What makes a healthy reef??

all great points, I did not know that about the fish we keep all coming from mostly the same zones as corals but I guess it does make sense!

 

One thing I have found is to replicate the natural reef as much as possible. Not many people take into consideration the parts of the food web that are not visible to our eyes. IMO a healthy tank relies heavily on a strong zooplankton population.

 

How do you know if you have a strong zooplankton population?? I totally agree since a strong plankton population is the basis of the food chain that will help everything else survive and thrive but with such small creatures how do you know if you have a healthy population in your reef and how do you keep it from gettign depletely so rapidly?

I believe running without a protein skimmer is first and foremost since they are known to remove plankton from the water column and I dose phytofeast (dead phytoplankton) not sure if it does much but my pod population exploded with its use!

 

Interesting thread. I found that in the very beginning i was every number oriented and tested daily. As my tank went along i was able to see what was going on in the tank and have an understanding of what was going on with the numbers. I now test much less often and the end result is usually the same...even when the numbers are ok, if things don't seem just right i do a water change! All that being said, i think there are some people out there who are very detail oriented and enjoy the challenge of the tank with "perfect" parameters and all that goes along with it. It all makes for a great hobby with something for everyone from engineer to artist.

 

Diversify. Run large bioloads. Simply supplying foods to encourage growth of different levels of the food chain.

Also a skimmer is very important as your bioload is high.

 

What are the signs of a healthy tank? To me it is healthy, eating, fish, small amounts of nuisance algaes, good coral growth, color, and polyp extension, and a good, strong pod population.

 

Arent skimmers known for stripping the water of plankton though? I plan on keeping my bioload nice and low and have a skimmer in the basement if needs, just prefer not to use it. I had it on for a couple weeks and my xenia did not appreciate it, everythign I read about my xenia, ricordia, and acans seems to state they do nto like the pristine sps water conditions

 

I think we can really compare our tanks to a natural ecosystem, but only to a certain extent. For example, we have algae growth.. In a natural reef, that's a good thing because there are things that love to eat it. We can't keep those things in a tank. We have to make up for that by filtering more than a reef would and because of that, they cant be compared.

To the post above me, a skimmer is just like the waves crashing on the coast. Doesn't it kill things too? Again, we can only compare them to a certain extent.

 

Skimmers are generally more helpful than not. I think if you are stripping your water as you stated you have too large of a skimmer. Make sure you have a skimmer that is sized for tank size and bioload no more and skim dry to keep from stripping as much from the system.

 

Skimmers no matter there size can only strip the water of a certain % of the organics in the tank. You should look for tanks that you love that have been running for a while and then inspect what equipment they are running.

If I returned to a softy tank I would run water change and an algae scrubber and probably run gac or gfo from time to time, but not constantly.