Things I wish I knew when I started...

MHG · 04/04/2013, 08:23 AM

I was in the hobby in the early late 80's and early 90's. I stopped for about 15 years. 2 and a half years ago I was given the green light to do another tank. I had a $2500 budget and I hit the internet. I did planing and research for about a year. Reefcentral was a great tool. But unless you know what to search for, you may not always stumble on some useful information.

Today I felt like starting a thread for the things we wish someone told us before we started... This is not a thread to debate things but things we learned after we made mistakes or just plain wish someone told us...

My next post will start my list....

phantomg23 · 04/04/2013, 08:36 AM

I wish someone told me it was expensive lol! I knew it would be expensive, but addicting and expensive make it REALLY expensive, but of course its worth it

MHG · 04/04/2013, 08:42 AM

*ULSN requires more dosing of all sorts of suppliments because you are starving your corals...

*At the first sign of bubbles on brownish algae, you have Dino. Attack it before it attacks you.

*Dont make the hole too snig in your dosing jugs. The dosing pumps will create a slow vacuum and will eventually crush the jug and leak alk or calc all over your floor...

*Unless you are duplicating the lighting on someone elses talk that is the same size as yours, get a PAR meter or you will kill things. Not knowing your light is like not knowing the tanks temp....

*It ionly takes a week to make a SPS frag look bad. It can take a year to get it to look good again...

*Practice with sps frags and your acclimation process with cheap frags from a swap... You would rather kill a $10 frag than a $65 dollar frag...

*If you done have a DSB, Vacuum it weekly. It will trap and leach PO4...

*Skimmers can be idle and not foam from time to time. Stop adjusting it up. Because when it starts to foam big (when you are not home) it will make a mess...

*Dust from those little stone like frag plugs will get on your magnetic frag racks magnets and scratch your Starphire glass. Dont slide them around...

*Soak the dry rock you get for weeks.... it will leach PO4...

*gen an lawnmower blenny or some sort of algae eating fish. Snals alone do not cut it... Get one a few months into it...

*Dont follow the instructions on Zeo suppliments. Ask for dising recomendations based on how much coral you have...

* if you dose 2 part and run out of Amino Acids.... Get more or turn down your dosing... As the growth slows down your alk and calc will jump way up...

*check for shadows that are caused by your rock work... You may end up with dark spots right in front. Small fixture can cause big shadows when directly over the rocks...

More to come as I think of them..

edsbeaker · 04/04/2013, 09:01 AM

I wish I knew how much patience was needed. I'm not a patient person, and that's my biggest obstacle in caring for a reef tank.

furman589 · 04/04/2013, 11:27 AM

I wish I would have never put coral "weeds" in my tank...green star polyps, kenya trees, mushroms etc... Sure they were cool when I first started out but now it is a constant battle to rid them from my tank.

brad65ford · 04/04/2013, 12:15 PM

Things I wish I knew when I started...

How much involvement you put in is how much to get in return.

kzooreefer · 04/04/2013, 12:46 PM

The less you do the better your results.

I have a 7 year old 29 gallon, I haven't done a water test in over a year, same for a water change and my T5's are over 18 months old. I do daily top offs and dose calcium/alkalinity and that's it. Damn things are growing like weeds and I have no clue to what my water parameters are and really don't care.

jBugg · 04/04/2013, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by furman589

I wish I would have never put coral "weeds" in my tank...green star polyps, kenya trees, mushroms etc... Sure they were cool when I first started out but now it is a constant battle to rid them from my tank.

Oh man... I have all of those on my tank, plus Xenia too.

MondoBongo · 04/04/2013, 02:22 PM

i wish i had a better idea of comparison shopping, instead of trusting the larger, flashy LFS in my area.

i also wish i had better sense about spending the money on good stuff. had i known what a compromise some of my "compromise" purchases would have been, i just would have ponied up the money first instead of buying things multiple times.

also, i wish i hadn't waited so long to switch from plain RO to a full RODI unit.

Windirmere · 04/04/2013, 02:34 PM

Making sure you rock work is more then secure, drilling holes in rocks for frag plugs, i hate the epoxy and it hates me.

Tradewinds · 04/04/2013, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by furman589

I wish I would have never put coral "weeds" in my tank...green star polyps, kenya trees, mushroms etc... Sure they were cool when I first started out but now it is a constant battle to rid them from my tank.

+1 add Blue Clove Polyps to the list.

MHG · 04/06/2013, 06:19 PM

Pre drill plug holes in all my dry rock before adding water...

Sonyardo · 04/06/2013, 06:36 PM

I wish I had a better understanding of fish disease, parasites and a good QT program when I first started out. It's funny how we tend to listen to what we want to hear when we are doing research.

