For as long as I have been watching television or reading magazines and newspapers, the phrase “New and Improved” has been employed for just about every product on the market at one time or another. Whether it touted how it was going to make my clothes smell fresher and cleaner, or make my teeth brighter, the gist of the reasoning was that it was going to make my life better somehow.
After watching the hobby expand and grow exponentially over the past couple of decades and especially the last few years, I have seen similar claims made for just about everything in the hobby. And while there is no doubt that we are more successful now than we have ever been, thanks to many of the advancements that have occurred, I think there are still some questions as to how much things really are “new and improved”.
或更具体地说,我们如何衡量某些东西是否比以前更好?我说,对于我们大多数人来说,几乎每个物品都有不同的尺寸,我们在坦克中使用的每个物品。而真正脱颖而出的一件事是,由于新的和改进,一切都花费了多少。
everything costs more as a result of being new and improved.
The first example of this that comes to mind is the protein skimmer. Protein skimmers have been around for at least 50 years, Tunze had their 50th birthday last year. At their simplest, tiny air bubbles are run in a water column and due to the unique properties of saltwater much of the “dirt” in a tank adheres to them and is skimmed off.
对于我们大多数人来说,蛋白质撇油器是清除储罐中废物的主要机制。多年来,它们已经从使用木质气石作为生产撇渣的手段到今天的高管,那里相对较小的DC电动机动力设备仍然有效地从我们的水箱中取出了棕色的笨蛋。
虽然我承认它们较小且高效,它们是否要好得多?最近,当我开始为一个相对较小的坦克定价时,很快就显而易见它们的价格与我的大多数厨房用具(如我的炉子和洗碗机)相同。因此,价格明智,它们绝对不是更好,因此他们必须从坦克中删除更多的坏事,对吗?
我看到摩擦,因为他们可能tter at removing more of the bad stuff from my tank than the older skimmers were, but really who knows? The reason no one knows is no one ever ran a baseline assessment of exactly what and how much a certain skimmer removed from a tank as far as I know. And since we do not have a baseline, we do not really know if the new skimmers are “improved”.
We did not measure what was in the skimmate early on when we first started utilizing big protein skimmers, so the question remains are the new small efficient expensive ones really that much of a leap forward in terms of what they remove? Then as now, the only way that skimmers are compared is to place two on the same tank and see which one shuts down the other one.
但是,即使这样做也不是比较撇油器的有效方法,因此可以证明一个人是否更好甚至改进了较旧的模型。而且,没有制造商会跑这个头部比较,因为他们的撇渣器可能是失败的。因此,我们只能希望今天的撇油器确实更好。
In the same way it is difficult to assess whether all of the changes in lighting really have resulted in a product that is markedly “new and improved”. Lighting has been one of the most controversial aspects of reefkeeping since virtually the beginning of the hobby. Over the years we went from fluorescent tubes, to low Kelvin metal halides, to high Kelvin metal halides in more efficient reflectors with tar ballasts.
Then came electronic ballasts, power compact bulbs, then t-5 bulbs and then LEDs and now hybrids of just about all of them. And while each change in lighting brought at least some perceived improvement, there have often been tradeoffs as well. Lighting and the enjoyment of a particular tank is such a subjective aspect of the hobby that to me it is impossible to say with absolute certainty that one method of lighting is so “new and improved” that everyone should get rid of their lights if they are not using it.
Even though I have shifted most of my tanks over to LEDs, I have done so as that is what I have found to be best for what my needs and goals are for lighting my tanks. Again, as far as I know there is no real baseline established for a perfect artificial light in that some want rapid growth, some want vibrant colors, some enjoy a “blue” tank and others need to look at energy efficiency and heat production.
So obviously a lot needs to be taken into account in choosing what type of lighting you like best, so for a manufacturer to say that their latest light is “ new and improved” my question is: based on what? To take this one step further, the initial measure we used to assess our lights was lux. This soon went away as it relied too much on light with green and yellow wavelengths.
