Wednesday 9 November 2011

Back after a while.



Thought I'd start with a picture in hope of catching peoples eyes and drawing them into the less spectacular aesthetic of plain old text. So yeah I've not blogged in ages so I thought I'd kick off with some of my feelings about my fave hobby Reef Keeping!

Reef tanks are always a work in progress and require what I like to call RUD. This stands for Research, Understanding and Diligence. This alone will not keep your reef ticking over there is also the elusive sixth sense which needs developing. As you keep tanks like this you gain an understanding of what needs doing and how and it is not always explainable. You can take as many readings and fulfill as many standardized parameters as you like but the feel you get for your particular set up and the creatures in your care is what will ultimately determine your successes. This isn't to say that any one aquarists sixth reef keeping sense is infallible, far from it. The dreaded tank crash can strike anyone no matter how well attuned you are to your setup. What I am trying to say is that although it may at first appear that a hobby which included large amounts of biology, a sizable amount of chemistry and a very decent dosing of physics it isn't an exact science. Life is a tricky and chaotic thing (as Jeff Goldblum taught us in JP) and reef keeping is as much about having an unknowable feel for it as much as anything.

This view will of course be condemned by many other reef keepers, its a highly divisive hobby. Much arguing goes on online as what works for one person doesn't work for another, no two tanks are the same. Which I believe just adds weight to my argument but the internet is infested with trolls. Sod em though.

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