The hardest thing about a reef tank ...

Mical

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It's called PATIENCE. Simplified - "If you are NOT patient, it's going to cost you more $$$, time & headaches". (and that's putting it mildly) Research is the key. Research fish corals you would LIKE to have, and learn what the pros & cons are - what they work with and what they don't. IE: people add carpet anemones to an existing tank only to find curious fish get eaten (large ones too) After that adding a fish is like playing russian roulette.

Take your time, read & research and ask lots of questions, then question the recommendations.
 

Gtinnel

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for me right now is leaving it alone. The desire to add another fish or coral is strong, after all, this hobby is an addiction
I agree with this part. I'm my opinion the hardest part is not rushing things, letting your tank mature before trying to add too many fish and coral.
 

Mical

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letting your tank mature before trying to add too many fish and coral.

??? You're going to have to explain that statement. "Let your tank mature before adding fish and coral". I would prefer to have a somewhat mature tank before adding inhabitants.
 

Auquanut

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The hardest thing about a reef tank...

- for me right now is leaving it alone. The desire to add another fish or coral is strong, after all, this hobby is an addiction.

Someone talk me off of this ledge.
Okay. Take a deep breath. Corals. If I can give one piece of advice that might help, it's that if you want beautiful large colonies eventually, you have to leave a lot of space between frags for them to grow out. More space = fewer frags. Or bigger tank.
 

Gtinnel

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??? You're going to have to explain that statement. "Let your tank mature before adding fish and coral". I would prefer to have a somewhat mature tank before adding inhabitants.
I perhaps didn't explain clearly. I just meant that the hardest part is being patient enough to wait until the tank is ready to support a heavy bio load before adding a lot of fish and coral.

For example I started my current tank about 1.5 years ago and I spent about 9 months getting all of the fish that I wanted. I was constantly battling some kind of algea or bacterial blooms. I then had my tank crash and every fish died. So my tank sat with only a few small coral frags and I didn't do anything with it for about 5 months because I was considering taking it down. We'll in the last few months everything started to look better in my tank, there is almost no algea and I suddenly had a surge in my number of micro fauna. I truly think that my tank is doing so much better because it matured a little bit more. Although it is sad having a 125 gallon tank with only one small clownfish, that I just added a week or so ago.
 

Mical

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I perhaps didn't explain clearly. I just meant that the hardest part is being patient enough to wait until the tank is ready to support a heavy bio load before adding a lot of fish and coral.

For example I started my current tank about 1.5 years ago and I spent about 9 months getting all of the fish that I wanted. I was constantly battling some kind of algea or bacterial blooms. I then had my tank crash and every fish died. So my tank sat with only a few small coral frags and I didn't do anything with it for about 5 months because I was considering taking it down. We'll in the last few months everything started to look better in my tank, there is almost no algea and I suddenly had a surge in my number of micro fauna. I truly think that my tank is doing so much better because it matured a little bit more. Although it is sad having a 125 gallon tank with only one small clownfish, that I just added a week or so ago.
copy that
 
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Chessmanmark

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Okay. Take a deep breath. Corals. If I can give one piece of advice that might help, it's that if you want beautiful large colonies eventually, you have to leave a lot of space between frags for them to grow out. More space = fewer frags. Or bigger tank.

That’s the temptation. The top of the structure on the right side has room for 1, 2 or three more acros.

We won’t even talk about that open shelf on the bottom of the left structure.

And what’s one more Fairy Wrasse?

Thanks for the sincere words of wisdom.

15D79C00-3231-4591-89F8-CCD660AA7E9F.jpeg
 

ApoIsland

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The hardest thing about a reef tank...

- for me right now is leaving it alone. The desire to add another fish or coral is strong, after all, this hobby is an addiction.

Someone talk me off of this ledge.
Agreed. The hardest thing for me has always been to walk away from that cool new fish or invert. Had caused soo many issues through the years and I just can't stop doing it. Will probably continue to do it for years in the future also.
 
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Chessmanmark

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The hardest part for me is not giving into temptation to upgrade and go a little bigger every 6 months! The build is half the fun of the hobby for me!

That’s been my problem. Once it grows in I get distracted. I’m trying not to let that happen this time.

Around 2006
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A3621CBC-1628-4061-9FDE-5759AA0B679B.jpeg

About 2009
065E4020-0131-48F8-8DAE-568FDAC6D10A.jpeg

@2016
 
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