Horrible first experience. Nervous to get back into it.

[Sourdoh]

Those who followed my first reef tank build haven't gotten an update in a very long time. I have a build thread for anyone who is curious. My first tank was the 4.8 gallon deskmate. I will start by saying the tank itself is fantastic especially with some addons made by some other smaller companies. The issues I ran into were with different forms of algae + water parameters + things either not growing or just dying. As far as water parameters go I felt like I was chasing the numbers constantly. Just when I got one thing in check something else would go out of whack. I know the small water volume makes it a lot harder but that is unfortunately all I have room for. Long story short the tank became a constant point of stress especially watching things slowly get worse and not being able to figure out why. I got a lot of help from the forums but unfortunately I had to tear the tank down and give the corals to some better homes. Before anyone asks yes I did water changes every week and yes I spent a nauseating amount of time researching before getting the tank.

I am honestly very hesitant to get back into saltwater and have been debating just getting into freshwater atp. I absolutely love all of the fish and coral that saltwater has to offer but I don't know if I have the grit to try again. The first three months after adding coral were amazing and I loved the tank and that makes me want to try but still. Any advice on what to change the next time around if it ever happens would be appreciated.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Start with live rock. Tampa Bay Saltwater is great stuff.
Dose Alk, Mag and Calcium as needed.
Don’t worry about other parameters, just feed the fish.
No magic potions.
No aminos.
Nothing out of a bottle needed.
Let N and P be in a reasonable range on their own, don’t try to tweak them or keep some ratio.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

To me, such a small tank like that is more for an advanced hobbyist, someone looking for a challenge. Such a small tank is so difficult to get good filtration, good flow, etc..... I don't think this is a good first tank for a new hobbyist. I feel like a 15 or 20 gallon is the ideal size to start the hobby. Good luck

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I agree that starting with a 5g is much harder than starting with a 20g. In a 5g there’s a lot less room for error. One small dosing change can throw your whole tanks parameters off

 

[rtparty]

Head over to seriousreefs.com and sign up for a free 7 day trial by using the code “FREE”. Find Ryan’s 90/10 method and watch the 10 or so videos. Follow that.

There are multiple threads here of people following it with great success.

You can spend hours and hours reading on here and getting opinions from 50 of us and try to piece something together or you watch a few videos and have a very clear understanding and recipe to success

 

[commod0re]

I also agree that 5 gallons is challenge mode. I started with a 26 and had a good time

 

[Michael Hughes]

I agree with starting larger; I would suggest a 40 breeder as a great size for a reef.

If you haven't kept freshwater before, I wouldn't want to discourage you from that either. There are so many different directions to go (planted, blackwater, rift lake cichlids, etc.) and it will teach you a lot that also applies to saltwater. Although reefing has become my biggest (and most expensive) hobby, I still do freshwater as well, and get a lot of joy out of it.

 

[BeanAnimal]