When does this become fun?

[Bolivian Ram]

I thought about actually throwing that little piece of rock away. It's just a small piece of rubble rock about the size of my fist that I got lucky picking out at the store. But there are about 30 Zoanthids and since it was my first living thing in the tank, I'm going to try and save them.

You gotta do what you gotta do. Hopefully you can exterminate those pests.

Other than swimming slightly off vertical, she seems fine. I guess I just like animals too much. What other idiot buys a 12 gallon Fluval just for a Betta.

Good. Betta bowls suck. :thumbsup:

 

[sjnovakovich]

In your equipment list, I didn't see any circulating pumps. Good circulation helps keep things like cyano away and the flow through your live rock will increase the filtration of your water.
Like others have said, it is daunting getting started. I have over 30 years of freshwater experience and have only been into my reef since last October. It was a challenge to say the least. I now have a routine down that takes a total of about 3 to 4 hours per week. There are always challenges though. Right now I am figuring out a way to deal with flatworms and sargassum (hint: suggestions are welcome).
Again, as others have said also, patience is KEY.
Good luck and don't give up! The rewards will come. I just brought a video of my tank in to work today and my colleagues are amazed by the creatures and their beauty.

 

[sqwat]

i no im beating a dead horse here but youre tank is so young and you are going threw all ther prosseses of youre tank cycling.fresh water is fast salt a long time you will go threw spikes and every algea nown to man.i didnt put anything but cured live rock sand and clean up crew,cheato and micro verts in my tank for 11 months the second time i did this and like you wnt threw the whole mess the first time.since i waited i never had a prob just dip my corals and qt my fish.everyone wants a reef tank in one month and that allmost never works unless you like lots of algea and little polyp extension.now its been 12 years since i first started and i built the best refugium and algea screen i could make. i forget what to call it.now i dont ever have nitrates or phos detectable.i have 2 40 gallon tanks.both run of of a 20 gall long fuge.in the fuge i have 5 inch dsb with over 1000 live ipswich clams wich i harvested my self from the ocean .natural seaweed that is growing for years now i also harvested,hasty diggers wich are a small filter feeding crab that burrows istself i great to keep sand moving i have about 20.chaeto,red macro , turtle grass,and grape calaupera and a cactus like one.2 wild seahorses i also caught and do not feed they keep my macro verts down to a acceptable leval they are three years old and i also have wild caught grass shrimp wich breed constantly keeping everything fed.the clams work great on keeping nitrate down and food as they release eggs and sperm at night.im lucky i live by the ocean but this all took years to make and perfect you cant just throw clams in a tank you must slowly acclimate them same with the hasty diggers but they do a amazing job at cleaning the water.i rarly do water changes just top off with distilled only.i get great growth out of hard to grow corals like goni ,sun,and gorgonians and i do not directly feed them i just broadcaST LIGHTY FOR MY FISH.just get in the swing of what you like with youre tank and please take youre time and when you get succes it will be fun.a reef tank is challenging but soooo rewarding.people love my settupand stare at for hours when they come over feeding the fish and corals is so fun for them to watch and my kid loves everything about.also just buy good equipment and get everything stable for 10 months and buy cheap frags or weak dying corals fo cheap at lfs and bring them back wich is easy if dipped and you have a stable tank.most of my corals were frags or dying and the satifaction of bringing a 200 dollar coral back to life when u paid ten for it is unreal.

 

[PCFisher66]

A lot of good info, just remember come back to this thread in a year so you can say "Why did I worry so much". Believe me, it will all work out.

 

[Chris27]

