Next reefing innovation?

[RWReefer]

Automated glass cleaner or AGC!
Roams the glass at night leaving pristine glass at daybreak.
I would buy this.

The glass roomba. I know it can be done but I don’t possess the skill set or knowledge to create it. I have figured out a concept to get it from one pane of glass to another.

 

[Fenral]

Automated glass cleaner or AGC!
Roams the glass at night leaving pristine glass at daybreak.
I would buy this.

Don't we have this in an advanced tech package... I think they are called snails

 

[RWReefer]

Don't we have this in an advanced tech package... I think they are called snails

If you can sell snails that clean the glass like a scraper, you’d be retired in no time.

 

[Fenral]

I feel like I’ve been away from actively monitoring what companies have been doing for the past year; my reef was largely stable. Seems like Hydros has made a good deal of progress implementing dynamic dosing.

Have been using a combination of ReefFactory and Hydros to monitor and control my tank, but, might be trading in my RF products to go with Hydros if the Maven delivers on its promises.

Well, I already have one on reserve/pre-order with the LFS here. Though I will still be having my daughter run lab tests too - at least till I feel comfortable - but the IV setup they did, with ALK is accurate enough that I let it take over on dynamic dosing.

 

[Fenral]

If you can sell snails that clean the glass like a scraper, you’d be retired in no time.

They do already - I think I commented on it in another thread -- Emergency Identification Required or something...

 

[Reefer Matt]

Coral breeding kits, cold water tank kits, seamless tanks, hobby grade auto articulating light fixtures, and hobby grade water flow meters.

 

[exnisstech]

Don't we have this in an advanced tech package... I think they are called snails

All any of my snails do is make trails so I can see how dirty the glass really is. My bristletooth does about the same lol

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’m relatively new to this hobby and I know there are quite a few folks here who have been in the game a very long time. Curious to hear opinions and discuss what you feel the next wave of innovation will be in the hobby?

Just from perusing this board you get a feeling for how much technology has entered the hobby over the past 10 years.

The focus has seemed to be on lighting and a reduction in water flow and heating innovation and development. While I love my titanium heaters, Im sure we can do better opposed to thermal tubes and similar products

 

[Fenral]

The focus has seemed to be on lighting and a reduction in water flow and heating innovation and development. While I love my titanium heaters, Im sure we can do better opposed to thermal tubes and similar products

We have had chillers for a while … i am kind of surprised (i looked) that a heat pump was not out on the market for our tanks in the last 20 years…

 

[Gumbies R Us]

The glass roomba. I know it can be done but I don’t possess the skill set or knowledge to create it. I have figured out a concept to get it from one pane of glass to another.

MOAI | Advanced Aquarium Cleaning Robot

Discover MOAI, the cutting-edge robot for effective aquarium cleaning and monitoring. Enhance your tank with its precision cleaning and innovative features.

www.moaidevices.com

 

[RWReefer]

MOAI | Advanced Aquarium Cleaning Robot

Discover MOAI, the cutting-edge robot for effective aquarium cleaning and monitoring. Enhance your tank with its precision cleaning and innovative features.

www.moaidevices.com

Yeah. Have seen it but it’s been sitting in development for a long time.

 

[Fenral]

I would REALLY love to see this setup explained in more detail. Perhaps create a thread for it? Been looking into a similar idea.

I broke my system… it’ll go in my build thread eventually - but i added an abyzz pump with 10m wire - and now ph, salinity and orp probes are all going haywire…(maybe i should not coil the 10m of wire…)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Yeah. Have seen it but it’s been sitting in development for a long time.

Ahh, I didn't know that. I wonder how well they will work when they come out!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Ahh, I didn't know that. I wonder how well they will work when they come out!

There was a thread a while back that laid out most of the hurdles that they need to solve for.

Something is keeping them from rolling out.

 

[Fat4242]

I have experienced all phases of marine aquarium keeping. From the era of undergound filters where products were added to promote algae growth, to canisters, dry wet, live rocks, DSB, ETS skimmers with bioballs, airstone skimmers, recirculating skimmers, pinwheel skimmers, bubble plate skimmers, phosphate media, ICP testing, etc. In other words, the market is always looking for the Columbus egg, the holy grail and, obviously, profit, because no one is a charity.



What I think:

-Underground filters really worked, as the area for bacteria was huge and the circulation rate using powerheads was greater than with airstone.

-Nitrate factory does not exist. Every biological system that works will generate nitrate. If it doesn't generate, it's because the cycle isn't closing. Perhaps this myth came about when they exchanged dry wet for live rocks, after all, dry wet was excellent for the biological cycle and live rocks were much more limited for that. Therefore, with dry wet you could have more biological load. In one of live rocks, the load had to be smaller to avoid ammonia/nitrite, so the final nitrate was also smaller and could remain undetectable, as it is consumed (even through bioassimilation) by other organisms, such as algae, Zooxanthellae, calcareous algae, etc. In fact, this is how the main marine aquarium at the Düsseldorf Aquarium was maintained. It didn't have a skimmer and just a giant calcium reactor created by Daniel Knop and was based on the filtration that calcareous macroalgae performed. Especially because it is impossible to occur anaerobic denitrification in aquariums according to several tests that have already been carried out in reefkeeping and advancedaquarist.

-Algae are something natural in an aquatic system (I'm not talking about a eutrophication situation).

-Colorful corals devoid of symbiotic algae that create a pigment to protect themselves from light are not normal in nature.

-Combining the two things above, we are always struggling to have an aquarium with situations that are not natural. Going against entropy is difficult. The same thing applies to planted aquariums that are not natural. In nature, most plants are not 100% aquatic. They only spend a cycle of their life in water.

