To all the hobbyists getting started

[Clo]

Honestly R2R has been the best resource because I can research as much as I want before I post, and then take each advice with a grain of salt lol. But, I do agree that as someone who is new, it's very easy to fall into the trap of man I need to do all this [super extra stuff] so that my tank looks good as this very obviously 3 year old very mature and stable tank.

 

[schuby]

1. Live rock from ocean for biodiversity.
2. Don't starve your tank trying to prevent algae. Algae & dinos will be the last things surviving due to their incredible efficiency: they are the cockroaches of the ocean. Keep algae & dinos in check with healthy competition.
3. If you have fish, provide enough rock (or other hiding places) for their positive mental health and feed them: less aggression & healthier.
4. Have a plan up front to export nutrients. If it's not working good enough, revise. Repeat as necessary.
5. Try not to panic and perform knee-jerk reactions.
6. Allow time to go by: make gradual changes. Living things require time to mature and grow.
7. Enjoy the journey of watching a glass box full of life grow and change right before your eyes!

 

[reefinatl]

I feel people just start way to complicated. Everyone jumps in and go wall to wall SPS. It's odd seeing total newbs pursuing acro frags right off the bat. Grow out some softy and lps colonies and ramp up. Less heartache less headache less money and more success.

 

[ZoWhat]

Zoa what,
I am ok with the time to let things mature.
I find very confusing the huge mix of answers when I search a question, or even visit my LFS. It has almost become a game. I have been to over 10 LFS within 3 hours of my house. Much of the wisdom passed from the local store on what I would hope be basics / fundamentals just swings all over the place.
My tank is six months since cycled. The tank has had rock/water for 9 months but my cycling got interrupted and what I now believe some bad information from two different LFS.
When in a high tech store near me, he advised me to reduce the size of my water changes and increase the frequency - his advice - weekly 10%. I have been doing monthly 25%. He advised on my magnesium and ALK numbers to do not use chemicals for the first year and get my tank working with filtration and water changes.
The other store that frankly has much better looking corals and fish but much more old school supplies - Kalkwasser vs reactor. Salifert testing vs Spintronic. This store advised me recently - don't do a water change until my Nitrates or Phosphates need dilution. I have been testing every three days and working to get my parameters in line. Currently temp 79.0, Salinity 1.026, Ph 7.8, Alk 9.8, Nitrate 12, calc 465, Magnesium 1440 and phosphates .13. My magnesium was 1200 two weeks ago, so I have been adding IONS magnesium supplement to work it up to 1400 goal.

Over the past 3 months I have killed a dozen frags - probably some poor choices for the stage of my tank, some with poor dipping technique and burned them, three that had a chance of surviving until my "might be reef safe Lemonpeel angel" ate the Duncan, Candy Cane and Zoas and some with parameter movement.

My view at this point - and is changing with the time in the aquarium is sorta like cooking - 10,000 ways to make dinner. Some terms are used casually such as "stable" "parameter swings" and "flow". What is the definition of a stable tank? What can I look at or measure that would tell me my tank has reached this goal? What is a parameter swing? If my ALK moves up from 9.4 to 9.9 in a week - is that too much? The packaging on Seachem and Brightwell products might be scientifically accurate but almost everything I read or hear talks about ALK in dK but Seachem much be in ppm thus involving 2.8 factor math. My "go to LFS" answered my flow question in terms I can understand...is the anemone out or closed up. If out -
Closed - too much flow (or digesting dinner)
Lazy fingers gently moving in different directions - flow close to perfect
Fingers all out to one size flapping like the leash behind the running dog - too much flow

Ok...back to my afternoon project of supergluing my fingers to the frames of my glasses

Thank you for the thought provoking post.
So much to learn...glad I am not one of my coral frags.

When it comes down to certain husbandry skills.... yeah you have advice all over the board.

Just like making homemade vegetable soup... everyone has their own recipe and ways of doing it..