i no im beating a dead horse here but youre tank is so young and you are going threw all ther prosseses of youre tank cycling.fresh water is fast salt a long time you will go threw spikes and every algea nown to man.i didnt put anything but cured live rock sand and clean up crew,cheato and micro verts in my tank for 11 months the second time i did this and like you wnt threw the whole mess the first time.since i waited i never had a prob just dip my corals and qt my fish.everyone wants a reef tank in one month and that allmost never works unless you like lots of algea and little polyp extension.now its been 12 years since i first started and i built the best refugium and algea screen i could make. i forget what to call it.now i dont ever have nitrates or phos detectable.i have 2 40 gallon tanks.both run of of a 20 gall long fuge.in the fuge i have 5 inch dsb with over 1000 live ipswich clams wich i harvested my self from the ocean .natural seaweed that is growing for years now i also harvested,hasty diggers wich are a small filter feeding crab that burrows istself i great to keep sand moving i have about 20.chaeto,red macro , turtle grass,and grape calaupera and a cactus like one.2 wild seahorses i also caught and do not feed they keep my macro verts down to a acceptable leval they are three years old and i also have wild caught grass shrimp wich breed constantly keeping everything fed.the clams work great on keeping nitrate down and food as they release eggs and sperm at night.im lucky i live by the ocean but this all took years to make and perfect you cant just throw clams in a tank you must slowly acclimate them same with the hasty diggers but they do a amazing job at cleaning the water.i rarly do water changes just top off with distilled only.i get great growth out of hard to grow corals like goni ,sun,and gorgonians and i do not directly feed them i just broadcaST LIGHTY FOR MY FISH.just get in the swing of what you like with youre tank and please take youre time and when you get succes it will be fun.a reef tank is challenging but soooo rewarding.people love my settupand stare at for hours when they come over feeding the fish and corals is so fun for them to watch and my kid loves everything about.also just buy good equipment and get everything stable for 10 months and buy cheap frags or weak dying corals fo cheap at lfs and bring them back wich is easy if dipped and you have a stable tank.most of my corals were frags or dying and the satifaction of bringing a 200 dollar coral back to life when u paid ten for it is unreal.

It's a good thing reefing doesn't require paragraphs and punctuation :lol:

 

[Chris27]

This hobby is always fun....you just can't see it yet. After a few months of pulling your hair out, emptying your wallet and loosing sleep, out of the blue it'll just be fun. Things will start going your way, the tank will start running itself, and everyone who walks through the front door will comment on how cool it looks.

Patience is not an easy trait to master with this hobby. In the beginning you want to move at the speed of light and make every adjustment possible; it really just ends in disaster most times.

Approach things slowly, from the lowest common denominator. Sometimes you get lucky, and one small tweak can make a world of difference.

Take your phosphate level for example, I have a funny feeling that if you do a large water change and leave the lights off for a few days, it will turn around quickly....

Keep at it, just remember that there is always someone who had it worse then you.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Spyder... this is a great post. Honestly. Let me try to give you some advice. First and foremost, I don't think there is a day that goes by where I say to myself that life would be easier without my 27g hex, my 10 gallon cardinal shoal, my 250g koi/cat pond or my 30 gallon water garden (I have resigned myself to minimally mentally keeping one), my 29 gallon Fire Belly Toad Vivarium (complete with [spawning] fish) or my 90g reef tank. Simple. But then what would I do?

That's a lot of water to take care of every day, but I imagine it's beautiful.

In your equipment list, I didn't see any circulating pumps. Good circulation helps keep things like cyano away and the flow through your live rock will increase the filtration of your water.

Oops. I must have missed that when I typed up the list. I currently have one Koralia Evolution 1050. I was planning on picking up one for the other side, but I haven't decided what I want to buy. I was drooling over the ReefKeeper Elite V2 today and see it doesn't work with the Koralia pumps. I'm still up in arms for now.

Good. Betta bowls suck. :thumbsup:

That's what I had him (Frank) in to begin with, but I just couldn't imagine how it was a good environment for him. It's amazing how much more active he is and how much more vibrant his colors have become since moving into his new tank.

This hobby is always fun....you just can't see it yet. After a few months of pulling your hair out, emptying your wallet and loosing sleep, out of the blue it'll just be fun.

Sounds just about where I'm at right now. :lmao:

Take your phosphate level for example, I have a funny feeling that if you do a large water change and leave the lights off for a few days, it will turn around quickly....

Is it OK to turn off my lights for a few days with the Zoanthids in there? I won't kill them or anything? I'm assuming the snails and hermit crabs won't mind, but I thought they needed light.

I've settled on the BRS Deluxe GFO reactor. I spent about 3 hours yesterday re-wiring my cabinet and moving everything around. I was able to gain enough space to install a GFO reactor. :dance:

 

[Allmost]

you gotta make the maintanance fun for yourself !

