Not sure if this hobby is for me.

[Big_Mclargehuge]

Hey. I'm just frustrated. My tank hasnt really been nice to look at since I started it in May. It's a 32 gallon Biocube. I had the typical diatoms bloom, algae bloom, gha. All the uglies. Corals are struggling. They will look good some days and other days they seem unhappy. Now I'm dealing with what seems like dinos. I understand this is a hobby of patience but all I seem to be doing is throwing money down the drain. Sorry for being negative. Just needed to vent.

 

[tautog83]

Sometimes you just need to start fresh , you have more tools and knowledge than when you first started . It's a small tank so its relatively easy to do . Thsts what worked for me when I first started

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I prefer shredding my money as it tends to clog the drains.

Honestly its easy to slump and feel beaten by reefing. Take one issue at the time and realize its a marathon not a sprint. You got this man.

Dinos are a long fight sometimes but generally start with getting nutrients back up above zero. Blackouts and hydrogen peroxide dosing seem to help most but a positive ID is the best starting point.

 

[HuduVudu]

In any hobby the common knowledge is wrong. The problem is that so many people repeat it that it seems like it is true. Seperating the chaff from the wheat is a difficult problem and requires a high degree of dedication. I wanted to learn how to sing. I followed the common knowledge and I adhered to it. After a year and a half I figured out two things, the common knowledge really is wrong and what I needed to do if I wanted to sing. At that point I needed to make a decsion do I want to do the difficult and uncomfortable things that are needed to really sing or do I want to quit. I chose to quit. I didn't want to do those thing. I have no shame, because the journey taught me a lot.

Good luck in this soul searching moment. It isn't easy and I wish you the best.

 

[Daniel92481]

We all get frustrated at times with this hobby. I think that’s part of the awesomeness of being a truly successful reef keeper. If it was easy, everyone would do it. Sometimes it’s a long, hard, uphill battle.

Other times, it’s enjoying the hot pink bioluminescence on your coralline that decided to show up right when you sat down to drink a beer.

Hang in there!

 

[brandon429]

Check this 32 out

look at what we did at every step to address the challenges


in my opinion if you redo your current tank as this one then outcomes streamline

Cycling a new Biocube 32

Hello all! My name is Daniel from Florida and I’m starting to get into the reef hobby. I have been cycling my tank for two weeks now and logging it into an app. I have recently been gifted a live rock with some good amount of coralline on it. I also got some water from and established tank. My...

www.reef2reef.com

notice how at every step we did opposite of what the masses would do

when we start reefs on white rock vs coralline live rock, special steps are needed

dinos was prevented in his tank within the first ten days, we did not own or respond to a phosphate or nitrate test. Responding to them, those two params, is common though and so are dinos challenges. We considered what the masses would do, then did opposite. Daniel had done 4 full water changes before we had to get mean

predictably it’s a safe bet this tank has never had anywhere near one full change. We handle feeding, water changes, external rock gardening and testing for params very unusually. The entire trajectory is on file above.

that reef isn’t going to have phosguard or any other phosphate media on it, so no dinos. Daniels system is too hands on to get dinos. We discussed it on page one long before any other details: don’t test for nitrate, or phosphate and dont own phosphate or nitrate adsorbing media in a new white rock reef, and agree to clean it. then after that’s aligned, we can feed it so much all your corals will grow even though there’s no maturity or coralline. On file above

we could not CPR cheat a 200 gallon reef this way. But we did do this way on a nano due to easy access


you are too hands off for the system friendly offer. Time to get in elbow deep, until you earn coralline, then it gets easier

Nobody here would have advised any aspect of what we did there, we used uncommon rules

 

[User1]

Virtual hug. Pat on the back. Almost three years in and I have a cyano outbreak. Also have aiptasia. Not sweating it really. It is what it is. Funny thing is my last dive trip guess what I saw at about 90 feet? Cyano

Patience is true. Throwing good money after bad money down the drain though you shouldn't be. After initial investment things should be more or less ok until later. If you are still managing new tank chemistry and balance take a step back and stop.

