Hi Everyone
this is what I have learned for 3 years since I started this hobby with 30 g tank that my friend gave me .
I have 0% knowledge on this hobby.
Now I have 120 gallons tank with mixed reef , 1 year and 4 months old.
this is what I learned. I want to share this with other beginner reefer so that they don't make mistake that I did.
1. if you want to try high end sps coral. your tank must be matured at least 1 year. not 6 month ~ 1 year.
After 1 year at least, you can try. my advice is 1 year would be ok if especially nitrate could be controlled. high nitrate would kill sps.
I recommend below 5ppm.
2. If you do ATO with Kalkwasser, your Alkalinity would fluctuate because various amount of ATO water affects alk although you use dosing pump.
that causes Alk swing and damage or kill sps coral.
3. Don't place SPS always on the top. everybody says SPS needs strong light. yes it is but you have to start from the bottom of the tank if you purchase sps coral. Constant observation is required. you have to move it up slowly. if it starts losing original color.. it is time to move it to other spot .
4. Regarding LPS, if one or two polys starts melting , although you try all the dip, i strongly suggest you have to cut off the sick polyps. if you leave it and if you think it would make it, the entire colony would die.
5. Regarding high end zoa, I purchased expensive zoa, since zoa is fast growing coral, the price drops really fast. so I recommend not to invest high end zoa if you want to make money by selling corals.
6. Regarding Nitrate and phosphate control, myself and all my friends tried various methods , various carbon dosing (Venegar, vodca, Brightell aquatics biofuel etc) to drop nitrate.
we all ended up with Nopox dosing, complex of carbon source. so if you want to drop nitrate and control it, don't waste time and your money on other stuff.
Nopox is the answer.
7. Natural salt water, I thought natural salt water would be best for coral and fish. I stopped it because I don't see significant benefit. even in money wise, it is better to make salt water. if you buy salt, if salt is hardened, salt does not dissolve. water is murky. so do not stock a lot of salt for future use. just buy a salt when you need it. try to use all before 6 months. if salt is hardened, don't use it.
8. Quarantine of fish, everybody said to me I had to have quarantine tank for fish. I did it and I killed a lot of fish.
why?
because fish got so stress in a small tank, 10 or 20 gallons.
because ammonia never dropped at 0 , although I cycled more than 3 months with sands, bio medias etc, keep changing water every 2, 3 day,
my friend quarantined a fish 3 months, he introduced it to main tank but it got ich.
So it is not easy for beginner to quarantine fish.
my opinion is asking true expert to quarantine fish although you pay a little bit more. this would save money. you don't get stressed.
9. Don't take a risk on high end expensive corals and easy ich fish such as powder blue tang at the beginning, there are so many beautiful colorful corals in reasonable price. there are so many beautiful fish resisting against ich. try those corals and fish first.
based on the tank size, you put right q'ty and type of fish.
my friend has 40g tank, he purchased two tangs. they got stressed a lot, they got disease, not ich or velvet luckily. his tank is too small.
my other friend has 160 g tank, he introduced so many tangs, they fighted each other to death.
Don't do this..
10. Phosphate control, GFO is good and effective but you have to rinse it so many times before you place GFO reactor to sump. GFO particles travel to main tank.
it makes rock and sand brown. so you have to rinse it a lot of time. your tank looks ugly because of GFO. you can't remove it. it is very hard.
my answer is nopox. since I have used NOPOX, my phosphate is always 0. I don't have to use GFO any more.
11. hitchhiker , my tank has a lot of vermitid snails. this bothers corals a lot. it is almost impossible to kill or remove from rocks. so be careful.
12. maintaining high PH, everybody says 8.3 is perfect for high rate of growth of sps coral, I absolutely agree on this but many beginners kills coral because they can't maintain steady PH level. PH swing also is bad for coral. it is better not to try anything if you can't do steady PH level.
I tried kalkwasser dosing, making the hole and set up tube to skimmer. kalkwasser overdosing killed some of my corals to raise ph. so I don't do this any more.
13. Feeding corals. Corals eat phytoplankton, Amino acid, and zooplankton. however 90% of coral growth is dependent on light and ALK.
don't overfeed your corals. because you can really mess up with water quality and that causes serious problem and huge water change.
We all want to do better and improve.
sometimes because of my wrong desire , wrong purpose or my greed, this hobby pushed me wrong direction. competing other reefers to show off.
I lost true meaning and purpose of this hobby.
now i don't do anything to do something better. just doing basic stuff. my corals and fish are healthy and beautiful so that I enjoy these beautiful creatures that God gives us.
that is the matter.
this is what I have learned for 3 years since I started this hobby with 30 g tank that my friend gave me .
