To paraphrase what Charles Darwin wrote approximately 150 years ago, survival of the fittest is the process of natural selection that allows living things to have the greatest likelihood for producing successful copies of itself in the future.So I’m guessing you are wondering right now, what this has to do with successful reefkeeping.
One of the benefits of doing this for a while is that over time you get to sit down with a lot of different individuals, share adult beverages and talk about just everything hobby related and otherwise. I have been fortunate in this regard in that I have had many such discussions. One of which included Richard Ross, Sanjay Joshi, Joe Yaiullo and Mitch Carl. The discussion focused on are we, for lack of a better term, “selectively breeding” the best corals for our tanks. That is, is the act of keeping a reef tank successfully artificially selecting for the corals most likely to do well in that tank?
不用说这是一个活泼的讨论，从那以后，我一直在考虑它。只要我们一直保持珊瑚，我们就知道有些珊瑚在某些坦克中做得不好，有些珊瑚不蓬勃发展，而另一些珊瑚则壮大。但是直到讨论和后来与其他人的讨论为止，我从未在选择的背景下真正研究过它。
I am not talking about rare corals or corals that were known to be difficult to keep, but actually corals that did well in my friend’s tanks, but in my tanks nothing.也有尝试我做的多少y tanks as well as the opportunities that I have had to see other’s tanks why some corals thrive has always been on my mind. I have begun to try to look at this concept and understand it better with the hope that it would make me a better hobbyist.
The coral that got me to think of this were the common stony corals of the genusHydnophora。尽管该属中有几种这种珊瑚，但就我而言，这并不重要，因为它们都将它们放在我的SPS占主导地位后不久都是骨骼。我尝试了野生殖民地，水产养殖的殖民地和碎片，那里的碎片已经成长为餐盘大小的殖民地。这并不重要，每个过程都相同。
在将它们放在我的一个坦克中的一周内，这发生在十年的许多不同的坦克中，它们都没有幸存了一个多星期。我应该注意，这些是几乎所有其他类型的SP和LPS珊瑚的坦克。我已经完成了所有测试，将它们放在不同的灯光下，并以不同的流动为单位，这并不重要。因此，无论出于何种原因，我的坦克中的条件选择了Hydnophora。
These failures and the above noted discussion caused me to think and ask questions of my fellow hobbyists. This has resulted in my asking a question that we generally do not ask each other: what has died off, bleached or failed to thrive in your tank? We love to deal with our many successes, but rarely do we ever talk about what has failed or what we killed off and even less about what hasn’t really lived up to expectations and with that why this has occurred.I would love to be able to write that I have never killed a coral or lost a fish, but that would be lying. More importantly I have come to realize that we do not only learn from our successes, we learn from our failures as well, and possibly more so.
As a result of these questions about failures to my fellow hobbyists I have been able to learn a few things that I think may be helpful to all of us. I know there will be some folks out there that will disagree with me and what may lead to problems, and I appreciate your input, but these results were what we found. So I am only describing my findings if I had four or more people I respect agree with what I found.
众所周知，关于这种爱好中的一切以及如何做事，现实是没有完美的方式。如果有我们所有人都会以一种相同的方式做事。碱度是这样的方面，仍然引起很多辩论。辩论通常是围绕更好的中心：高碱度（高于10dkh）或低碱度（7-10dkh之间）[Ed。注意：天然海水的碱度为7dkh，因此7-10dKH正常与自然价值高于自然价值。
A recent paper by Hylkema, Wijgerde and Osinga showed that both high and low alkalinity values can be right or wrong and are more dependent on the nutrient levels than we realized. That is, when nutrient levels were low, the coral they studied did fine at a lower alkalinity level, however when nutrient levels were increased calcification was diminished unless the bicarbonate concentration was also increased. So in order to maximize calcification the nutrient and bicarbonate levels need to be balanced with each other.
For most of the corals we keep, maintaining this balance works fine, however after much conversation we concluded that some corals do better under high alkalinity and others at a lower alkalinity even when the nutrient levels are in balance. We found that Hawkins Echinata [actually anAcroporaturaki], the红龙and otherDragon Acros也A. turakiand theA. echinatasall tend to bleach and fail to thrive if we let our alkalinity levels get above 13dkh and they crashed and burned at 15dkh.
