Comments on: Are Our Aquarium Systems Too Sterile? http://www.aquaristsonline.com/blog/general/are-our-aquarium-systems-to-sterile/ Information And Resources For Anyone Interested In Aquarium Fish, Saltwater Aquariums, Tropical Fish, Home Aquariums. Aquarium Care, Aquarium Equipment And Much More. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:21:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John http://www.aquaristsonline.com/blog/general/are-our-aquarium-systems-to-sterile/comment-page-1/#comment-9867 John Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:42:59 +0000 http://www.aquaristsonline.com/blog/general/are-our-aquarium-systems-to-sterile/#comment-9867 As protein skimmers have developed so they have become more efficient. It is always good for a beginner/inexperienced aquarists to run a skimmer full time. However, it is known that (some) corals can use dissolved organics as food - so it follows that stripping all of it out is not good. Also, a skimmer strips out trace elements that are best left in the water. Experienced, or perhaps I should say advanced aquarists, are running skimmers on a timer so that there is hopefully less of an overskim. The real sterile aquariums were the fish only ones of yesteryear - dead white corals and some fish. Nowadays we use live rock, live corals, fish, reef 'janitors', DSB's with their own little living world etc. What an advance! For the most part I don't think the systems are too sterile. They move ever closer to a natural system but we'll always have to assist because, as Peter says, our tiny systems would be lost entirely in the huge gallonage and diversification of the wild. <em>John's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AquaristsOnline/~3/247027553/' rel="nofollow">Are Our Aquarium Systems To Sterile</a></em> As protein skimmers have developed so they have become more efficient. It is always good for a beginner/inexperienced aquarists to run a skimmer full time. However, it is known that (some) corals can use dissolved organics as food – so it follows that stripping all of it out is not good. Also, a skimmer strips out trace elements that are best left in the water. Experienced, or perhaps I should say advanced aquarists, are running skimmers on a timer so that there is hopefully less of an overskim.
The real sterile aquariums were the fish only ones of yesteryear – dead white corals and some fish. Nowadays we use live rock, live corals, fish, reef ‘janitors’, DSB’s with their own little living world etc. What an advance!
For the most part I don’t think the systems are too sterile. They move ever closer to a natural system but we’ll always have to assist because, as Peter says, our tiny systems would be lost entirely in the huge gallonage and diversification of the wild.

John’s last blog post..Are Our Aquarium Systems To Sterile

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