Venting though is perfectly fine. We all do it. Is the hobby right for you? Only you can answer that. Maybe make a top 5 or 10 list of things that are bugging or stressing you out that prevents you from enjoyment. Then pick the top two and fix in January.

 

[MarshallB]

The first year always sucks when you try to keep an aquarium. There just isn't a way around it. It requires a lot of attention and monitoring till it stabilizes.

Crap I fed too much now Cyano is starting to take hold. Crap now I over corrected and there isn't enough nutrients and now I have Dinos.

The first year or two the tank is just ultra sensitive to everything. It's also why people don't make it passed it. It's extremely easy for everything to go to hell in a hand bag quick. If you hold on long enough then eventually you will make it over that hill.

I'm going through that now. However, i've kept freshwater for many years. I see my freshwater tank and other than needing to feed it and fill up the Co2 canister each year it doesn't need me to keep it stable. I would purposely have to screw it up to get it to crash. It took about a year and a half before the effort needed to keep it up dropped significantly.

At the end of the day we are choosing to keep a part of the ocean.... If that has only taught me one thing then it is that the Earth is an extremely impressive planet.

 

[Big_Mclargehuge]

I prefer shredding my money as it tends to clog the drains.

Honestly its easy to slump and feel beaten by reefing. Take one issue at the time and realize its a marathon not a sprint. You got this man.

Dinos are a long fight sometimes but generally start with getting nutrients back up above zero. Blackouts and hydrogen peroxide dosing seem to help most but a positive ID is the best starting point.

I guess that's where I'm at. Now I'm buying ANOTHER tool. Not that a microscope is expensive but it's just one more thing lol. My nutrients are up. Not sure of it's dinos but it seems like it. Thanks.

 

[Big_Mclargehuge]

The first year always sucks when you try to keep an aquarium. There just isn't a way around it. It requires a lot of attention and monitoring till it stabilizes.

Crap I fed too much now Cyano is starting to take hold. Crap now I over corrected and there isn't enough nutrients and now I have Dinos.

The first year or two the tank is just ultra sensitive to everything. It's also why people don't make it passed it. It's extremely easy for everything to go to hell in a hand bag quick. If you hold on long enough then eventually you will make it over that hill.

I'm going through that now. However, i've kept freshwater for many years. I see my freshwater tank and other than needing to feed it and fill up the Co2 canister each year it doesn't need me to keep it stable. I would purposely have to screw it up to get it to crash. It took about a year and a half before the effort needed to keep it up dropped significantly.

At the end of the day we are choosing to keep a part of the ocean.... If that has only taught me one thing then it is that the Earth is an extremely impressive planet.

Yeah for sure. Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll keep at it. Just wish I wouldn't have put it in my living room. I almost don't like looking at it lol.

 

[Big_Mclargehuge]

Virtual hug. Pat on the back. Almost three years in and I have a cyano outbreak. Also have aiptasia. Not sweating it really. It is what it is. Funny thing is my last dive trip guess what I saw at about 90 feet? Cyano

Patience is true. Throwing good money after bad money down the drain though you shouldn't be. After initial investment things should be more or less ok until later. If you are still managing new tank chemistry and balance take a step back and stop.

Venting though is perfectly fine. We all do it. Is the hobby right for you? Only you can answer that. Maybe make a top 5 or 10 list of things that are bugging or stressing you out that prevents you from enjoyment. Then pick the top two and fix in January.

Thanks. Mainly it's just that the tank looks so ugly half the time. Also the corals start to look good then bam they look like they are struggling. Super frustrating but I'll keep at it until I can't.

