8 Things Experienced Reefers Do (That Noobs Don't)

[@ReefDork]

Now check out 7 things only NOOBS do! kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5yxq4CmdqmBpsk

[@josemedina8169]

Ya

[@78matt]

A tip I got from another channel: Buy more corals of the same coral. It makes the reef look much more natural then just one of everything.

[@mozby76]

Not sure why all the hate. It’s a decent list and I appreciate how concise the descriptions are.

[@RogueAquariums]

Great tips that a lot of folks over look. Some people forget that this hobby is one of patience & always learning.

[@NinjaSushi2]

4:50 and you can replicate the lighting and flow of the tank they came from! I am new to corals and so getting corals from fellow Reef enthusiast not only ensures that I have safe and healthy corals but that they can also help me with where to place them and I get an idea of the conditions they were growing in prior. Facebook auctions are cool but so is supporting your fellow reefers.

[@jeffspicoli2742]

the fish at 5:21 looks like the puffers on the reef where I lived in Marbella, Costa Rica. Some were black and some were yellow. They weren't hard to catch in the tide pools. My wife snuck one in the fish tank I had to bring it back to the tide pool because it was way to big for the tank. lol

[@BigGuyAl007]

What I like to see is all the pros who do it correctly to add there Videos on KZbin. Some good points Alax! Flow is the most important thing. Dont like worms etc dont use live rock! Like to know more about Refugiums and dosing. How it's set up and what do you dose. Something to think about Alex. 5 years of reefing I've done and still learning new things from Alex the reef dork.

[@ReefDork]

EVERY day is a school day in this hobby!

[@uuncebret]

After watch this vid, I'm now a pro..😆

[@josemedina8169]

No 7r not

[@marcelrodriguez2067]

You mean like quarantine? ( which you said you dont do) 😂😂😂

[@skykn1ght78]

Question from a noob, I’m setting up my first coral tank and it will be a few weeks before I buy any corals. When you say something can take over a tank fairly quickly, how long are are you talking? A few days? Weeks?

[@ReefDork]

Months at least...

[@djdoomray9707]

Great advise so I’ll give you some…get rid of that hideous wall paper behind your tank. Think contrast and your tank will pop.

[@juli8vdberg562]

Isn’t it a good idea to have one of those tiny mini starfish eating corals to keep the - for instance - overgrowth of sps like xenia in control in a nano tank?

[@ReefDork]

It's never a good idea to keep coral eating pests deliberately - they just demolish what they want rather than doing gardening

[@juli8vdberg562]

@@ReefDork oh so NO starfish for me. I love corals much more than fish and if ever any fish, then just one Copperband. Sad that Starfish can’t be kept in a reef tank but understanding the nature, they either eat dead fish or crabs and shrimps etc in natural habitats than coral which we can not provide in a reef tank

[@drdurso3114]

Mr. Dork, thanks for the vid! I was in the hobby back in the 90s. Yep, I'm a boomer. I've been playing with sumps, overflows, etc for a year in an experiment tank in my garage.. and ended up afraid to move the tank inside and turn it into my reef tank! Your vid helped me. Haha. Merry Cristmas, Sir Dork

[@ReefDork]

Thank you kind sir! Sounds like a great project - hope it goes well. Merry Christmas.

[@robertrayworth8615]

Good list definitely got me thinking about what I should be doing

[@FishBro10]

Thanks to this I know I’m a pro now lol or at least I have some pro habits lol

[@harlanmichael7088]

Great advice!

[@paulhopkins1905]

I agree with bristle worms, but all asterina stars can burn in hell. The only thing good about them is being able to keep a harlequin shrimp for a while

[@AdamUS123-j7q]

I am decently advanced but I hate bristle worms! They breed so much and everyone who sees the tank hates them!

[@jonathanreich9694]

Alex what is your take on asterina starfish? The ones that I have are the algea eaters I believe. I have not seen them on coral. But I am starting to get quite a number of them.

[@ReefDork]

I have them in both my tanks and see them as good clean up crew. You can get loads of them but they've never done any harm in my tank so I've just gone down early in the morning and pulled a load off the glass. But I tend to leave them be...

[@jacksonsparrow8865]

Are asterina star fish sand sifters?

[@ReefDork]

No, they just cling to the rock and glass

[@rachelbarnish6277]

thank you for your help im hoping to get a tank and ive been watch your videos

[@ReefDork]

Glad you're finding them useful 🙂

[@rachelbarnish6277]

thank you for your tips.

