Newbie In Need of Encouragement! .

[cglawe]

Hi. I’m about 11 months into this hobby & just wondering at what point did you more seasoned hobbyist begin to see long term success? I hear that it’s definitely a learning process & failure is part of it. This has been such a roller coaster of a few good weeks and then utter disappointment as I’m trying to navigate the ins and outs, not to mention you need a decent amount of disposable income to continue. I think I’ve made almost every mistake possible & I’m starting to feel like more of an executioner than a fish keeper and newbie reefer. I’m almost embarrassed to keep going to the fish store because they have to know what’s up by now. I need encouragement

 

[musel101]

Hi. I’m about 11 months into this hobby & just wondering at what point did you more seasoned hobbyist begin to see long term success? I hear that it’s definitely a learning process & failure is part of it. This has been such a roller coaster of a few good weeks and then utter disappointment as I’m trying to navigate the ins and outs, not to mention you need a decent amount of disposable income to continue. I think I’ve made almost every mistake possible & I’m starting to feel like more of an executioner than a fish keeper and newbie reefer. I’m almost embarrassed to keep going to the fish store because they have to know what’s up by now. I need encouragement

The best piece of advice I can give you is biodiversity that is important for maintaining and keeping everything in your water stable . If the problem is with lights, set them high or set them low, but leave them and stop adjusting everything.. Secondly, get into a routine either do weekly or biweekly water changes. I went through hard times years ago when I first started, outbreaks green hair algae. All kinds of slime, etc.. you have to find the way it works better and easier for you

 

[Dan_P]

Hi. I’m about 11 months into this hobby & just wondering at what point did you more seasoned hobbyist begin to see long term success? I hear that it’s definitely a learning process & failure is part of it. This has been such a roller coaster of a few good weeks and then utter disappointment as I’m trying to navigate the ins and outs, not to mention you need a decent amount of disposable income to continue. I think I’ve made almost every mistake possible & I’m starting to feel like more of an executioner than a fish keeper and newbie reefer. I’m almost embarrassed to keep going to the fish store because they have to know what’s up by now. I need encouragement

One option is to hold off buying animals and read up on the subject. Also set your sights lower. Stick to animals that are more tolerate. If you are having trouble keeping fish alive, consider taking a break from the hobby.

 

[Kfactor]

for me its all about my daily stuff i do and how you setup your tank . if you make maintience easier your going to do it more often. i have daily things i do and wc set and i stick too it just remeber your not keep fish and corals your keeping water

 

[cglawe]

Thanks everyone. I don’t think necessarily think have a problem keeping fish alive and I do read up on things, probably too much which begins to confuse things with so many different opinions. My fail is when presented with a problem like algae overgrowth, possible cyano, or my recent ich outbreak, I seem to fail at dealing with the issue and end up making things worse. I also failed to heed advice and didn’t quarantine a fish, which has yielded recent disaster after I had finally found so much success with fish, coral, & anemone and was starting to have a beautiful diverse DT. Now to lose half of that is deflating.

 

[musel101]

Thanks everyone. I don’t think necessarily think have a problem keeping fish alive and I do read up on things, probably too much which begins to confuse things with so many different opinions. My fail is when presented with a problem like algae overgrowth, possible cyano, or my recent ich outbreak, I seem to fail at dealing with the issue and end up making things worse. I also failed to heed advice and didn’t quarantine a fish, which has yielded recent disaster after I had finally found so much success with fish, coral, & anemone and was starting to have a beautiful diverse DT. Now to lose half of that is deflating.

I’m sorry there is tough times I remember one time my kalk went haywire and overdosed my tank, and I lost a couple things. And I learned to dose in a safer way. Manual dosing. You live and you learn. A bunch of people on here made mistakes, but you won’t hear them talking about it. Keep your head up and be patient. Friend

 

[crabgrass]

I had a very opposite situation. First year was smooth sailing (I got lucky). Tanked stayed mostly nuisance free and I was able to add a few fish and coral successfully. At 12 - 18 months everything went haywire..

Bubble agae, gha, cyano, diatoms, Dino’s, gha again. But most of those issue happened because I over reacted and tried to fix things very quickly. Fixed the immediate issue and opened the door to the next.

The fun part is watching your tank grow, and not forcing things. Most of the time (unless you have an sick fish or coral), equalibriun will work itself out (maybe with a gentle push) - assuming your doing the basic maintenance stuff

 

[Fish Fan]

Thanks everyone. I don’t think necessarily think have a problem keeping fish alive and I do read up on things, probably too much which begins to confuse things with so many different opinions. My fail is when presented with a problem like algae overgrowth, possible cyano, or my recent ich outbreak, I seem to fail at dealing with the issue and end up making things worse. I also failed to heed advice and didn’t quarantine a fish, which has yielded recent disaster after I had finally found so much success with fish, coral, & anemone and was starting to have a beautiful diverse DT. Now to lose half of that is deflating.

