If you could go back and tell your reef newbie self something, what would it be?
- Thread starter AlyciaMarie
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smitten with ocean life
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just because it seems like someone should know what they are talking about, doesnt mean they do. 
beware of the arrogant, belittling attitude. its ok to ask questions. if someone treats you like an idiot, walk away. there are plenty of helpful people out there. like here!
beware of the arrogant, belittling attitude. its ok to ask questions. if someone treats you like an idiot, walk away. there are plenty of helpful people out there. like here!
Around the 10th of May I added corals and Cuc directly to the DT, corals dipped, snails acclimated only and in they went (probably that was the mistake since I saw the snails was in Display with fish).
5 days later fish stopped eating later that night every fish was breathing fast and hiding. 24 hours later since nothing improved I decided not to take chances and transfer them to hospital tank. After one round of praziquantel fish started to look bette, now they are eating and breathing normally.
Upon reflecting what happened, either something came along with cuc or the drops that went in the display when I moved the snails in. Maybe it was just coincidence but since I have space for QT I dont wanna risk it and the effort to pull the rocks and corals to catch all fish. And my DT is still fallow which is so sad to look at...
Reef Puncher
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ive never QT'd snails or crabs. i suppose in a perfect world its ideal....but nahhhhh
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If you think you have it all figured out, you don't. Study some more!
OP
OP
I'm still in the noob stage, but my advice would be this:
When things seem to be going awry in your tank, don't put all your hope and trust into test kits. Take a look in the tank and realize that your nitrates ARE NOT ZERO if you have a decent green hair algae bloom happening. Learning this lesson as I type this.
When things seem to be going awry in your tank, don't put all your hope and trust into test kits. Take a look in the tank and realize that your nitrates ARE NOT ZERO if you have a decent green hair algae bloom happening. Learning this lesson as I type this.
rdirtytwo
Community Member
If you use a refractometer for checking salinity, make sure it's calibrated with the proper solution. 3 weeks of wrong calibration set me back 3 months. 1.025 was actually 1.017. Oops.
Don't start with SPS... Especially if you don't know what SPS even means!
OP
OP
Not me frantically calibrating my refractometer and rechecking my salinity after reading your comment.
All is well...with salinity as least.
I want to hear about how you acquired this revelation. By the tone of your response, it sounds like it would be interesting.
What @Biokabe said
I sold enterprise software for awhile, one of my at the ready jokes especially when discussing my DIYing was "I only recently discovered you don't use a hammer with screws." In all honesty it's not THAT hard to FRAME up a stand for a 40br, and this software-selling-idiot has done it, but the devil is in the details and Home Depot 2x4s don't look very good. So instead of staring at a nice FOWLR you get a daily dose of scathing humility with half-stands everywhere and nothing skinned or stained, and eventually you admit defeat far later than was necessary and consolidate tanks with a professionally made stand.
Reef-Rookie
Community Member
I would tell myself to get the biggest tank I could possibly fit in the space that I want to keep it. I would also get a list of all the equipment I would need to run it in the long term and start piecing it together. Take it slow and don't take any short cuts. This is a long term hobby! No half measures.A piece of advice, or a lesson along the way... If you had the opportunity to go back in time with the reefing knowledge that you have today, what would you tell your newbie (or noob-y..) self?
I'm curious to hear your experiences!
It wouldn't be a bad idea to get on this forum before ever starting the tank to make sure my base knowledge is up to par. Test kits for everything wouldn't be a bad idea either
I would tell my reef noob self to get a better job, stop hanging around with dangerous people and get the best acrylic flat you can afford.
He would not listen, so I don’t know what good can come of this situation if it could happen.
He would not listen, so I don’t know what good can come of this situation if it could happen.
Or you go the other way and spend several thousand dollars on a table saw, a router table, a thickness planer, three different sanders, half a dozen different clamping jigs, and so, so many clamps. Not to mention the trim router, the plunge router, the regular router, three different drills, chisels... all so that you can make a cabinet that looks half-decent to hide your water change set-up and one of your ATOs.
Cost-effective? No, not really. But in the end I'm almost satisfied with it.
Next time I get a new tank, I might actually try my hand at a stand.
Slow down...
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