The BIGGEST challenges to keeping a coral reef in your house!

[vetteguy53081]

Challenges are:

Ph swings
salinity changes
Unreliable Salinity probe/readings on new Apex

 

[Mark Gray]

My travel makes it hard for me. And my fog is not much help

 

[NY_Caveman]

Please no floods, please no floods.

 

[vlangel]

With the seahorse tank, travelling is my biggest challenge.

With the 56g natural reef, my biggest challenge is trying not to daydream about what to do next, LOL.

 

[RamsReef]

I count 6 liars in this thread, lol.

 

[RamsReef]

My biggest challenge is definitely QT. It is soooo tempting to skip QT, or do it halfway. Its a lot of work. But when I finally put that batch in, healthy, its all worth it.

The struggle is real.

 

[RamsReef]

My biggest problem is I never get anything else done cause I'm to busy playing with my aquarium as my wife puts it.

Mirror is that you?

 

[RamsReef]

My biggest challenge is my wife managing the finances

lol frozone avatar, fitting haha.

 

[Musovski]

Patience. Without a doubt, Patience.

 

[5altkreep]

My tank challenges me every morning. I like to get up and enjoy a couple cups of coffee as the morning " moonlight" comes on. I enjoy watching the tank wake up, which makes it a real challenge to go to work!

 

[tony'stank]

At 72 years old my biggest challenge is some of the physical aspects of reefkeeping. I want to be connected to my tank and hands on so no maintainence company. I switched to the Triton method to avoid difficult water changes. But carrying the 50 lb bucket of RODI water to refill my ATO reservoir is not fun

 

[Greg Gdowski]

At 72 years old my biggest challenge is some of the physical aspects of reefkeeping. I want to be connected to my tank and hands on so no maintainence company. I switched to the Triton method to avoid difficult water changes. But carrying the 50 lb bucket of RODI water to refill my ATO reservoir is not fun

Hopefully you read my last article!
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/begin...nges-work-what-happens-if-they-dont-work.572/

I talk about that exact problem. I actually connected my RODI unit to my ATO reservoir in the basement and have my Apex control it so that it only fills at night for a certain time frame. At one point, I had connected it directly to my sump. I thought that was a bit to risky.

You will laugh --- but I also ran a PVC pipe under my tank that connects to the waste line of a sink. I did that so I wouldn't have to lift suctioned water -- if I had to do that. I too, created a balling method tank for the same exact reason.

 

[tony'stank]

I have thought of doing that. What holds me back is the idea of programming tha Apex. I have not been able to find anyone in my locale that has the skills to do this for me

 

[Salty Lemon]

I'm a newbie where I know just enough to be dangerous. I'm also constantly questioning myself. QT or not QT? Feed once a day or multiple times? How often should I do water changes? Do I need this device on my tank or is it just a convenience? I'll hear or read advice from three people who have been in the hobby for a long time, and then I'll receive the opposite advice from three more veterans. I never really know what to do. It is scary trying to determine what the right thing is. All I want to do is keep everything alive in my tank. I guess you could say that my biggest challenge is research and going with my gut.

 

[Greg Gdowski]

I have thought of doing that. What holds me back is the idea of programming tha Apex. I have not been able to find anyone in my locale that has the skills to do this for me

I control it as an outlet on the apex. I know what you mean about coding in that environment. That said, this particular code is pretty straightforward (just a few lines). The RODI unit has its own controls to prevent overfill as well (mechanical fill float valve, and a pressure sensor to turn off power). The apex is really the third safety. Its role is to really have it fill over a longer period of time to prevent TDS creep -- otherwise, it would fill the reservoir every time the ATO filled the tank. It works really well.

The biggest issue with it is that I forget about testing the TDS coming out of the RODI unit.

That said, I hear you. My goal was to lift zero water. I'm pretty close.

 

[Waynerock]

My biggest challenge is keeping my impatience at bay. This is not a good hobby for the seriously impatient. Hurry up and grow darn you! I really don’t know why I want things to grow so fast I don’t have that much room anyway

 

[Salty Lemon]

At 72 years old my biggest challenge is some of the physical aspects of reefkeeping. I want to be connected to my tank and hands on so no maintainence company. I switched to the Triton method to avoid difficult water changes. But carrying the 50 lb bucket of RODI water to refill my ATO reservoir is not fun

While this works for me in Arizona, I'm not so certain it would work in MI, but if you could find a place to route the water, it might work. I have an RODI unit connected to the plumbing for our outdoor irrigation system. The ATO takes right from that unit all day long whenever it evaporates to a certain level. The discarded water is routed to our citrus trees. Now, if you could route it to say, your washing machine or a drain or something, you may be able to create a similar system where you don't have to carry water up to your tank. We didn't have to program anything. My husband is extremely handy and was able to do it himself, but if you lack the skills, I'm sure a plumber can do it for you.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

Recently my challenge has been my return pump. In the past month the power has gone off and on a few times and my return pump did not restart afterwards. My wife called me the one day and I had to walk her through the steps to restart it. That's another challenge right there. That incident caused a chain reaction of crap that I'm trying to rebound from at the moment. My new tank build will have a different return pump on it because of this problem.

 

[Dave Cureton]

Regularly. Just had to tear my rock work apart to extract Bob the grumpy tomato clown who was harassing my bellus angel, which is my favorite fish. Can't they all just get along?

 

[dbp99]

Biggest challenges in past 21 years was:
1) effects of rust from the salt on electrical outlets, HVAC and other metal items
2) motivation to do the daily/weekly chores of tank such as testing, water changes, cleaning, etc
3) traveling and not worrying what may go wrong
4) overreacting to a developing problem and trying to "rush" the solution such as movements in ALK, CA, TEMP, etc
5) addressing problems immediately and not waiting until "tomorrow" such as unwanted pests, hitchhikers, etc.
6) Planning out from the beginning and thinking through affects of decisions now on the future (build out, growth, etc)
7) NOT having a Disaster Recovery Plan - stuff happens like water leaks, heater craps out, dosing pumps stop, APEX upgrade "blocks" unit, etc
8) Trying seahorses
9) not learning the first time a mistake was made and doing the same dumb thing again expecting a different result - LOL

But all in all, enjoyed it a ton.....