Returning to Hobby after 18 years

W

whiterushen

New member
Hello-- i was in the marine hobby from 1991 to 2001. I started in 1989 first 2 years in freshwater before jumping into salt water and reefing. I had a 55 gallon Tru View reef and a 100 gallon glass. I shut my tanks down back in 2001 because i was traveling too much for a living and my tanks got neglected. Just jumped back in the hobby August 2019 with the help of my coworker Frank V who told me about this site. I'm running a 24 gallon aquatop which is now my LPS and zoa garden. I have 45 lbs of live rock that was brought back to life from dead rock. I scrubbed down the rock 3 times in salt water as it was curing. I also added a lot of old school Fluval Cycle to the tank. I also added 2000 copepods and amphipods. Today, the tank is doing very well. I also modified the stock protien skimmer and added a Eshopps nano 10-35 protein skimmer for this tank. I have a AI prime HD for this tank. My 2nd tank is a 20 gallon Innovative Nuvo Fusion. It has another 10-35 Eshopps nano skimmer along with a Hydra 26 LED light. I took out the stock filter socks and replaced with sponges---i added small bags on each side of 0.8 rox carbon, below that a bag on each side of porous ceramic small balls---then Marine pure small blocks before the return pump. This tank has 35 lbs of live rock---the tank is dedicated as my first SPS tank. I do weekly water changes in each tank of 2-3 gallons to naturally replace the elements and minerals of the ocean water. Trying my hand at running both tanks as ULNS tanks. I am dosing some amino acids and trace elements in both tanks of korallen zucht. I'm feeding my corals benereef by benepets. My 24g has 2 anthias, 1 cleaner and 1 peppermint shrimp and 1 starfish and snails. 20g has a fairy wrass and a red headed wrass. I feed both tanks once a day of a 1/2 block of brine shrimp and 1/2 block of tiny frozen copepods---letting the food thaw in a cup of water before putting into the tanks. Back in the day i was a fan of the natural systems and Berlin method.
 
Oh, excellent tanks, welcome back to the saltwater hobby! I hope you will add pictures as your gardens grow, it is incredibly interesting when people do so (and I do not personally keep any corals, so I especially love when people share pictures of garden setups). You have got everything pretty tight already and I hope you have 100% luck to just enjoy the fruit of your efforts. I would suggest you also seed the tanks with Rotifers of whatever type is available to you. Also, should you ever need extras to remove Phosphates/Nitrates, today there is that Probiotic reefsalt, sprayed with bacteria to eat up phosphates and nitrates which works really well. The probiotic salt mix cannot be stored long-term like regular salt mixes but it works should you get any buildup of the waste-nutrients.

Best wishes♥️
 
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I took a break from 2007-20017 and am having a great time back at it. I have lots more patience and make much better decisions, make better choices with purchases and have an overall better experience.

I do, however, still run Metal Halide lighting and use a 10 year old euroreef skimmer LOL

My latest build thread
 
reefinJ said:
Welcome back to the hobby! Hope you enjoy your tank this time. Sounds a good build as well.
Click to expand...

Much appreciated. I am having a blast. It's definately a huge help that i'm bringing my old school experience back to the table. Having a coworker with 5 years reef, coral, and salt water fish experience is a giant leap forward as well. I literally have written 25 pages of notes as I was starting with all of the new advice in corals he has given me.
 
Much appreciated. I am having a blast. It's definately a huge help that i'm bringing my old school experience back to the table. Having a coworker with 5 years reef, coral, and salt water fish experience is a giant leap forward as well. I literally have written 25 pages of notes as I was starting with all of the new advice in corals he has given me.
 
Thank you for the advice on the probiotic sea salt---have not heard of that. I'm using coral pro reef salt that comes high in CALC and ALK as well as other elements needed by corals. I seeded both of my live rock tanks with a big load of amphipods and copepods. The cured live rock tank already had a good size population of these little beneficial guys. Also---since being old school like I am, I still believe in the old addage "If it aint broke, dont fix it." Today in 2019, there are a dozen different options for beneficial starter bacteria---back 30 years ago we only had one or 2 choices. One of the first brands in the market that started around 1985 going on 35 yrs, is still around. Not many stores carry it so I ordered it online. I have used the product a dozen times over the decades on freshewater, saltwater, and outdoor ponds---so it is extremely proven and succesful to me in personal experience. I used 4 new name brands and didnt get the results I expected. With my old school stuff, I had to use about 16 oz of it, but I was able to ressurect DEAD live rock (very nasty and rotten), about 45 lbs of it--cured it in only 3 weeks time! Very impressive in my book. I am having a lot of fun in my return, and I promise to post pics up of my progress.
 
