Owning a Reef Tank: A Trick or Treat?

[Floyd-]

Love and hate. Some days everything looks good and working well and others cyano or algae or anything else to make it look terrible.
Honestly just a fish only tank would be SO easy compared to picky corals. Maybe its my own doom for having a mixed reef?

 

[PandorasChalk]

I want to say it's been all sunshine and rainbows but I've had a few tricks so far. My first tank was a 14 gallon that had dinos, ich, and after I had those two things in line it decided to split a seam. Now I have what was gonna be a temp 40 gallon tank but due to outside forces is going to be my main tank until January at the earliest. It started getting dinos due to the sudden move of the coral and fish from the previous tank but it's way more controlled now and now I know more to keep it in check.

More of a treat now that the 40 has settled in and the corals are starting to grow. But that first year? Yikes!

 

[52728299]

Definitely a treat or else why would we spend all the money and time and continue even with the occasional trick. The treat is way more than the tricks.

The prices are the trick. The tanks are the treat

 

[Karen00]

A treat to my eyes, a trick to my wallet

^^ OMG, this!!. LOL ^^

 

[Karen00]

When the experienced reefers tell the new reefers (aka me) that you need patience they are not kidding! One to two years to achieve stability is correct. This hobby can crush your soul and break your spirit if you let it. When I started I had no idea how different saltwater keeping is from freshwater. I think the secret is knowing what inhabitants can safely be added to your tank as it progresses. We newbies all want the instant reef. That way of thinking will crush you. Pace your expectations. My tank is going on 16mos old and it's just starting to stabilize. I have healthy, fluffy albeit easy corals but if anyone told me I would achieve this success last year when the uglies started to take off I wouldn't have believed them. I have come out the other side stronger (and now I probably just jinxed myself). LOL

 

[FishFamilyRobinson]

Beware! Very spoooooky picture below:

 

[Dburr1014]

Mostly a treat but when I get 1 thing solved another trick problem arises.

 

[CoralB]

It’s been a treat for many years . In the beginning there are tricks for being successful and mitigating / managing failures . And even now every once in awhile something comes up that might be a little frustrating but over all the visual joy and calming effects make it truly a treat .

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

This year has been a major trick! Between flukes and major livestock die off from that, tank breakdown for a seam repair and livestock die off due to stuffing too many fish in smaller tanks... I'm kinda over it as of late. But the view tho... That keeps me in the game. Now I'm running two tanks @ home and tending to another, thrice the trick, lol.

 

[vlangel]

Most of the time my tank is a treat. I have not had a total colossal crash since the late 90s when a heater malfunctioned. I have had painful reminders, (tricks) that even tanks that are simply run and have redundancy can not totally prevent the occasional regrettable incidents. Just last week I placed a large rock on top of some palys that are getting too invasive in the hopes that the lack of light would cause them to slowly wither and melt away. Instead they gave off toxins that killed a colt coral on the rock and then 3 yellow tailed damselfish. Uhhg! You'd think I would have known better but I did not.

 

[KrisReef]

Has owning a reef tank been a Trick or Treat for you, or somewhere in between?

I wouldn't say I have ever owned a reef tank as the tank really seems to own me! That's a good thing. Without the tank I would have wasted all my money on lottery tickets, house payments, and lawyers fees.

 

[Dbichler]

You have to do the trick to get the treat. Works in all situations of this hobby.

 

[HankstankXXL750]

Yep, it isn’t all sugar and roses. There are definitely ups and downs. Lost fish, corals etc. but it is always a treat. Just coming into the room and seeing our reef fills me with peace and joy.

 

[Labridaedicted]

Always a treat. Sometimes not my favorite candy, but in the end, it's something that always brings me joy.

 

[Mark Bradley]

Absolutely love it. Always something to learn. Now swapping corals to move into acropora - next stage of the challenge!

 

[HankstankXXL750]

Has owning a reef tank been a Trick or Treat for you, or somewhere in between?

Its been nothing but a treat but trick comes in every so often with acro. Just seems ever since I installed trident, I have high calcium which some acro have suffered. I have disconnected DOS and dose manually for now. The trident for those unfamilar sends message to Apex and DOS and does not dose anything

I set my DOS manually and just use trident for testing.

 

[olonmv]

A lil from water column A and a lil from water column B.

 

[Scorpius]

Treat. Patience and perseverance are key.

 

[Kathy Floyd]

My 12g nano was always more stable than my 38g. I must be crazy thinking I want a bigger tank. Every time I think my parameters are stable, wrong! Dosing this or that, feel like I'm all over the place. It's been tricky, to say the least.

 

[sfin52]

Through the ups and downs. I'm amazed by my reef every time I look at it. I have a tropical tank full of corals and fish i only seen in pictures. We are trying to replicate what God created.
I'm lucky my wife gave me a tank in October 2014 and said I want you to have a fish in it by Christmas. Till than it was just a dream.