Ye Olde Sw Keeping

[OohFeeshy]

I beleive it's generally accepted that nowadays that to set up a SW tank, you use LR, a skimmer, LS.... The Berlin method, if I recall. But I've been wondering, how effective are the 'older' methods of SW keeping? For instance, in one of the books I've got, to set up a marine tank you do a UGF, put crushed coral on top of it, add tuffa rock and dead sponges/corals and put in your SW mix. And then cycle with hardy fish. It also says liverock can be added, but only to a mature system, and doesn't really mention a cleanup crew. So pretty much, how effective is this setup?

 

[crazyelece]

Not very effective. That is a recipe for a maintenance nightmare of a tank. You'd have to do religious water changes. You'd have to tear it down at least once a year to clear out the UGF. IMO UGFs are a thing of the past, even in freshwater setups. Most of the people I know don't use them at all. Those that do are in the process of converting away from them as they plug up and need cleaned. If you were to use a canister instead of the UGF and added some live rock to the tank it wouldn't be as bad but still not the best.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Agreed. Not to mention, the algal growth and the task of maintaing such a tank would require alot of time and effort.

Also, If you didnt have Live Rock or Live Sand, you would get a poor amount of biological diversity in your tank. Something most marine aquariasts love to see and actively encourage. If you set-up withouht LR, you'd be robed of worms, sponges, macro algae, corraline, crabs, and the list goes on.

If you add live rock to a mature tank, depending on size, your going to start a mini cycle. Not a good idea. It could lead to the death of your inhabitants.

As crazyelece mentioned, UGF's are thought of as out-of date. They do serve a purpose, but you would have to remove/disturb your whole set-up in order to maintain it. In SW keeping things stable for consistant amounts of time is a huge part of success.

There has been many debates over Tufa Rock, even here at TFF (maybe run a search). Many use it as a poor mans LR. Most of the debates have pointed out LR is the better option.

The reason why we have changed the way we set-up our tanks is because the current way is better than any previous attempts. Its not to say its impossible, but IMO, the current "Berlin" style methods work well.