I enjoy working on my tank ... so I can spend the whole weekend on it and wouldnt trade it with doing anything else ...

the evolution of my glass box amazes me ...

 

[ibefishy]

you gotta make the maintanance fun for yourself !

I enjoy working on my tank ... so I can spend the whole weekend on it and wouldnt trade it with doing anything else ...

the evolution of my glass box amazes me ...

I second that. Its how I relax now. Water change and some weekend tank maintenence is a great weekend.

My earlier remark about never being "fun" was sarcasm. Just wanted to clarify.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Well, I guess the answer to my question would be that it became fun yesterday. I recently picked up some hammer coral and a small polyp. My CUC has been running around in there keeping everything nice and clean for me. Every once in awhile, I throw in some extra brine shrimp when I'm feeding my Fire Fish that's in QT. I've never turned on the pumps or paid any attention to what happens after adding the couple pieces of food.

Well, yesterday after work I decided I was going to try and feed my hammer coral. I shut the pumps off, grabbed some shrimp from the freezer, thawed it out and gave each head once small piece. It immediately grabbed it and moved it to it's mouth. By this time my wife was really interested in what was going on and pulled up a chair.

There was a hermit crab milling the hammer coral trying to figure out how to steal the food, so I figured I would give him a small piece for his effort. I dropped it on the sand and was absolutely shocked when things started appearing from all over the tank. Within a few minutes there were snails coming from the other side of the tank. Hermit crabs appearing out of nowhere. It was insane.

I have no idea how they knew the food was there when they were on the other side of the tank. There were things coming out of the woodwork. One of the snails got into a battle royal with the hermit crab for about 5 minutes fighting for the food.

Two of the other snails couldn't figure out how to get past the hammer coral and looked like they kept getting stung trying to find a way around. Some little transparent thing that I've never seen before appeared out of the sand and started darting around the tank. It ended up right in the area where the food was and started digging in the sand. All of a sudden, it popped out, starting flying around and boom, right into the hammer coral. The coral grabbed a hold of it and had another meal.

I have to say it was a lot of fun watching all this happen. I was genuinely surprised at the ability of these little buggers to find the food from the other side of the tank.

I can only imagine what it will be like in 6+ months with fish and more coral.

 

[aandfsoccr04]

aww everybody loves a happy ending! Patience is a virtue, but it's important in this hobby. I was amazed at the hermits ability to find food as well. I was baiting a trap trying to catch a fish to get it out and about 15 hermits showed up within 3-4 minutes. It was insane!

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Well, I guess the answer to my question would be that it became fun yesterday. I recently picked up some hammer coral and a small polyp. My CUC has been running around in there keeping everything nice and clean for me. Every once in awhile, I throw in some extra brine shrimp when I'm feeding my Fire Fish that's in QT. I've never turned on the pumps or paid any attention to what happens after adding the couple pieces of food.

Well, yesterday after work I decided I was going to try and feed my hammer coral. I shut the pumps off, grabbed some shrimp from the freezer, thawed it out and gave each head once small piece. It immediately grabbed it and moved it to it's mouth. By this time my wife was really interested in what was going on and pulled up a chair.

There was a hermit crab milling the hammer coral trying to figure out how to steal the food, so I figured I would give him a small piece for his effort. I dropped it on the sand and was absolutely shocked when things started appearing from all over the tank. Within a few minutes there were snails coming from the other side of the tank. Hermit crabs appearing out of nowhere. It was insane.

I have no idea how they knew the food was there when they were on the other side of the tank. There were things coming out of the woodwork. One of the snails got into a battle royal with the hermit crab for about 5 minutes fighting for the food.

Two of the other snails couldn't figure out how to get past the hammer coral and looked like they kept getting stung trying to find a way around. Some little transparent thing that I've never seen before appeared out of the sand and started darting around the tank. It ended up right in the area where the food was and started digging in the sand. All of a sudden, it popped out, starting flying around and boom, right into the hammer coral. The coral grabbed a hold of it and had another meal.

I have to say it was a lot of fun watching all this happen. I was genuinely surprised at the ability of these little buggers to find the food from the other side of the tank.

I can only imagine what it will be like in 6+ months with fish and more coral.

