Baby or Bearded Reefer: How long have been reefing? What's been your biggest milestone?

[KrisReef]

How long have you been reefing? And in your time in reefing, what has been your biggest milestone?

P.S. Bearded reefer = experienced reefer.

Has to be the day I signed up on here.

 

[reefsaver]

2-4 year gang where my homies!

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I have been doing saltwater on and off for 40+ years.
Biggest accomplishment... Hard to say. What was difficult before is easy now with knowledge and understanding. There isn't much "new" in reefing except a broader knowledge base and better equipment.
Understanding good husbandry and actively striving for it, is an accomplishment and a goal that will never be completely fulfilled.

 

[OrionN]

I started marine aquarium in 1980. Kill my first anemone and clown fish then.
I guess about the same time as @TangerineSpeedo and @vetteguy53081, a bit after @Paul B but not by much.
By 1985 I was keeping plant caulerpa and brissle worms in a reverse flow under-gravel filter power by a canister filter, using coral skeleton and lava rocks. I got the idea on bristle worms because I was keeping oscars at the time; I was feeding them earth worms, some survive and reproduce in the under gravel filter. The LFS at the time, Fintique in San Antonio on West Avenue, import stuff and got a population of bristle worms in the under-gravel filter. I had to beg them for a few worms.
Found the internet in the mid 1995 or so with reefkeeper mailing list, or was it Reefkeeping?
Stop in 1991, moving across the country, got married and establish a medical practice. I started feeding again in 1996 with MH and Florescent light, corals, clams and first Magnifica in the late 1990's.

My accomplishments:
Helping other reefers on various problems with advises on the internet. I used to spend a lot of time on line but it get repetitious and uninteresting after a while.

I named Pinched Mantel Disease (PMD) and devise a treatment for it with Fresh Water Dip (FWD) in around 2003. This disease devastated my clam collection and cost me tens of thousands.

I devised antibiotic protocol for treatment of newly imported anemones around 2012. I had no luck keeping Gigantea anemones. My success rate was 1/10+ in trying to keep Gigantea. Working on this problem, I came up with using Cipro or Septra to treat these anemones, Gigantea, Magnifica and Haddoni anemones. It work well for other sick anemones too.

 

[Eulis]

It might sound weird, but actually drilling my glass tank to install the overflow and doing the plumbing myself.

 

[Dburr1014]

On and off since, Hmmm, I think 1994. Just reef tanks. Fresh water before that.
I took a break from 08' to 14'
24 years, give or take.

Greatest milestone... Maybe this tank I have now. Swapped my 75 to this 150 and everything went wrong. Things out of my control mostly. Powerheads failing, temp controller wonky, ect. all in all, I lost 2 coral. That's all.

 

[Chris Spaulding]

I have been doing this for 20 years and I still learn things every day. Failures and successes along the way. It has taught me patience. It has also brought an additional way to do things with my family, Mom,Dad,and my Nieces. It has also brought me to meet and become very good friends with good like minded people in the community.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I have been doing this for 20 years and I still learn things every day. Failures and successes along the way. It has taught me patience. It has also brought an additional way to do things with my family, Mom,Dad,and my Nieces. It has also brought me to meet and become very good friends with good like minded people in the community.

One of the aspects I love about it is all the people I have met during my short time in this hobby!

 

[Timfish]

37 years with marine systems. Hard to say what's my biggest milestone. Here's a few major ones:

Large Build - Skimmerless since 1997

Hi Tim I have one question. Are you using natural light to light your reef? I didn't notice any lights hanging in the video you posted in top down thread. Hey, the system does get sunlight filtered through bronze tinted windows mid morning. Depending on time of year it varies from about half...

www.reef2reef.com

What the . . . what are the odds!

No point in me playing the lottery anymore ! Found this baby clam in the sump of one of my tanks stuck to some eggcrate. Clam wasn't there 6 - 8 months ago and only inverts added in the last three years have been a GBTA 2 years ago and a couple of starfish three years ago. First two pictures are ...

www.austinreefclub.com

Weldon 40 for complete build

Hey guys I'm new here and I have been reading through for most of the day. I'm not sure if I just missed it but I was wondering if any of the tank builders on here has opinions on building a 96x30x18 tank using weld on 40 instead of 4? I know its more expensive but thats not really a concern...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[revhtree]

What if you're bearded reefer and a big baby like me?

 

[Outlaw Corals]

32 year’s and i still can’t keep a Goni or Heliofungia !!! Well i can keep a goni alive just can’t get any polyp extension, but I’m not giving up on them i will have success with those Corals, through all of the ups and downs I’ve had there were many of times when I was ready to pack it in and give up but i kept going on, so my message to you guys that are just starting out is when you come to these cross roads keep on moving, you were coming to have times when you just want to give up, but just take it as a lesson learned and move on never give up, and most importantly, always remain teachable. I am still learning new things all of the time, and that is the most rewarding part of it to me.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

1992, how many years is that? Too many!

I've seen a lot come and go... and come again, to go again.

My major milestone was taking a step back and focusing on the simplicity of the biology. Limiting the amount of additives and focusing primarily on allowing the tank to stabilize naturally, without my constant tinkering.

Who knew, millions of years of evolution is far better than my feeble way of thinking.

 

[DanyL]

What if you're bearded reefer and a big baby like me?

Unless you’re a baby Gandalf - it doesn’t count

 

[revhtree]

Unless you’re a baby Gandalf - it doesn’t count

That's perfect! HA!

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

So I am definitely literally bearded lol. But for accomplishments I would say being able to recover elegance corals and a bleached brain. The wilsoni went south shortly after adding sand and you can see the start. But was happy till that point

 

[Philip Chin]

Over 20 years and milestone is breeding clownfishes.

 

[-XENOMORPH-]

Freshwater on and off 30 years. Saltwater and reefing 6 years.
I'm OCD a little so I chose a difficult hobby. Hahahahha.
Best accomplishment....hmmmmmm.
I was at Metallia and Guns n Roses in 1992?
Fishwise....----> ? Being afraid to adopt an anemonee about 2 years ago... and now having 12. Not a bad deal! Lol.

I love reading comments and articles on here and hope to just maintain. Slow and steady wins!

 

[CKW]

Well, whipper snappers. I’ve been tanking it for well over 60 years.
My biggest accomplishment?? I’ve survived almost every disaster there is in this “hobby”.
Sure, there have been times when I felt like giving it up then I get stung by a bristle worm and tell myself “I won’t let the dang worm win”

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

11 years and I’m still learning things. Keeping sps became a goal and I achieved it in the last two years. It’s funny how when I first got into saltwater I didn’t care for corals, I just wanted to be able to keep fish alive. Than I wanted to keep corals, of course I settled with the easier ones. My next goal than was acros. I guess i follow the “you want what you can’t have” theme

 

[NewReefer23]

1Year today. Did about 3 months of research first and it still wasn’t enough. I thought I could do this on a budget but soon realised the good stuff is expensive but it’s needed in some cases. One of the hardest lessons I have learned is qt fish prior to putting them in the DT as Velvet isn’t nice so I now have a 200l QT