Months 3-6...what to expect?

[Cichlid Dad]

@Kodski what a great set of thoughts. I need to reread it a few times for sure. Thank you for taking the time to try and educate a novice.

Like I jokingly posted above, this hobby seems to constantly walk the tight rope of "don't over react, but don't get complacent and under react either!"

As a newbie with no experience at all, it feels impossible to know when it's time to fix something and when it's time to let it ride.

So far the only things I've dosed is a few jars of pods and 2 days worth of AB+ to get nutrients off 0/0. So hopefully I'm walking the rope a little.

@Cichlid Dad is about 80-90# of Indonesian live Rock. Arrived wrapped in wet newspaper.

Although I only have experience with live rock shipped in water, I believe your rock will help you not have major headaches down the road. When I saw the rock and tank age, I figured it wasn't dry rock. Keep us updated!

 

[Kodski]

Like I jokingly posted above, this hobby seems to constantly walk the tight rope of "don't over react, but don't get complacent and under react either!"

As a newbie with no experience at all, it feels impossible to know when it's time to fix something and when it's time to let it ride.

Always remember, its a hobby. Its supposed to be fun! If you spend the entire time worrying if you're doing something right or wrong you'll never be able to truly enjoy the hobby. In all honesty, I tend to lean to the side of always under react. If you're testing like you should be, its much more difficult to under react to the point of causing harm. For example, when my alk tests lower from the last time I tested I look at the trend line. If it was trending up, and suddenly it went down a little, I tend to not do anything. I wait until my next test and see where it is. Maybe my water change corrected it, maybe it was an inaccurate test, maybe it was an increase of growth due to the weather being nice and I had my windows open causing my PH to be a bit higher than normal any my corals liked that enough to grow a little faster. My next test will allow me to see the trend of the parameter. From there I can decide to either do nothing until the next time I test, or make a correction, but generally as long as I'm within my tolerance of my parameter goal, I'm happy.

If you're not sure when its time to step in and fix something or change something, try writing out a set of goals. IE: Alk: goal is 8 DKH but lets say plus or minus .5DKH realistically. Phosphates: Goal 0.08ppm but plus of minus 0.05ppm, Ect.

This will really help to guide you to make changes. If you need help with picking said numbers, I'm always happy to help. In reality the actual number is less important than maintaining a tolerance of fluctuation.

Personally I like to write out everything. Parameter goals, maintenance items with frequency, and overall goals. Even down to what and how I intend to dose, top off water, ect. Plus whenever I make a major change, for example switching from 2-part dosing to kalkwasser, it helps me to see what else that change might affect. For that instance I would also have to change the type of magnesium I'm dosing. Also, its perfectly normal if your goals change over time as you learn more. That's part of it!

A few other words of advise.
-Everyone runs their tank differently. Your own eyes will be able to tell you if you're on the right track or not. Don't fret if the way you do things or keep parameters is different from an experienced reefer.
-if a problem occurs, whether it was cause in a short time or over a long time, the best course of correction will likely take a long time. Small corrections, test, repeat. Corals will react even slower, so just give it time, things will turn around.
-I watch phosphates and ignore nitrates personally as they are somewhat corelated. I've found nitrates will be what they will be. That being said, I still test once a month or so to make sure nothing is getting out of hand.
-Magnesium. Its super important, IMO much more than nitrates. I test once a month. It doesn't get consumed at such a pace to require weekly testing. But just don't ignore it. Once again, if its low, I typically will correct the levels by two or three doses over the course of the next week or two, testing in between to watch how the dosages react within the tank.
-A little algae isn't a problem. All healthy tanks have a little somewhere. It doesn't make sense to turn the tank on its head to try to correct something that isn't a problem except in your eyes.

 

[polyppal]

Pretty much...just wait it out. You dont necessarily need to wait to see coralline growing...just stability.

+1. You could add some simple easy stuff like a Zoa colony when you see things stable out, they are a great visual indicator that things in the tank are on the right track (when they’re opened up)

After you see them staying happy consistently go for the nem. Don’t need to wait for coralline to do that

 

[mythesis]

Thanks again @Kodski , that's great wisdom. As a new person, it's very hard to understand what I'm seeing and when alarms need to sound --- this forum has been invaluable in helping in that process.

In my Build thread I mentioned we keep bees as well, and the first season felt a lot like what I'm going through now. A lot of "Holy crap, what's happening, do I need to address this??" only to find out it's normal (except when it's not...)

Now, three years in, we can *hear* if something's really wrong as soon as we open it up. I'm sure there's a similar skill with Reefing where you can glance at a Zoa colony or something and recognize right away that there's some water quality issues (and you experts might even be able to narrow it down to a small number of parameters to address!)

But, in a similar vein, that first year of beekeeping it was hard to understand that decisions we made in August meant our bees died in February. And _that's_ where the stress right now is coming from.

Everything "looks" good to me right now, but I'm thankful for this forum to know that a 0/0 Nitrate/Phosphate reading in Month 3 meant I was on the highway to Dinos and needed to elevate them *fast*.

But if I understand you correctly, most of the "imbalances" going forward are less urgent and require smaller, slower changes. Calcium will start to get consumed faster and require some dosing, or alkalinity will start changing, etc. And when that happens, small changes slowly is the key!

+1. You could add some simple easy stuff like a Zoa colony when you see things stable out, they are a great visual indicator that things in the tank are on the right track (when they’re opened up)

After you see them staying happy consistently go for the nem. Don’t need to wait for coralline to do that

Thanks --- we went to a reef swap this weekend and picked up two small colonies of Zoas. They seem pretty happy so far Good to know they're a good "canary" coral.

And, the rest of our "easy" corals seem to be very happy. The Duncan has grown a new head. The Hammer is beautiful. A torch seems to be almost ready to split, but looks pretty happy. And the two leathers look both grumpy and healthy at the same time, which seems to be what leathers do!