!!!THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY:(

[Battlecorals]

I miss the simplicity of everything back in the 90's. The market wasn't flooded with a crazy amount of supplements and whatnot. People dose this & that and end up killing things because they think they're supposed to add everything.

I had a simple wet dry that I never had to mess with, no skimmer (they were air stones then), never used RODI water (just stress coat), and I had a mix of play sand and crushed coral.

I neglected the heck out of that tank and yet when I tested the water once every few months, it was good..

I think with sooo many things on the market now, it confuses people and they tend to skip the basics and go right to advanced, with undesirable outcomes.

I agree with you. When I look at old pics of tanks I had that thrived despite the fact I had no idea what I was doing, I’m still wondering what I was doing so right back then lol.

 

[Black Pearl]

I agree with you. When I look at old pics of tanks I had that thrived despite the fact I had no idea what I was doing, I’m still wondering what I was doing so right back then lol.

Ain’t that the truth! No sump, cheap CaRx, manual water changes, freshwater tank converted to Saltwater, but I did use Live Rock and I had an ATI lighting, rarely check parameters. Always confident about sps surviving, thought to myself at that time “this is easy”. beginners luck I guess

 

[Rakie]

Always confident about sps surviving, thought to myself at that time “this is easy”. beginners luck I guess

That's how you should think -- It's a self fulfilling prophecy. Reef keeping and SPS are easy. I've kept SPS from day 1 and the only losses I've had after years of reefing were from not calibrating a refractometer. I firmly believe anybody can achieve this with the most rudimentary knowledge of the hobby. I love to use two friends as an example;

Friend A) Has been reefing probably 8-10 years now. He's knowledgeable. Custom tank, sump, blah blah blah. He kills corals left and right, especially high dollar corals. His tank turns everything green for no discernible reason. He's constantly messing with things multiple times a day to his own detriment.

Friend B) has been reefing for 6-7 months now. He routinely asks me question like "What is Alkalinity?" and "Wait, am i supposed to clean my equipment?"

Friend A could only DREAM of having SPS and colors like Friend B. The only difference is confidence. unless Triton, CoralVue, and ATI all blew friend A's ICP test and his tank is made of poison.. But that seems unlikely.

Don't perpetuate SPS being hard my friend -- it's really not that hard

 

[Black Pearl]

@Rakie thank you, that is my New Years resolution, that I started in December, to leave things alone, be more patient and let the reef be the reef, already seeing improvements

 

[buzzword]

My 30K Lokani. RIP

I got a frag cooking in my system right now. Seems to be doing well. Had it about a month+ and is starting to encrust with great polyp extension. Keeping my fingers crossed and parameters stable.

 

[buzzword]

Back in 08' I lost all my acros to a wicked Red Bug infestation. The most prized one though was a Red Formosa with purple growth tips. It was so HOT! Red like you wouldn't believe! Never seen one like it since. I have an old picture you can see it in and it still kills me every time I look at it.

 

[me & my baby]

This is mine that got away . I did a water change one day then the next day things started looking not so good , I checked everything over nothing seemed wrong then later that night some of my SPS started to RTN I was like crap so I did another water change thinking there is something in the water . Got done went to bed woke up the next morning to all my SPS Gone . At that point I didn’t know what was going on checked everything and nothing seem out of the normal . Well to make along story short my refractometer was off . My tank got down to 1.014

 

[Battlecorals]

This is mine that got away . I did a water change one day then the next day things started looking not so good , I checked everything over nothing seemed wrong then later that night some of my SPS started to RTN I was like crap so I did another water change thinking there is something in the water . Got done went to bed woke up the next morning to all my SPS Gone . At that point I didn’t know what was going on checked everything and nothing seem out of the normal . Well to make along story short my refractometer was off . My tank got down to 1.014

Ouch yeah thats a nice one

 

[Fin]

I got this from a friend that got it from GARF, back in the late 90s early 2000s. He used to trade corals with them and he got one of these in an exchange. They only called it a "Blue Hairy Acro." The growth tips of this thing were very soft. Had to be really careful around it. It was lost with all of the other corals in my 75 gallon tank, due to 2 weeks without power, following Hurricane Rita in 2005. We evacuated and could not get back for about 10 days following the storm.

 

[Battlecorals]

I got this from a friend that got it from GARF, back in the late 90s early 2000s. He used to trade corals with them and he got one of these in an exchange. They only called it a "Blue Hairy Acro." The growth tips of this thing were very soft. Had to be really careful around it. It was lost with all of the other corals in my 75 gallon tank, due to 2 weeks without power, following Hurricane Rita in 2005. We evacuated and could not get back for about 10 days following the storm.

Looks like a classic to me man.