Paul B
NJRC Member
Every time I dive I think of all the ways I can make my tank more like the sea I get overwhelmed.
First of all the sea is deep. Our animals know that they are in very shallow water and they would never venture into such shallow water if they had a choice. At the waters edge and in tide pools we find only tiny baby fish, you never find a full grown tang in water 2 feet deep.
The sea is full of plankton and baby fish, they are all over the place and fish never go hungry. Fish eat all day long and almost never get enough in one meal to fill them. Their intestines are very short and are designed to process a little food continousely.
Carnivores eat fresh "whole" fish.
Herbivores eat "mostly" fresh algae, but the algae in the sea is also full of pods, worms, shrimp and fish fry.
The sea is full of danger which gives the animals plenty of exercize. They are constantly fighting for food or escaping preditors. They are never just hanging out looking out the glass
The sea is constantly in motion, back and fourth motion, sometimes much more motion than we could ever provide in a tank. I have seen 12' brain corals toppled over after a storm. The same storm that deposited 30' sailboats up the side of a mountain.
These storms break off weak pieces of coral and make room for more. They also sweep debris out of coral pores. Corals can deal with storms by just closing and without storms, corals would be covered with detritus.
The sun does not instantly shine or go out as it does in most of our tanks, it also does not shine every day. Sometimes days go by with hardly any light.
Lightning hits the sea every few seconds. I don't know if that helps or hurts.
And the sea has every element on earth disolved into it as well as all the strains of bacteria. Some good, others not so good.
Of all of these things there are only a few we have control of.
I think we do a fairly good job but these factors are the reason some people have huge problems. We can't make up for the shallow water by providing more light but we can feed better, add bacteria from the sea, try better circulation, stir things up occasionally and know our limitations.
We can't always keep everything. But we try to keep the things we think we can keep.
Have a great day.
Paul ;D
First of all the sea is deep. Our animals know that they are in very shallow water and they would never venture into such shallow water if they had a choice. At the waters edge and in tide pools we find only tiny baby fish, you never find a full grown tang in water 2 feet deep.
The sea is full of plankton and baby fish, they are all over the place and fish never go hungry. Fish eat all day long and almost never get enough in one meal to fill them. Their intestines are very short and are designed to process a little food continousely.
Carnivores eat fresh "whole" fish.
Herbivores eat "mostly" fresh algae, but the algae in the sea is also full of pods, worms, shrimp and fish fry.
The sea is full of danger which gives the animals plenty of exercize. They are constantly fighting for food or escaping preditors. They are never just hanging out looking out the glass
The sea is constantly in motion, back and fourth motion, sometimes much more motion than we could ever provide in a tank. I have seen 12' brain corals toppled over after a storm. The same storm that deposited 30' sailboats up the side of a mountain.
These storms break off weak pieces of coral and make room for more. They also sweep debris out of coral pores. Corals can deal with storms by just closing and without storms, corals would be covered with detritus.
The sun does not instantly shine or go out as it does in most of our tanks, it also does not shine every day. Sometimes days go by with hardly any light.
Lightning hits the sea every few seconds. I don't know if that helps or hurts.
And the sea has every element on earth disolved into it as well as all the strains of bacteria. Some good, others not so good.
Of all of these things there are only a few we have control of.
I think we do a fairly good job but these factors are the reason some people have huge problems. We can't make up for the shallow water by providing more light but we can feed better, add bacteria from the sea, try better circulation, stir things up occasionally and know our limitations.
We can't always keep everything. But we try to keep the things we think we can keep.
Have a great day.
Paul ;D
