Poof No Eyebrows
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Welcome
Fish Think Pink
5000 Club Member
Welcome! You are in the right place.... and bigger is not always better. (giggle)
These days I have 1 180g tank but at one point I had 5 'normal' sized tanks... there are advantages in being able to move fish and corals into completely different tanks that only come from HAVING different tanks. I think you are starting off great, and everything you learn will help your future tanks, too
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Welcome to R2R
The first year is the hardest by far. If you have patience you will succeed!!!
The first year is the hardest by far. If you have patience you will succeed!!!
OP
OP
MelodiB
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LOL thanks. Gives me hope. Thought I was doing so good. Then BAM and my tank is ugly and my poor critters are not happy. Just hoping I don't lose anyone. Started with cheaper stock but even the cheap stuff isn't cheap!
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MelodiB
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Last night I was wondering about the success rate of going to hubby and explaining the need for a hospital tank LOL. I'm not giving up. I'm going to persist. There is SO much to learn.
Fish Think Pink
5000 Club Member
my favorite QT is just 5 gallon tank from Petco that came with most everything. My advice, don't get round/bow front but go traditional shape. Think the curve freaked out fish and also made it hard to see the fish in quarantine. Currently I'm growing red ogo for my tangs in QT, because I used Vibrant to treat bad bubble algae and it also ate my macro algae. Then, using Reef Flux to treat for a type of hair algae, my yellow tang seemed to start dying! (Yellow tangs are the coal mine canary equivalent in reef tanks IMO) Fortunately my QT was already up and so over in there he went.... Now in there 2+ weeks able to eat all the Red Ogo he can... sure he thinks he went to heaven... though I'm making plans to move him back to display tank. I finished my Reef Flux treatment this weekend, 20% water change and running charcoal, so everything else looking good in my main tank. Not going to move my yellow too fast back, as there is stress just moving so don't want to move there only to have to take back out... Having another tank is handy. When I don't use my QT tanks, I store them next to my WFH desk in corner out of sight. NOTE: if you get that 5g Petco combo tank setup they sell, and want to grow macro algae, you will need a different top & light (but its only a few who will do what I did... when I can move the ogo back to my sump when Vibrant is over, then my QT will go back to being a real QT)
GOOD LUCK with getting your QT!
OP
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MelodiB
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So do you just keep the QT tanks ready to go? What, if anything, do you keep in them all the time? Thanks for the bowed tank advice! And im headed over to petco.
Fish Think Pink
5000 Club Member
Normally, no I don't have a QT ready to go. Normally, QT lives out of sight in corner. When I'm getting ready to buy something, I setup QT and get it running for a while, then new fish comes in, goes into QT for observation. Once new fish has been in QT 2-4 weeks (others will say longer), I move it from QT to main tank. I wash QT and store it. Purpose of quarantine is keep anything bad from getting into main tank, because it is much harder to treat main tank than little tank... and there are more things in main tank that might not like treatments...
Make sure your combo has a heater or get a little heater if your QT combo doesn't come with a heater.
If I had done better QT practice then all those bad types of algae I'm treating would not have need treating in my main tank. I bought a used tank with rocks, anemones, fish, corals and the algae that I'm trying to get rid of with Reef Flux came in tank. The dip I used on corals didn't get the bubble algae spores, so that's why I'm using Vibrant. Most algae are good; I just have some bad types that were getting out of control. Bulk Reef Supply has some good QT videos for fish and corals. Had i followed their coral advice (toss plug or peroxide) then maybe bubble algae would not have arrived. It took maybe a month to show up after buying frag... I don't QT corals, but maybe I should get a better light for over my QT tank so I could do that too... hindsight... Note, soft corals & mushrooms if you take off corals there is a LOT of work to get them to attach to something new... I have a CPR tank from BRS for those...
Salty Rambler
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Welcome to R2R! There are a few good sticky threads in the "Fish Discussion" sub-forum with all the details on QT best practices, but I'd note that while many of us don't keep the QT tank up and running all of the time, some of us keep an extra, inexpensive aquarium filter sponge in our DT filter or sump, so that it can become populated with beneficial bacteria from the main tank. That way when a QT is needed, it can quickly be set up by transferring the sponge into the QT tank.
monkeyCmonkeyDo
7500 Club Member
Slow and steady wins this race. Dont go dosing this or that for this or that. Do the 10 minute maintence everyday and do a wc if needed. You and your tank will overcome. If you have a problem. Look at it and the solution. If it needs more flow. More filtration. Ect.
Or ask. Lol
D
Or ask. Lol
D
HawkeyeDJ
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Welcome! I too am a noob to reefs. The people here are very helpful. They are passionate about the hobby and more than happy to help.
I have found that the search button usually helps a lot, too. Almost any question I have has already been discussed extensively, either in a thread or in an article.
Right now I'm in my 4th week of cycling my 24g nano cube. I'm a very patient person. Fish may go in maybe in another week or two.
Not looking forward to the 'uglies' but it sounds like it is inevitable.
Anyway, welcome and good luck!
I have found that the search button usually helps a lot, too. Almost any question I have has already been discussed extensively, either in a thread or in an article.
Right now I'm in my 4th week of cycling my 24g nano cube. I'm a very patient person. Fish may go in maybe in another week or two.
Not looking forward to the 'uglies' but it sounds like it is inevitable.
Anyway, welcome and good luck!
BaysEndReef
Anthony
lelandmarine
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welcome!
Here’s a good website for dinoflagellates if you have a microscope. It’s really helpful to know which dinoflagellate you’re dealing with.
algaeid.com
Here’s a good site for algae information in general
General reef hitchhikers
www.reef2reef.com

Here’s a good website for dinoflagellates if you have a microscope. It’s really helpful to know which dinoflagellate you’re dealing with.
Identification
If you currently have pest algae in your aquarium and would like help identifying your pest, please consider mailing me a sample. I can provide an ID, and if your pest isn’t already pictured h…
algaeid.com
Here’s a good site for algae information in general
General reef hitchhikers
What is that!! A R2R guide to common new tank hitchhikers.
One of the greatest things about starting a reef tank is getting your live rock in and admiring all the diversity within it. The rock comes to life different creatures. This is a guide that I, along with a very well known critter identifier @KJ , have put together for the new reefer on what...
www.reef2reef.com

Manny’s Reef
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Hello and welcome to R2R. You'll like it here.
