bluemarlin
Member
Most of us know that KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. Too often I see fellow aquarists get carried away with gadgets and filters and fancy heaters and stuff. A simple aquarium is sometimes the best and easiest to care for. I bring this up because I have in the past become so caught up in change that I realized I wasn't even thinking if the change was GOOD or BAD. This past weekend I witnessed the same thing at my buddies house.
He was installing heating cables under his crushed coral. Now this is what I walked into. He has a 120 gallon tank with some corals and some fish. Actually its rather nice, well, at least it was. He had removed all the water, all the rock, all the fish and had everything laying all over the place! It looked like a bomb went off. There were about 20 5 gallon pails all over the room. Some with fish and some with rocks. Then there were blankets on the carpet that held rocks and other stuff.
It seems he had read somewhere that underground cables that warm the substrate are good for plants. HE DOESN"T HAVE ANY PLANTS! But he wanted it installed just in case he added them in the future. This to me made no sense but to each their own. It took him the most of the day even with my help to install these cables, return the coral and everything else back to the tank.
After it was all done, we sat back and enjoyed a frosty beverage. "Why did we just do that?" I asked. He replied, "Ah, just because." We laughed because we realized the work we just did "because". He's a great guy but sometimes I don't understand him.
Now don't jump on me here about slamming my buddy. He knows that I am posting this and has no problem with it. Actually if you remember this is the same guy I posted about before with the algea problem.
Whats the moral? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
He was installing heating cables under his crushed coral. Now this is what I walked into. He has a 120 gallon tank with some corals and some fish. Actually its rather nice, well, at least it was. He had removed all the water, all the rock, all the fish and had everything laying all over the place! It looked like a bomb went off. There were about 20 5 gallon pails all over the room. Some with fish and some with rocks. Then there were blankets on the carpet that held rocks and other stuff.
It seems he had read somewhere that underground cables that warm the substrate are good for plants. HE DOESN"T HAVE ANY PLANTS! But he wanted it installed just in case he added them in the future. This to me made no sense but to each their own. It took him the most of the day even with my help to install these cables, return the coral and everything else back to the tank.
After it was all done, we sat back and enjoyed a frosty beverage. "Why did we just do that?" I asked. He replied, "Ah, just because." We laughed because we realized the work we just did "because". He's a great guy but sometimes I don't understand him.
Now don't jump on me here about slamming my buddy. He knows that I am posting this and has no problem with it. Actually if you remember this is the same guy I posted about before with the algea problem.
Whats the moral? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