 

[Big_Mclargehuge]

Sometimes you just need to start fresh , you have more tools and knowledge than when you first started . It's a small tank so its relatively easy to do . Thsts what worked for me when I first started

What do you mean fresh start exactly? I'm definitely not starting a new tank lol

 

[tautog83]

What do you mean fresh start exactly? I'm definitely not starting a new tank lol

Sell your corals , boil your rocks and start fresh . Its 30 gallons . I mean it seems easy enough then staring at a tank that you dont enjoy .

 

[Big_Mclargehuge]

Sell your corals , boil your rocks and start fresh . Its 30 gallons . I mean it seems easy enough then staring at a tank that you dont enjoy .

But basically I'm going to be going through an ugly phase again. And killing off all good bacteria

 

[iamacat]

But basically I'm going to be going through an ugly phase again. And killing off all good bacteria

No you won’t. Use what you have learned and start a good foundation. You can seed bacteria fast and prevent that algae from being an issue. You do need to have the right plan in place or you will just be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

 

[Potatohead]

All I will say is hang in there. I have felt the same way many times and I am going through one of those annoying times now. Only thing is now I have been through it enough to know it will come around. In your position you don't really know that yet because you haven't seen it with your own eyes

Go to basics. Feed the tank a decent amount, do your water changes. Stop running GFO, carbon dosing, aminos etc if you are doing anything like that. Things may get worse before they get better but eventually things will balance out.

 

[Rick.45cal]

First couple years are rough, especially if you started with dry rock and not all live rock. It’s hard to see mature tanks on here and understand the true timeline of how long it has taken to get there. This hobby is hard for many reasons, and one of the biggest ones in the beginning is learning to love an ugly imbalanced tank that’s really a swan disguised as an ugly duckling. There really is no magic cure to that except time and keeping your parameters as constant as you can. At some point if you do your part, and avoid overdoing your part, your tank will bloom and it will start being beautiful.

The only way to shorten that timeline is to start with beautiful nice live rock full of life straight from the ocean. But that’s hard to come by these days, and would require a significant investment on your part as well.

Just persevere and you and your tank will get there. Just so you know, this isn’t fun for most of us ALL the time, it’s a rollercoaster ride of emotions taking care of a complex ecosystem.

 

[Big_Mclargehuge]

No you won’t. Use what you have learned and start a good foundation. You can seed bacteria fast and prevent that algae from being an issue. You do need to have the right plan in place or you will just be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

Yeah I'm not sure I feel confident enough to do that. If I'm sticking with it I'd rather figure out what's going on and how to beat it. I don't have the confidence that I would be able to get it right the second time since I don't know what I've done right or wrong this time lol. I mean I have some idea but seems like no one really has any answers on what to do and not to do. Everyone does something different and different things work for different people. People that have been in the hobby for years still deal with uglies etc... So idk.

 

[Greg Gdowski]

Yup. We all ago through this.
With a tank that size, I would clean up the gravel as best I could and then make sure to hit the tank with very regular 20-30% weekly water changes. If you are not using RO/DI water, bite the bullet and get a system. Another good thing to get if you don't have one is an automatic water top-off. Unfortunately, part of the secret of this hobby is becoming militant about routine maintenance. I usually fall on my face when I let my guard down.

 

[Big_Mclargehuge]

First couple years are rough, especially if you started with dry rock and not all live rock. It’s hard to see mature tanks on here and understand the true timeline of how long it has taken to get there. This hobby is hard for many reasons, and one of the biggest ones in the beginning is learning to love an ugly imbalanced tank that’s really a swan disguised as an ugly duckling. There really is no magic cure to that except time and keeping your parameters as constant as you can. At some point if you do your part, and avoid overdoing your part, your tank will bloom and it will start being beautiful.

The only way to shorten that timeline is to start with beautiful nice live rock full of life straight from the ocean. But that’s hard to come by these days, and would require a significant investment on your part as well.

Just persevere and you and your tank will get there. Just so you know, this isn’t fun for most of us ALL the time, it’s a rollercoaster ride of emotions taking care of a complex ecosystem.

Thanks. I needed to hear that. It's just super frustrating at times.