First Time Reefer, Long Time Fan

DrewDwn · Jul 29, 2013

Growing up I always thought of owning a saltwater tank... My aunt volunteered at the local aquarium and she had a saltwater tank many years ago that I always admired. That is why I jumped at the opportunity of owning my own saltwater tank when my wife suggested that we buy our 4yr. old son a goldfish :wink: last September. That's when I started my "sales pitch" as to why we should get a saltwater tank instead of a small bowl with a goldfish. At first she was skeptical but after seeing the beautiful fish that live in saltwater, she agreed... Unfortunately at the time I did not know what I was getting myself into. If I knew then what I know now, I would have read a lot more but I just went in head first. We purchased a Coralife Biocube 29 with 50lbs of live rock and 20lbs of live sand. As of yet, I can't say that I have learned any "hard" lessons. I mean I have lost a few fish but I still have my original clownfish. I have done most of my reading online, and I checked out a couple of books from the library but I never got to finish reading them (family life keeps me busy). This is also my first forum that I have joined regarding the hobby.
I just started to introduce corals to my tank. I have a mushroom colony and I had a zoanthid colony but it is melting away because my Flame Anglefish nips in its direction (I have never seen it nip a zoe but he does nip the rock its on). I did not dip my corals before dropping them and so I introduced a harmless hitchhiker (hair worm). Going forward I would like to learn more about properly introducing corals into my tank in order to avoid issues. If you have any threads on here that would be helpful, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks!