Reefing 2020: What's the best and worst thing that happened?

[Paulie069]

Well Being that I only plugged in my tank on January 17, 2020 I would say that my experience so far has been pretty good my take is still young but it looks gorgeous baby

 

[bkhunt]

2020 started like crap with new tank crashing and losing all my SPS and most of my other corals. Next was a bad bacteria and algae bloom still have some algae but it is manageable right not. Had high phosphates and no nitrates now I got the phosphates down and my nitrates are up.

 

[Doctorgori]

Worst prices, or is this a repost?
Best: Environment got a break

 

[Speaker]

1. What was the BEST thing in reefing that happened for you in 2020?
I got into reefing after thinking about it for the last 10yrs while I used plabted tanks to keep me busy.

2. What was the WORST thing that happened to you in reefing in 2020?

I bought 3 suicidal clownfish in a row. One swam into my protein skimmer impeller. One jumped and became a fish fry, and one went through a powerhead.

 

[PirateMonkeyReefer]

This was a great year for me! I got back into this amazing hobby and set up a 40 Breeder that in 7 months was upgraded into a 200g Deep Dimention!

But today I had a little overflow due to my top off siphoning into my tank.

But over all amazing year! I just have to be patient with allowing the big tank to mature.

 

[Hasted]

1. What was the BEST thing in reefing that happened for you in 2020?
Best thing was simply learning about the hobby from a friend and diving head first into it. 3 tanks later...


2. What was the WORST thing that happened to you in reefing in 2020?
We did lose our favorite fish to flukes.

 

[sunken3]

worst has been pricing, though I am not sure that's 2020 or just the trend. things that used to cost $30 now cost $300. we've created cool / fancy names for things, practically copyrighted them and upped the price by a 10x multiple.

i was reminiscing about the size they used to sell corals 10+ years back... softball size was not unusual.. now stores break those up and sell the pieces.. other things that used to be super common like xmas tree worm rocks are rare (they used to see those for $5-10... i saw one the other days (first time in years) for $300.

crazy.


now on the good side, i feel there is a lot of things that are available that didn't use to be... and our knowledge is way better!

 

[BillFish Coral Lover]

worst has been pricing, though I am not sure that's 2020 or just the trend. things that used to cost $30 now cost $300. we've created cool / fancy names for things, practically copyrighted them and upped the price by a 10x multiple.

i was reminiscing about the size they used to sell corals 10+ years back... softball size was not unusual.. now stores break those up and sell the pieces.. other things that used to be super common like xmas tree worm rocks are rare (they used to see those for $5-10... i saw one the other days (first time in years) for $300.

crazy.


now on the good side, i feel there is a lot of things that are available that didn't use to be... and our knowledge is way better!

They are - trademarked, that is. The new tanks are so crazy outrageous in price but they're nothing compared to trying to fill one up with premium corals! The fish are much more reasonable, if you can get 'em and have enough tank space - again, back to those tank/system prices!

The knowledge, willingness to share it and technology are spectacular, though!

 

[vlangel]

The best thing about keeping my reef in 2020 is that a reef friend sent me some of his shoal seagrass to grow in my refugium. And it seems to be growing! Also I added 6 yellow tail damsels and a tomini tang which all adjusted very well and are doing great.

The worst thing that happened is when I added the 6 yellow tail damsels and the tomini tang, my carpenter wrasse went into hiding. I had to catch him and move him to my refugium where he is probably eating every pod in sight, Uhgg!

 

[Timfish]

On the plus side I haven't had to come up with lame excuses to avoid people and I haven't had a major crash from sanitizers getting sprayed in any of my tanks. I have had probelms with lysol over spray on a couple of my systems that caused some probelms and losses with corals but large water changes and aggressive use of GAC and diatoms filters saved most animals in the systems affected.

 

[Dbabin61485]

2020 has been a great year for Reefing! Upgraded from a 39 to a 75 gallon at the new year. Now I've added finished out my fish for the tank and letting my frags grow in!!

Highlight is spending tons of time with my tank!! Usually travel 35% of the time now olny travelled 2 weeks snce March so getting some great bonding time with my Reef!

Struggles: 1) On going battle with bryopsis - not taking over but not going away either
2) Too many BTAs!! Started with 2 when I swapped to new tank - Had 9 at peak have traded in 4 and still have 6 more!!
Any need a BTA?

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

Best: When I upgraded to a larger tank.
Worst: When I upgraded to a larger tank.

 

[Paulandreti]

Highlight: Much more time to invest on my reef, I've seen thing progressing a lot better now that im home more time.

Struggles: Running out of space on my tank, corals are starting to fight against each other for it.

 

[GillMeister]

1. What was the BEST thing in reefing that happened for you in 2020?
Finally getting my system setup again after looking at an empty tank for years. A close second place goes to finding and joining R2R.

2. What was the WORST thing that happened to you in reefing in 2020?
I have no complaints other than watching my bank account get drained.

 

[vlangel]

The best thing about keeping my reef in 2020 is that a reef friend sent me some of his shoal seagrass to grow in my refugium. And it seems to be growing! Also I added 6 yellow tail damsels and a tomini tang which all adjusted very well and are doing great.

The worst thing that happened is when I added the 6 yellow tail damsels and the tomini tang, my carpenter wrasse went into hiding. I had to catch him and move him to my refugium where he is probably eating every pod in sight, Uhgg!

This morning I fixed my worst reef experience of 2020. My tank system consist of 3 tanks. A 56 gallon display that drains into the 30 gallon XH refugium that drains into a 20 gallon long sump. This sump used to contain a small compartment for a fuge but I recently removed the partition since it was a diy job by me. I removed the DSB too since both the display and refugium have DSBs. So I decided to catch Plank, the carpenter wrasse and move him to the sump instead. I gave him 2 conch shells and a couple chunks of rock to hide in/near. That way my pods and shrimp can propagate and although he will no doubt snack on some, I doubt he will get all of them that are in the flow on their way to the display.

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

The best was when I got my shipment from TBS; it fixed my tank and it’s happier than ever. The worst was right before, when I had a bad dinoflagellate outbreak that killed 95% of my invertebrates. It sucked.

 

[BillFish Coral Lover]

Sounds like someone needs a tank upgrade, or maybe another smaller tank to spread things out a bit!

 

[NickosReef]

2020s been good. Best Parts: Started my frag system. Sold a lot of coral. Sold a lot of cheato. Started a nano and a pico. Got an apex and trident. Just all around got better at doing this.

As for the worst part. I had too many carpet surfers. A kole tang, a lawnmower blenny, and a fairy wrasse. They seem to find the best opportunity to jump!

 

[sunken3]

Well Being that I only plugged in my tank on January 17, 2020 I would say that my experience so far has been pretty good my take is still young but it looks gorgeous baby

what temp do you keep your tank at?

 

[Paulie069]

what temp do you keep your tank at?

72.5-73 never any higher