who has success?

[SuperFudge]

Hello,

I set up my first salwater a couple months after my daughter was born 16 yrs ago.

In reality i am more concerned with the time ive had sucsessful systems.....the countless wasted hours plying pointless techniques and equipment becuase there was no real books nor discussion forums for us all to learn from then, it made for a lot of "hobbiest experience" with little true value, other than i could tell you exactly what NOT to do.

To further my experience, many inhabitants paid dearly then.
The first one had a pink skull, a green bridge, a mandarin goby (ill surely burn for that one) a feather duster and crushed coral trickle filter...oh yeah and a lee`s protien skimmer at some point there aswell....damn those sucked.
I just cringe when i see a pic of that tank....no you cant see it, id have to kill you after.

Melina, Take your time with the system, stock corals slow and fish even slower.
Dosing is probably the most troublesome thing ive seen in peoples early systems....Stick to your salt, determine system consumption before additives are bought and finally being moderatly stocked, dose or add needed equipment accordingly.

Water changes are soon forgot by way too many, and this will be ALL the additives you need initially...so some are doomed from the start as they think a bottle of iodide or some of these "magic" gro`s will work better here.
The most demanding and first consideration are likley going to be calcium and carbonate replenishment. (Ca)+(Alk/DKH/KH).



Marc.

[Redrover]

I made a lot of goof's when I first started in salt water...before that freshwater going back to when I was a young lad...now a senior.
Take things slow...I believe that is the key...I had to learn the hard way.
There's a lot of people on Canreef that are willing to give out great info or where to find same...Mike / Marc have helped me...I have no regrets.

RJ

[LostMind]

I started my first reef a few years ago based on some pictures I read in a book someone gave to me... the book was from the early 90's and the hobby had changed quite a bit by 2000...

but, regardless... I tossed together a 120g reef, no predrilled overflow, red sea berlin skimmer, ghetto cheap stand, lots of deep sand, and a couple pieces of live rock...

Within a week I'd already changed 90% of my equipment and ordered in more rock...

After just a few months I was really happy with my tank... it just kept growing and growing and growing. Only lost two fish (one clown jumped and one mystery wrasse dissappeared mysteriously while a reefer friend was babysitting... no, he doesn't have a mystery wrasse bt sometimes I wonder... lol).

I kept that tank for just under two years before I was bitten by the bigger tank bug and took it down. The only real work I did on the tank was clean the glass and skimmer, weekly 2 bucket water changes and top with kalk every night. So simple yet very effective...

I think my point is, you can jump right in the hobby and have a decent tank even if it's all rough in the beginning...

[Joe Reefer]

This hobby has very high highs and low lows. To have a sucessful reef, you need a level of commitment that requires an enormous amount of time and love for the animals you are keeping. It takes more than just seeing a tank and saying "I want one cause it looks cool". You have to think of your tank as a life support system, however complex or simple your system may be it will require routine maintenance and checks that need to be done, I feel that most people get lazier as time goes by, skipping a water change, dosing, not QTing etc....eventually the tanks health declines so far that corals and fish start to die.

The first tank you ever setup will never look they way you want, it takes time IMO to have a tank worth showing anyone. When I say time it can take years before you will be happy with your tank. I am on my third tank in 4 yrs and I am finely getting to the point where upgrading does not interest me anymore.

[Mik_101]

Wow I had my 46g for about 3 months nnow and whant to upgrade lol.