Spend any amount of time in this hobby of ours, and you’ll soon realize that the methods and technologies favored for maintaining marine organisms are continually in flux. What’s considered dogma today is heresy tomorrow—and maybe back to dogma again later in the week. (If you doubt me, just ask PaulB! He’s seen more than his share of methodology and technology come and go in his many decades of marine aquarium keeping.) Here today, gone tomorrow For the sake of illustration, think how many nitrate-reduction methods have been utilized at one time or another. Jaubert’s plenum method, deep sand beds (DSBs), coil denitration, nitrate-adsorbing filter media, and organic carbon sources coupled with protein skimming are just a sampling of the techniques that have either had their “day in the sun” or are currently in vogue today. Another example is the use of the wet/dry or trickle-down filter with bioballs for biofiltration. All the rage not that long ago, this technology is now largely considered obsolete (for reefkeeping purposes, anyway) because it tends to do its job too efficiently, earning it the nickname “nitrate factory.” On the one hand, all this change is exciting because it means we’re ever on the lookout for better, easier, more efficient ways of doing things rather than resting on our collective laurels.
The post Should You Try to Keep Pace with Evolving Marine Aquarium Practices? appeared first on reefs.com.