My advice from a Big Picture prospective is this not a hobby that can yield big beautiful results inside the 1st year.... and be sustained

You don't plant a tree in your yard and expect a 50ft beautifully rounded tree in 3mos


.

 

[GuppyHJD]

Great post! And you make a very fair point! Tons of info out there and this is a complex hobby.

Recommend you find a top private coral seller in your area and have him/her take you under their wing. I found @StourysReef and he has become my mentor. I buy most of my corals through him and he sits me down and explains everything to me.

Thank you...the search begins

 

[TuxUrchin07]

 

[PeterC99]

Thank you...the search begins

Good luck!

 

[GuppyHJD]

I feel people just start way to complicated. Everyone jumps in and go wall to wall SPS. It's odd seeing total newbs pursuing acro frags right off the bat. Grow out some softy and lps colonies and ramp up. Less heartache less headache less money and more success.

I agree, but then if a new to aquariums walks into their LFS, they are steered in front of the 200 display tank, handed a Red Sea pamphlet that shows this multiple tank types and once you choose, here is the step-by-step Red Sea products you need to make that tank happen - in a perfect world, until GHA, Cyano, Ick, etc hits. Then the LFS has to find another new client and somebody gets a dirty setup for 50% cost on Marketplace. No place in the information given to the new reefer are they told that cycling in 3 days from a bottle is unrealistic. Nowhere are they told that they can't have the pretty corals, a seahorse, Nemo, and anyfish in the store in their 60 gallon AIO RedSea.

 

[GuppyHJD]

When it comes down to certain husbandry skills.... yeah you have advice all over the board.

Just like making homemade vegetable soup... everyone has their own recipe and ways of doing it..

My advice from a Big Picture prospective is this not a hobby that can yield big beautiful results inside the 1st year.... and be sustained

You don't plant a tree in your yard and expect a 50ft beautifully rounded tree in 3mos


.

I totally agree. I cannot count the number of times I have heard or read, I am on Day 9 of Dr. Tim's plan, I have followed every step, my Ammonia is 4.0 using a API test - can I add four clownfish, two tangs, Sailfin Angel, a cleaner shrimp and five corals. At that point, it's fun to watch the LFS staff start trying to slow the train.

 

[vetteguy53081]

the one that frequents is ::

help- Please Identify. I bought these 4 corals today at LFS and not sure what they are, Can someone please help id and tell me what care they need?

Its like wow, but I do answer respectfully despite wondering why are they buying something and not knowing what it is and if it is easy or challenging to the most experienced hobbyist.

Bottom line- Grunt all you want but do help them regardless and if it rattles your bones that much, simply dont reply rather than asking them why are they buying it or need a different hobby

 

[reefinatl]

I agree, but then if a new to aquariums walks into their LFS, they are steered in front of the 200 display tank, handed a Red Sea pamphlet that shows this multiple tank types and once you choose, here is the step-by-step Red Sea products you need to make that tank happen - in a perfect world, until GHA, Cyano, Ick, etc hits. Then the LFS has to find another new client and somebody gets a dirty setup for 50% cost on Marketplace. No place in the information given to the new reefer are they told that cycling in 3 days from a bottle is unrealistic. Nowhere are they told that they can't have the pretty corals, a seahorse, Nemo, and anyfish in the store in their 60 gallon AIO RedSea.

What are some good tankmates for my undulated trigger? Currently in a 13.5 fluval, should be fine they grow slow.

 

[JCM]

1. Live rock from ocean for biodiversity.
2. Don't starve your tank trying to prevent algae. Algae & dinos will be the last things surviving due to their incredible efficiency: they are the cockroaches of the ocean. Keep algae & dinos in check with healthy competition.
3. If you have fish, provide enough rock (or other hiding places) for their positive mental health and feed them: less aggression & healthier.
4. Have a plan up front to export nutrients. If it's not working good enough, revise. Repeat as necessary.
5. Try not to panic and perform knee-jerk reactions.
6. Allow time to go by: make gradual changes. Living things require time to mature and grow.
7. Enjoy the journey of watching a glass box full of life grow and change right before your eyes!

