How much has your reef grown in 2019? What about you as a reefer?

[revhtree]

A lot can happen in a year! So what about us and our reef tanks? How much or how little has your reef grown? Let's talk about that today so please answer these questions!

1. Percentage wise how much do you think your reef has grown in size? 10% 30% 50% -10% -30%

2. What do you attribute the success or lack of success in your reef growing this year?

3. How have YOU grown as a reef hobbyist and what would you say to help others from what you've learned?

BONUS FOR SHARING BEFORE AND AFTER PICS!

image via @Fauna Marin

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

2019 was a good but tough year for me in reefing. I lost my first fish (that I'd had for ~3 years) because I started using NoPox without a skimmer. I moved in March and that really sucked the joy out of reefing for a few months. I had a trip to MACNA all planned out until the hurricane cut it short. I have pretty slow growth because my phosphates & nitrates are too high, but that doesn't bother me too much.

All that said, I still love this hobby. I don't really have an issue with the slow growth, I just plan around it by purchasing corals that are right for my tank.

 

[Braves Fan]

Its turning around now at the end of the year ,, 2020 should be a banner year

 

[madweazl]

I went with somewhat because the corals have grown a lot but it has become a pain to maintain. Because of the growth, I have to go in and do a lot more trimming and that has become cumbersome. I've also had to completely remove some corals

1. Growth has been very high (few hundred percent for most I guess) but many of them were quite small a year ago (dont think I've added any corals since the 2018 pic).

2. I don't really mess with it. The tank has adequate lighting and flow but I think water changes make success simple (I change 15-20 gallons almost every weekend though I do miss some). The only thing I add to the tank is BRS 2-part (pharma grade) and LRS Reef Frenzy for the fish. I used Instant Ocean exclusively until mid September when I switched to Tropic Marin Pro to see if I could tell the difference. Outside of my wallet, I've noticed no difference in the health or color of any coral. On the plus side, it mixes up around 7.3 dKh for me which is right where I like to keep alkalinity. It's nice not having to use muriatic acid to lower the dKh but it certainly isn't worth twice as much money for that convenience over IO either.

3. Don't know that I've learned anything this year that is responsible for any success; just applying what I've learned over the years.

29 Dec 2018

9 Nov 2019

 

[Brew12]

1. Percentage wise how much do you think your reef has grown in size? 10% 30% 50% -10% -30%

Definitely more than 50%.

2. What do you attribute the success or lack of success in your reef growing this year?

Flow improvements.

3. How have YOU grown as a reef hobbyist and what would you say to help others from what you've learned?

I've shrunk as a reefer. I recommend watching what you eat and spending time in the gym. Seems like a silly question for R2R....

Dec 2018

Dec 2019

 

[Jon Fishman]

Oh Boy!!!! This was meant for me! No percentages, but I just started reefing February of 2019...... so here is my 2019 growth:

 

[X-37B]

New 120.
1st pic june 29th
2nd pic just took with no lights on as its early today.
Very happy with no water changes and just set up carx 3 days ago so no more 2 part. I will get a better pic with lights on in a few hours and add it.

 

[Mical]

EXTREMELY Happy! Considering I moved 2 tanks from a 3 story condo to our new home. A 65 gal & a 120 gal - all in 5 gal buckets. (I had no help) All livestock - 9 nems, 3 urchins, 15 fish and a ton of corals & frags and the only casualty was a tuxedo urchin.

Since re-setting the tanks up & fine tuning my dosing adding CoralAmino via my ATOs - corals have grown more in last 6 mos than they did in previous 3 years.

As far as Recs: to other reefers - Ask questions here and have a plan. I searched R2R for moving help and the threads had ALL KINDS of valuable info and thanks to those that posted, my move went smoother than I expected.

 

[living_tribunal]

Complete and utter noob here.

I feel like I’ve grown quite a bit, most of which has been knowledge from the proverbial reefing learning curve.

The other portion of growth has mainly been doing a lot of scientific research from people in the marine field that don’t have anything to do with aquariums but more so ocean biology. The first thing I learned about this hobby is there is too much conjecture, myths, and flat out wrong information.

Picking people you know you can trust and disregarding bad information, despite who it may be from, is key.

The other portion of learning is just watching your corals, their responses, and growth rates as much as possible. That’s where I feel I’ve learned the most.

Been in the hobby for 4-5 months now, display has been up for 2 months, and I’m very happy with results. I’ve acquired about 50 frags during this time, only lost 1 from Dino, and everything else has grown at minimum 25% in size or heads, at most some stuff has tripled.

I run a 65g display which has been up for two months and a 10g qt frag tank which has been up for 5 months.

It’s an lps dominate tank, only has 3 sticks that were given to me for free, which are also growing a bit too fast.

I think the biggest reason why growth has been so strong is great phosphate control. Phosphates are very misunderstood on this forum, and elsewhere, and are one of the most important parameters your corals need.

