Confessions of reefing...

[xM3THODx]

Doing something taboo, unpopular or just plain different with your reef? Here's your chance to let it be known....PLEASE NO JUDGMENTAL COMMENTS. 

Explain the reason why you're doing what you're doing if you wish or just state it. I like to hear or see what reefers are doing but don't want to omit due to being flamed.

 

I confess that I dose quite a bit of aminos. I've always heard others say that if you see faster algae growth on the glass then back off, but what I never hear is what happens beyond that.  So I kept increasing the amount beyond what's recommended by the manufacture. 

 

Daily dose: 12mls of Acropower, 4mls Seachem Fuel, 1ml of each bottle(4) of Continuum

 

I'll most likely keep increasing amounts until I see something negative, but I'm not gonna go crazy and dump a half a bottle in. 

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

5 minutes ago, xM3THODx said:

Doing something taboo, unpopular or just plain different with your reef? Here's your chance to let it be known....PLEASE NO JUDGMENTAL COMMENTS. 

Explain the reason why you're doing what you're doing if you wish or just state it. I like to hear or see what reefers are doing but don't want to omit due to being flamed.

 

I confess that I dose quite a bit of aminos. I've always heard others say that if you see faster algae growth on the glass then back off, but what I never hear is what happens beyond that.  So I kept increasing the amount beyond what's recommended by the manufacture. 

 

Daily dose: 12mls of Acropower, 4mls Seachem Fuel, 1ml of each bottle(4) of Continuum

 

I'll most likely keep increasing amounts until I see something negative, but I'm not gonna go crazy and dump a half a bottle in. 

 

 

 

 

 

My entire reefing dogma is unpopular. 🤷🏻‍♀️😄

 

 

 

 

and I bet if you dumped a half a bottle in.............nothing would happen. 😄

[billygoat]

I confess that I never dip anything. Recently I don't even acclimate new arrivals, I just float them to match temp and put them in the tank. 🤷‍♂️

 

This hasn't come back to bite me yet... I think? My tank started out with every conceivable variety of pest, so it's hard to say for sure if any additional ones have come in as a result of my lax quarantine methods. 😅 Still, probably not the best habit to be in!

[FISHnChix]

I secretly harvest palytoxin for my master plan to take over the world.....

[ninjamyst]

1 hour ago, xM3THODx said:

I confess that I dose quite a bit of aminos. I've always heard others say that if you see faster algae growth on the glass then back off, but what I never hear is what happens beyond that.  So I kept increasing the amount beyond what's recommended by the manufacture. 

 

Daily dose: 12mls of Acropower, 4mls Seachem Fuel, 1ml of each bottle(4) of Continuum

 

I'll most likely keep increasing amounts until I see something negative, but I'm not gonna go crazy and dump a half a bottle in. 

Any reason to dose multiple aminos from different vendors?  Funny thing is I was talking to my LFS today and they also dose Acropower AND Fuel too.  I started to dose 5ml of Seachem Fuel daily but my tank is 100 gallons total volume =P.  All those aminos cost quite a bit of $$ too....

[devaji108]

I confess....I am just as excited to build my nano as I  am the big empty tank in my living room.   sop in the middle of a large build to build a nano tank?? 

[xM3THODx]

5 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

Any reason to dose multiple aminos from different vendors?  Funny thing is I was talking to my LFS today and they also dose Acropower AND Fuel too.  I started to dose 5ml of Seachem Fuel daily but my tank is 100 gallons total volume =P.  All those aminos cost quite a bit of $$ too....

Well, I'm not sure how I even ended using them all at once. I think I started with Fuel first for a few months, when I was running low I bought Acropower because it didn't need refrigeration and I wanted to add it to my doser.  Now having Acropower on the doser, I still had fuel left and that's when I think I using both. Now the Continuum product I got as a giveaway from attending a talk, and so I started with that. Once I run out of the Continuum, depending on how the corals look after awhile will determine if I buy more.

 

I've gotta say I do see a difference with Fuel. I didn't buy another bottle right away when I hooked up Acropower and noticed declining color. I probably could have increased the Acropower dose but felt it might've been too much. Knowing that the corals did well when I was dosing both, that's when I bought more fuel and back to dosing both.  Now I've been increasing the amount of Acropower lately.

 

As far as prices....Thank goodness I only have a nano, hahaha,  I can only imagine the cash spent to dose a large system. A bottle goes a long way for a nano.