So many more newcomers would have success if they followed this to a tee.

 

[GuppyHJD]

the one that frequents is ::

help- Please Identify. I bought these 4 corals today at LFS and not sure what they are, Can someone please help id and tell me what care they need?

Its like wow, but I do answer respectfully despite wondering why are they buying something and not knowing what it is and if it is easy or challenging to the most experienced hobbyist.

Bottom line- Grunt all you want but do help them regardless and if it rattles your bones that much, simply dont reply rather than asking them why are they buying it or need a different hobby

Vetteguy - thank you. You have helped me before.
I can say, often the LFS gave them an name but when the customer got home, did a few google searches and found out - what they bought and what they thought they had bought are not the same thing.
I left Reef A Palooza with more money than I expected. When I asked about corals and were given the "if your parameters are fine, these corals are healthy and will grow like crazy". I asked one vendor about flow and light settings and he was on target - he replied "why ask that - you are not going to change your tank for this coral, start them in low light and flow and then keep moving until they are happy".

 

[Blumy]

Keep testing to a minimum. Chasing numbers leads to big swings IMO. Your tank will tell you something is wrong by looking at it. I am all SPS with a single Duncan. Opened big, water is dirty. Real small, water is too clean. I manually dose the same amounts of supplements religiously never deviating. Stability stability stability.

 

[GuppyHJD]

Keep testing to a minimum. Chasing numbers leads to big swings IMO. Your tank will tell you something is wrong by looking at it. I am all SPS with a single Duncan. Opened big, water is dirty. Real small, water is too clean. I manually dose the same amounts of supplements religiously never deviating. Stability stability stability.

I hope to get there some day...too early...and killing too many frags at this point.

 

[missourimud]

Been involved in racing for over 50 years. Don't know what kind of race cars your talking about but. The ones you buy from a dealershipfor 60K are not race cars! They are mid life crisis cars for guys on Viagra. Real race cars do in fact mature their engine before they are raced. It's called break in time on the dyno. Much like maturing a tank it needs to break in.

*virtually* was what I was getting at. And again breaking the engine in on said dyno=those dang experienced people. I remember driving an m3 with the s52, came with a sticker on the windshield almost in your vision reminding me not to exceed 7200rpm for at least the first 5k miles ugh its like everything in life teaches patience

 

[Rmckoy]

the one that frequents is ::

help- Please Identify. I bought these 4 corals today at LFS and not sure what they are, Can someone please help id and tell me what care they need?

Its like wow, but I do answer respectfully despite wondering why are they buying something and not knowing what it is and if it is easy or challenging to the most experienced hobbyist.

Bottom line- Grunt all you want but do help them regardless and if it rattles your bones that much, simply dont reply rather than asking them why are they buying it or need a different hobby

Same goes . There was a article I believe from noaa or someone else .
If you bought a dog and it died ,
Bought another. And it died too ,
How many do you end up buying to watch die .
This is supposedly the normal for fish and corals

 

[Fezbearer]

What are some good tankmates for my undulated trigger? Currently in a 13.5 fluval, should be fine they grow slow.

Need to add a couple of tangs.

 

[hotdrop]

Personally I’ve learned that there are a lot of places you CAN get coral from but
there are actually very few vendors you SHOULD buy from especially local ones.

Beginners aren’t setup to qt or inspect correctly even dipping is a bit of an art so your key to success is to pay more and source only from the best vendors (ones that keep grow their own frags and have super clean systems). Also don’t buy wwc seriously just check out all the horror threads about em.

 

[fcmatt]

Eh? People don't want to read, study, or research now days. Let's not beat around the bush here. It is sheer laziness when you have the internet available now days.