45 Gallon Shallow Reef Build

[CBonito]

You came at it hard and gave those corals a cozy diverse environment and plenty of light. Looks like it worked!

I'm sure glad it did because I would feel like such a moron if it didnt. hahaha!

Honestly though, I think when you set up a tank, you need to keep your sight on common-sense and build the environment incrementally from the ground up, you need to be patient and you need to have a sense of humor too because not everything goes like clockwork or without bumps. You have to start with the basic stuff and add as much biodiversity as possible and putting corals in a tank not ready for them is reckless in my opinion. I don't worry about pests because pests always manifest themselves anyway over the evolution of any tank. You can't avoid it. But the more diversity in bacteria and microfauna keeps enough competition to keep everything in balance. And that's the key word. My tank isnt perfect, but I'm just incrementally working toward getting as close as possible. And if this freaking algae would go away already it would be perfect to me....

I still have a new tank really. We're coming up on the 5 month mark now I think. So I can't say I'm disappointed at how things are going. I still have not lost one coral. I dont even have one coral that looks bad! The "problems" I have now are minor. And ironically I've seen no pests on anything. I figured the mud would have SOMETHING not good, but so far we're alright and I will recommend their mud and sand to anyone starting a tank. I appreciate the lead on that BTW!

 

[JoJosReef]

I'm sure glad it did because I would feel like such a moron if it didnt. hahaha!

Honestly though, I think when you set up a tank, you need to keep your sight on common-sense and build the environment incrementally from the ground up, you need to be patient and you need to have a sense of humor too because not everything goes like clockwork or without bumps. You have to start with the basic stuff and add as much biodiversity as possible and putting corals in a tank not ready for them is reckless in my opinion. I don't worry about pests because pests always manifest themselves anyway over the evolution of any tank. You can't avoid it. But the more diversity in bacteria and microfauna keeps enough competition to keep everything in balance. And that's the key word. My tank isnt perfect, but I'm just incrementally working toward getting as close as possible. And if this freaking algae would go away already it would be perfect to me....

I still have a new tank really. We're coming up on the 5 month mark now I think. So I can't say I'm disappointed at how things are going. I still have not lost one coral. I dont even have one coral that looks bad! The "problems" I have now are minor. And ironically I've seen no pests on anything. I figured the mud would have SOMETHING not good, but so far we're alright and I will recommend their mud and sand to anyone starting a tank. I appreciate the lead on that BTW!

The mud is full of bristleworm eggs, I'm sure. For my 40, no problem. Got wrasses taking care of things. For the 10, I think they might become a bit more pervasive. Thinking about what kind of predators might work for a 10g. Not many, so I might have to set occasional traps to keep them at manageable levels. Theu don't really bother me if they are small and doing their job.