What are some things new (or old) reefers do that they should avoid trying?

[ReefGeezer]

I'm not a big fan of the whole insta-tank or bottled bacteria trend. I've done it in the past and know it is capable establishing a nitrogen cycle, but that's the easy part anyway. I've come to believe it simply delays maturity and sets up the bigger battle of the "uglies" than with tanks started in a manner that addresses all the nutrient processing pathways.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

This was my aquascape in my 180g, which took about a week with the rocks out of water on the counter, because it all needed to dry. You just can't do this with live rock.

Your scape looks really good.

This absolutely Can be done with live and wet rock. Same steps apply. Break up the rock into smaller pieces, then can go one of two ways, start packing one side (attaching area) with CA glue and activator and build from there, or use epoxy putty and 1/4" acrylic rods. #2 is My preferred. Method. This can all be done in a Rubbermaid tub, keeping your set wet. It is slower than building dry as you need sooner time for the putty to lock down, but you retain your Live rock, and get the NSA type scape.

 

[codenfx]

All this talk of rocks and such made think of this:

People spend too much time on how their aquascape looks today, rather than how it's going to look in the future when it has coral all over it.

Most common problem here is people put their aquascapes entirely too high in the tank, which doesn't leave much room for coral to grow.

I can totally relate. Spent few weeks finding that aquascape I like. I've changed it couple months later and changed it again due to rocks too high or too close to glass which made it hard to clean, granted it's my first saltwater tank. I learned my lesson now for when I upgrade in the future.

 

[homer1475]

I 100% agree that dry rock is the devils advocate.

Never again will I do a tank with dry dead rock. Should be avoided like the plague.

Go have a read through the algae section of the forums. 99% of the issues in there, are from starting with dry rock.

Been in this hobby a long time, up until recently, you never saw the amount of threads about dino's taking over, GHA taking over, etc then with dry rock starts. These things were never an issues back in the day when all that was available was real ocean live rock.

Most of the people that are in, and out of the hobby, start with dry rock and cannot beat back the algae issues you get when you start with dry rock, or just get tired of the daily fight. People want to setup a tank and stare at it, not work on getting rid of algae issues for 6 to 8 months.

Take any piece of dry rock in your tank, I don't care of it's been in there for 10 years, flip it over. Guarantee it's still stark white on the bottom.

I absolutely hate dry rock, but will agree that aquascaping with dry rock is much, much simpler with dry rock.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Buying cheap equipment

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Buying cheap equipment

I've been guilty of that one...in the end you always end up spending more because you have to eventually buy better equipment

 

[ZoWhat]

Someone told @Lost in the Sauce he was wrong?!?

 

[mindme]

I'm not a big fan of the whole insta-tank or bottled bacteria trend. I've done it in the past and know it is capable establishing a nitrogen cycle, but that's the easy part anyway. I've come to believe it simply delays maturity and sets up the bigger battle of the "uglies" than with tanks started in a manner that addresses all the nutrient processing pathways.

I didn't have an ugly stage on my 180g. Because I have 4 tangs. I had some bryopsis which I had to kill, but other than that, no real ugly stage. That tank was started with dry rock, and dry sand. Then to start I used microbacter Start XLM.

I should note that if anyone thinks of using Start XLM to read the instructions. You can not use live sand, or have rocks with bacteria on them.

Same tank as before, 1 year later(6 months ago). This is just the right side. No algae.

Unless you want to talk diatoms, had those. But I mean I hardly consider that stage to be anything to worry about, even the smallest clean up crews can knock that out, and it's just a very short time period as the silicates they feed on get used up.

