What was the HARDEST reef keeping lesson you've learned to date?

[revhtree]

This hobby we call "reef keeping" is full of ups and downs, ebbing and flowing with plenty of lessons, good and bad, to be learned!

What's been the hardest reef keeping lesson you've learned to date?

*please keep comments focused on the husbandry and maintaining of your reef. Thanks.

 

[Reefer Matt]

The hardest lesson I learned was to have a lot of patience. I lost a lot of coral in the beginning. Both by correcting problems too quickly, or by adding livestock too soon. Now I think of reefing like a ship. It takes a while to get off course, but it usually takes even longer to right the ship. Patience and stability are 90% of my success.

 

[DED65]

The hardest lesson I learned was not to let that Bobbit worm into the tank. If I would have known that a creature like that could come in, I would have been a lot more careful to check things out and not just throw it in the tank. Breaking down a 120 gallon tank could have been avoided.

 

[jimfish98]

Hardest lesson was learning that I need to stop listening to people on forums, Facebook groups, and Youtube videos. I followed along, did as I was supposed to, and still failed miserably. When you follow the advice and run into issues, I found those folks were all the sudden silent or quick to tell me that their advice probably worked but I had messed up something else that made it not work. Six months in on my first reef I shut it down out of frustration and just not enjoying it at all. When I restarted almost two years ago I ignored all of it and followed what I knew from 20+ years of keeping freshwater fish and koi ponds. Now I am running two tanks with ease and my biggest issue being impatient with coral growth.

 

[EugeneVan]

The hardest lesson I learned was to have a lot of patience. I lost a lot of coral in the beginning. Both by correcting problems too quickly, or by adding livestock too soon. Now I think of reefing like a ship. It takes a while to get off course, but it usually takes even longer to right the ship. Patience and stability are 90% of my success.

Totally agree with you. In the past I have a dosing pump failed to dose. My KH drop from 8.3 to 7.3 in about a 10 days until I question myself why the dosing container is still full. I didn't correct the KH overnight by over reacting. Instead I took 3 weeks to slowly bring the KH back to 8.3. Cross my figure and I didn't lost any SPS. Here is my picture of my 110 gal as today. Every pieces of SPS, LPS and the fish are happy and healthy.

 

[FUNGI]

Patience

 

[Troylee]

Patience.

 

[Goaway]

Coral placement. You think you got it figured out and "someone" kills their neighbor. -_-

 

[exnisstech]

Another vote for patience. It was extremely difficult for me since I had little to no patience to start with. I've been able to apply the patience the hobby has taught me to my day to day life and not being angry all the time is a bit more relaxing.

 

[darrick001]

Quarantine, Quarantine, Quarantine, ick wiped out my first tank.

 

[merkmerk73]

Not planning ahead for expansion in the sump/cabinet area.

I didn't know that I'd someday want dosers, a carbon reactor (manifold!!!), etc.

There's too much info about the saltwater hobby and at the beginning I didn't even think I'd want corals - or certainly not many corals.

edit: runner up - preparing rock stack properly and with reinforcement. nothing sucks more than some janky setup your paid installation does and having a collapse that you can't ever get back the way it was.

 

[Uncle99]

That without regular testing, I had no idea what water chemistry was, and not successful.

 

[KK's Reef]

Whatever issue you're trying to fix today, probably started weeks ago. It was hard at first to wrap my head around that. You really have to look back and look at the events that happened weeks ago, to help you understand what you're trying to fix today.

 

[revhtree]

BUMP!

 

[585bird]

Quarantine, Quarantine, Quarantine, ick wiped out my first tank.

I’m learning this lesson the hard way .LFS #1) told me fish came QT which ended up being BS .Never discussed a QT set up as they want your fish dead so you buy more .LFS#2 said they don’t believe in QT just use medic .Also fed selton,vita pro,garlic nori green and purple.Did this multiple times then tried rally pro and kick ick x2 . This absolutely did nothing but drain my pockets $.So been losing many fish because of this .So big problem is the tank is 250 gallons and catching them is going to be a nightmare .Debating on throwing in the towel.Penisula Red Sea 950 may be for sale or going freshwater .Fish I’ve lost . .Gem tang ,emperor angel ,regal angel ,flame angel,moorish idol,Bella angels ,lanmark angels,clown fish,leopard wrasse ,sand sifters ,foxface , Naso tang ect.Im a total believer in observation /qt big time now .Also I would coral dip and observation tank first .

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

that magnificent looking zoa colony was really only 1/2" in size and just a blown up picture in elaborate blue light.

 

[Extremeengineer]

While not a direct answer, I appreciate all of you who chose to not exhibit the required patience and posted your tales of woe here. That comes across as callous when I read it out loud, but it has kept me from buying corals too soon on several occasions. So each time I think I want to go buy a bunch of corals for my 4 week old tank, I come here first and read something so that I can, for once in my life, learn from the mistakes of others. So I am sorry, but thank you.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

A few times I fixed a problem without fully understanding it and what caused it, and made the problem worse. lol

 

[ScottJ]

And another vote for patience! I have found patience and regular water changes cure an awful lot of problems.

Also, don't point out all the flaws in the tank when someone is looking at it

 

[wazzupmac]

Fully trusting an ATO on short notice before a vacation - always test out new equipment for a few weeks!

Flooded my tank and crushed the salinity on a small tank - all was lost (3 years ago)