Then we went to PAR, which we told was better, followed by PUR, which may or may not be useful. So if this was not confusing enough, we were then told that the PAR meter that most of us had been using was not precise when measuring the light from LEDs so the company that made this now has a “new and improved” version of this meter. So to my mind since there is not a standard baseline from which to work, the definitionof betterneeds to be defined.
新的和改进的不仅仅是局限于技术logy in our tanks however, it is also now even in the live rock we use as well as the fish. We have gone from using live rock that came from old coral skeletons collected on a reef to live rock that was terrestrial rock that was dumped in the ocean to cure to dry terrestrial rock.
I understand the possible environmental impact that the taking of live rock might have had, but I have also seen whole reefs dredged and removed to make cement for a road or to make way for a development, so I’m not sure if this change is much of an advancement. By the same token as I see more and more “designer” fish being bred, I really do not see this as an improvement either.
And while I applaud the efforts of breeders for spending the time and money to successfully breed more and more fish exclusively for the hobby so that they do not need to be taken from the reef, I am still more in awe when I see a pair of true Solomon Island Percula clowns playing in an anemone than any pair of Picasso clowns I have seen. I know this may be a personal view, but I still enjoy healthy common fish. And as I see more and more aberrant strains of fish, I really do not understand how these “new” fish are an improvement over wild colored specimens.
虽然我一直将礁石坦克保持相对较长的时间,但我并不是一个Luddite,因为我试图跟上并使用坦克上的最新技术,因此我使用几乎所有的监视器,应用程序和电子设备爱好。但是,就像我的手机一样,我既有iPhone又有机器人,也有我的计算机,不断需要升级软件,更改密码,我现在有30多个,或者由于IT问题而致电客户支持,这使我质疑我如何如何这些东西的确很大的改进是。
Granted I can now monitor my tank 24/7 from my phone or even view it live via the camera that I have that allows constant viewing, but for the most part even when doing this I still can’t move a coral that has fallen into another or add buffer, etc., if the tank’s parameters are off. I still need to call my tank sitter and have him take care of it, which is really not much different than what I used to do. Now being able to monitor and view the tank constantly simply adds to my compulsion to make sure the tank is perfect while also adding to my stress level by now having to worry that one of these monitors will go down.
对于这些改进,我还会发现有趣的是,它们改变了业余爱好的重点。十多年前,大多数业余爱好中的大多数人都将柔软的珊瑚或LPS和柔软的珊瑚保留在其坦克中,而SPS Corals大多被降级为“高级”业余爱好者。但是,由于业余爱好的改善,现在即使是初学者现在也可以成功保留SPS珊瑚。
Obviously this is due both to the improvements that have occurred as well as the knowledge of what is necessary to keep these corals alive. And while this is great news that just ab out anyone can be successful I can’t help but think that many newcomers to the hobby are missing out on the enjoyment that keeping a soft coral tank can bring.
在这方面,我最近在没有一段时间后建立了一个柔软的珊瑚和LPS坦克,我忘了拥有一个坦克,我不断地不必像我对SPS坦克那样担心它是多么好。皮革珊瑚,Euphyllias甚至Xenia都在不断运动,有很多鱼类,我用这个水箱做的唯一的事情就是喂食,清洁撇渣器和玻璃,每月进行20%的水分零钱使用Kalkwasser代替蒸发的水。因此,这个坦克上没有太多新的和改进的东西,但是现在它给我带来了与其他充满改进的罐头一样多的享受。
As I said at the start of this article we now enjoy success in this hobby that was never dreamt of when we started doing this over 30 years ago. And while much of the equipment has improved, as has the quality and variety of fish and corals, this has come with a price. The cost of getting into the hobby has increased exponentially especially over the last 5 or so years due to the rapid price increase of both livestock and equipment.
结果,我担心由于费用而减少的孩子和年轻人会进入爱好。我还担心,将我们带到这一点的一些先驱精神减少了,因为很少有人能像我们以前那样能够找到最佳实践或在墙上尝试一些东西,因为擦掉坦克的成本也很简单高的。
While I hope improvements continue to be made and we continue to see new things, I also hope the people giving us these new things also give us a baseline so that we can better evaluate when things really are better and not just more expensive.