This is all about clean up crew. Maturity is a matter of having lots of coral, as they take in nutrients as well and can eventually take in much of the bioload.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Following any hype touted as science by certain YouTube videos/series.

edit.. meaning I would not follow the hype, I think I worded that wrong

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

If u go dry rock. Please seed it with some wet live from somewhere.
I don't believe in bottled bacteria on a shelf either sorry.
D

 

[DavidinGA]

Things new reefers should avoid:

Buying high-end (overpriced) equipment
Diving in with overly complex setups (you don't need a 5 compartment sump with 4 reactors bro)
Starting out with dry rock + bottled gimmicks
Running ULN systems
Skipping QT or observation setups
Buying from any LFS that says they don't run copper in their livestock tanks
Advice from reefers who tell you only the newest gear will work
Excessive water changes
Using one giant heater
Using tap water
Petting lionfish
Being unprepared for the inevitable failures that you'll experience as you learn/grow in the hobby.
Chasing pH
CUC (yes, they are not necessary and often a waste of money)
....I have lots more, but that's it for now.

 

[A Young Reefer]

dang I feel inner satisfaction after seeing that there are people out there who also share the same view as mine towards dry and live rock.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Hey I use 1 giant heater and a cuc has its place and needs at certain times I think but I agree with a lot of that said. Lol.
D

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Ultra low nutrients…..
Ultra low maintenance……
Bare bottom/dry rock
Huge refugiums in new tanks with no bio load…
Par, par, par, par, par, par, par, par, par, par, par
Uv, wait make that two uv,s

 

[mindme]

Your scape looks really good.

This absolutely Can be done with live and wet rock. Same steps apply. Break up the rock into smaller pieces, then can go one of two ways, start packing one side (attaching area) with CA glue and activator and build from there, or use epoxy putty and 1/4" acrylic rods. #2 is My preferred. Method. This can all be done in a Rubbermaid tub, keeping your set wet. It is slower than building dry as you need sooner time for the putty to lock down, but you retain your Live rock, and get the NSA type scape.

I barely got those rocks in there when they were dry. The rock on the right is actually missing an arm at the top that went over to the left. I snagged it on bolt from the lights in the back. It was extremely heavy, like 50lbs and awkward. The rock in the middle that the hammer is on is actually that arm. My diamond goby lives under it and has covered a lot of it up with sand.

However, I probably would have realized it was so heavy if I was having to take it in and out of water to work on it. So I guess there is that.

 

[mindme]

Things new reefers should avoid:

Buying high-end (overpriced) equipment
Diving in with overly complex setups (you don't need a 5 compartment sump with 4 reactors bro)
Starting out with dry rock + bottled gimmicks
Running ULN systems
Skipping QT or observation setups
Buying from any LFS that says they don't run copper in their livestock tanks
Advice from reefers who tell you only the newest gear will work
Excessive water changes
Using one giant heater
Using tap water
Petting lionfish
Being unprepared for the inevitable failures that you'll experience as you learn/grow in the hobby.
Chasing pH
CUC (yes, they are not necessary and often a waste of money)
....I have lots more, but that's it for now.

I agree with almost all of this except for the CUC.

However, the best CUC possible for algae are tangs(certain ones, some not as much). So I consider my tangs to be part of my CUC even though they aren't what you would normally buy as "CUC" and I would love to have them anyway.

I'm guessing they easily do 80% of the cleaning in my 180g, maybe more.

 

[Duncan62]

All this talk of rocks and such made think of this:

People spend too much time on how their aquascape looks today, rather than how it's going to look in the future when it has coral all over it.

Most common problem here is people put their aquascapes entirely too high in the tank, which doesn't leave much room for coral to grow.

You said the great thing about dry rock is you can spend so much time designing and modifying the scape? Breaking up rocks and fitting perfectly. Now we're spending to much time on it.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Treating every fish with copper and Prazi pro and saying they've been through 3 fish now.

 

[DavidinGA]

I agree with almost all of this except for the CUC.

However, the best CUC possible for algae are tangs(certain ones, some not as much). So I consider my tangs to be part of my CUC even though they aren't what you would normally buy as "CUC" and I would love to have them anyway.

I'm guessing they easily do 80% of the cleaning in my 180g, maybe more.

Right, I was referring to traditional cuc like you need x amount of snails and x amount of crabs, etc. = Garbage.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

For real. I look at some of the suggested cuc packages and think won't over half that starve in my tank? It's not a jungle...
Lol
D