Did anybody here start out with reef?

[reefgirl189]

Did any of you start out with reef but decided it was too much of a hassle? Anyone go back to it?

Just curious. Because I can understand why you felt that way. I'm starting to feel a bit discouraged and am thinking FOWLR now.

[lockrookie]

everyone feels thisway at one or more times in the hobby you just have to do what makes you happy. you have to ask yourself is it worth the money/ time tocare for corals.. or do you just want to look at fish and rock.. both canbe done beautifully.

for me every frustration is worth it. for in the end when things start to thrive and i find corals that like me i can sit back and go wow i did that/ grew that....theni kill or breaksomething and go through the emotions again lol

[Coralgurl]

Ya, I was there around 5 months into the hobby. Added first corals and things went nuts on me, was extremely frustrated but worked through it. Tank is only 9 mos old now but it looks great, IMHO....lol I only have a 55 no sump and there's lots I'd like to change, but I'm still learning and trying things out. Now I seem to have more issues with fish than corals! Hang in there, if you deal with the hassles up front, it's more enjoyable in the long run!! Gl!

[Aquattro]

How long have you been at it?

[lastlight]

Good point it seems common for certain corals to do well in certain tanks. Some trial and error is sometimes needed. That's after you make friends with stability.

[The Codfather]

I ran a fish only for the first year, year and a half. But slowly the coral bug bites and you start filling in the tank. Next thing you know.....REEF.

[reefgirl189]

How long have you been at it?

Not long. Just enough to say it's cycled and add a few live things like snails, shrimp and a few softies. There's not a chance I'd dump the hobby altogether because I do love it. I'm just getting a bit discouraged from my SPS goal. I think all the dosing and special finicky corals that need ridiculously perfect water parameters and what not may be just too much for me right now. I still don't feel entirely confident of the whole reef system and how it's all supposed to fit together perfectly.

It's life too. Discussing a big life changing move (career and geographically) and having a child, showing my dogs, crazy family drama, a full time job with mandatory overtime. Ugh. Maybe I'm just being a downer.

I just want a nice beautiful living piece of art to come home to everyday and be confident in myself that everything will still be there the next day. I don't want to kill anything. Ever. Except maybe an ugly crab or the odd aptasia. I could probably do that much.

[reefgirl189]

Maybe I'll just stick with slowly adding reef safe(r) fish and inverts and stay with the softies and get some LPS in time. I kind of feel like SPS is something you can't pull off with nothing but research and good intentions. Maybe it's better to take things slow and gain confidence with more hardy specimens for the first year or so in this hobby? amiright?

[no_bs]

Patience is a virtue in this hobby. It can take up to 2 years before it becomes "mature".

[Coralgurl]

Ahhhh, tank envy,,,:biggrin: it's all about patience, the tank will go thru an ugly stage, could show you pics of mine in the beginning before it starts taking shape! I've been trying sps and some have done ok, some not. I read about dosing systems and am like WTF? I guess that's why taking this hobby slowly is so important, gives you time to learn, try things out. Stick with it, don't look for corals till your system is a bit older, enjoy the fish!

Sounds like lots going on in your world, take a deep breath and enjoy today! Chin up, boobs out..always good for a bit of a smile! (at the risk of all male replies.....)

[MarkoD]

I started with reef. If for any reason my tank crashes and everything dies, it'll be fish only afterwards

[MKLKT]

If anything I'd be more inclined to run coral-only with no fish, haha. I love coral and random inverts, I don't really care as much about the fish.

[Vitaminz]

Not long. Just enough to say it's cycled and add a few live things like snails, shrimp and a few softies. There's not a chance I'd dump the hobby altogether because I do love it. I'm just getting a bit discouraged from my SPS goal. I think all the dosing and special finicky corals that need ridiculously perfect water parameters and what not may be just too much for me right now. I still don't feel entirely confident of the whole reef system and how it's all supposed to fit together perfectly.

It's life too. Discussing a big life changing move (career and geographically) and having a child, showing my dogs, crazy family drama, a full time job with mandatory overtime. Ugh. Maybe I'm just being a downer.

I just want a nice beautiful living piece of art to come home to everyday and be confident in myself that everything will still be there the next day. I don't want to kill anything. Ever. Except maybe an ugly crab or the odd aptasia. I could probably do that much.

