What's something you wish you knew sooner?

[jheidenthal]

Coming into the SW hobby from freshwater, What's something you wish you would've known when you started?
Mine is big tanks>more smaller tanks.

 

[Webslinger]

SLOW! and steady wins the race.

 

[New&no clue]

You can’t calibrate a refractometer with RODI water

when testing you read and measure from the plunger line not the water line

You have to mix your salt before adding to water

you don’t need to heat water to mix salt. Heating water to much cause the salt to precipitate.

Rocks soak up a bunch of stuff and then leech it back out, so your parameters will Yo-Yo when you try to change them.

epoxy can cause O2 drops so agitate the water surface when using and afterwards.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

That keeping a reef tank doesn't require an advanced degree in chemistry, biology, and the ability to control the minds of lesser creatures. With all the chemicals, equipment, etc out there it seemed like a daunting task to keep a nice looking reef (and maybe that was true a few decades ago) and that put me off from going down this road for a while. Turns out it's not that hard, doesn't require you to use all of the weird chemicals and expensive equipment, nor do I need to be Aquaman and commune with my livestock to maintain a happy, healthy tank.

 

[mrlavalamp]

getting in on this thread as I am re-entering after a long hiatus.

When I was in the hobby previously, I learned the hard way that too much too fast in terms of livestock and equipment can make things difficult. I was in over my head and straight up couldn't afford it anymore.

 

[Hemmdog]

Wait at least a year until you give acropora a shot, the tanks need ample time to mature.

 

[Hemmdog]

Also “Buy once, cry once”

 

[Potatohead]

That phosphate is not the arch nemesis of a successful reef tank

 

[Auquanut]

An ounce of research is worth a pound of money! Wow! That's profound. I might just copyright it.

 

[Quietman]

To not read any version of the article "Saltwater tanks are easy as freshwater!". They're not.....they're just not. And I run high tech planted aquariums.

Here's the difference...if you do everything right on a freshwater tank you're going to be guaranteed some high measure of success almost immediately.

Don't get me wrong, I love my reef tank...but hoo boy, this isn't for the faint of heart or easily discouraged.

 

[Quietman]

An once of research is worth a pound of money! Wow! That's profound. I might just copyright it.

For a reef tank that should be a ton of money.

 

[stanleo]

How easy it is to make your own sump. Would have saved me a lot of money

 

[jheidenthal]

How easy it is to make your own sump. Would have saved me a lot of money

I plan on building a sump out of a spare 29g I have laying around!

 

[Quietman]

On the big tank > small tanks. Had a very experienced reef keeper decode that popular saying for me (saving me a lot of time and money). He said, "Yes, you're more likely to be successful with a bigger tank, but it's also much more work and much, much more expensive."

 

[Webslinger]

KISS, just as in life.

 

[Sailingeric]

How easy it is to make your own sump. Would have saved me a lot of money

Mine is a 20 gallon long, think I paid less than $25 for it.

 

[stanleo]

Mine is a 20 gallon long, think I paid less than $25 for it.

Yep. I made my new sump out of a 55 gallon tank I had. Cost me about 30 bucks as opposed to the 400$ old sump that is less than half the size!

 

[Devisissy]

To not read any version of the article "Saltwater tanks are easy as freshwater!". They're not.....they're just not. And I run high tech planted aquariums.

Here's the difference...if you do everything right on a freshwater tank you're going to be guaranteed some high measure of success almost immediately.

Don't get me wrong, I love my reef tank...but hoo boy, this isn't for the faint of heart or easily discouraged.

Planted tanks are 100% more difficult than reef. My Reef is auto pilot. My planted tank is so difficult and takes daily tweaking to maintain. Because things move so fast, little mistakes cascade very quickly. In reef you have time to adjust.

 

[Willis19]

To know how to identify early stages of marine diseases - so you dont bring Trojan fish to your display tank.

 

[60CubeReefer]

Quarantine quarantine quarantine! Keep aiptasia, vermetid snails, bubble algae out of your tank at all costs. The time/effort/money you spend trying to fix the issue will significantly outweigh the effort you put into quarantining. AND you may never get rid of it completely once introduced!