What is the biggest issue you face right now in keeping a saltwater aquarium?

[Dburr1014]

aiptasia everywhere!!!

I dealing with this too. It's not everywhere but when I see/kill 3 or 4 the next couple days I have more. Frustrating [emoji36]

 

[RtomKinMad]

You might get more help if you start a new thread. Go to the forum page, click on the forum you want to start a thread in. There you will see a button to push that says start new thread. Push it and you are set!

Also, read Randy's articles in the chemistry forum. They will explain everything.

Basically, stop using the buffer. You are just adding alk and it wont solve a ph issue. Also, stop chasing ph numbers. 7.7 isn't too bad and there are ways to get it higher and more stable ( kalk, fresh air intake, scrubber, reverse ref. Photoperiod, etc). Get your alk and Ca stable and correct first, that is a higher priority.

Good luck, I'll check in if you start a new thread, but you will get tons of help in the chemistry or new to the hobby forums form smarter folks than I !

Ps, your tanks looks pretty dang good!

Thank you very much! I will work on those things. Have a nice day

 

[DTSinn]

like previous, power outages, not sure what I can do? Florida lots of them in the summer.

 

[Cherie cook]

Waiting for quarantine time to be over, lol. It's SO hard to wait!

 

[Tix0l]

Biggest issue: most custom tanks and stands, even from very well known, expensive, and “reputable” companies are not engineered by anyone but rather just built based on some dudes experience with things not failing. Little do they know the safety factors on their products are dangerously low. Little consideration is given to the fact that after a certain dimension is exceeded, these tanks are deadly. A pane of glass pushed by hundreds of gallons of water can kill even a large adult male. Not to mention electrocution as a secondary hazard to anyone nearby who runs to their aid.

It’s shameful. I’ll post a thread later about all this.

Im also very worried, never had any accidents so far, but if such happen, it will be catastrophic

 

[revhtree]

Great input everyone! Keep it coming!

 

[Thekegk]

dino's they are such a pest. also thinking of going soft only. never had issues with keeping tank clean until I started keeping SPS. :-/

 

[Paul B]

A lot of the really nice looking small fish get too big, then it is hard to catch them to give them away. It was solved a little this week because a leopard wrasse got too big and I was going to give him away next week when I move. He jumped out to save me the trouble.

Food is a little hard to find because I only use live worms, clams and LRS food. Too many times I can't find really big clams to feed and blackworms are spotty so I raise whiteworms which multiply very fast. My LFS ran out of the LRS food I use so my fish are eating cake.
I don't really have any other problems because I feel this is a hobby and what many people call problems I call interesting.

 

[Don Deslauriers]

I've had my reef tank for about a year and I'm constantly fighting dyno, that brown algae that sticks to your sand. My nitrates are at 0, Phosphate is 0, I keep my lights on for 8 hours a day. I've tried the 3 day blackout and it's fine for a few days then it all comes back. I've used chemiclean and it works for a few days then it's all back again. I don't have a big tank, it's the Fluval Evo 13.5 gallon reef tank and its my first reef tank. I'm about ready to give up and take it all down and completely start from scratch! I have a Kenya Tree, Frogspawn coral, and a couple of feather dusters however I wanted to start picking up more coral but the brown algae is so ugly I'm ready to give up. I need some help cause I don't know to do anymore. Hope someone can help me.

 

[AlexStinson]

My biggest issue right now is getting people lined up to move my new tank in when it arrives.

 

[Cherie cook]

I would be freaking too. Unique corals is in LA and I think have a lodging service send Joe a email .

I'm going to be doing the same thing in about a year...moving from upstate NY to Colorado.