ACBlinky · 04/06/2013, 06:37 PM

Fiberglass driveway markers can be hacksawed into pieces and make perfect tools for rockscaping. Drill holes in rocks, thread them onto the posts, and voila! Attractive, SECURE rockwork that's fairly easy to get apart if/when you have to move things.

Never, ever keep a reef tank without a sump. Sumps are the greatest invention since the wheel; extra water volume, hiding equipment, adding a refugium, filter sock, aeration and oxygenation of the water, pod breeding piles... there are 1001 uses and no drawbacks to keeping a sump.

cedwards04 · 04/06/2013, 07:01 PM

keep it coming guys, I have learned more in this thread than I have learned in a long time

squishifishi · 04/06/2013, 07:35 PM

wish i'd known:
•don't buy the lower quality product to save a fewbucks...you'll eventually end up upgrading and spend 2x the money because you got both!
•this hobby is expensive!
• (my tank is a 2.5g) buy a lot of small rocks to form your scape, not one or two big rocks!time to break out the hammer

•it may not be a drug, but reef keeping is ADDICTIVE!

PiscesTank · 04/06/2013, 09:10 PM

make sure your tank is where you are going to want it for long time, breaking down and moving a tank is....ARG!

GroktheCube · 04/06/2013, 10:29 PM

Sugar fine sand WILL get create a sandstorm with 20x+ turnover, even after a month of settling.

Don't use cheap, thin HD sourced acrylic to make sump baffles, it will bow too much.

Don't use crappy aquarium store silicone to secure those baffles, it will not hold them in place when they start to bow. Instead, get some Dow Corning 795, some cell cast acrylic, and just wait a few weeks before filling the sump so that it can cure properly.

oquockyo · 04/06/2013, 10:42 PM

Heres my 2 cents .

Dont over feed . Fish always look hungry and give u the itch to feed them. Over feeding causes many problems.

Wizzard~Of~Ozz · 04/06/2013, 10:58 PM

Never plumb a freshwater source directly into your system, use a reservoir
Cover your tank with netting if you have fish that carpet surf ( Goby's, Wrasse and a few others )
failsafes on critical components
Keep replacement parts on hand for critical components ( return pump impeller assembly )
Keep a battery operated air pump w/ stones for extending power failures

greg1786 · 04/06/2013, 11:23 PM

I wish i knew not to use tap water when i started. After keeping fresh water aquariums for 15 years before switching to saltwater, i didnt even know what rodi water was.

I wish i knew cheap protein skimmers were just that, CHEAP!

MileHiReefR · 04/06/2013, 11:29 PM

I wish I had done more research on Trigger fish before I got one which I really like now but is a major headache...

Aquatron · 04/07/2013, 07:58 AM

I didn't have forums when i started so i read books by Albert J. Theil" Advance Reef Keeping" John H. Tullock" The Reef Tank Owner's Manual" Martin A. Moe,jr."The Marine Aquarium Reference" just to name a few. This gave me a great base from which to learn and to have successful reef's.
Reading/learning first then buying and QT corals and fish will put you way ahead with our hobby")

jaynigz · 04/07/2013, 08:26 AM

NEVER EVER COMPROMISE ON QUALITY

If you had to buy a pump rated at that limit, get the one up that's bigger. If you have to get a skimmer rated at that size, get one up bigger.

Buy a Controller. RK, APEX, Profilux. GET ONE. It'll save you the hassle of not knowing what's going in your tank. A simple heat thermostat could malfunction and you wouldn't know it until it's too late. Get a controller. You can shut off that malfunctioning thermostat on your phone or have an automatic fan turned on if temperature reached above the normal. If you're at work, check on it. Make sure the temperature, pH, salinity are all within the norm.

Can't put a price on peace of mind.

McMillin5 · 04/07/2013, 08:47 AM

Dont be cheap and buy the 15$ float valve for your RODI storage water, just over flowed my 46G Brute storage can and im limited on space so i convinced my wife to let me put it in are walk in closet and ummmm yeah woke up this morning with a wet walk in closet and she is NOT happy at all lol oops

04/04/2013, 08:23 AM	#1
MHG Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 2,919	Things I wish I knew when I started... I was in the hobby in the early late 80's and early 90's. I stopped for about 15 years. 2 and a half years ago I was given the green light to do another tank. I had a $2500 budget and I hit the internet. I did planing and research for about a year. Reefcentral was a great tool. But unless you know what to search for, you may not always stumble on some useful information. Today I felt like starting a thread for the things we wish someone told us before we started... This is not a thread to debate things but things we learned after we made mistakes or just plain wish someone told us... My next post will start my list.... __________________ MHG (LIRA Member) 60G Cube, Kessil 360's