I'm far from an expert, and others may certainly guide you better than I can. But something I might add is that reef tanks can go through phases and cycles, especially when new, and it's almost always best to be patient and let things run their course. If you see, for example, some nasty algae growing and you start tinkering with things or adding this product or that product in a hope to get rid of the algae, you often times make things worse. Reef tanks absolutely need stability, and having stable parameters is far better than trying to chase numbers, which often leads to fluctuations that do more harm than good. So as others have mentioned, take it slow and be patient, and you'll likely see better results with less stress for you and your fish.

Same with adding livestock, go slowly, and research first (ideally here on R2R or another impartial resource). Never make an impulse livestock buy or take a fish store's word on something until they've proven they are both knowledgeable and have your tank's best interest in mind, and not just looking to make a sale. Having a gameplan for what you want your tank to be and what you hope to keep in it can help you narrow down your maintenance paradigm and avoid problems. I hope this helps. Best of luck!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Spend more time to perfect the water and parameters before adding additional livestock. Use quality test kits and get ICP tests at least twice per year

 

[Mikeltee]

3 Tips for success...

Quarantine your fish. It is irresponsible to not! There are ZERO acceptable excuses....

Rent or purchase a par meter. Apogee only. The cheap Bluetooth one is a great option. It can be purchased for the same amount as a few rentals and should last a lifetime

Use Hanna checkers to keep your nutrients stable. Stay away from GFO!!! If you have high Phosphates adjust your feeding and nutrient export protocol.

 

[cglawe]

3 Tips for success...

Quarantine your fish. It is irresponsible to not! There are ZERO acceptable excuses....

Rent or purchase a par meter. Apogee only. The cheap Bluetooth one is a great option. It can be purchased for the same amount as a few rentals and should last a lifetime

Use Hanna checkers to keep your nutrients stable. Stay away from GFO!!! If you have high Phosphates adjust your feeding and nutrient export protocol.

I think you’re exactly right. I see everyone with these pristine aquariums and as soon as something looks amiss, I start researching and trying to fix it. Which leads to a domino effect of bad events ending in something dying or worse (like my ich outbreak). I’m religious with maintenance and have good water quality readings so I should let that ride for a while.

 

[jgcarranza13]

Thanks everyone. I don’t think necessarily think have a problem keeping fish alive and I do read up on things, probably too much which begins to confuse things with so many different opinions. My fail is when presented with a problem like algae overgrowth, possible cyano, or my recent ich outbreak, I seem to fail at dealing with the issue and end up making things worse. I also failed to heed advice and didn’t quarantine a fish, which has yielded recent disaster after I had finally found so much success with fish, coral, & anemone and was starting to have a beautiful diverse DT. Now to lose half of that is deflating.

I know this can be difficult, but don’t give up. I once lost a couple fish and coral to a heater that went bad when I first got into the hobby. After that I set temperature monitoring up on every tank since. Sometimes our failures make us grow. It does take a long time before this hobby starts to feel “easy”

 

[Fish Fan]

I think you’re exactly right. I see everyone with these pristine aquariums and as soon as something looks amiss, I start researching and trying to fix it. Which leads to a domino effect of bad events ending in something dying or worse (like my ich outbreak). I’m religious with maintenance and have good water quality readings so I should let that ride for a while.

Yes! Be patient, and definitely listen to some of these other replies, these are very well respected R2R reefers offering their help.

Quarantine your fish. It is irresponsible to not! There are ZERO acceptable excuses....

Brother, you're preaching to the choir here. I am back into reefing after a long break, but it's not my first rodeo, and I am currently trying to learn all I can about QT'ing. In fact, I've now taken the daunting position of trying to QT everything "wet" and have several 10 gallon tanks going to meet this goal, and all for a 15 gallon DT.

I think your statement is 110% correct, no part of me is arguing against quarantining new livestock, but I think it's just so hard for beginners to QT. Typically, they've spent every dime and more to get their DT up and running, they don't have the resources for a QT tank on top of that. Furthermore, it's hard enough for a beginner to maintain a fully cycled DT, it may be beyond their abilities to maintain livestock in temporary QT tanks, even using water changes as the main means of filtration. And last, it's just human nature for beginners to want to get their DT's up to speed as soon as possible (which is almost always a bad idea), which can lead to failure.

To @cglawe I fully encourage you to QT at the least any new fish you get, and ideally everything "wet" (though there are MANY differing opinions on what to QT, how, and for how long). On the low end, you just need a 10 gallon tank, heater, and a sponge filter or a hang on back (HOB) filter like an AquaClear to get going. Having a QT can save you much heartache and cash in the long run. Again, please don't trust me, listen to the more experienced reeefers trying to help you. This is just my $0.02.

