What will be the next plague?

[dnjan]

A few years ago it was heavy metals that were building up and killing our tanks. Now we have phosphate accumulating and being released into our systems. What will the next pague be? Any ideas?

(P.S. - get it right, and you could make a fortune! Think of how much money is being spent on phosphate absorbers!)

 

[Ed Hahn]

nitrate prohibitors..just joking..

 

[reedman]

I'm waiting to find out that we are taking too many nutrients out of our systems and need to be dosing to balance

Maybe yellow bugs, or blue ones...

 

[dnjan]

I'm waiting to find out that we are taking too many nutrients out of our systems and need to be dosing to balance

Perhaps we could just trade water when we do water changes ...

No, that wouldn't work. Nobody would make any money from it.

Perhaps a service that we send our skimmate to. They extract the "bad stuff", and then send up back our cleaned skimmate so we can put them back into the system.

 

[plack]

I have wondered if it will be a virus (or like one) of some type or another.Thinking about how in nature corals change and adapt to different changing conditions and here we are trying to make everything consistant. in nature there are cold pockets of water I don't know how often or if any get into a reef area but I would guess they do but we add our water at the same temperature. We kill or get rid of parasites/unwanted creatures(red bugs/worms etc) yet in nature2 things are true these populations would probably not exist or live so yes there we are trying to mimic nature but also by nature it gets wiped out at times and rebuilds itself also. so whats my point. The difference between the Immune systems of coral in the wild versus in our tanks is the question I am pondering who knows what the next wild coral is immune to and in comes a coral that is not bothered by virus x and it wipes out all the other corals that have no immunity to it ? I guess maybe I have watched to much Sci-Fi___ Yea Thats it!

 

[NaH2O]

I think there will be more parasitic plagues. I fear the Acro eating flatworms, as they are pretty tough to see on the coral. With the hobby going more and more to frag trading, and turning frags into LFS for credit....the parasites will get around. I would be more concerned with the parasites getting to plague proportions and not being able to find control methods. Look at clams with issues like with Pinched Mantle. So far nothing to "cure" it.

 

[jlehigh]

How about a plague of newbies not doing their homework?

Sorry educated newbies I just couldn't resist... Glad you are here!

I'm a Mojo-U Dropout myself

 

[reedman]

Maybe finding out that the red bugs were natures way of weading out the weak species...natural selection. We'll all be adding them back into the tank.

A shift back to soft coral tanks now that people have shown that SPS can be kept successfully. There are plenty of softies that would be a real challenge. Every reefkeeper wants a challenge. Mass selloff of BIG pumps, 400W lights and obsenely large skimmers.

LOL...I'm cracking myself up now....sorry....had to chuckle a bit.

 

[middletonmark]

I think there will be more parasitic plagues.
....
I would be more concerned with the parasites getting to plague proportions and not being able to find control methods.

You and me both.

It could end [locally in places] LFS trade-ins, it could make frags not the `nothing but positive' many of us have found them to be.

I got the Monti nudis this summer, and have most of my collection down in a basement tub getting dipped/inspected. It's affected my trade practices, I won't take just any random frag anymore
Once I rid myself of the Monti nudis, that tank is the new QT.

It'll be harder for people getting into some corals/critters [Acropora, Montipora, zoa's, maybe clams?] as you'll have to worry about pest-eradication/quarantine from the get-go.

----

The next discussion plague will be salt [again] it's such a good old standby

 

[DonW]

I think the LFS need to take some responsibility in the spreading of parasites. I recently purchased a nice little tri-color acro with red bugs. My first mistake was trusting the LFS and the socond was not knowing what a red bug looked like. This was 4 weeks ago, accepting responsibility for my stupidity I'm searching for Interceptor to dose my tank. While the LFS continues to sell and bring in more acros, as of this past week-end knowingly still have red bugs.

Don

 

[big t]

Don, it is unfortunate but I have seen red bugs at every retailer in our local area. I now do a 6 hour intercepter dip for all new aquasitions from sources that i am not positive are bugless.

 

[NaH2O]

To bring up what Plack posted earlier, I asked mojo about his take on future plagues, he said in a way they can be good. If corals aren't exposed to these things, then they wouldn't be able to handle issues if they arise. You get something in your tank then, corals with the ability to deal with disease or infestation will fare well, and the others will not make it.

What about bacterial diseases? Do you think these could become problematic in the future?

 

[Ed Hahn]

Maybe finding out that the red bugs were natures way of weading out the weak species...natural selection. We'll all be adding them back into the tank.

A shift back to soft coral tanks now that people have shown that SPS can be kept successfully. There are plenty of softies that would be a real challenge. Every reefkeeper wants a challenge. Mass selloff of BIG pumps, 400W lights and obsenely large skimmers.

LOL...I'm cracking myself up now....sorry....had to chuckle a bit.

Reed,
I am seeing quite a few people in California using smaller MHs with SPS. I also remember hearing someone with vast knowledge saying that we do not need 400 watts of MH to grow SPS. So you may have hit the that one straight on the head.

 

[-=dieseldave=-]

Energy costs.
I can see that in the not so distant future that we will be paying four to five times the current rates.

 

[dnjan]

biological, not chemical

I think it interesting that a lot of people have mentioned potential biological problems, but no chemical problems. Are we really past the "trace elements" , "heavy metals" and "phosphate" type issues and moving on to more sophisticated biological problems, or will we all just be blind-sided by the next chemical problem?

(and I don't even want to think about that energy-cost suggestion )

 

[reedman]

My opinion is that most people really don't understand the chemistry well enough to worry much about it. I think we will always have chemical issues....and blame other problems on chemistry when we can't find another cause (ala phosphates). I mean we have a whole lot of people saying that phosphates are a major issue in tanks driving the growth of algae but you really can't measure it (practically speaking).

The trace elements is a good one though as I am seeing more of the European reefers dosing 3 or more elements on a regular basis. I think this will get pushed forward in the US soon, especially with the ZeoVit system catching on a bit.

 

[dnjan]

Trace elements were all the rage about five years ago! Are they coming back? Too bad I threw all those half-empty bottles away!

 

[jlehigh]

Trace elements were all the rage about five years ago! Are they coming back? Too bad I threw all those half-empty bottles away!

No worries! You can just pee in the tank from time to time. LOL

 

[mojoreef]

Phosphates and other nutrients are an important part of our tanks, its just controling and regulating them that can be a bit tricky. As for things in the future I think we will get a dose of two things. The good will be a better understanding of what makes the work and the second is more parasites/bacterial strains. Its seems pretty normal for the hobby to see more of these parasites coming in and spreading around the country, surprised on how long that actually took to come into play. Personally I think they will help in the long run as they will allow us to practice more husbandry and will help build up our corals immune system. Short term of coarse they are a pain in the butt.


good thread


Mike

 

[dnjan]

Thanks for joining in, Mike. Since you are an old-timer (and have had reef tanks for longer than salsaking has been chopping tomatoes), what were some of the "plagues of the past". I have only been in the hobby for a bit over five years, and the major "issues" that I remember are:

trace elements (we don't know what they are, can't measure them, but our tanks will die if they aren't replenished!)

heavy metals (we think we know what they are, may or not be able to measure them, and their buildup are probably why tanks decline with time. Therefore, they must be removed!)

phosphates (we can measure them, but they may still be there even if the test says zero, so we must remove them to allow our corals to grow better and to prevent the growth of nuisance algae)

So, Mike, fill us in on some of the other plagues of the past. Hate to just get suckered by an old one, when there are lots of opportunities to spend money to prevent the new plagues!