Yes I know these are not common alkalinity levels, but accidents in the form of high alkalinity do occur.Needless to say, none of us tried to get our alkalinity levels that high, but due to various equipment malfunctions we all had experienced these levels at one point or another. We also found at these levels chalice corals began to melt away from their skeletons and that this continued even once the alkalinity levels were lowered.
So we found that at these levels we artificially selected for the corals that could handle high alkalinity. The corals that seemed to do best at a higher alkalinity included the bulkier stony corals in our tanks likeA humilis,A. Monticulosa,A.球囊andA. gemmifera, as well asPoritesandPocilloporas。
When these corals were exposed to lower alkalinity in our tanks for a week or more, under 9, they started bleaching at their bases and would bleach out completely if the alkalinity was not increased and took months to recover once the alkalinity levels were increased if they recovered at all.So as a result of this we now know that we can select out which corals will thrive or not based on our alkalinity levels.
同样，我们的讨论也使我们了解到光线甚至照明方式的差异都可以决定哪些珊瑚蓬勃发展和失败。在保持SPS珊瑚的早期，该理论是尽可能发光，它将蓬勃发展。既然我们正在从多个深度和位置保持更广泛的SPS珊瑚数量，情况不再如此。
随着高功率的led,密苏里州re focused nature, proper acclimation to the light also now can significantly impact which corals survive, which just hang on, and which totally fail. One of the surprising things that we have found is thatAcroporain the millepora group tend to fare less well under LEDs than they did under intense halides.
在我们所有的坦克中，他们幸存下来，但与过去不同halides, they do not show the explosive growth like they had. In all of our tanks they grew at about 10% of what their old growth rates were. Several frags that were frags a year ago still for the most don’t look much different. In the past in our tanks one year old Acro milleporas or prostrates would be overwhelming their neighbors with their considerable growth.
当暴露于LED的明亮灯光时，蒙蒂帕拉斯也可能会受到不利影响。这些珊瑚的咒语通常是中等的光线，中等电流，它们会做得很好。随着LED的光似乎比Halides的光线更渗透到我们的坦克上，现在有必要使它们习惯在几个月内习惯这种光，以减少漂白的可能性。
In my own experience before I realized what was occurring I lost a couple of colonies soon after placing them in the tank even though otherMontiporas在他们旁边蓬勃发展。我没有意识到，LED的明亮光会选择不适应它的珊瑚。
One other aspect of “ artificially selecting” out our corals that we often overlook is the inhabitants we choose to house with them. What I am talking about here are the fish and other invertebrates that we place with our corals and how they interact. While I love the look of a well-stocked tank full of fish and vibrant corals I have also come to the realization that fish are a pain and given the opportunity if I don’t feed enough or feed the right food any one of them can turn in an instant and start eating the corals in the tank.
由于了解人工选择的工作原理，我现在专注于我与珊瑚保持的鱼类和颠倒，以及在最坏情况下会发生什么。不用说，我自己现在在选择鱼与珊瑚时采用更多的人为选择。我承认，我在14年前将红海天使添加到我的SPS坦克中时犯了一个巨大的错误。
虽然坦克在他被囚禁的头五年中仅是SPS，但此后我试图添加许多Euphylliacorals to its tank. Initially all was well but once he developed a taste for them he quickly mowed down my Euphyllia garden. Sadly since with its longevity has come a strong affection I now forgo adding additional Euphyllias so that he will not consume them.
Understanding that artificial selection occurs constantly within our artificial reefs is helpful as we continue to improve our success and enjoyment of the hobby. It has been occurring for a long time especially when we consider that even 10 years ago we realized that in a tank heavily stocked with both soft and stony corals the stony corals did not do as well as they did when they were kept in a tank stocked mostly with other stony corals.
There are a lot of factors that I did not touch on that also undoubtedly have selective properties as well. Understanding what these might be and noting not only what has survived but what has died or failed to thrive will go a long way in bettering our understanding of what each specific coral requires. I try to keep a regular log of what goes on in my tank, both good and bad for this reason. However I must admit that despite doing this I still have no idea why I can’t keepHydnophora活。
