harold green
New Member
I think I had my first tank at the age of 7. Now I'm 64 and looking back I've decided there is no right or wrong way to have a tank. Forty years ago I set up my first marine tank. Crushed coral with an undergravel filter, dead corals, plastic plants and at that time if you could keep a few damsels and a clown fish alive you were doing well. Had a couple of peppermint shrimp and they would climb the plastic plants to the water surface and grab the flakes of tetra ruby fish food I fed the fish. The shrimp turned the darkest, reddest color I've ever seen on a peppermint shrimp. As the hobby progressed so did my tanks. I tried wet dry filters, metal halide lights, vho lights, skimmers, live rock, lots of water changes, no water changes, fish tanks, coral tanks, big tanks, little tanks. I've seen salt water done in a goldfish bowl successfully with lots of water changes. As many have noted the most important thing is stability of the environment. If the conditions aren't perfect you may lose some animals but some may survive and flourish because they like the environment as it is. I learned the hard way that some of the animals that look great may not be what you truly want in the long run. I bought a piece of coral branch with a few Anthelia that sat at the back of the tank for six months without doing a thing. Over the next six months they completely covered the back of a 75 gallon tank along with all the live rock and corals at the top of the tank. Never again. I've had the same experience with yellow polyps, green star polyps, and even worse kenyan tree coral. The kenyan tree fragments and the pieces grow all over the tank and are hard to remove. At 64 I wasn't sure I had it in me to start a large reef tank but not having enough to do 24 hours a day I decided to give it my all. I'm running in a 210 gallon reef with a 75 gallon sump. Filter socks feeding a skimmer rated for 400 gallons and a refusium fed by a gfo/carbon reactor. Lighting is led's both diy and store bought. Although not the accepted best method I started the tank with fresh florida live rock. I suspect the rock actually was held for a time since it had little or no die off once added to my tank. I added some live rock from my existing tanks and let the tank run for a month. Nitrates and phosphates read zero so I began adding corals a few each week. Macro algae growth was unbelievable for several weeks so I expect the live rock was causing it. Now the growth has slowed and I expect any nitrates or phosphates are about used up. Regardless of test results I prefer to judge by what's happening in the tank. Test kits are great but watching a tank daily will often tell you more. If you follow the basics you will seldom go wrong but seat of the pants can teach you a lot more in the long run. I'm sure a lot of members can quote you all the statistics on their tanks and many have absolutely beautiful tanks but in the long run it's attention to your tank that will ultimately decide if it's successful or not. Best of luck and don't ever be afraid to try.