 

[Bob Lauson]

Hi! I couldn’t actually figure out how to start my own thread so I’m am really glad for this one maybe you all can help us!
We live in Wisconsin and have very few months that we can keep the windows open. It is just my husband and I but we have 3 dogs and a few cats. We have a 300gal reef tank have a really hard time maintaining ph. The alk is usually higher but when we close the windows the ph drops from 8.0 to 7.7 over night. Our tank is heavily stocked with fish and mostly SPS, leathers and star polys do really well but our zoas grow well and then just melt sometimes and the hammers look good one day and then the next have bailed out. We just got our first birds nest a few weeks ago and it is growing. We upgraded 1 yr ago from a 75 reef. Some of the corals are four years old. We have a doser and dose ca, mg and Aqua vitro Balance for ph. We haven’t needed to dose alk. We have well water and an RODI. We do 10% water changes once a week. dIY sump with refugium. The problem is we have to dose Balance daily and a lot of it when we close our windows it’s even more. Balance is very expensive about 80$ a week for us. I think we have too much CO2 in the house with us and the pets, the sump is in the basement. We just ordered a co2 scrubber and installed on sat. For the first time our ph is 8.16 with the co2 scrubber running. we have an apex and AI hydras x4. Going to get an estimate from heating and cooling company for air exchanger. We have a budget but spend a lot of money on our tanks. Also have 180 FO tank and new 93 gal cube we added for our naughty powder brown we had to take out of the 300 due to being a bully. Here is a picture of the tank. Does anyone have any suggestions about the ph or anything else we could do better. Also any suggestions to help our coral grow and for some not to die. We hate loosing animals/fish/ coral etc. thank you in advance for anything you all might add. Best regards, Kindel

I have a 180 gallon reef and have used Kalkwasser for years however I have run it in a modified manner. l have lived in Michigan and NW Indiana and always struggled in the winter with the pH dropping to 7.5 to 7.7. I created a 5 gallon tank with a stirrer in which I keep a supersaturated mixture of fresh water and kalkwasser. The tank is my own design and created it for a couple hundred dollars. I basically add about 1.5 cups of Kalk as needed. I use my APEX to control the pH to 8.25 to 8.35 and have dual pH probes for safety. Since the mixture is supersaturated, I add it as needed based on pH via a dosing (peristaltic) pump and it never takes much to keep the pH where I want it. When the pH drops below the low set point, the stirrer kicks on and after 30 seconds the dosing pump begins to add kalk until the upper set point is reached. The Alkalinity runs around 8.0 and 10.0 and the Calcium is at 480.

 

[Bob Lauson]

Peppermint shrimp are so much faster than nudibranch, I had plague levels was absolutely unreal, within 2 months I'm down to maybe 10 big ones which they won't touch which I'm slowly killing by hand.

I had cyanobacteria which I solved by buying a roller filter and asternia stars by getting a harlequin shrimp, there are Soultions but unfourtantely they all involve spending money.

I bought some peppermint shrimp to deal with the aptasias and didn't realize all they were was food from my flame hawkfish

 

[77.christy]

like previous, power outages, not sure what I can do? Florida lots of them in the summer.

Definitely invest in a good generator if you haven’t already. It saved my tanks yesterday. And another reefer close by with an SPS dominant 215!!

 

[Michael Naegeli]

my biggest issue is the disappointment when I see someone else has nicer looking Zoa’s then Me. Haha. My issue is the sheer amount of $$$ I blast on Reef associated expenses. I spend more than I do on 2 Boats. That if you know what boats cost to run is absurd. Ehh, only live once, might as well have the most Epic tanks to ease the pain... I spend 4 hours a day on my tanks. Not always maintainance but just gazing into them and search endlessly for Varmits. My kids might have different take for they prolly sit and wonder if Dad spent all their inheritance on Reefs.

 

[siggy]

I spend more than I do on 2 Boats. That if you know what boats cost to run is absurd.

I tell those wanting a boat "the payment is the easy part"

 

[lbacha]

I tell those wanting a boat "the payment is the easy part"

Lol, I'm buying a boat tomorrow, actually my wife is. She gets to spend her money on the boat and I spend mine on the fish tanks. We considered it about even.

 

[fish farmer]

Lol, I'm buying a boat tomorrow, actually my wife is. She gets to spend her money on the boat and I spend mine on the fish tanks. We considered it about even.

I wish my wife would buy a new boat.....mine needs new seats, decking and other things...

 

[Michael Naegeli]

I tell those wanting a boat "the payment is the easy part"

Ain’t that the truth

 

[mmw64]

I dealing with this too. It's not everywhere but when I see/kill 3 or 4 the next couple days I have more. Frustrating [emoji36]

Absolutely!