We are in the first quarter of the year. How has 2023 been to you?

[vetteguy53081]

Hello vetteguy. Now that you asked.

Bad, watching my 7 year old reef die and selling all life and supplies a few weeks ago. Had all my teeth extracted 6 days ago, my bad for skipping the dentist for a couple years because of covid. Lost all fillings and 2 crowns, teeth breaking very easy. Finally went to the dentist last month and he says they are not repairable. So now I have dentures.

Good, I now have a nice looking African Cichlid tank with just fish, 25 one inch babies that will reach 4-5 inches, in my 75 gallon.

Wow- st least you made the trip
Nothing wrong with Africans especially lake Malawi and lake tanganika colors, easy breeding but lots of battles

 

[anthonygf]

Wow- st least you made the trip
Nothing wrong with Africans especially lake Malawi and lake tanganika colors, easy breeding but lots of battles

Yes it was an experience, a very expensive one. I did enjoy it when I could properly take care of it, not very easy with my bad arthritis. I am going with Lake Malawi scene. They say to make them less aggressive is to over populate the tank and not have any females. Well I unfortunately have a mix, in order to get them cheap at bulk is you get them unsexed.

 

[MoshJosh]

Good: upgraded tank, fish spawned, tank looking OK and seems to be maintaining. . .

Bad: Lost a few corals. Wanted to try some torches and got them on a good sale. . . both dead. . . got a fungia plate I think I killed with ultra low nutrients. . . Not sure though.

 

[Nman]

Good- Back into reefing and enjoying it more than before. Keeping things basic this time round money in my pocket not in the LFS
Bad - Alkalinity sky high so bought ro still the same reading 15.1 melting Zoas . Have to use acid buffer in the ro water and mix the ro water for24 hrs then add the salt . Some carry on LOL .

 

[Budman93]

Bad: Getting everything I need for a tank only for the plumbing to make me wait weeks before actually setting it up.

Good: Second hand sales on reef2reef. have saved a lot of money buying things from you guys.

 

[flashsmith]

 

[JoJosReef]

Happy first quarter @vetteguy53081 !

Joy: getting the Evo 13.5g (aka GHA tank) cleaned up and watching it stay that way, and getting my IM 40L AIO set up and thinking about what fish will go into it, meeting local reefers for group buys (Reefcleaners) or picking up/swapping frags at a good price.

Pains: bubble algae in the IM 10g, clearing up the Fiji Mud cloud in the seeded IM 40L AIO (~30 gallons of water changes, lugging 5g carboys)

Frustrations: locals flipping/selling/scamming corals for profit and eroding the local reefing community

Here's to a happy second quarter!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Happy first quarter @vetteguy53081 !

Joy: getting the Evo 13.5g (aka GHA tank) cleaned up and watching it stay that way, and getting my IM 40L AIO set up and thinking about what fish will go into it, meeting local reefers for group buys (Reefcleaners) or picking up/swapping frags at a good price.

Pains: bubble algae in the IM 10g, clearing up the Fiji Mud cloud in the seeded IM 40L AIO (~30 gallons of water changes, lugging 5g carboys)

Frustrations: locals flipping/selling/scamming corals for profit and eroding the local reefing community

Here's to a happy second quarter!

I understand the frustrations with coral acquisition.
I buy local 95% and just in fact got home.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Good: upgraded tank, fish spawned, tank looking OK and seems to be maintaining. . .

Bad: Lost a few corals. Wanted to try some torches and got them on a good sale. . . both dead. . . got a fungia plate I think I killed with ultra low nutrients. . . Not sure though.

Leave the fungia plate in tank- They often Do come back

 

[MoshJosh]

Leave the fungia plate in tank- They often Do come back

It's skeleton is sitting in the back corner of the display. . . been about a month but I'm still leaving it there just in case!

 

[Kathy Floyd]

Not so good so far. Had an employee quit without notice, and this 'new' tank for Christmas isn't going so good. Algae and ICH. QT tank set up and the waiting game. Fish (and some coral) loss is never good.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not so good so far. Had an employee quit without notice, and this 'new' tank for Christmas isn't going so good. Algae and ICH. QT tank set up and the waiting game. Fish (and some coral) loss is never good.

Ouch. Hopes for improvement

 

[tigre44]

Good found 2 corals I thought long dead have now appeared again, amazing growth on my clam and montiporas
Bad. Prices-clam went from 140 to 300, red mushroom 90 for one head really!
Swings in Alk and Ca

 

[KrisReef]

As we are in the first quarter of the year-
What has been your joy and what has been your disappointments so far this year?

For me- Finding nice colonies locally has been my joy

Frustrations: Price increases and Product availability with items such as test reagents and supplements frequently " Out Of Stock"

I have been rebooting my reef after about a year long fallow period as my sticks had an unidentified plague that slowly killed 95% of them. I began cleaning out the dead, removed the pipe organ weeds that were engulfing the tank and rescaped the rock working and added an assortment of new sticks and some fresh Australian live rock to see if the tank could handle sticks again. So far the results have been pretty positive and no signs of the killing plague have been found.
I did have a resurgence of various algae’s, ulva and a nasty red wire that was a problem many years ago but thus far the sticks and clams and scans and Wilsoni frags are looking promising.

The bad was mentioned re wire algae and the phosphate levels got squirrelly but they are not the most difficult thing I’m dealing with. Wife of 30+ years has been challenged by health issues and her husband is trying to figure out how to do good with a really ugly situation. Wish me luck with that rehabilitation process. The tank was good practice for patients and I hope I can figure out what to do next to improve our family health.

 

[Waters]

Good - Acro tank chugging along with 0 issues. Just set up another low tech planted tank filled with angels, tetras, and plecos.

Bad - None......at least none reef related lol.

 

[TnFishwater98]

Leave the fungia plate in tank- They often Do come back

I’ve got babies about to detach

 

[TnFishwater98]

2023 has been awful…. Didn’t think things could get worse after 2021-22… However, I’m not shocked.
Da Good- Family and Tanks are healthy…

 

[Joe.D]

The first quarter of 2023 (and the end of 2022) was spent dealing with bubble algae, scraping every weekend for a couple hrs. Eventually broke loose much of the glue holding rocks together and decided more drastic measures were needed.

Over the past 2 weeks, with some guidance from @brandon429, I removed about 1/4 of the rock in my tank every few days - scraped the bubble algae then sprayed with peroxide and went over it with a stiff bristle brush after letting peroxide cook for a few min.

Did the last batch on Wednesday and tried to remove a ricordia that had been doing great - it had split twice and was nice and puffy. In trying to remove I destroyed one of the heads and the other 2 aren’t very happy. Also cleaned all of the corals (I only have about 10) of bubble algae too.

I‘ve also cut back on feeding in hopes of keeping nutrients in check. Hopefully the One Spot Foxface and Emerald Crabs can keep the bubble algae in check from here.

My goals for Q2: Get my aquascape looking better than just piles of rock and add more corals!

 

[brandon429]

Joe that was a huge reef tank surgery job u did. Hey were you ever able to find some used bottles of vibrant on ebay was curious

 

[Rmckoy]

So far 2023 and the reef isn’t off to a great start but it’s stable and still alive .
A few things on my need list
1) to upgrade lighting for the 27” depth and not sure if staying with t5’s is the answer
But …. I haven’t been able to find a led fixture that produces a light I like