One year advice

[CafeReef]

Today is my first reef tanks 1st birthday. I debated on getting a smash cake for it, but figured my son would probably feel left out....

I wanted to post my best advice in a couple of items that I have learned in this first year of reefing.

1. Read the stickies and ask on the stocking list sticky about your intended :fish1: friend before throwing your prized hippo tang in your biocube (Yes I went there)

2. Be patient (can't emphasize this more), even a nano like what I have can be extremely successful and very little maintenance with patience.

3. Get yourself an RODI maker and a reliable ATO. IMO next to the tank itself, these are two of the single most important items for a successful reef.

4. Have a spare heater on hand. They do break, and you don't want to have to waste $$ on a walmart or petco/petsmart cheap heater to get by until Amazon ships you the more reliable one. A decent heater will run you $40, it's worth the piece of mind to have a spare.

5. QT

6. Be patient

Sadly my first tank will be torn down in the next month. Larger tank upgrade time

Day 1 March 9, 2015:

Day 365 March 9, 2016

 

[scooter31707]

Nice!!!

 

[CafeReef]

Nice!!!

Thanks. Everything started as frags. Even my nem was the size of a quarter with only 4 or 5 tips, it has since split once (sold the split). zoa frag only was 1 head when I got it, it is now around 30+ heads, Frogspawn has gone from one had to 7, bridsnest went from a single branch to expanding. GSP was a very small frag when I got it, but that's the tale everyone knows all to well.

My two SPS in the background are newer, the purple one (cant remember the name of it) I almost lost a couple months ago, it turned bone white due to my tank overflowing causing a salinity drop and dipping due to red bugs. But it's back

 

[kmbyrnes]

Congrats! You made it past all the hard stuff. Your tank looks great and I am sure the upgrade will be a fun project.
You nailed the big points everyone should remember when starting out.