Don't make this mistake when starting a reef tank!

[@queencityreefs]

Good luck my friend. Thanks for the mention of the new hygger pump. So cost friendly! 👏🙌👌✌️

[@MrNixtt]

Subscribed 👍🏻

[@whatthereef]

Thank you!

[@NoelG-IRE]

No such thing as easy reefing without accepting sacrifices. If you want fancy hard to keep corals and fish, you need to put ridiculous effort in. If you want a simple tank, just add less demanding fish and simple soft corals. Get rid of that moorish idol and the Anthias or you will really struggle to keep nutrients in check. Focus on the basics 1 - Salinity - shocking the amount of ppl mess this up. It throws all other readings out so monitor it religiously and keep it as stable as possible. Don’t forget to calibrate tester regularly - min once a month. 2 - Phosphates - absolutely critical to most corals. If it’s zero, start dosing it until it starts to read at least.03. 3 - PH - Above 8.3 for corals to grow properly. You might need kalk for this depending on your salt mix and room conditions. 4 - KH - 8 or above and keep it as level as possible. 5 - Nitrates - Don’t worry if they are stable and less than 50. Trying to reduce this too quickly has a tendency to reduce phosphates to non detectable readings which is just bad news. If a problem takes a while to appear, it should take a while to disappear. Nothing in this hobby happens fast and the first year is always the most challenging with the most changes happening. I think what actually happens is that the longer it’s running, the less we tinker and it becomes naturally more stable on its own. I’ve watched a few of your videos this week and am kinda sorry i didn’t see some of then them earlier as you are repeating the same mistakes many of us have already experienced. In saying that, reefing is defo a bit of trial and error mixed with some “you only learn from your mistakes”. Last thing I’ll say is, there is a lot of BS on the net about best practices and tips. Find a local hobbiest that has a lot of proven success and become his /her friend. Actually find multiple people if you can. Their advice and experiences will be far greater than any google experts.

[@whatthereef]

Ridiculous effort YES! lol yea after having a 3rd kid my time is very limited so “maintenance” is not where it used to be. So yes like you said easier corals is going to be a must, easy as in no more sps for now haha. I like to show my trial and errors to viewers because just like you said the internet is full of BS. Just like to be transparent in my videos to show the real side of reefing! Moorish idol has mood swings as of now it’s good so it stays lmao

[@NoelG-IRE]

@@whatthereef yeah dude, great that you show it all. A lot of people would have given up already but stick at it and you will be rewarded. Just on the Moorish Idol, they are not reef safe and feeding it so often will nuke your tank eventually. Just my 2 cents

[@whatthereef]

@NoelG-IRE appreciate it! This tanks runs super low nutritions so moorish being in there is some what helping before I got it I was dosing phosphate and nitrates

[@whatthereef]

Took your advice on the moorish he’s gone to a local reefer

[@NoelG-IRE]

@@whatthereef man, I know it’s hard to let fish go, but that’s defo the best move you could make here. Your corals have a proper chance now. It’s a shame as the moorish idle really is stunning, but they sit in the fish only category for a reason and even then you don’t always get one that readily feeds easy. They are up there with copperbands in terms of difficulty and even then, you can’t really put them with anything too fast swimming or aggressive. One day I will defo do a FOWLR as there are far too many pretty fish-only species that I really want to keep. Clown Trigger, puffer, grouper etc. I also want to try a native tank using only items I collect from my local beaches here in Ireland.