Hey welcome to R2R! I’ve been doing this for about 15 years (mostly mixed reefs the entire time). Some of the hardest lessons I learned were because I didn’t reach out and ask for help so you’re off to good start. This forum is full of super knowledgeable and awesome people. They have helped me a ton.
A few things that I would say:
-Parameters (both light and water) are best kept consistent. As much as you’ll want to chase numbers, don’t. Establish where you want to keep things and keep it there.
-Buy reliable test kits.
-Don’t use tap water to top off your tank. Distilled or RODI only. Unless you have tests that prove your tap water is safe (unlikely result). I live in Utah so our water is hard on reef tanks. Along those lines, use an ATO. All goes back to constant parameters.
-Establish a way to manage nutrient levels. Algae scrubber, skimmer, refugium, Roller mats.
-When you do run into algae problems just remember you can’t fix it over night. So try to maintain patients.
-Dip all corals and quarantine anything wet that goes into your tank unless purchased from someone that has already quarantined and you trust their quarantine process.
-Preventative maintenance is less costly than reactive maintenance.
-And last but not least, expect to have failures, mortalities, mistakes. Just remember it’s inevitable and happens to everyone. Patients is key in this hobby, you’ll hear it all the time. Nothing good happens in a reef tank over night. Changes/rectifications take weeks or months most times so do lots of research before you implement something and have patients while you wait.
Best of luck