Oh, by the way, has anyone asked you what you're using for freshwater? Are you using tap water? Do you have RODI or are you buying water from your LFS?

As always, best of luck with your tank!

 

[Mikeltee]

I think you’re exactly right. I see everyone with these pristine aquariums and as soon as something looks amiss, I start researching and trying to fix it. Which leads to a domino effect of bad events ending in something dying or worse (like my ich outbreak). I’m religious with maintenance and have good water quality readings so I should let that ride for a while.

You wouldn't have an ich episode if you followed rule one. There could be velvet stewing in there right now as well.

 

[mig.]

I'm a newbie and have silly enough 3 tanks. 2 of them started with live rock that must have come out of a very old aquarium with lots of stuff growing on them and in them. These tanks seem to have stabilized really quickly.
In fact one sits in front of 2 windows and in the sun part of the day and doesn't seem to want to grow much algae but the corals are loving life in there. Apparently that's a no-no, PAR is surely all over the place. I'd add it has a deep bed of crushed shell, a $5 heater and a tiny 1-3w powerhead, no filter. Some paly's, zoa's and discosoma's that seemed miserable with LED lighting are now big and puffy and growing faster than their counterparts. It hasn't had a water change in 6 weeks.

The other one is dimly lit and kinda filthy but I have an aleopora in there that is so puffy and jiggly in the current, a montipora digitata that is growing like gang busters and paly's that look like a bouquet of flowers. Now I do inverts but not fish. I might get a goby for a pistol shrimp but that is far as I'll go. I don't know that fish would be as happy as the coral, I'm guessing not but I won't be finding that out any time soon.

The 3rd is my display tank and has pretty much new everything oh and it is ugly. I've thrown some live rock in there to help it out but I can't imagine its going to look pretty for some time but that's ok because my other live rock tanks are showing me that if I can get it to the same maturity things will be good. And my corals aren't unhappy in there either. I'd say my duncan in fact as never been happier. My candy cane has doubled its size in a couple of weeks, my rhodactis seems to be smiling.

So my naive takeaway is let the tank mature, don't mess around with parameters and chase numbers and, probably don't do fish until it is mature. I remind myself that I'm looking after animals on a daily basis and I should watch for how happy they are - and like me they probably don't like their stuff moved around either!

 

[Antaguana]

I am encouraged by your attitude. Setbacks can be hard, but you are not blaming other people you are looking at how you can do better in future. Long term I think this is more important than the specific lessons you will learn along the way or advice people will give you. None of that would matter if you were not trying to improve.

The important thing is you have a learning and improvement mindset. If you keep that and keep trying, reading, listening and learning from all your experiences you will get better and your tank will improve.

It sounds like you are already taking some good lessons about how to react, your already on the right track. Keep going.

 

[mig.]

We’ll update for you - the sun tank is still doing great - in fact I’ve taken water and some of the crushed shell from that tank and put it in my display tank. When I did that I found fat bright red tigger pods so they moved too. Very stable tank and I wonder if it’s the shell substrate.

The dirty tank - also great. My RFA loves it in there and in fact all my corals still do. If any coral is unhappy that’s the hospital wing they go to.

The display tank is stabilizing, finally the diatoms have slowed, there’s copepods on the back wall all day and my corals are growing. But I think it’s probably too ‘clean’ still and is a way off maturing, the crabs are a little too active and seem to need feeding. Who knew it would be this hard to encourage a little growth to feed the critters. I did introduce some Rasta Zoa’s from a mature highly maintained tank and well - they’re bigger more colorful and puffier in my tank than that one so I must be doing something right.

I’ve done water changes between the tanks but no new water for the last month. We are going to get to a no water change setup quickly - just top ups. Although I am going to try growing phyto this summer and add that to the rotation.

No setbacks just yet - hopefully we continue that way.

 

[PharmrJohn]

This is an older thread but I'm putting my 2 cents in anyway. DO NOT DESPAIR. This hobby you've chosen is complicated. Of all the hobbies I've embarked on over the decades (minus learning new instruments), it's the most complicated I've come across. First, you never learn anything by doing things perfectly. It's the failures that teach us. It's the unexpected that test us. It's success that drives us. It took my first serious attempt 2 years to really succeed......to get my 90G reef to where I wanted it to be and didn't have to think about so often. And 3Reef (which R2R aquired) helped me out immensely. Just keep on going. Watch YouTube video that apply, read up on issues that others have had that you've yet to experience. Know that the classic idiom "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" applies in every aspect. You'll get there. I promise. My second build 15 years after the first will have me reeling, I know it, as there is so much more information out there I have to refer to and memorize! You'll do just fine.

 

[Gman83]

Keep you head up, you'll get where you want to be