps are dialed in it should be pretty easy. It's not the low maintenance that I want.. It's something simple and beautiful. The crazier and more diverse and colorful a display is just doesn't drive me, I'm just not a collector. Unless we are talking about clams.

I'll probably keep some of my more expensive corals out of the display, for propagating (to offset some of the cost of maintaining a reef tank). Clams aren't really good for that, and the LPS and stuff that I want in the DT, will be grown out for as long as possible. It is more appropriate to do a high nutrient DT for what I want and a low nutrient frag tank. Fortunately I have both of these tanks already, the 60 cube and 30 shallow.

 

[tbub1221]

I bet he feeds a lot of phyto with all those filter feeders.

 

[mcphock]

To each his own. I personally feel that that 80 gallon tank looks like 'baby's first reef tank', but I understand the sentiment you're going for

 

[dball711]

McPhock;931137 wrote: To each his own. I personally feel that that 80 gallon tank looks like 'baby's first reef tank', but I understand the sentiment you're going for

Oh no, I disagree with that...that looks like a solid tank and definitely not a beginner tank with a giant clam in the center.

 

[jdavid]

McPhock;931137 wrote: To each his own. I personally feel that that 80 gallon tank looks like 'baby's first reef tank', but I understand the sentiment you're going for

lol

Edit: I guess my point is do whatever it is that makes you</em> happy.

 

[acroholic]

JDavid;931148 wrote: lol

Edit: I guess my point is do whatever it is that makes you</em> happy.

You definitely should. I keep a mixed softy/lps tank and a separate SPS tank for different reasons, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of each.

 

[stacy22]

One of the main attractions in this hobby is aesthetics. People like saltwater tanks because they look good. What looks good to me may not look good to someone else. Josh is right, do whatever makes you happy.

Tanks with tons of frags just sitting on the sandbed are not pleasing to me at all. I really don't care about designer corals and the highest-tech, fanciest equipment. I would rather see mature growth of softies than $100s of dollars worth of SPS frags.

 

[tbub1221]

stacy22;931198 wrote: One of the main attractions in this hobby is aesthetics. People like saltwater tanks because they look good. What looks good to me may not look good to someone else. Josh is right, do whatever makes you happy.

Tanks with tons of frags just sitting on the sandbed are not pleasing to me at all. I really don't care about designer corals and the highest-tech, fanciest equipment. I would rather see mature growth of softies than $100s of dollars worth of SPS frags.

Stacy I agree , I'd rather see 100+ dragon eye zoas crawling over the rocks then a white plug regardless of what's on it.
There really is something to be said about well established growth regardless of what coral it is.