danenelsen
Valuable Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2022
- Messages
- 1,581
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- Location
- Dallas/Fort Worth
- What state or country do you live in
- Texas
Hey everyone,
Recently I've started to want to get back into reefing, but I still am having some doubts and would just love to talk to a few people about the issue.
A bit of backstory...I first got into reefing in 2022. I had been keeping freshwater aquariums for around 10 years, so I was very familiar with fish in general...I felt prepared and wanted to challenge myself by hopping into salt water. After a few months researching I found a good deal on a tank on Facebook Marketplace and purchased. It was 55 gallons with a sump and everything I needed to get started.
After that, it was pretty much all downhill. After I got the tank reset up and cycled I started with a pair of clowns. Easy enough. I had good luck with them (mostly) and after a few weeks I added a Royal Gramma. It did okay for a while before it eventually disappeared and was never seen again. I tried Firefish, blennies, cardinalfish, wrasee, a small foxface, and more. Nothing would survive besides the clowns. I constantly had fish disappearing or jumping into the sump and dying that way.
Yes, I made mistakes along the way, but I really did learn a lot. I changed foods, I tried to block the chute to the sump, I tested more regularly, but nothing ever fixed the problem(s).
After around 2 years of trying and failing over and over again, I finally called it quits. I re-homed the clowns and took down the setup.
So...that brings us to today, two years later. I tried selling the tank and equipment but no one was ever interested, so I still have everything just sitting in my garage. For some reason, I have started to get the itch of trying again, but I just don't know. The first time around I sank so much money and time into a hobby that never really resulted in anything. I wanted to eventually get coral, but if I couldn't even keep fish alive, how was I supposed to support coral and truly have a "reef"?
So...yeah. That's my story and kinda where I'm at right now. If anyone has any advice or similar experiences or anything like that and would like to share, please do so! Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
@
Recently I've started to want to get back into reefing, but I still am having some doubts and would just love to talk to a few people about the issue.
A bit of backstory...I first got into reefing in 2022. I had been keeping freshwater aquariums for around 10 years, so I was very familiar with fish in general...I felt prepared and wanted to challenge myself by hopping into salt water. After a few months researching I found a good deal on a tank on Facebook Marketplace and purchased. It was 55 gallons with a sump and everything I needed to get started.
After that, it was pretty much all downhill. After I got the tank reset up and cycled I started with a pair of clowns. Easy enough. I had good luck with them (mostly) and after a few weeks I added a Royal Gramma. It did okay for a while before it eventually disappeared and was never seen again. I tried Firefish, blennies, cardinalfish, wrasee, a small foxface, and more. Nothing would survive besides the clowns. I constantly had fish disappearing or jumping into the sump and dying that way.
Yes, I made mistakes along the way, but I really did learn a lot. I changed foods, I tried to block the chute to the sump, I tested more regularly, but nothing ever fixed the problem(s).
After around 2 years of trying and failing over and over again, I finally called it quits. I re-homed the clowns and took down the setup.
So...that brings us to today, two years later. I tried selling the tank and equipment but no one was ever interested, so I still have everything just sitting in my garage. For some reason, I have started to get the itch of trying again, but I just don't know. The first time around I sank so much money and time into a hobby that never really resulted in anything. I wanted to eventually get coral, but if I couldn't even keep fish alive, how was I supposed to support coral and truly have a "reef"?
So...yeah. That's my story and kinda where I'm at right now. If anyone has any advice or similar experiences or anything like that and would like to share, please do so! Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