IMO you shouldn't be adding SPS until you tank is at least 6months old, gives the tank enough time to balance out and get established. SPS are very finicky, and like lots of light.

And just fyi, a reef system is never perfect, and if it is, it doesn't last long, too many variables. The problem becomes that we are constantly adding and taking things out.

Also sooner or later you will kill something, it is inevitable.... Some maybe not your fault, some maybe it is. That is just life :mrgreen:

Jeff

[Skimmerking]

Not long. Just enough to say it's cycled and add a few live things like snails, shrimp and a few softies. There's not a chance I'd dump the hobby altogether because I do love it. I'm just getting a bit discouraged from my SPS goal. I think all the dosing and special finicky corals that need ridiculously perfect water parameters and what not may be just too much for me right now. I still don't feel entirely confident of the whole reef system and how it's all supposed to fit together perfectly.

It's life too. Discussing a big life changing move (career and geographically) and having a child, showing my dogs, crazy family drama, a full time job with mandatory overtime. Ugh. Maybe I'm just being a downer.

I just want a nice beautiful living piece of art to come home to everyday and be confident in myself that everything will still be there the next day. I don't want to kill anything. Ever. Except maybe an ugly crab or the odd aptasia. I could probably do that much.
Hey remember ROME wasnt built in a year nor was the ARK built in 48 hrs. I read for about 12 months on all that i could do before taking the plunge. read what I have put in my end state. doesnt matter how long you have been reading until you take the plunge you know JACK ****!!!!!!

PATIENCE PATIENCE. so guys on here like Dez Can make SPS grow like weeds. Some of us can kill them in 5 mins. rushing your time and wondering if this SPS coral is going to grow will eat you inside. tae it slow and take your time everybody wants a perfect Reef. But in this hobby sometimes Life gets in the way of it and $$$$$$ , children, husbands , the Wife, Boyfriends you get the picture. Aot of times some will buy outright a current system and half will die. Will this make a bad Reefer? NO it just means that sometimes we need to look at what we get our selves in to. When I want a perfect Reef I just come on here and look at some of our Canreefer's tanks. and then I look at mine and say heck its looking pretty good why would I want to get rid of it. Then I have the thought of going FOWLR and think Been there done that and wasn't impressed. Then I look at all the cool Corals that I have. you don't need to have Top of the line Corals SPS sometimes fall in to that Category. I think just starting out do Leathers, Mushrooms, RIcordias, these ones are the ones that makes you think about what to have and whatnot to have ...


At the end of the day. sit back and go the road of least resistance and you tank will follow you. HTH

Mike

[lockrookie]

Hey remember ROME wasnt built in a year nor was the ARK built in 48 hrs. I read for about 12 months on all that i could do before taking the plunge. read what I have put in my end state. doesnt matter how long you have been reading until you take the plunge you know JACK ****!!!!!!

PATIENCE PATIENCE. so guys on here like Dez Can make SPS grow like weeds. Some of us can kill them in 5 mins. rushing your time and wondering if this SPS coral is going to grow will eat you inside. tae it slow and take your time everybody wants a perfect Reef. But in this hobby sometimes Life gets in the way of it and $$$$$$ , children, husbands , the Wife, Boyfriends you get the picture. Aot of times some will buy outright a current system and half will die. Will this make a bad Reefer? NO it just means that sometimes we need to look at what we get our selves in to. When I want a perfect Reef I just come on here and look at some of our Canreefer's tanks. and then I look at mine and say heck its looking pretty good why would I want to get rid of it. Then I have the thought of going FOWLR and think Been there done that and wasn't impressed. Then I look at all the cool Corals that I have. you don't need to have Top of the line Corals SPS sometimes fall in to that Category. I think just starting out do Leathers, Mushrooms, RIcordias, these ones are the ones that makes you think about what to have and whatnot to have ...


At the end of the day. sit back and go the road of least resistance and you tank will follow you. HTH

Mike

lol and yet you want to trade me for my 50g lol... i love your systemits huge and great and high end equiptment.....you need to find a way to keep it if you have to move it heat your garage and set it up in there

[Skimmerking]

Dude love too just can't its called moving I and renovating my basement

[reefgirl189]

Lol no no I don't want to add any SPS today or anything. I'm just impatient and want to know that I could eventually add them and know how to care for them properly when I do. I feel like there is just so much to know and I might never understand it all. Like the universe, haha.

