In Dire Need Of Saltwater Friends. Help a Young Marine Fan Not Give Up!

Turtilinni · Nov 11, 2023

Hey everyone, first of all I would like to say thank you for all the support. I was nervous for the first hour when it was quiet, but having come back from a day of sucking and scrubbing up algae and cyano and doing water changes, I am very happy to see all the passionate responses. I have several PMs to help me with specific questions and to chat with me which I am very thankful for, as I said just having a couple of people to whom I can ask questions but also just talk about the hobby is very useful and will go a long way. If you see these feel free to also reach out, but know that I am less worried now with all the nice messages I received. I am going to respond to them after finishing this post just updating everyone on where I am at. I think I will try and start some sort of a tank thread on here to update everyone on my progress after this specific night, as I am now feeling more optimistic about my chances. First of all, though I want to let everybody know that I will be continuing on with the hobby for the time being. I spent the day since I wrote this post going to the LFS to get a new siphon, and there from studying the tanks I got a little bit more optimistic. I am hoping that another large 40% water change combined with keeping the lights off for the next several days as everyone recommended. So that is what I did. I want to clarify here that on closer inspection it was most definitely cyanobacteria, the goopy red wine-looking type that had smothered everything in the tank in a short time. This stuff covered every inch of the rockwork. I removed many many buckets of the stuff and I currently smell like a whale carcass. By keeping the clownfish in the sump with a heater on I think they did alright, and are now back in the display. The question now is can I keep the cyano from coming back as dramatically? The last time I did a 25% water change and manually scrubbed the rocks, it came back with a vengeance, how do I stop that from happening? Well, I know the drill by now, I have to post all my tank levels and equipment on here so somebody can give me relevant advice. For that I am going to start another thread for my tank in particular, I hope you all check it out when I get it up as I will get lots of photos and information, and I really just want to hear what people think I can and should do with it going forward. From having several fish, corals, and inverts to just now having the clowns and some snails in the tank, it does give me a certain level of freedom with the tank going forward; I just want to actually plan it out this time, with the help of this forum. There is only so much information one can communicate to a LFS employee in a moment, but I am hoping here with longer threads and discussions on my particular problems I can work to have a much steadier and stronger tank before adding anything other than the clowns. It is late though here in Canada and I do want to reply to some of the messages I got here, so stay tuned for tomorrow night when I get off work when I post my tank details. I want to thank the people of R2R for being so kind and welcoming. I hope that just a little bit of community like this can help me weather the storm. While I have deeply considered leaving the hobby recently as so many of you shared, I see that I am not alone in that. That was the most important thing to me, that I am not alone in this struggle. I am back to square one with livestock and coral, but with everyones help at least I am not giving up on the hobby as a whole. Finally regarding whether or not it is a good time in my life for the hobby; that is something I have struggled with a lot. This is a weird hobby to get into when you are 14. Financially it has been near suicide until just recently, and if I was not working hard I would definitely be more hesitant to continue the hobby. That being said as I am sure all of you do, I believe in the magic of saltwater aquariums. They fascinate me to no end, and recreating a slice of the ocean has been something I have been interested in for my entire life. I am passionate to no end about the hobby, it is just a difficult thing to balance with first jobs, new cars, and trying to move out from your parent's place lol. Maybe I would already have moved out if I hadn't put so much into the tank already, but I don't regret it. My point is that if I already sacrificed all of middle school, high school, and now my early 20s to being "the guy with the saltwater tank" I might as well keep at it at this point.

Look out for my upcoming tank thread, I will post it tomorrow after work, and thank you again for the support on one of the rougher days of my reefing journey.