I have 0% knowledge on this hobby.
Now I have 120 gallons tank with mixed reef , 1 year and 4 months old.
this is what I learned. I want to share this with other beginner reefer so that they don't make mistake that I did.
1. if you want to try high end sps coral. your tank must be matured at least 1 year. not 6 month ~ 1 year.
After 1 year at least, you can try. my advice is 1 year would be ok if especially nitrate could be controlled. high nitrate would kill sps.
I recommend below 5ppm.
2. If you do ATO with Kalkwasser, your Alkalinity would fluctuate because various amount of ATO water affects alk although you use dosing pump.
that causes Alk swing and damage or kill sps coral.
3. Don't place SPS always on the top. everybody says SPS needs strong light. yes it is but you have to start from the bottom of the tank if you purchase sps coral. Constant observation is required. you have to move it up slowly. if it starts losing original color.. it is time to move it to other spot .
4. Regarding LPS, if one or two polys starts melting , although you try all the dip, i strongly suggest you have to cut off the sick polyps. if you leave it and if you think it would make it, the entire colony would die.
5. Regarding high end zoa, I purchased expensive zoa, since zoa is fast growing coral, the price drops really fast. so I recommend not to invest high end zoa if you want to make money by selling corals.
6. Regarding Nitrate and phosphate control, myself and all my friends tried various methods , various carbon dosing (Venegar, vodca, Brightell aquatics biofuel etc) to drop nitrate.
we all ended up with Nopox dosing, complex of carbon source. so if you want to drop nitrate and control it, don't waste time and your money on other stuff.
Nopox is the answer.
7. Natural salt water, I thought natural salt water would be best for coral and fish. I stopped it because I don't see significant benefit. even in money wise, it is better to make salt water. if you buy salt, if salt is hardened, salt does not dissolve. water is murky. so do not stock a lot of salt for future use. just buy a salt when you need it. try to use all before 6 months. if salt is hardened, don't use it.
8. Quarantine of fish, everybody said to me I had to have quarantine tank for fish. I did it and I killed a lot of fish.
why?
because fish got so stress in a small tank, 10 or 20 gallons.
because ammonia never dropped at 0 , although I cycled more than 3 months with sands, bio medias etc, keep changing water every 2, 3 day,
my friend quarantined a fish 3 months, he introduced it to main tank but it got ich.
So it is not easy for beginner to quarantine fish.
my opinion is asking true expert to quarantine fish although you pay a little bit more. this would save money. you don't get stressed.
9. Don't take a risk on high end expensive corals and easy ich fish such as powder blue tang at the beginning, there are so many beautiful colorful corals in reasonable price. there are so many beautiful fish resisting against ich. try those corals and fish first.
based on the tank size, you put right q'ty and type of fish.
my friend has 40g tank, he purchased two tangs. they got stressed a lot, they got disease, not ich or velvet luckily. his tank is too small.
my other friend has 160 g tank, he introduced so many tangs, they fighted each other to death.
Don't do this..
10. Phosphate control, GFO is good and effective but you have to rinse it so many times before you place GFO reactor to sump. GFO particles travel to main tank.
it makes rock and sand brown. so you have to rinse it a lot of time. your tank looks ugly because of GFO. you can't remove it. it is very hard.
my answer is nopox. since I have used NOPOX, my phosphate is always 0. I don't have to use GFO any more.
11. hitchhiker , my tank has a lot of vermitid snails. this bothers corals a lot. it is almost impossible to kill or remove from rocks. so be careful.
12. maintaining high PH, everybody says 8.3 is perfect for high rate of growth of sps coral, I absolutely agree on this but many beginners kills coral because they can't maintain steady PH level. PH swing also is bad for coral. it is better not to try anything if you can't do steady PH level.
I tried kalkwasser dosing, making the hole and set up tube to skimmer. kalkwasser overdosing killed some of my corals to raise ph. so I don't do this any more.
13. Feeding corals. Corals eat phytoplankton, Amino acid, and zooplankton. however 90% of coral growth is dependent on light and ALK.
don't overfeed your corals. because you can really mess up with water quality and that causes serious problem and huge water change.
We all want to do better and improve.
sometimes because of my wrong desire , wrong purpose or my greed, this hobby pushed me wrong direction. competing other reefers to show off.
I lost true meaning and purpose of this hobby.
now i don't do anything to do something better. just doing basic stuff. my corals and fish are healthy and beautiful so that I enjoy these beautiful creatures that God gives us.
that is the matter.
