In order to keep a healthy reef tank you must......

[Oldsalt]

Paul J,
Concise is my new nickname for you. K. I. S. S.

 

[Lorenzo Angotti]

You must expand your knowledge, learn by your mistakes and learn off other reefers, there are knowledgable people out there.

 

[Mikedawg8898]

In order to keep a healthy reef tank you must not put off the importance of Water Changes. In my Opinion, water changes are the best thing you can do to help maintain a healthy reef tank. heres a picture of my JBJ 10 Gallon nano that ive been doing 5 gallon water changes weekly for the last 3 years

 

[NShirke]

In order to keep a healthy reef tank you must not put off the importance of Water Changes. In my Opinion, water changes are the best thing you can do to help maintain a healthy reef tank. heres a picture of my JBJ 10 Gallon nano that ive been doing 5 gallon water changes weekly for the last 3 years

Beautiful!!

 

[Mikedawg8898]

Beautiful!!

Thanks so much!

 

[Brew12]

In order to keep a healthy reef tank you must ________________________.

continuously remind yourself that the objective is to grow things. You can't grow coral and fish while starving algae. You can't poison algae without impacting microfauna. Using anti-biotics to treat cyano kills more than just the cyano.
Everything is food for something so if you have something in your tank, such as aiptasia, find something that eats it, don't "treat" it.

 

[JCOLE]

I think it boils down to a couple factors.

1st - Expectations - Biggest one up front is managing expectations and knowing what to expect. It can consume a lot of your time and money. If you want an SPS dominate tank then knowing what it will take to run that type of system will keep someone in the hobby longer if things start to turn for the worse.

2nd - Patience- nothing in this hobby is quick. Need to be in it for the long haul.

3rd - Knowledge - Need to have a good knowledge of what you are keeping and how to keep them. Constantly learning everyday will lead to a path of success.

4th - Testing - I used to be bad in this area. However, once testing became a routine I then found myself more in tune with the tank and everything was doing great.

5th - Its a hobby - need to truly enjoy the hobby through the good times and the bad times. It's a relationship and will have its moments. If you do not love or enjoy the hobby then that is what you will get from it.

 

[tnyr5]

You must be detached. Detachment is everything. Example: If you get a coral you've always wanted and everything is always happy except that one coral, then get rid of it!

 

[BryanD]

Regular water changes.

 

[BayouReefer]

Spend money in order to maintain stability.

 

[Haberdasher]

Obey Murphy's Law. If your setup success relies on a single feature you're going to have a bad time when it fails. Not if it fails. When it fails. Like if you put all your eggs in the Apex tank controller basket and it goes wonky and the tank crashes or floods your place or whatever. If it can go wrong it will go wrong.

 

[donut]

Find a mentor, focus on stability and let the tank work itself out, have fun!

 

[charlieborg]

Ever how you like your water parameters, keep them consistent! Constant changing things just makes it hard for the corals to adjust.

 

[Jordan Prather]

I mean define success my tank currently has more algea and cyano growth then most refugiums I see

But at the same time my acro is growing and has good polyp extension

and this is probably one of the fattest healthiest acans I've seen

And my icp test doesnt seem to bad for my first one. https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/94635/

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Maintain the water parameters to a suitable state.

 

[Navgamma]

In order to keep a healthy reef tank you must......
Quarantine ! Nuke and destroy ICH & Velvet.
I hate ICH ! I hate ICH ! I hate ICH !

 

[Sonor]

Patience, water stability, and educate yourself.

 

[SDJustin]

My top three:

1. WATER KEEPER: It's more about water keeping than coral/fish/invert keeping. Monitor all aspects of the water closely. If the water is good, the life in the water is good. It's that simple, but also that complex... as keeping reef quality water in a few gallons of water is HARD.
2. REEF WATCHER: Watch your tank closely for at least 5 minutes a day. No maintenance, no web sites, no podcasts, no kids, other pets, spouses, work, etc. I almost guarantee this will keep your interests up over the long term if you slow down and enjoy once a day.
3. CLEAN. REGULARLY. Clean your skimmer. your pumps. your powerheads. your filters. your cheato. your sand. your glass. your return plumbing. your overflow plumbing. your skimmer. your RODI system. your ATO setup. your dosing pumps. your skimmer. your refugium. your lights. your pumps. your saltwater mixing station. your testing probes. your UV sterilizer. You get the idea. Clean everything. When your building your tank, build it in such a way that EVERYTHING can be temporarily removed to clean.

--- couldn't stop at three ---

1. BIGGER IS EASIER: Stability is key. We are competing with 352 quintillion gallons of stability in the worlds oceans. that's a lot of pollution dilution. Fortunately we don't deal with major corporations dumping waste into our tanks or global warming lowering our pH. Keeping a 10 gallon puddle of ocean water stable vs. a 100 gallon bucket vs a 1000 gallon volume of water clean and stable are 3 orders of magnitude difference. I respect the micro reef nerds with 10 gallon tanks that have been stable for 1+ years the most, as that's HARD. I also respect those 1000G+ reef tanks for the money/commitment, but honestly their job of maintaining stability once all the money is spent is easier.
2. BIGGER IS EXPENSIVE: Duh. From the cost of the tank to the amount needed to support it. Bigger is easier but also more expensive. If you don't have disposable income... honestly... focus on other hobbies or freshwater aquariums. Seriously.... watch the "king of DIY" on youtube to see what you can get out of freshwater (although he spends lots of money!). It's amazing and inspiring. You may not get as vibrant of blue/red color, but you'll still get bio ecosystems that will blow you away and life that has personality and beauty.

 

[Paul B]

Stop tweeking everything on the tank. Leave it alone and go out to dinner. Try the Merlot.

 

[Bluecbs]

....you must be crazy n rich