04/04/2013, 08:42 AM	#3
MHG Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 2,919	ULSN requires more dosing of all sorts of suppliments because you are starving your corals... At the first sign of bubbles on brownish algae, you have Dino. Attack it before it attacks you. Dont make the hole too snig in your dosing jugs. The dosing pumps will create a slow vacuum and will eventually crush the jug and leak alk or calc all over your floor... Unless you are duplicating the lighting on someone elses talk that is the same size as yours, get a PAR meter or you will kill things. Not knowing your light is like not knowing the tanks temp.... It ionly takes a week to make a SPS frag look bad. It can take a year to get it to look good again... Practice with sps frags and your acclimation process with cheap frags from a swap... You would rather kill a $10 frag than a $65 dollar frag... If you done have a DSB, Vacuum it weekly. It will trap and leach PO4... Skimmers can be idle and not foam from time to time. Stop adjusting it up. Because when it starts to foam big (when you are not home) it will make a mess... Dust from those little stone like frag plugs will get on your magnetic frag racks magnets and scratch your Starphire glass. Dont slide them around... Soak the dry rock you get for weeks.... it will leach PO4... gen an lawnmower blenny or some sort of algae eating fish. Snals alone do not cut it... Get one a few months into it... Dont follow the instructions on Zeo suppliments. Ask for dising recomendations based on how much coral you have... * if you dose 2 part and run out of Amino Acids.... Get more or turn down your dosing... As the growth slows down your alk and calc will jump way up... *check for shadows that are caused by your rock work... You may end up with dark spots right in front. Small fixture can cause big shadows when directly over the rocks... More to come as I think of them.. __________________ MHG (LIRA Member) 60G Cube, Kessil 360's

04/04/2013, 09:01 AM	#4
edsbeaker Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Bartlett, IL Posts: 857	I wish I knew how much patience was needed. I'm not a patient person, and that's my biggest obstacle in caring for a reef tank. __________________ Marilyn RedSea Max-E 260

04/04/2013, 12:15 PM	#6
brad65ford Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: SWFL Posts: 1,219	Things I wish I knew when I started... How much involvement you put in is how much to get in return. __________________ 525xl BB

04/04/2013, 12:46 PM	#7
kzooreefer Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Michigan Posts: 453	The less you do the better your results. I have a 7 year old 29 gallon, I haven't done a water test in over a year, same for a water change and my T5's are over 18 months old. I do daily top offs and dose calcium/alkalinity and that's it. Damn things are growing like weeds and I have no clue to what my water parameters are and really don't care. __________________ Tank.........29-gallon glass Lighting.....Current Orbit Marine LED Filtration....Reef Octopus BH90 HOB Skimmer, GFO Reactor. Flow..........2 Jebao WP10 Powerheads

04/04/2013, 08:36 AM	#2
phantomg23 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 624	I wish someone told me it was expensive lol! I knew it would be expensive, but addicting and expensive make it REALLY expensive, but of course its worth it

04/04/2013, 11:27 AM	#5
furman589 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Williamsport, PA Posts: 182	I wish I would have never put coral "weeds" in my tank...green star polyps, kenya trees, mushroms etc... Sure they were cool when I first started out but now it is a constant battle to rid them from my tank.

04/04/2013, 02:22 PM	#9
MondoBongo Obligate Feeder Obsessed Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 4,061	i wish i had a better idea of comparison shopping, instead of trusting the larger, flashy LFS in my area. i also wish i had better sense about spending the money on good stuff. had i known what a compromise some of my "compromise" purchases would have been, i just would have ponied up the money first instead of buying things multiple times. also, i wish i hadn't waited so long to switch from plain RO to a full RODI unit.

04/04/2013, 02:34 PM	#10
Windirmere Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Courteny BC Canada Posts: 452	Making sure you rock work is more then secure, drilling holes in rocks for frag plugs, i hate the epoxy and it hates me.

04/06/2013, 06:19 PM	#12
MHG Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 2,919	Pre drill plug holes in all my dry rock before adding water... __________________ MHG (LIRA Member) 60G Cube, Kessil 360's

04/06/2013, 06:36 PM	#13
Sonyardo Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: OC California Posts: 522	I wish I had a better understanding of fish disease, parasites and a good QT program when I first started out. It's funny how we tend to listen to what we want to hear when we are doing research.

04/06/2013, 06:37 PM	#14
ACBlinky Premium Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada Posts: 4,954 Blog Entries: 20	Fiberglass driveway markers can be hacksawed into pieces and make perfect tools for rockscaping. Drill holes in rocks, thread them onto the posts, and voila! Attractive, SECURE rockwork that's fairly easy to get apart if/when you have to move things. Never, ever keep a reef tank without a sump. Sumps are the greatest invention since the wheel; extra water volume, hiding equipment, adding a refugium, filter sock, aeration and oxygenation of the water, pod breeding piles... there are 1001 uses and no drawbacks to keeping a sump. __________________ "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g mixed reef, 30g sump/refugium, LED lighting, 100lbs LR, coral beauty, flame angel, blue & yellow tangs, gobies, damsels, 6-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, dottyback, clown pair, rabbitfish, shrimp, crabs, CUC.