[xM3THODx]

I have another confession... when I test salinity and find it's lower than  35ppt.....I add salt kinda indirectly into the tank, actually into the overflow. 

[ninjamyst]

yea, i stupidly bought the small bottle of Fuel and it's not going to even last me a month.  but if it works, i will keep buying the bigger bottle.

 

14 minutes ago, xM3THODx said:

I have another confession... when I test salinity and find it's lower than  35ppt.....I add salt kinda indirectly into the tank, actually into the overflow. 

you are the worst...hahah

[Snow_Phoenix]

I confess that I use tap water to run all my tanks. I used to use DI, but switched over to full tap when the price of water became triple-fold, and simply put, I couldn't afford it. I didn't want to quit the hobby either so I made do with what I have and my latest tank - a 60G DT mixed reef runs solely on tap for WCs and top-offs. I realized the extra nutrients from my tap actually benefited most of my corals, especially my LPS, Softies and shrooms. My zoanthids and SPS are slow-growers however.

 

I also confess that I slack back on WCs to once every 5+ weeks if I am very sick or swamped with work. I rely on manual dosing (Ca, kH, iodine) and regular maintenance (scrubbing the glass, stirring the sandbed, basting the rocks) to keep my tank going. 

 

I confess I rarely check on my parameters. I have a wide range of test kits which I only use once a month, or when something looks 'off' in my tank (a coral melting, invert gone missing etc.). Otherwise, I try not to interfere with my tank or its levels too much.

 

Lastly, I confess I am a fishaholic and make impulse purchases rather frequently. Oddball fish that catch my eye usually wind up coming home with me - this includes deformed animals which I know no one else would buy, and would eventually perish at the store. I take dangerous risks sometimes, which either pays off...or doesn't. I don't really recommend my style of reefing to anyone, especially people who have just entered the hobby. 

 

(That is it for now, I think)

[Clown79]

Oh there are a few confessions.

 

1. I run my tank with higher than recommended phos. I never was a believer of dosing phyto but started when I seeded my tank with pods to get rid of dino's. Got rid of dino's, and now have lots of coral growth, better colours, a happy tank.

 

2. I don't use ato's or dosers- everything manual. I prefer to keep things simple, less chance for failure of equipment 

 

3. I have kept larger than recommended fish in smaller tanks: blenny in 5g. I did it because I wanted the blenny and the system ran well with a happy fish

 

4. I don't always do weekly waterchanges and  when I do, they aren't large ones. My system had issues keeping nutrients in it and I found doing smaller waterchanges or less often allowed my system to run better

 

5. I don't do as much with the systems as they have matured. I find they run better with the less I do and being less obsessed

 

 

 

 

 

[pokerdobe]

I have no idea what I'm doing. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

26 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Oh there are a few confessions.

 

1. I run my tank with higher than recommended phos. I never was a believer of dosing phyto but started when I seeded my tank with pods to get rid of dino's. Got rid of dino's, and now have lots of coral growth, better colours, a happy tank.

 

2. I don't use ato's or dosers- everything manual. I prefer to keep things simple, less chance for failure of equipment 

 

3. I have kept larger than recommended fish in smaller tanks: blenny in 5g. I did it because I wanted the blenny and the system ran well with a happy fish

 

4. I don't always do weekly waterchanges and  when I do, they aren't large ones. My system had issues keeping nutrients in it and I found doing smaller waterchanges or less often allowed my system to run better

 

5. I don't do as much with the systems as they have matured. I find they run better with the less I do and being less obsessed

 

 

 

 

 

I actually have very high nitrates and phosphates in my system. I find that certain types of coral (like LPS) open 'larger/wider' and are puffier when these two levels are higher. And I do agree that a mature system is better off left to run on its own with less tinkering/less hands in the tank. Every time I tried to correct something in my tank, I'll usually upset something else, so now I just leave it be. 

[Clown79]

40 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I actually have very high nitrates and phosphates in my system. I find that certain types of coral (like LPS) open 'larger/wider' and are puffier when these two levels are higher. And I do agree that a mature system is better off left to run on its own with less tinkering/less hands in the tank. Every time I tried to correct something in my tank, I'll usually upset something else, so now I just leave it be. 

That's exactly how I see things now.

 

 

[Melfy77]

16 hours ago, FISHnChix said:

I secretly harvest palytoxin for my master plan to take over the world.....

