Helpful Tips

jessesoto33

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#1
sometime theres a few helpful tips for newbees and even Gurus(sometimes we forget) Please add your helpful hint, Im sure some of us will benefit. Ill start it off.

1. Its a good idea to turn your skimmer off or clean it before you perform certain maintenance like a water change, adding some additives, or aquascaping etc. skimmer might overflow skimmate back into your sump/tank.
2. Cleaning your return pump often will assure longer life, also power heads.
3.
 
Joined
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#4
Don't spend thousands on your first reef tank. Look at old, not last months, but years ago TOTM Interviews and exposes and see that that old equipment made some very beautiful setups. Some lights and skimmers today cost more than it would to find that old stuff and have a nice system. Expensive equipment doesn't make a reef tank. It's how and what effort you put into it. It's a system you need to dial in.

Not to fail to mention even the guys dropping thousands struggle with issues like everyone else.
Algae doesn't mean the end of the world or is it unhealthy. Just a little unsightly.

Don't try to keep up with the Joneses. They're usually the ones that spent too much and didn't achieve results they expected, get discouraged and move on. Hobbyists don't move on. Just alter their hobby to fit their ability or situation.
 
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#5
S T A B I L I T Y !!!!!

Not keeping tank stable ( making changes or doing something new) often haunts the aquarist , both novice and experienced. Like a car, often persons out there due a TUNE-UP when the car (TANK) is running right
 

fijisrfr

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#7
1. Reefkeeping is like race car driving......
The faster you go, the harder you crash!

2. Buy cheap....
Buy twice!


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#9
It's easy to get burnt out on maintenance and upkeep. I'm not a big spender on equipment and try to keep things simple but one of the best investments I've ever made for my quality of reef life was a Tunze auto top off and a RO/DI unit. Gives me more time to enjoy the tank.

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#10
After downsizing, then upgrading, I forgot about adding alk to my top off water. I always add a little alk to my top off water, amount depends on the tank, but at least 10 ml to 5 gallons to make it a stable 9 going in. When I upgraded I forgot about that and my alk was dropping through the floor again. I quickly remembered after that.
 

reefes pieces

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#11
#1 - Test Test and Test again. Knowing your parameters will help you make the right decisions in everything. Such as identifying problems to which salt is best for you.
#2 - Make a goal/plan and stick with it. Impulse buys can bite you in the booty from that pretty blue clove polyp to that docile looking domino damsel on sale. Figure out which fish you want to keep and which ones play nice. Same for coral.
 
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#14
Simple is often better. There are lots of ways to run a successful reef tank. Take advice carefully, stop and think it out. There is a lot of good advice and there is a fair bit of bad information out there.
 
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#15
Considering I'm currently fighting Dinos... make sure you have good diversity in your tank, even down to the biological level. Also reading 0 on Nitrates and Phosphates isn't always a good thing haha. GHA is better and easier to fight than Dino's haha.
 

Smite

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#16
Research & ask questions. Avoid spontaneous purchases and double check your LFS advice/knowledge before making a purchase. Quarantine If at all possible. It's a pain bit so is catching sick fish
 
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#17
+1 on quarantine. I would also dip coral rx for 5-10 minutes whenever you get new corals and then revive for 5-10 minutes to get rid of any unwanted hitchhikers.


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