Yeah, I love watching the little guys in my tank especially during feeding time. They do come out of nowhere. My brittle star can smell the smallest piece of food and it can move fast too. Just yesterday, I saw that one of my larger hermits had molted (his shell and molt were in the front right corner) and then I saw something buried under the sand through the glass. It was the hermit waiting for his new skin to harden up some. I thought it as interesting that he had buried himself in the sand like that. Luckily, it was right next to the glass so I could watch.

 

[KafudaFish]

Figure out what made you get into the hobby in the first place and focus your efforts on that and design your system to accomplish those goals.

Too often people focus on what they don't have and are thinking of what to buy next etc. instead of appreciating what they have in their tank.

Also if this hobby was a race it would be a marathon instead of a sprint due to the nature of it i.e. animals that can live longer than dogs and cats (if you have ever owned a dog it was not trained in a few days).

These living systems change over time. The other thing to remember is bad things will happen. Sorry to burst your bubble but at some point something will either go wrong due to the biology of the sytem or there will be mechanical issues.

The secret is to figure out how to overcome those issues.

For those that have never had an issue, then those people are either grand master reef keepers or they have not been in the hobby long enough.

FYI even TOTM owners have issues and I think it would be safe to say that they have a better understanding of their systems than most.

 

[Gandolfe]

Maybe if you sell your tank and get enough money to go to disney land it will be fun! LOL otherwise a constant headache,money pit,blood pressure raiser,etc... Until the one day you look in your tank and see a bunch of babies, that an anemone split, or what the heck is that? but it's cool...then it's fun

 

[Paul B]

But seriously, is this really supposed to be fun or am I just incompetent?

To me it is fun, when it becomes a source of stress, worry or financial burden, I throw it in the garbage.
You are not incompetent, just overzealous. It gets much easier and I think you spent way too much to start. My tank is very old, I hardly have to do any maintenance, don't change much water, don't own test kits and don't spend very much. Eventually you will figure out what is needed and what is just hype.
It may take a little patience.

 

[baldbean]

I thought the same thing too, but then things started getting better as I researched and applied what I learned. I had hair algae galore and then an algae bloom in the water column. I thought it would never end. I am still fighting patches of GHA today, but everything looks A LOT better. Just be patient and give it time. I have learned that in this hobby results do not happen over night, look for subtle changes and research. I have some pictures here of my tank if you would like to see it, things were way bad at first...

Check out the link its nothing fancy, but you can at least see the first few months progression.

 

[zoafarm]

Reefing can be a challenge at times and very rewarding/addictive at others. Plus Expensive. Listening to some of your problems, I think you are very excited about the hobby. However, if you're like I was, everything looks awesome and you gotta have it now. This is not a good approach and can be very frustrating. From what I can see your tank is just over a month old and needs more time. Zoas are probably ok (minus the nudis), Hammer is maybe pushing it (but maybe okay), but small polyp (SPS???, may not be good idea yet).

 

[tonytboss]

haha

 

[djmatteo]

To battle Nitrate/Phosphate and GHA consider an algae scrubber. They have prebuilt ones that are quite small and can filter a good amount of water, I think they are 60 bucks and seriously about the size of a playing card if I estimate correctly.

The Nudibranch problem Idk what to tell you... if it was me in a small tank I would just cook all my rock and start over... i know thats not always an option!

 

[Spyderturbo007]

To battle Nitrate/Phosphate and GHA consider an algae scrubber. They have prebuilt ones that are quite small and can filter a good amount of water, I think they are 60 bucks and seriously about the size of a playing card if I estimate correctly.

The Nudibranch problem Idk what to tell you... if it was me in a small tank I would just cook all my rock and start over... i know thats not always an option!

Actually, everything is going well now. Nitrates are 0, phosphates are either 0.00 or 0.03ppm depending on what my Hanna Checker decides to read.

I've also gotten rid of the Nudibranchs along with the Mantis Shrimp I didn't know was in there. My Hammer Coral is doing well and so are the Polyps my wife picked out last week.

My Purple Fire Fish is ready to come out of QT and I'm ready to pick my next fish. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to make maintenance easier and more efficient.

I also need to put some time in to learning this Neptune Apex I bought. It's been sitting in the box for the last 2 days.