Reef nutrition

Tanked - New TV series

I think I will start stating my experience in gallons.

"I have 200,000 gallons of reefkeeping experience!" (must be said in booming Charlton Heston-esque voice)

Has anyone seen a Tanked aquarium on one of the episodes after, say, a month or so? I'd like to see how the mimic octo is doing...
 
Yeah that octo one was weird, they first start by saying "can't have fish in an octo tank or it might become lunch" here's the unveil... hmmm are those fish in the tank? Now I don't know squat about octos other than if I really want to know ask Rich :D, but it seems to me they're giving conflicting information which when it boils down to it, information is already lacking from the show, why continue to bury it.

I do want a Gumball tank, apparently in 250 gallons you can toss in 50 fish!.
 
Yeah, where do the fish hide? In the gumballs? I can't imagine those fish doing well in that empty sphere for very long. Really sad.

Rich can tell you too, but Thaumoctopus is found exclusively on vast expanses of mucky/silty sediment that they can bury themselves in. A small tank with plastic corals/plastic rock and a crushed coral substrate is not really appropriate for them.

I know, I know, the show is not aimed at us, but **Animal** Planet probably could have found some guys with interesting personalities (that's what the show is really all about, not the fish) who are actually doing the animal part a bit more conscientiously. In the end I am not disappointed with the ATMs of the world as much as I am with those who are glorifying them.
 
Shit, now I have to watch another episode.

From the DICSO website: http://press.discovery.com/ekits/tanked/episodes.html
"But Heather has an even more exciting trick of her own as she conspires with the ATM crew for a birthday surprise for Wayde. The ATM team is building a tank in his office with his all-time favorite fish inside, an octopus! So now, the King of ATM will have an office with the King of the Sea himself; but only if the crew can manage to keep it a surprise as they work on it right under his nose. "

Apparently an Octopus is a fish.

I may have to go to war on this one - 10 years of patiently educating could be undone by this one episode. I really don't want to, but I'll wait till I see the episode on demand.
 
Well shellfish aren't fish either and some lame person called em fish way back when so go get em Rich... cephs aren't fish!
 
Thales said:
Did you catch it it really was Thaumoctopus?
Click to expand...

Yup, they wanted one of the red jobbers apparently he had give him a hug when he went scuba diving on their honeymoon or something. But when the were at the wholesalers Justin pointed out the mimic, not sure if it's because that's the only one he had or what, but it ended up in the tank... which apparently went in in a few hours, cycled, and filled with fish before he came back to his office to see it (whether or not that really happened it happened on the show)
 
It was absolutely Thaumoctopus and not Wunderpus. Light cream bands alternating with darker grey on very long arms...I suppose it could be some odd species I've never heard of but it looked like every Thaumoctopus I've seen in photos.

I mean, I hate to say it, but does Justin have some responsibility to say "screw being on TV, this octopus is not right for you to purchase"?
 
Wunderpus at ERI, Thaumoctopus at ATM. Oh, octopus is not a fish. Octopus do not have legs. That tank is pretty much exactly what you wouldn't want to do for that animal.

That whole show was disgusting. Baby sharks in tanks. Young batfish? Several tomato clowns in a friggin gumball tank? A tank to skate on - thats got to calm the fish down.

It is clear the animals are only props, and not at all important for themselves. They are disposable baubles. Decoration. I feel dirty.
 
Some of the rationalization floating around the boards is staggering:

"Dude, that acrylic is TWO INCHES thick...the fish won't even feel a skateboard hitting it." Um, okay...I wonder how I can feel somebody banging their fist through 8" acrylic then...

"Obviously they know what they are doing, if they were doing anything wrong they'd be out of business by now." Yikes!
 
Yeah, they really should just stick to the tanks and let someone else come in and handle the live stock side of things. They just have to be..... I don't even know what to call it but it isn't right. Is there no one behind the Animal Planet channel that knows it's not good?? There has to be....
 
I wonder if anyone has written to any of the above people, either animal planet, or hell the ATM guys themselves. I know when critiques came up on RB before the show started one of the guys (or someone pretending to be him) had a few choice words for all the criticism.
 
I’m not sure which is worse:

1) Lack of respect they have for the animals and their needs
2) The PR nightmare that they’re giving legitimate people in the hobby/industry
3) Animal Planets obvious lack of integrity for its programming

Sigh

-Gregory
 
The ebay add is rather interesting because you can see their filtration system in more detail.

Big cartridge filter - (from pool supply).
Big wet/dry trickle filter, full of that blue floss stuff.
A "TF Protein skimmer", which I believe is venturi based only.

I don't think I am going to rush off and copy that for my reef system. ;)

Actually, if you consider it something purely for short term storage of way too many fish, it is not a bad choice.
Lots of mechanical filtration. Lots of wet/dry bio area.
IMO: I think the skimmer was more for oxygenation and looks.
Nitrates .... well .... they have that handy hose connection for draining the tank.
 
I am on the fence about writing about this on blogs anymore. They suck, they aren't going anywhere, they are getting worse and all press is good press. Whaddya all think?
 
I don't know about Justins responsibility. He sells wholesale, and isn't trying or promoting himself as helping his customers do it right. They are supposed to know already.
 
Finally watched my first couple episodes. And...yep, they suck. Not a completely unentertaining show, but they do some terrible stuff. It's like they are hurting for business so badly that they don't know how to tell a client no. Instead they just deliver whatever crazy request the client has, and then let some poor maintenance guy deal with the nightmare they've created.
As a service guy myself, I've learned that clients that don't really know what is realistically possible will ask you for some crazy stuff. For instance, they will want a reef tank, because plants (the corals) are so pretty, but they also want like 5 tangs a trigger, a couple angels, and a big puffer,and maybe a lionfish, and also some of those butterflyfish that are so cool in a 100 gal tank, and then maybe they ask you, "what about seahorses, they're so beautifull!" I believe that rather than try to deliver whatever the client wants that I should educate them as to why they shouldn't combine all the animals they want and how to not WAY overstock a tank.
Face it, normal people don't know what goes together and what can safely, humanely, and realistically be achieved. If you don't have the balls to tell them what they want is crazy and shouldn't be tried then you shouldn't be in the business. I have to imagine those guys know what they are doing in many instances is wrong, or at least a bad idea, but just don't care about the animals. They just want the money! And they know that they won't have to deal with the long term results or maintenance, what an awful business they run, and what a bad example they set for everyone! Disgusting.
 
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