04/06/2013, 07:01 PM	#15
cedwards04 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 217	keep it coming guys, I have learned more in this thread than I have learned in a long time

04/06/2013, 07:35 PM	#16
squishifishi Hopelesly Addicted Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 972	wish i'd known: •don't buy the lower quality product to save a fewbucks...you'll eventually end up upgrading and spend 2x the money because you got both! •this hobby is expensive! • (my tank is a 2.5g) buy a lot of small rocks to form your scape, not one or two big rocks!time to break out the hammer •it may not be a drug, but reef keeping is ADDICTIVE! __________________ ><(((((°>squishifishi! if I say anything stupid...blame autocorrect ;) I love my pico! Come see for yourself, check it out! just search for "pictures at last" in the nano forums:) Current Tank Info: 2.5g pico reef: 5-15hob filter, 10w led light,Stock;neon goby,Pom Pom crab,hermits, astrea, margarita, nassarius, micro brittles, shrooms,palys, xenia, galaxea, zoas,ricordea, litho,chalice,leather,pocci,.WISH LIST:sexy shrimp

04/06/2013, 09:10 PM	#17
PiscesTank Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Tucson AZ Posts: 66	make sure your tank is where you are going to want it for long time, breaking down and moving a tank is....ARG!

04/06/2013, 10:29 PM	#18
GroktheCube Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 2,063	Sugar fine sand WILL get create a sandstorm with 20x+ turnover, even after a month of settling. Don't use cheap, thin HD sourced acrylic to make sump baffles, it will bow too much. Don't use crappy aquarium store silicone to secure those baffles, it will not hold them in place when they start to bow. Instead, get some Dow Corning 795, some cell cast acrylic, and just wait a few weeks before filling the sump so that it can cure properly.

04/06/2013, 10:42 PM	#19
oquockyo Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 104	Heres my 2 cents . Dont over feed . Fish always look hungry and give u the itch to feed them. Over feeding causes many problems.

04/06/2013, 10:58 PM	#20
Wizzard~Of~Ozz Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Hamilton, Ontario Posts: 187	Never plumb a freshwater source directly into your system, use a reservoir Cover your tank with netting if you have fish that carpet surf ( Goby's, Wrasse and a few others ) failsafes on critical components Keep replacement parts on hand for critical components ( return pump impeller assembly ) Keep a battery operated air pump w/ stones for extending power failures

04/06/2013, 11:23 PM	#21
greg1786 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Baltimore md Posts: 1,241	I wish i knew not to use tap water when i started. After keeping fresh water aquariums for 15 years before switching to saltwater, i didnt even know what rodi water was. I wish i knew cheap protein skimmers were just that, CHEAP!

04/06/2013, 11:29 PM	#22
MileHiReefR Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 24	I wish I had done more research on Trigger fish before I got one which I really like now but is a major headache...

04/07/2013, 07:58 AM	#23
Aquatron Refugium pat.#D414,242 Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 844	I didn't have forums when i started so i read books by Albert J. Theil" Advance Reef Keeping" John H. Tullock" The Reef Tank Owner's Manual" Martin A. Moe,jr."The Marine Aquarium Reference" just to name a few. This gave me a great base from which to learn and to have successful reef's. Reading/learning first then buying and QT corals and fish will put you way ahead with our hobby") __________________ Doctor "Aquatron" Mister "Spinner" 300 gallon TRUVU AquaSystem "Mod" w/ 150 gallon control center....... Build Thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2276765&highlight=300+dt+

04/07/2013, 08:26 AM	#24
jaynigz Registered Member. Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: St Pete and Orlando Posts: 357	NEVER EVER COMPROMISE ON QUALITY If you had to buy a pump rated at that limit, get the one up that's bigger. If you have to get a skimmer rated at that size, get one up bigger. Buy a Controller. RK, APEX, Profilux. GET ONE. It'll save you the hassle of not knowing what's going in your tank. A simple heat thermostat could malfunction and you wouldn't know it until it's too late. Get a controller. You can shut off that malfunctioning thermostat on your phone or have an automatic fan turned on if temperature reached above the normal. If you're at work, check on it. Make sure the temperature, pH, salinity are all within the norm. Can't put a price on peace of mind.

04/07/2013, 08:47 AM	#25
McMillin5 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: New Castle, PA Posts: 72	Dont be cheap and buy the 15$ float valve for your RODI storage water, just over flowed my 46G Brute storage can and im limited on space so i convinced my wife to let me put it in are walk in closet and ummmm yeah woke up this morning with a wet walk in closet and she is NOT happy at all lol oops