Things I wish I knew when I started...
- Thread starter MHG
- Start date
Oh! I thought of another one... When using dry rock for aquascaping in a dry tank, check for shadows before you epoxy it all together and fill the tank with water .... That will save you from needing to install little eensive shadow filling led's all over the tank.... Of you can live with a black hole in the front of your display...
CAPSLOK
New member
The budgeting advice is so dead on it's kind of depressing. And then consider the stocking budget as well - might as well just throw one that out the window...
Always leave tubes or pipes longer than you think is necessary - it's so much easier to leave an extra inch or two and take it off, than to wish you had done so.
Make sure there is space around your tank to access anything you may need to - however rarely it may be.
You will be making many trips to HD / Lowes / LFS - and learning intimately where they keep all sorts of odds and ends.
Make sure the family knows not to surprise you with "this cool fish."
Always leave tubes or pipes longer than you think is necessary - it's so much easier to leave an extra inch or two and take it off, than to wish you had done so.
Make sure there is space around your tank to access anything you may need to - however rarely it may be.
You will be making many trips to HD / Lowes / LFS - and learning intimately where they keep all sorts of odds and ends.
Make sure the family knows not to surprise you with "this cool fish."
PeTe PoLyP
New member
Just because something is "reef safe" doesnt mean its reef friendly
people keep stressing the budget for a reason, plan on spending at least 3x what you think you will
JUST SAY NO TO GSP!!!!
Have your stand on wheels if possible (I understand a 400 gallon on wheels is impossible)
Don't buy cheap equipment. That $30 you saved on the cheap heater at walmart is nothing considering two weeks later you come home from work to find your tank at 104 degrees
Inspect pictures VERY VERY closely when you buy online. Seeing the zoa eating nudibranch inside the bag munching zoa when it arrives and then looking back to the picture only to see it smiling at you in the picture sucks!!!
Research coral and fish before you buy. Yes the guy at the LFS will tell you the gonipora is a hardy type.
people keep stressing the budget for a reason, plan on spending at least 3x what you think you will
JUST SAY NO TO GSP!!!!
Have your stand on wheels if possible (I understand a 400 gallon on wheels is impossible)
Don't buy cheap equipment. That $30 you saved on the cheap heater at walmart is nothing considering two weeks later you come home from work to find your tank at 104 degrees
Inspect pictures VERY VERY closely when you buy online. Seeing the zoa eating nudibranch inside the bag munching zoa when it arrives and then looking back to the picture only to see it smiling at you in the picture sucks!!!
Research coral and fish before you buy. Yes the guy at the LFS will tell you the gonipora is a hardy type.
Monkeyfish
Active member
Do your own research and do NOT depend on your LFS to have answers/knowledge. A business exists to make money - not to make friends.
brandon429
Active member
I wish Id been told differently about handling algae or any other pest invader. Id tell the 24 yr old me this:
-there is no rule in reefing that says you must not take direct action against an invader. the common rule is to take only indirect action, through the tank water, but thats not the only way. You do not have to submit fifty different threads on ID, hope to hades that the authors on various forums will answer you with a secret nobody told you about what to do to your tank to rid yourself of the invader in question. You can simply remove it through one of many ways. you have the option of 1. looking at a growth on your rocks that looks to be questionable, or certainly bad like hair algae, then 2. make that spot not there any longer.
most reefkeepers who seek help with wrecked tanks are using intended preventative systems like gfo as the removal system for a primary invader, instead of making the tank free of algae by hand first and then using the preventative correctly. we find that overcompensating for die off time, by using more gfo, still takes a long time to remove what you could remove in a few hours work and bleaching of unintended targets is a real possibility.
we are told not to use bandaid approaches, while we are being told to use unnatural binders like gfo which are still bandaids because they have to be replenished repeatedly the same as any other algae care method. the only natural option not a bandaid is grazing, and if that doesnt work we've been trained to sit idly by and let the tank get taken over. Im glad I stopped listening to common advice my tank never looked better.
so, 24 yr old me, if an all natural approach is all you will allow, then you have about a 20% chance of everything working out. that method works sometimes, the hands off approach. if it worked more than 20% of the time we wouldn't have so many wrecked tanks. If you simply disallow anything in your tank you dont want, you have a 100% chance of it working out, make the choice, play the game as you see fit.
the ocean has better water params than we ever will, yet the reefs grow algae that must be balanced by fish and other grazers. the cause of all algae wrecked tanks isnt phosphate, its simply inaction on the part of the keeper, a totally deserved and predictable outcome. Nobodys tank transformed into a green forest overnite, it was a series of inactivities after the first time a tiny tuft was noticed and not dealt with.
-there is no rule in reefing that says you must not take direct action against an invader. the common rule is to take only indirect action, through the tank water, but thats not the only way. You do not have to submit fifty different threads on ID, hope to hades that the authors on various forums will answer you with a secret nobody told you about what to do to your tank to rid yourself of the invader in question. You can simply remove it through one of many ways. you have the option of 1. looking at a growth on your rocks that looks to be questionable, or certainly bad like hair algae, then 2. make that spot not there any longer.
most reefkeepers who seek help with wrecked tanks are using intended preventative systems like gfo as the removal system for a primary invader, instead of making the tank free of algae by hand first and then using the preventative correctly. we find that overcompensating for die off time, by using more gfo, still takes a long time to remove what you could remove in a few hours work and bleaching of unintended targets is a real possibility.
we are told not to use bandaid approaches, while we are being told to use unnatural binders like gfo which are still bandaids because they have to be replenished repeatedly the same as any other algae care method. the only natural option not a bandaid is grazing, and if that doesnt work we've been trained to sit idly by and let the tank get taken over. Im glad I stopped listening to common advice my tank never looked better.
so, 24 yr old me, if an all natural approach is all you will allow, then you have about a 20% chance of everything working out. that method works sometimes, the hands off approach. if it worked more than 20% of the time we wouldn't have so many wrecked tanks. If you simply disallow anything in your tank you dont want, you have a 100% chance of it working out, make the choice, play the game as you see fit.
the ocean has better water params than we ever will, yet the reefs grow algae that must be balanced by fish and other grazers. the cause of all algae wrecked tanks isnt phosphate, its simply inaction on the part of the keeper, a totally deserved and predictable outcome. Nobodys tank transformed into a green forest overnite, it was a series of inactivities after the first time a tiny tuft was noticed and not dealt with.
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