Yes, I am having a great time in my return as well. I find I am still resorting to a lot of old school proven methods through experience but also blending in with the new technologies.
 
whiterushen said:
Trying my hand at running both tanks as ULNS tanks.
Click to expand...

So....

Your old school knowledge is invaluable. The thins that worked back the still work today. Actually, you have an advantage over the newer reefers because the tech has somewhat negated the necessity of learning. It shows up all over the place.

Here is one thing that has changed, using dry rock + ULNS has become the main ingredients in the recipe for dinoflagellates. And Dino’s are a hobby killer.

2 reasons IMO. One is the almost complete extinction of alive rock harvesting > massive reduction in micro-biodiversity, even in cultures in the water you buy frags and fish from reefers and LFSs. The other is that the quality of skimmers has skyrocketed. Used to be that to get 0 nutrient readings required exceptional husbandry and a super expensive euroreef or deltech skimmer, now days any one can achieve 0 nutrient readings with a really inexpensive chi-com skimmer.

The other thing is that we have found that corals really need nitrates and phosphates to grow, I know people who shoot for 25PPM NO3 and .06 PO4. Personally, I shoot for 10 and .03 respectively.
 
Great to be back

Great to be back

Yeah, my experience is helping me a lot today. In the 1990s, when I first started, I read both Martin Moe's books---Begginers Marine book and the larger Marine Reference book---both books helped me out a lot.
Live rock was readily available back then---around 1996 they were beginning to enforce the outlawed "Real Reef rock" to stop the vandalizing of our reefs. The protein skimmer I had back then was a higher end early E.T.S. protein skimmers with a black box on the bottom--ran me close to $300 25 yrs ago. I did most of my own lighting in both of my canopies (since i'm a career electro-mechanical maintenance dude)-- using industrial blue actinic and getting the right lumens and spectrum for my day flourescents. Both of my tanks were pretty simplified because thats all i could afford back then. I used to look at fancier reef systems back then---that were dosing all the calc, alk, mag, strontium, molybedum, etc---but i couldnt afford all the additive products. Today, being an empty nester, divorced and living alone, the sky is the limit in expense---so im practicing a ton of patience and choosing my decision making wisely. I was lucky to enherit someone elses cured live rock--but i also added 1000 copepods to each tank to help encourage and seed the tanks. Love my 2 modern lights-- the AI prime hd and the hydra 26---not in a hurry to upgrade...i like sticking with what works. The whole coral experience SPS and LPS is all new to me but loving it. I guess its my love for biology and science thats got me addicted to the hobby.
 
Really quick growth

Really quick growth

The 20g Nuvo may appear to be really quick growth---because I bought it used--and the tank had been running for a little over a year with its gravel bed---so that tank had a big head start. And when i inherited live cured rock from my buddy and put it into that tank (around 35 lbs of rock), that was another big shot in the arm for that tank. The 24g cube rimless started brand new from scratch---but doesnt look to bad for a new tank after 7 weeks, because the 2nd week in, that tank had 45 lbs of "dead" rotten live rock put in it. After all the dead rock cured and the nitrates and ammonia were under control, i mixed and matched the dead-newly cured rock with the cured live rock in both tanks, moved all the LPS and zoa garden to the 24g, and thus you are viewing the results. I'm a giant fan of bacteria starters--- i tried 3 or 4 newer ones, but went back to my old reliable i've used since the 80s in freshwater, salt water and ponds.
 
Welcome back to the hobby! Im ony mway out of the hobby but I cant wait until I can return. Its sad I know but its a true passion that requires time and dedication.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yeah Boombox3... a lot of time and dedication is required

Yeah Boombox3... a lot of time and dedication is required

Last time I got out of the hobby after being in Freshwater for 3 yrs and Saltwater and Reef for 10 years, my new job in field service was keeping me away from the house 1 to 2 weeks at a time, and my reef tank became neglected. Its sad to see a neglected tank after working so hard for years to keep it up.
Today in 2019, I've been seperated for over 6 years and Divorced for 4.5 years. I'm an empty nester with all of my kids out of the house and no girlfriend. I basically have open range of anything i want to do in the reefing hobby with no one to yell at me what i'm spending my money on, why am i not spending more time with her, yuddu yuddu...haha
 
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