What exactly makes a reef aquarium... is it the live rock or the corals... I have been fairly confused on this.
Reefs?
- Thread starter TAFKARojo
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In a reef tank, the centerpeices are the corals and non-fish life, with a few fish to add activity and help clean up. You can have a fish only tank with live rock, but you can't really have a reef without corals.
mogurnda said:
To show my noobiness with a further question, what makes some fish "not reef safe." Say, a trigger fish for example. Will the trigger eat the corals? Or is jsut that the trigger will eat the inverts like snails and crabs necessary for a reef setup?
Both-- a fish that consumes cleaners and maintainers is not desirable in a reef tank, and many animals that consume crustaceans will also nip at polyps. This is why many fish are considered semi-reef safe--they are known for engaging in a negative behavior. Sometimes, it's a matter of bio-load--corals and other reef animals add to the bio-load and a large fish contributes significantly to bio-load, sometimes exceeding what can be supported.
Hi. Newb question to add on here. How would you guesstimate the bioload
on a reef tank with fish and invertebrates? Is there any guide to judge the load?
on a reef tank with fish and invertebrates? Is there any guide to judge the load?
Not really. Corals contribute more than just wastes--many engage in chemical warfare, further complicating the issue. Generally, a tank can be packed with lots of corals and as long as aggression issues are addressed, the tank will have a fairly low bio-load--like plants, corals contain photosynthetic matter and make use of nitrogen in the form of ammonia--but need such low levels that many fish in the tank can cause problems, since many corals are sensitive to detectable levels of ammonia and elevated (higher than 10 ppm) of nitrates.
Some inverts--like snails, crabs, shrimp, worms, etc, are cleaners and actually help process wastes, so are beneficial even though they do produce waste themselves as well.
Some inverts--like snails, crabs, shrimp, worms, etc, are cleaners and actually help process wastes, so are beneficial even though they do produce waste themselves as well.