Whoa! Why was this not written in March? Lol right when I decided I needed to upgrade!!! It would have saved me a broken tank, a leaky dart, and countless headaches. HA! Who am I kidding? I'm addicted there's no stoping me! Lol! Thanks for sharing!
I agree, great write up. More stories like this should be shared to help others out. I wish I knew what I know now when I started out. Sure would have made my savings account a little fatter. I was told by (what I thought) was a reputable LFS in the beginning that the water they sold me was already cycled so my tank would not need to cycle. They sold me snake oil ! Told me I could add fish on day 2, so I purchased a couple clowns, a naso tang, a small trigger, and a hippo tang. Both tangs and trigger died within a week. Your post brought that rookie mistake back from the depths of my cob-webbed memory... The 2 knot-head clowns are still up to no good today though.
Niteowl03 sounds like the type of guy that would be addicted to home shopping networks.
NO MORE UPGRADES. LOL
Marc, the planted tank was the wife's freshwater, and I considered a marine planted but it never materialized. Im just glad to have my head out of the clouds now so I can enjoy it...Bring on MACNA so I can win the 300g!! LOL
First I would like to say welcome to the site and good post. No matter what anyone thinks or says this is an expensive and time consuming hobby though the rewards are what we strive for we all have learned "the hard way" at one point or another. My wife hates that my hobbies through the years have always been rather expensive and I truly appreciate her support through them. I originally had a 12 gallon nano tank that I started with which was fun and a learning experience but I personally do not want to go that small again. I would like to run about a 40 gallon setup though with LED spotlights, live rock, bubble tip anemone, and clarkii clowns with perhaps some very hardy easy lps and sps (monti cap, acans, ect,) but bigger I can not afford.
Nice write up. I didn't even know you'd gone through six tanks in this first year. I thought it was only four, and one was a planted tank. For your test kits, when you purchase them check if they have an expiration date like you do when you buy dairy products. And the day you open up the kit, grab a Sharpie and write that date on the box. Twelve months later, toss it and get a new one. Many kits are designed to be used 50 times, which is basically weekly for a year and should be running low by then. Your lighting selection with the idea of planning ahead is a good one. It's what I've always done. My first tank was the 29g, which I kept for seven years. I added a 55g tank for two years, and then broke both down to combine the livestock in the 280g. That tank lasted me nearly six years to the day, and when it leaked I had to tear it down. That was a really tough day, looking at the happy corals knowing they wouldn't tolerate what I was about to do. Seven months later, I finally got the 400g up and running and figured I'd be set for 10 years. Sadly, last spring it began leaking and the livestock was transferred over to the 215g for the time being. I'm looking forward to the 400g and would like to keep it and a couple of satellite tanks running that are plumbed together. Throughout all those transitions, I never moved quickly nor did I rush to make changes. It's very important to think through how it will all work out before you commence, as livestock is on the line. Just like any other pet, they rely on us to keep things right.
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