-According to various literatures, part of what a fish eats is used for growth (body mass) and/or to stay alive. The rest is expelled. We have nitrogenous or non-nitrogenous organic compounds. Fish excrete ammonia directly from their gills and in the form of urine. In other words, there is no way for a skimmer to remove “this” before it enters the nitrogen cycle, as they say. Some authors quantify that approximately 70% of the ammonia is expelled through the gills, 20% through urine. The other 10% would be in the feces, still in the form of particulate nitrogen compounds. In other words, if we remove the feces in time, and/or leftover food (which should not be left over), we would be relieving the biological filter by only 10%. That is why an underground filter works. Not to mention that the decomposition of feces and/or leftover food is very fast. Therefore, mechanical filtration should be very fast both to remove it from the aquarium and to clean the filter, not leaving these residues in contact with the water inside the filter. Remember that a canister filter can remove these residues much more easily than an aquarium with only overflow, even if you use a bare bottom and exaggerated internal circulation. Unless you use siphons, which is not at all practical.

-In addition, we have non-nitrogenous organic compounds that are partially removed by the skimmer. They say it is around 35% or a little more. In other words, there will always be organic compounds in the water, and those that are added to the water. One way to eliminate these organic compounds would also be with biological filtration, but much more intense than the biological filtration used to eliminate ammonia/nitrite. Remember that these compounds also somehow favor the appearance of algae. That is why people do not understand how there are algae even with zero phosphate and nitrate.

-In tests, a substrate that does not have an underground filter also performs biological filtration depending on the oxygenation level in the aquarium. Although it is very limited in this function. A live rock would then be even more limited, not to mention that the pores would quickly become clogged (like ceramic and glass filter media) with the gelatinous mass that the bacteria create when reproducing.



-Oxygen level is best achieved with airstones (which no one uses) and skimmers. In fact, I think (completely my own thought) that the skimmer's greatest use is aeration. And I have some doubts (I never found an answer) whether the skimmer would be able to remove some ammonia from the water through air stripping like in some water treatment plants.



-Combining the above, the standard aquarium today is more or less like this:

1- Uses a skimmer;

2- Does not have a dedicated biological filter, as they rely on the substrate and live rocks;

3- Water (and solid waste) is collected only through overflow;

4- Aims to not have any algae or corals with unnatural colors.



In other words, a very difficult hobby since we look for situations that escape entropy and use undersized filters for this.



In short:

-We want an aquarium with an unnatural appearance;

-We don't use a dedicated biological filter or a biological filter that quickly clogs the pores;

-We don't even come close to having a biological filter capable of processing non-nitrogenous organic matter;

-We don't have good solid waste collection, although this doesn't really matter, as mentioned above in the section on ammonia release by fish;

-We always look for the miracle product;

-We prefer to post photos of the equipment rather than the display;

-The market knows all of this and bombards us with dozens of miracle launches.



So, we will always run away from the intended goal, in the wrong way and spending many thousands of dollars in an endless race. That is why we still need to change water even with all the technology available. After all, it is still the easiest way to correct what is wrong when the system cannot handle the problem. Just look at planted aquariums that face the dilemma of not being able to have much circulation because of the CO₂ level. As a result, there is not enough filtration in the planted aquarium, not even for the nitrogen cycle, let alone to remove non-nitrogen organic compounds. That is why the life of a planted aquarium aquarist is to change water like crazy and only have two 5 mm fish.



In time: If it is difficult to imitate nature in a closed system, imagine trying to create an unnatural nature that not even nature can achieve within a closed system.

Not to mention when we mix organisms from completely different biotopes.

 

[Fat4242]

I agree that it is super complex which is why I said it has a long way to go.

The problem is that serious studies are expensive and there is no return for this in our hobby, especially because knowledge does not make anyone sell more products, much less miracle products. In the same way that you cannot find serious publications and studies for cats, dogs, etc. and we need to read the same studies for humans, if they apply at all.

 

[Fat4242]

I think ICP is crazy. If an element is low, ok, I just add it. But if it is high, ok, I'll add more water to dilute it. Then I dilute the others that don't need it and I have to add the others too. Isn't it easier and cheaper to change the water? That is if these element levels really affect anything, because they may not affect anything.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

-Nitrate factory does not exist.

FWIW, I don’t consider it a myth and have plausible reasons that explain why folks saw a nitrate drop when removing bioballs.

That said, I think doing anything to promote nitrification in most reef tanks is undesirable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I think ICP is crazy. If an element is low, ok, I just add it. But if it is high, ok, I'll add more water to dilute it. Then I dilute the others that don't need it and I have to add the others too. Isn't it easier and cheaper to change the water? That is if these element levels really affect anything, because they may not affect anything.

I don’t believe that anyone knowledgeable suggests dilution of tank water with fresh to reduce the concentration of an elevated element, unless salinity itself is high.

 

[Fat4242]

FWIW, I don’t consider it a myth and have plausible reasons that explain why folks saw a nitrate drop when removing bioballs.

And what do you think led to this observation?

A biologist friend of mine, who did an internship with Jaubert at the Monaco Aquarium, once tried to explain to me, when I explained why a DSB and live rocks would not denitrify the nitrate coming from the bioballs. He said that bioballs obviously did not denitrify and that the nitrate coming from them was not converted by the DSB or live rocks, because the bioballs had used up all the carbohydrate. In the live rocks, however, it was done, because all the bacteria would have simultaneous access to the necessary carbohydrate, both aerobic and anaerobic.

In fact, when I asked if the Jaubert system really worked to replace calcium, he told me that the main 5,000-liter aquarium with 5% exchanges with the sea and just a few bungalows did not need calcium. In other words, the fact that the 5% exchanges with the sea already invalidates anything.