[@thepassionreef]

Great tips...nice video..keep up the good work mate.

[@Guacamole44479]

Such good advice!

[@fishfan2]

I can't keep any big starfish so I appreciate my Asterinas

[@buddhamonk26]

Pro reefers quarantine their fish

[@chaseodom8020]

i would love to be able to quarantine my fish but i’m a 16 yo and i could never convince my parents to let me get a completely different setup lol

[@jordjong2717]

@Le Baguette Sometimes its just not feasible for everyone to have a QT get off his case. I can promise you, you do not do things perfectly that would have people looking cock eyed at you as well so.....

[@anthonycharlton9932]

Hi was the last clip of your video shot at Southwest Marines? PS keep up the good work 👍

[@ReefDork]

Nope, ReefKeeper Windsor 🙂

[@paulsmith6267]

I'm a newbie and I did exactly what you said. I went out and got me some zoanthids and when I got them home I found some bugs on them but I don't know what are good bugs and bad bugs. Can you give me a list of bad bugsso that I can look them up and see what I have I took a video of the bugs that I have. Thanks

[@ReefDork]

Too many to list but there's loads of information online so you should be able to get an ID. Zoa eating nudibranchs and zoa eating spiders are the main ones to worry about.

[@paulsmith6267]

@@ReefDork Thank you so much

[@fostee1]

Great info thanks !

[@lukepfoster]

Which Maidenhead LFS is that?

[@ReefDork]

Reefkeeper Moss End

[@sigitas.a]

I have alomst 20 years of reefing experience and this list seems more like to get views, not to tell something meaningfull, thought some things like dipping from that list can be very true. There are basically only one difference between newbies and experienced reefers - experience reefers learn before they do anything and do it slowly. Most newbies just rush and do first before they get even basic theoretical knowledge, after they fail and do it over or just leave this incredibly awesome hobby. When people ask me "where should I start" I always say - BUY A BOOK and READ IT first! Good luck for everyone!

[@paulsmith6267]

What book should I get. Even though I am a newbie I do read A LOT OF MATERIAL on the wed. Is a book going to be different from the web? I even made the mistake of buying a coral and I didn't ask what it was and they didn't tell me either. I have had it for 5 weeks and it has started to grow 2 more heads. I have taken pictures of it and shown it to different fish stores and I can't get an exact answer. They say it is either this or that..... we're not sure. I even got that answer from the store I bought it from.(I didn't tell them I got it there) I thought that was really strange. Anyway , I will keep on keeping on. Not saying I will be an expert one day but I enjoy reefing. We also have 3 freshwater tanks.

[@sigitas.a]

@@paulsmith6267 My first I grew up many years ago and probably still best is "The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium" by Fosa & Nilsen. Yes, it is old, but kind of Bibble is also veeeeery old, still principles of life didn't change in last thousand years.. ;) For a spiecies related I would go for set of Baensch "Marine Atlas", very good. Do you have uploaded somewhere photo/video of that coral you don't know the name?

[@A.R.C.77]

🤘🐠 1k sub goal so I can get a new tank upgrade

[@Sec_coach]

They use backgrounds in their tank so we can see their wall paper back

[@DanaDana-xp6sf]

I love how in your videos you crown yourself as the kind of experience and assign good and bad grades to practices...many of your advices are subjective and some re flat out wrong....the beauty of the internet.

[@ReefDork]

What do you think is wrong? I'm always open to challenge...

[@volteface69]

Merci pour ta vidéo !!! 👍👍👍

[@luke2892]

If you own axolotls you can’t have cleaning fish. if the axolotl can fit it in its mouth it will eat it, if the fish is too big to fit in it’s mouth, it will get stressed and most likely die

[@PazLeBon]

experienced reefers also get far lazier, cant even be bothered to do a manual water change ;)

[@ReefDork]

😁

[@Entety303]

I see bristle worms as free cuc but i still want them out

[@Kungpaoshizzi]

I'm sorry but bristle worms are a hard no in my book. They can stab fish and corals and most precious of all, my thumb. I also hope if you plan on placing corals next to each other by color, you're working out the white checkerboard pattern that will develop between them as that's dead skeleton that will appear as they all try to kill each other. This is why you place species by each other, because they are much more likely to not go into warfare mode against the neighboring coral.