Hey you stole my idea!!!!

 

Also I confess some days I don't check the tank temp...I just put my finger in the water for 3 seconds, analyse than come to the conclusion "yup feels about right!"...I'm a terrible lazy person🙄

[patback]

23 minutes ago, Melfy77 said:

Hey you stole my idea!!!!

 

Also I confess some days I don't check the tank temp...I just put my finger in the water for 3 seconds, analyse than come to the conclusion "yup feels about right!"...I'm a terrible lazy person🙄

A long time ago I spent hundreds on a controller.  Literally the only thing I have ever used it for was temperature control.  

 

I also think from time to time about how you could probably get away with poisoning somebody with palytoxin.  I cant imagine it being so common to see that doctors would say "i know, let's test this man with what seems like a real bad flu, 1200 miles away from any ocean for a coral produced toxin"

[FISHnChix]

1 hour ago, patback said:

A long time ago I spent hundreds on a controller.  Literally the only thing I have ever used it for was temperature control.  

 

I also think from time to time about how you could probably get away with poisoning somebody with palytoxin.  I cant imagine it being so common to see that doctors would say "i know, let's test this man with what seems like a real bad flu, 1200 miles away from any ocean for a coral produced toxin"

🤷‍♂️🤔😉

[seabass]

I confess... that I get freaked out if a fish touches me.

[patback]

I also confess to being lazy/unprepared enough that if I dont have water on hand for top off, I throw bottled drinking water in the sump to displace the water and stop microbubbles until I have the time to make more water. 

[ninjamyst]

Ooooo I got one since I did this last night....

 

My confession:  I sniff my skimmer skimmate. I know it smells like rotten egg but I sniff it anyways.  Then I always ask my wife, "Do you want to smell something really bad?".  She ignores me now.  

[Humblefish]

I still do everything manually... top off, dosing, etc. Too many stories out there about an ATO overflowing a sump or reactor going haywire.

[xM3THODx]

15 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I confess that I use tap water to run all my tanks. I used to use DI, but switched over to full tap when the price of water became triple-fold, and simply put, I couldn't afford it. I didn't want to quit the hobby either so I made do with what I have and my latest tank - a 60G DT mixed reef runs solely on tap for WCs and top-offs. I realized the extra nutrients from my tap actually benefited most of my corals, especially my LPS, Softies and shrooms. My zoanthids and SPS are slow-growers however.

 

I also confess that I slack back on WCs to once every 5+ weeks if I am very sick or swamped with work. I rely on manual dosing (Ca, kH, iodine) and regular maintenance (scrubbing the glass, stirring the sandbed, basting the rocks) to keep my tank going. 

 

I confess I rarely check on my parameters. I have a wide range of test kits which I only use once a month, or when something looks 'off' in my tank (a coral melting, invert gone missing etc.). Otherwise, I try not to interfere with my tank or its levels too much.

 

Lastly, I confess I am a fishaholic and make impulse purchases rather frequently. Oddball fish that catch my eye usually wind up coming home with me - this includes deformed animals which I know no one else would buy, and would eventually perish at the store. I take dangerous risks sometimes, which either pays off...or doesn't. I don't really recommend my style of reefing to anyone, especially people who have just entered the hobby. 

 

(That is it for now, I think)

I bet it feels good to let all know what you do or lack thereof. A friend of mine had a tank and never did water changes and topped off with only tap water and it had the best corralline growth I have ever se

 

To go long term in this hobby, I believe the system and inhabitants chosen has to be designed according to the owners lifestyle and not be a slave to it.

[Elizabeth94]

Like Billygoat I never went through long processes for acclimating anything besides inverts. Coral floated to match temp and in they went. They always opened up within a couple hours of being added. I never understood why some people acclimate for hours.  However I always dipped. 

 

My newest system will have a small coral quarantine tank. I hope I stick with it XD

[RemoGaggi]

The only test kit I have is an API Saltwater test kit - Ammonia, PH, Nitrite, Nitrate.  And I couldn't tell you the last time I tested anything.  I do test my salinity weekly and water change weekly.  Does that make up for the lack of testing?

[xM3THODx]

13 hours ago, seabass said:

I confess... that I get freaked out if a fish touches me.

I'm with you on that, especially with my mamma clown, scares the sheet out of me when I see her approaching my hand, haha