I also feed heavily. Not sure what it is but I love to feed tiny lps oversized pellets, it’s caused insane growth in my favias and acans. I provide the corals some form of direct feeding every single day with daily aminos, carbohydrates, live phytoplankton, and then also rotate oyster feast, reef roids, and pellets every single day. I run an lps dominate tank and they love it.

My frag tank after my first coral purchase about 4 months ago.

After about two months

My display after 2 months

Some of my sadistic feeding pleasure

 

[fl3xlinton]

Well considering I started this year. I’d say I’ve grown quite a bit! And I’m very happy I did start. But I can’t stop lol.

the first fts is October 25th? And I don’t have another but here are some of my corals currently! For a while I had a bad case of the tank uglies. Dino’s everywhere. Then one day they all went away magically and here I am. I’m not sure what happened but I raised my alk and I added my first coral a gsp frag. Now uglies are gone.


I know my photos aren’t the best but I’m still trying to figure out the best way to take pics of these corals! My camera doesn’t like the lens

 

[living_tribunal]

Well considering I started this year. I’d say I’ve grown quite a bit! And I’m very happy I did start. But I can’t stop lol.

the first fts is October 25th? And I don’t have another but here are some of my corals currently! For a while I had a bad case of the tank uglies. Dino’s everywhere. Then one day they all went away magically and here I am. I’m not sure what happened but I raised my alk and I added my first coral a gsp frag. Now uglies are gone.


I know my photos aren’t the best but I’m still trying to figure out the best way to take pics of these corals! My camera doesn’t like the lens

I like that plate you have.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Completely happy even with some up and down.

Dec. 2018

Dec. 18. 2019..

 

[fl3xlinton]

I like that plate you have.

Thanks! I got him from trsc aquatics. He came glued to a frag plug and I heard they walk around so I’m scared the glue might have killed whatever it is that makes em walk around. It’s my first time trying to mess with a plate so I figured I’d get a cheap one

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

I don't have any pictures to show the growth, but I wil for the 2020 year starting up the 75g. I have learned a lot this year, I started reefing in late May and I have been challenged a whole lot in that short time. learning the chemistry, and equipment has been overwhelming at times. I also have learned how to deal and combat the algae issues that have showed up in the tank. Learned how to manage sand beds and keep them clean and importance of it.

thank you to everyone here because without you all I would be stuck!

 

[ca1ore]

I'm never very happy. That would mean no coral losses .... 2019 was not that! There's always some kind of challenge. Measure of the reefer is how well you handle it/them.

1. Percentage wise how much do you think your reef has grown in size? 10% 30% 50% -10% -30%

Somewhere between 10 and 30%

2. What do you attribute the success or lack of success in your reef growing this year?

Stability, judgement and prudence.

3. How have YOU grown as a reef hobbyist and what would you say to help others from what you've learned?

Been keeping reefs since 1995 (ish). Not sure I learned anything 'new' in 2019. By 'best' advice for the novice reefers is to identify a handful of credible experts to 'follow'.

BONUS FOR SHARING BEFORE AND AFTER PICS!

Tank grew a lot faster in year 1 (2018) than year 2 (2019), but that is OK because it's FULL.

 

[Combs1ng]

A lot can happen in a year! So what about us and our reef tanks? How much or how little has your reef grown? Let's talk about that today so please answer these questions!

1. Percentage wise how much do you think your reef has grown in size? 10% 30% 50% -10% -30%

2. What do you attribute the success or lack of success in your reef growing this year?

3. How have YOU grown as a reef hobbyist and what would you say to help others from what you've learned?

BONUS FOR SHARING BEFORE AND AFTER PICS!

image via @Fauna Marin

I don't have a tank up yet...researching endlessly. But my knowledge has grown 1000%. What lights are these over this tank?

 

[ZoWhat]

Zoas/palys dominated tank. I would say halk of my polyps have doubled in #.

As a reefer....from trial and error.... I would say:

.... to be successful you have to learn the ART of Husbandry then translate it into your own personal SCIENCE

 

[MJC]

A year and a half growth

 

[living_tribunal]

Thanks! I got him from trsc aquatics. He came glued to a frag plug and I heard they walk around so I’m scared the glue might have killed whatever it is that makes em walk around. It’s my first time trying to mess with a plate so I figured I’d get a cheap one

They will secure themselves with their polyps, they're an underrated coral imo. Pop like crazy.

 

[watdachuck]

I think it is filling out nicely!

I thank my recent success to the use of vibrant starting two months ago, and reducing my Alk to 7.5-8.0. This has been a much better for for my ULNS.

I am also only running a single MP60 versus the two I had on this 160G. It was way too much flow and unfortunately I could not place them on alternate sides because of the overflow on my peninsula design.

December 18 to November 19.