srobertb
Well-Known Member
Some things I’ve learned that work for me:
I’m not sure it’s fair to say but I realize now this is an expensive hobby. I tried for so long to DIY and be clever. I enjoy it but it became tedious. I didn’t really start to enjoy my tanks until I was able to just buy what I needed. Great equipment costs money but I enjoy my tanks so much more now that I have an Apex, Trident, reliable pumps, DOS pumps, Kessils, Radions, etc.
don’t get me wrong, I just DIY’d a pink mini fridge dosing system for coral food (pink was on sale) but these fun stupid side projects are purely optional vs picking lenses out of the tank because the glue didn’t hold or resoldering LEDS on a DIY heat sink controlled by an Arduino.
I spent so long asking my wife for this or that and pinching so many pennies that I constantly felt like I was just trying to hold things together.
Think about your life and time before making decisions. I have this little 10g IM nuvo with a DC return pump, heater, ATO, and a Kessil a160. Some days it brings me more joy than my DT (which is recovering from an ALK overdose and just cost me $3k in new lights because my Kessils pooped the bed). Small can be functional and great.
Live Rock harvested (sustainably). It’s the best kept secret (maybe it’s not a secret anymore?). It’s not that expensive and I have a cycled tank ready for corals and fish in about 2 weeks. I started my display tank with dry rock + seeded rock from the pet store after finding a Eunice Worm in a tank with LR from the gulf. It took 3-4 months for the tank to run through its ugly phases. My 10g took 3 weeks of diatoms, Cyano, hair, then pristine.
Fish+Coral= problems. I think fish are integral but I’ve had fully stocked tanks and lightly stocked tanks and I prefer the latter. Get your movement from LPS and anemones and a couple fish that have personality (maybe some function?) and make you happy.
backup equipment: If you can’t afford two, you can’t afford one. This relates to heaters, pumps, power heads (or power head replacement parts). I also like to keep extra DOS heads on hand. My backup return is a Jebao and my main is a COR but if there’s a problem the Jebao will keep things going until the new COR arrives.
automatic water changes: I think this helped a lot at first but honestly I don’t believe water changes are necessary (except for cataclysmic events) after about 12-18 months. I haven’t changed the water in my 10g tank in 6 months and I am ramping down my DT to < 5%/week and plan on going to 0 . If you’re doing an AWC system with dosing pumps: use a prefilter on BOTH lines.
RODI: You need it.
Always have 20% of your total water volume on hand premixed and ready to go.
Dont buy fish that will outgrow your tank. They grow up faster than you think.
Stability > chasing parameters
I’m not sure it’s fair to say but I realize now this is an expensive hobby. I tried for so long to DIY and be clever. I enjoy it but it became tedious. I didn’t really start to enjoy my tanks until I was able to just buy what I needed. Great equipment costs money but I enjoy my tanks so much more now that I have an Apex, Trident, reliable pumps, DOS pumps, Kessils, Radions, etc.
don’t get me wrong, I just DIY’d a pink mini fridge dosing system for coral food (pink was on sale) but these fun stupid side projects are purely optional vs picking lenses out of the tank because the glue didn’t hold or resoldering LEDS on a DIY heat sink controlled by an Arduino.
I spent so long asking my wife for this or that and pinching so many pennies that I constantly felt like I was just trying to hold things together.
Think about your life and time before making decisions. I have this little 10g IM nuvo with a DC return pump, heater, ATO, and a Kessil a160. Some days it brings me more joy than my DT (which is recovering from an ALK overdose and just cost me $3k in new lights because my Kessils pooped the bed). Small can be functional and great.
Live Rock harvested (sustainably). It’s the best kept secret (maybe it’s not a secret anymore?). It’s not that expensive and I have a cycled tank ready for corals and fish in about 2 weeks. I started my display tank with dry rock + seeded rock from the pet store after finding a Eunice Worm in a tank with LR from the gulf. It took 3-4 months for the tank to run through its ugly phases. My 10g took 3 weeks of diatoms, Cyano, hair, then pristine.
Fish+Coral= problems. I think fish are integral but I’ve had fully stocked tanks and lightly stocked tanks and I prefer the latter. Get your movement from LPS and anemones and a couple fish that have personality (maybe some function?) and make you happy.
backup equipment: If you can’t afford two, you can’t afford one. This relates to heaters, pumps, power heads (or power head replacement parts). I also like to keep extra DOS heads on hand. My backup return is a Jebao and my main is a COR but if there’s a problem the Jebao will keep things going until the new COR arrives.
automatic water changes: I think this helped a lot at first but honestly I don’t believe water changes are necessary (except for cataclysmic events) after about 12-18 months. I haven’t changed the water in my 10g tank in 6 months and I am ramping down my DT to < 5%/week and plan on going to 0 . If you’re doing an AWC system with dosing pumps: use a prefilter on BOTH lines.
RODI: You need it.
Always have 20% of your total water volume on hand premixed and ready to go.
Dont buy fish that will outgrow your tank. They grow up faster than you think.
Stability > chasing parameters