Debramb · Nov 11, 2023

Turtilinni said:
Hey everyone, first of all I would like to say thank you for all the support. I was nervous for the first hour when it was quiet, but having come back from a day of sucking and scrubbing up algae and cyano and doing water changes, I am very happy to see all the passionate responses. I have several PMs to help me with specific questions and to chat with me which I am very thankful for, as I said just having a couple of people to whom I can ask questions but also just talk about the hobby is very useful and will go a long way. If you see these feel free to also reach out, but know that I am less worried now with all the nice messages I received. I am going to respond to them after finishing this post just updating everyone on where I am at. I think I will try and start some sort of a tank thread on here to update everyone on my progress after this specific night, as I am now feeling more optimistic about my chances. First of all, though I want to let everybody know that I will be continuing on with the hobby for the time being. I spent the day since I wrote this post going to the LFS to get a new siphon, and there from studying the tanks I got a little bit more optimistic. I am hoping that another large 40% water change combined with keeping the lights off for the next several days as everyone recommended. So that is what I did. I want to clarify here that on closer inspection it was most definitely cyanobacteria, the goopy red wine-looking type that had smothered everything in the tank in a short time. This stuff covered every inch of the rockwork. I removed many many buckets of the stuff and I currently smell like a whale carcass. By keeping the clownfish in the sump with a heater on I think they did alright, and are now back in the display. The question now is can I keep the cyano from coming back as dramatically? The last time I did a 25% water change and manually scrubbed the rocks, it came back with a vengeance, how do I stop that from happening? Well, I know the drill by now, I have to post all my tank levels and equipment on here so somebody can give me relevant advice. For that I am going to start another thread for my tank in particular, I hope you all check it out when I get it up as I will get lots of photos and information, and I really just want to hear what people think I can and should do with it going forward. From having several fish, corals, and inverts to just now having the clowns and some snails in the tank, it does give me a certain level of freedom with the tank going forward; I just want to actually plan it out this time, with the help of this forum. There is only so much information one can communicate to a LFS employee in a moment, but I am hoping here with longer threads and discussions on my particular problems I can work to have a much steadier and stronger tank before adding anything other than the clowns. It is late though here in Canada and I do want to reply to some of the messages I got here, so stay tuned for tomorrow night when I get off work when I post my tank details. I want to thank the people of R2R for being so kind and welcoming. I hope that just a little bit of community like this can help me weather the storm. While I have deeply considered leaving the hobby recently as so many of you shared, I see that I am not alone in that. That was the most important thing to me, that I am not alone in this struggle. I am back to square one with livestock and coral, but with everyones help at least I am not giving up on the hobby as a whole. Finally regarding whether or not it is a good time in my life for the hobby; that is something I have struggled with a lot. This is a weird hobby to get into when you are 14. Financially it has been near suicide until just recently, and if I was not working hard I would definitely be more hesitant to continue the hobby. That being said as I am sure all of you do, I believe in the magic of saltwater aquariums. They fascinate me to no end, and recreating a slice of the ocean has been something I have been interested in for my entire life. I am passionate to no end about the hobby, it is just a difficult thing to balance with first jobs, new cars, and trying to move out from your parent's place lol. Maybe I would already have moved out if I hadn't put so much into the tank already, but I don't regret it. My point is that if I already sacrificed all of middle school, high school, and now my early 20s to being "the guy with the saltwater tank" I might as well keep at it at this point.

Look out for my upcoming tank thread, I will post it tomorrow after work, and thank you again for the support on one of the rougher days of my reefing journey.

Hi Jasper, I’m Debra from Texas. I give you “props” for reaching out like you did. Putting yourself out there is never easy. You have no idea how many fellow aquarists new and “seasoned “ felt your earnest love for the hobby as you! Husband and I went from freshwater to saltwater in the eighties. Boy how things have changed. I’m more of a fish purist, but am going to expand to softies when we go from the 100g to the 125 gL (both in my living room lol). 30 years ago, we got palys and mushrooms on live rock that we’ve managed to keep alive so I’m hopeful. That being said, there are so many people on here that I “follow” and love the difference of opinions. You’ve found a friendly place to learn grow!
Debra

Turtilinni · Nov 11, 2023

Debramb said:
Hi Jasper, I’m Debra from Texas. I give you “props” for reaching out like you did. Putting yourself out there is never easy. You have no idea how many fellow aquarists new and “seasoned “ felt your earnest love for the hobby as you! Husband and I went from freshwater to saltwater in the eighties. Boy how things have changed. I’m more of a fish purist, but am going to expand to softies when we go from the 100g to the 125 gL (both in my living room lol). 30 years ago, we got palys and mushrooms on live rock that we’ve managed to keep alive so I’m hopeful. That being said, there are so many people on here that I “follow” and love the difference of opinions. You’ve found a friendly place to learn grow!
Debr

Hey Debra that really is nice to hear, thank you so much for your kind words. I am really glad that so many fellow reefers understood what I was trying to say. I am going to start following different people so that I can see the differences of opinions, that really is what interests me most about the hobby, it helps me feel more like I am a part of the community

Debramb · Nov 11, 2023

Turtilinni said:
Hey Debra that really is nice to hear, thank you so much for your kind words. I am really glad that so many fellow reefers understood what I was trying to say. I am going to start following different people so that I can see the differences of opinions, that really is what interests me most about the hobby, it helps me feel more like I am a part of the community

FYI, the best part is people’s differences on the kinds of fish. Some people love a breed, others would walk on coals than have it. In case no one’s mentioned this, I highly recommend jotting down notes ie: new additions,from where, using treatments,
Observations etc. sometimes the answer is something you forgot! You obviously have a knack for this hobby as you’ve been successful with your clowns!
Best of luck, Debra