But for now I'm sticking to the simple easy hardy things, like snails and softies. I just need to grow some patience!!

And thanks Coralgurl! I'm thinking of heading to VS this weekend to get myself a new push up thanks to you ;)

[patd]

I kept FOWLR tanks for 20 years and just got into reef about 8 months ago. The thing is, although I always enjoyed having a FOWLR tank - I never really felt the passion I do now, since taking on corals.
Not to say it has not been without frustrations - not by a LONG shot...but I think the learning curve is a big part of what is holding my interest.
That OR maybe I just needed another hobby to sink thousands of hard earned dollars into and spend hours of time on, only to raise my blood pressure and keep my up at night....I'm a sucker for punishment.:lol:

[Coralgurl]

[QUOTE=reefgirl189;665806]Lol no no I don't want to add any SPS today or anything. I'm just impatient and want to know that I could eventually add them and know how to care for them properly when I do. I feel like there is just so much to know and I might never understand it all. Like the universe, haha.

But for now I'm sticking to the simple easy hardy things, like snails and softies. I just need to grow some patience!!

And thanks Coralgurl! I'm thinking of heading to VS this weekend to get myself a new push up thanks to you ;)[/

Think of your tank the same as raising your son, you want to raise him right, with manners, morals, provide him with every opportunity to be successful, it's not going to happen overnight. You also learn as you go, hobby is the same. I bet your tank has some pretty cool stuff going on now...take lots of pics, you'd be amazed at how it will transform and you don't even notice it day to day!

And thanks for the laugh!

[troni]

Lol no no I don't want to add any SPS today or anything. I'm just impatient and want to know that I could eventually add them and know how to care for them properly when I do. I feel like there is just so much to know and I might never understand it all. Like the universe, haha.

But for now I'm sticking to the simple easy hardy things, like snails and softies. I just need to grow some patience!!

And thanks Coralgurl! I'm thinking of heading to VS this weekend to get myself a new push up thanks to you ;):shocked!:

i'm new myself tanks about 2 mo old and ive found if i read and research for a week then rest and let it sink in, debate in my head and stuff then i'm not so overwhelmed.
also...at the risk of makin someone mad...everything thing you read and hear about tends to be a bit anal, not to say that theres no truth or anything, just...what works in someone else tank doesnt always work in yours.

[phi delt reefer]

i've never had any pets or even a fish tank growing up.

i did buy my daughter a betta tank to keep her happy while i spent a year building my reef system.

i went live in july 2011 and am already keeping sps. My advice, wait the 6 months like everyone says before getting into sps. I put SPS in like 2 months after my tank cycled and it barely grew. Now its finally taking off but my tank went through some disgusting algae outbreaks and two serious month long dino blooms. If i wasnt so deep into my tank financially i would have tore it down but i am glad i kept it.

I dont mess with my tank too much now that i have it dialed in. I have lots of live rock/bio media - filter socks - powerful skimmer and lots of flow. Lots of fish help as well for SPS love to eat fish poop. I only do a 10% water change once every one or two weeks and havent had a nitrate or phosphate issue. And i feed heavy and my tank is heavily stocked.

stick with it - like Mike said - Rome wasnt built in one day :wink:

[Reef Pilot]

I inherited a reef tank, when we moved into a new house just over a year and a half ago. I made the usual rookie mistakes early on, and have now learned to have more patience.

The old display tank, though, is very, very mature (like been running for 10+ years), and was very overgrown with softies and LPS, and algae and aiptasia.

I set up another big tank downstairs, (and have a couple spare QT/refugium tanks, too. So now I am moving my upstairs livestock downstairs, so I can clean the sand and live rock. My plan is to convert to SPS in my upstairs display tank once everything is set up and working properly.

Right now am still battling high nitrates (around 20 ppm) even after cleaning the live rock and sand. And this is despite running bio pellets for 6+ months.

I actually got my nitrates down from a peak high of 100, to about 20 just with the bio pellets and MB7. Really cleaned up all the algae too. Then I worked on cleaning the sand and rearranging the live rock (and added some new rock too after curing), but the nitrates are persisting at around 20. P04 is hanging around .2 or .3, too. Still not running GFO though.

I think it would have been easier and faster for me, if I had started with a new tank. I think my live rock has a big build up of N03 and P04 which is taking a long while to get down. I have not actively rinsed my live rock (didn't want to kill it). But my sand is pretty clean now.