Favorite/most educational tank journals of all time - I know mine!

[Koleswrath]

Well, I'm away from home for a week with little else to do than pretend to work by covertly switching between reading tank journals and my empty email inbox (when someone occasionally meanders into my office to see if I'm awake). That means I was able to bang out @Cannedfish's 54 page opus of hilarity and eye candy. I'll have to vote his journal as my all time favorite (I'm sure there are many similar votes) and most entertaining. 

A sweet bonus of reading his thread and being constantly entertained and wowed was his "mediocre" (phenomenal) photography which allowed me to see what a lot of popular corals look like as frags, mini colonies and fairly grown out and what the progression looks like. It helps with unrealistic expectations (especially in the earlier pages). It also really helps with my future selection of corals, ie. I'll probably stay away from meteor shower Cyphastrea....

 

To that end, what's your favorite tank journal? What little snippet have you found that made a big impact on your tank decisions or methods? Maybe you decided to emulate that method completely?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

I need some new reading material......

[geekreef_05]

Good thread! 

 

My Key Lessons after returning to the hobby during covid: 

 

- Automated dosing is key. 

- Torches and Gonis do best at an Mg of 1500. 

- Cutting dosing elements like AFR 2:1 or as much as 4:1 with RO works super well to even out dosing over 24hrs and prevent clogging in auto dosing lines. Super useful in a nano. 

- i should have automated brine fish feeding a long time ago. This is amazing. Feed small and often. 20x a day if fish eat it. 

- pH is a tough cookie to crack. Its hard to move the needle into the 8.3-8.5 range when your home is C02 soaked

- Live Rock is the bomb. This new dry rock is insane. Success over long term is much more challenging. 

[Pjanssen]

I use to love @Cannedfish write ups-one of the few that I could actually read from beginning to end. Wish he'd come back!! I learned a lot from @teenyreef, who probably won TOTM more than anybody. @mcarroll seems to always have knowledgeable advice. There are so many. I can't pick one.

[mcarroll]

Journals tend to be more like diaries than "ordinary" forum posts, so I tend to avoid Journals for the most part and stick with regular forum threads.

 

But @TinyGiant would have to be on the list of exceptions....though it seems like DIY is passé now, his DIY LED thread(s) and related tanks were instrumental at their time.  Personally, they helped my understanding of LED lighting for corals immensely, and I also built a few fixtures based on the core design.  👍

 

[mitten_reef]

2 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

I use to love @Cannedfish write ups-one of the few that I could actually read from beginning to end. Wish he'd come back!! I learned a lot from @teenyreef, who probably won TOTM more than anybody. @mcarroll seems to always have knowledgeable advice. There are so many. I can't pick one.

+1 on @teenyreef multiple journals. Always interesting to see how an experienced reefer (read multiple times winner of Tank of the Month) encounters very similar issues and how they resolved through them. He also has great photography to keep the thread interesting.  
The old @metrokat threads were the ones that drew me to this forum, her last couple tank journals didn’t really pan out as I was hoping for. 

@markalot had some phenomenal tanks and journals. 

Generally, just browse the tank of the month section.  You start to see the trend developed as whose tank ppl really looked up to. They weren’t voted on or anything, but I’m sure the selection process accounted for how much interaction/engagement were happening in those journals.  https://www.nano-reef.com/featured/2021/
I think you can go back in time, by simply changing the year at the end there. I can’t see to find a main page for all featured tanks of the month any more @Christopher Marks, is there a link still?

[Koleswrath]

What a coincidence @mitten_reef, I just started reading @markalot's journal. 
Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[metrokat]

2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

+1 on @teenyreef multiple journals. Always interesting to see how an experienced reefer (read multiple times winner of Tank of the Month) encounters very similar issues and how they resolved through them. He also has great photography to keep the thread interesting.  
The old @metrokat threads were the ones that drew me to this forum, her last couple tank journals didn’t really pan out as I was hoping for. 

@markalot had some phenomenal tanks and journals. 

Generally, just browse the tank of the month section.  You start to see the trend developed as whose tank ppl really looked up to. They weren’t voted on or anything, but I’m sure the selection process accounted for how much interaction/engagement were happening in those journals.  https://www.nano-reef.com/featured/2021/
I think you can go back in time, by simply changing the year at the end there. I can’t see to find a main page for all featured tanks of the month any more @Christopher Marks, is there a link still?

Hi!! I was trying to figure out why I stopped chronicling here. Other than moving on to social media which has been an all consuming thing and something I am required to do for my business, I can’t think of a reason why. I suppose I could establish a new habit or routine and log back in here and start updating. I know that as soon as I get notified that I was mentioned I make the effort come here and respond - so thanks for doing that. 

[Pjanssen]

So nice to see @metrokat on here. And @mitten_reef you would be on my list too.

[Pjanssen]

I also learned quite a lot from @brandon429, when I understood his advanced college degree responses 😄

[metrokat]

2 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

So nice to see @metrokat on here. And @mitten_reef you would be on my list too.

Thanks!

[mitten_reef]

On 2/27/2024 at 6:56 PM, Pjanssen said:

So nice to see @metrokat on here. And @mitten_reef you would be on my list too.

Aw thanks, I think you missed the part where the title says educational 🤣. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

5 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Aw thanks, I think you missed the part where the title says educational 🤣. 

Can't deny that your tank journal still rocks though! 🌺

[metrokat]

I did a thing.