[@JohnSmith-pw1gf]

I’d never put a new fish in my tank without quarantining it, the risk of introducing diseases is way too high.

[@marianamator4171]

😀

[@burtondeyoung9466]

Can anyone help me identify the brown/grey/white/green encrusting coral?

[@metalldanny]

👍👍👍👍

[@jeffatkins8103]

Ways to deter growth of an encrusting coral? Why would you do that! I want coral growth!

[@TheEscargoth]

C’est quoi ce papier peint rétro ? Loool

[@ReefDork]

Juste les oiseaux violets! 🦜

[@nanoreefchannel7240]

No Protein skimmer，No Wave maker pump, No Titration pump.The easy to enjoy reef life.

[@johnson4523]

I never QT’d fish or coral...All my fish died the other day most likely from velvet brought in on a hammer...lets just say Im QTing everything now lol

[@aerynstormcrow]

Like #999 ( i don't' know why that is cool to me)

[@hualiang2182]

Top thing to me: Get a supportive wife.

[@sagrath1982]

Pro reefers don’t put their aquarium against an ugly background.

[@ReefDork]

Didn't say I was a pro 🤓

[@Logan_Horatio_Wells]

@Walter White That's far from the worst wallpaper I've seen

[@lilolmecj]

Hey I am not a pro, the back of my tank is painted black.

[@lilyedgar4218]

Your comment is very disrespectful & lacks maturity. Stay on topic because this video is not about wall paper. You wouldn’t like anyone poking fun at your personal tastes so don’t do it to others. Grow the f@ck up.

[@lilyedgar4218]

Layton White don’t tell me to chill out. It is off topic & rude because this is not a video on wall paper. No one knows if it might be his wife’s taste. “Truthful” only to you & other immature online jerks that don’t have anything good to say about his entire video, other than to trash talk about his wall paper.

[@thereefaholic]

I would also say “pro” reefers don’t chase PH. It is what it is.

[@AJ-bi6ns]

TheReefaholic Yes and no, in reality higher pH ultimately equals higher growth

[@thereefaholic]

AJ I am not disregarding the benefits of higher pH. I am merely saying that people give up chasing it after a while. It is pretty much a futile effort. Sure you can does Kalkwasser To keep it elevated, vent outside air into your skimmer, but at the end of the day you’re never gonna get it where you want it and it’s always going to fluctuate a bit. So most experience reefers will just stop chasing. That doesn’t mean they don’t pay attention to it.

[@AJ-bi6ns]

TheReefaholic I would argue that true “pros” would maintain pH above 8.2 for the growth benefits. I’m think your WWC and TSAs of the world as they are earning a living of their ability to propagate.

[@thereefaholic]

You are 100% correct. But if their ph is 8.07 or 8.1 they will not start dumping crap in their tank. They will wait and look for a trend and then maybe investigate once it’s past a certain boundary. That is what I mean by not chasing PH. So many noobs are on reef central crying about their ph being this or that. Pros and experience reefers will set up their tank for a desired ph and if it never goes above 8.1 despite their best efforts they will accept it and move on.

[@DorianDavisddd]

Reefer

[@heartofmusic9663]

I’m a reefer of 8 years and still toss out the free clean up crew! You aren’t on the tank’s lease GTFO! 😂

[@thepenetrator2006]

Pro reefers get water from the sea!!

[@lonestarpatriot876]

Been reefing for 9 months and have not made any of those mistakes. The reason why is because I studied for months before ever starting a reef tank. That studying has not stopped and I spend literally about 4-6 hours a day studying everything with regards to reefing. I have had to correct or give advice to reefers who have had more than 10 year's in the hobby on many occasions. Maybe it is a mistake to think that noobs don't know what they are doing or are somehow armed with less knowledge than experienced reefers.

[@ReefDork]

Good work - you can never research too much in this hobby. I'm not saying every new reefer makes all these mistakes - they're just pretty common and easy to fall into.

[@marbles351]

Have you ever used an electric toothbrush?!?!

[@fenrisejsl]

Seriously? Placing corals by color? wtf. They should be placed considering intra- and interspecific competition and aggression, not mentioning flow, and light influx. And what is that of using high PAR? Yes, corlas will be more colorful, because they will be STRESSED. Clearly you know nothing about corals biology and ecology.

[@jeffwirth6356]

Let's see your tank Mr Professional

[@curtispinherio8575]

cant understand a word you are saying sir

[@KreefAquariumhobby]

👍👍👍👍