What separates aquarists with thriving tanks vs those that are falling apart?

WhalesLovePineapple · Nov 4, 2018

I've seen quite a few home aquariums and they always seem to fall into 2 buckets - thriving or crashing.

Why do you think this is? What is the successful reefer doing that the crashing reefer isn't?

Joshua2598 · Nov 4, 2018

Mines somewhere in between right now, and I have to say its because of how much time your dedicating to your tank out of your day

jabberwock · Nov 4, 2018

B-A-L-A-N-C-E

John3 · Nov 4, 2018

It was all the learning and up front work I did over the first 6 months that has now made my aquarium pretty easy to maintain and is thriving.

I think the people who don’t have the patients up front pay for it dearly down the road.

Billldg · Nov 4, 2018

A lot of Knowledge and ALOT of LUCK!!!

Oscaror · Nov 4, 2018

Stability! I have a stable 40 ppm of nitrates and my system is doing terribly. Stay away from it!
Just kidding

But a stable system is very important, corals especially SPS don't really like fluctuation.

Rpc07 · Nov 4, 2018

John3 said:
It was all the learning and up front work I did over the first 6 months that has now made my aquarium pretty easy to maintain and is thriving.

I think the people who don’t have the patients up front pay for it dearly down the road.

I disagree with this statement. I’ve done nothing but research, planning and doing everything “by the book” and splurging on top notch equipment I cant keep an Acro alive for more then a month at this point.

John3 · Nov 4, 2018

Rpc07 said:
I disagree with this statement. I’ve done nothing but research, planning and doing everything “by the book” and splurging on top notch equipment I can keep an Acro alive for more then a month at this point.

How old is your tank?

Rpc07 · Nov 4, 2018

John3 said:
How old is your tank?

Just rounding the year mark

John3 · Nov 4, 2018

My tank wouldn’t have been ready for real SPS corals til probably 18 months. It literally takes that long for a system to balance out good enough for SPS.

While I don’t grow any tough SPS I also know it’s a next level of learning. Every variable that matters for softies and LPS is just that much more in depth with SPS.

Once you get past the learning and balancing it becomes easier. After the first 6 months I thought I would be doing maintenance on the tank every day and it would consume all my spare time. Now I just stare at it and do maintenance once a week for an hour. Of course I only have s 29G, so I do admit larger systems might be more work.

Rpc07 · Nov 4, 2018

John3 said:
My tank wouldn’t have been ready for real SPS corals til probably 18 months. It literally takes that long for a system to balance out good enough for SPS.

While I don’t grow any tough SPS I also know it’s a next level of learning. Every variable that matters for softies and LPS is just that much more in depth with SPS.

I’ll keep chugging along

Alfrareef · Nov 4, 2018

All the above, capable to make changes when needed and some controlled luck.
Luck with the equipment, rock and animals...

Paul B · Nov 4, 2018

I think the tanks with the most tinkering, testing and tweeking do the worst and have the most problems and many Noobs fall into this category.

symon_say · Nov 5, 2018

Patience, husbandry and your hands out of the tank when not necessary.

Reefing is a long run race, but most people think is a 100m race.

And when something doesn't work in 1 or 2 weeks, they try something new and there goes the snow ball.

biecacka · Nov 5, 2018

I think patience is a big one. Nothing good happens over night and we see all these beautiful tanks and it looks so easy....but it takes time.

Corey

TheWalkman99 · Nov 5, 2018

I think dedicating time to the tank.
My reef tank and 180 cichlid tank I stay religious about water changes and keeping the glass clean. And they look amazing.
Vs my two breeding tanks look terrible because I don’t put as much time in.

Waters · Nov 5, 2018

Knowledge....of what to do and what not to do.

rkpetersen · Nov 5, 2018

WhalesLovePineapple said:
I've seen quite a few home aquariums and they always seem to fall into 2 buckets - thriving or crashing.

Why do you think this is? What is the successful reefer doing that the crashing reefer isn't?

1. Solid foundation of knowledge both theoretical and practical.
2. Maintaining water quality and stability.
3. Monitoring conditions closely (by whatever means works for you) and carefully reacting to small problems before they get big.
4. High quality equipment, or at least good enough that failures are rare.
5. Obtaining livestock from quality sources, close inspection on receipt, and dip/quarantine.
6. Patience.

Salps · Nov 5, 2018

I am going to throw my hat in the ring and say that it is understanding the chemistry. What parts of the system should fluctuate slightly and which ones should not. Understand things like the relationship between alkalinity, calcium and magnesium. Lean how the amount of carbon, nitrate and phosphate and more important the lack of one of those elements effect the bacteria and corals in the tank. Learn how long a change we make to our tank actually takes to see the results. In my experience the time is much longer than I originally thought.

Cory · Nov 5, 2018

Honestly the most successful tanks that i compare in my mind that have been running a long time have one thing in common. They use ozone or uv or both. Maybe its that chemistry or maybe its due to paying attention closely to things like water color.