What is the mark or milestone of success in reefing?

Is there a point where I reach where I can say "I've done it! " ?

As far as I've seen, and this is a simplified timeline or rather the notation of the series of events that's transpired on my tank:

1. Roughly 8 months ago I bought a Betta Splenden and a box thing to put it in. It's supposed to be decorative, even came with a hang on wall type thing for the rear.

2. About 48 hours after that I went to pet store and got a 10 gallon tank setup (aqueon), which I thought was huge, and set that up. Put in some fresh water fish.

3. After many, many errors on my part due to my ignorance and lack of research, I finally get it up and running properly. I stood at the petstore looking at the marine fish. Afraid to even ask about it. It just looked so complicated and advanced.

4. About 1.5-2 months after that, I decided to try the marine fish. Did some research and started with a Damsel.

5. After a few weeks of going slow, trying to get everything right, testing water every day, things looked like they stabalized. They didn't! I lossed a lot of fish due to, once again, my lack of experience and ignorance.

6. I got some more knowledge and experience, thigns started moving fine. I was still afraid and unsure if I was going to stick with this hobby even with all the excitement I had for it, and added a large bottle to increase my water volume to make things a little easier in the tank. It worked.

7. I soon moved to a 29 gallon tank, converted my 10 gallon to a sump. That lasted about a month and a half. During this time the thing that was still holding me back was my overfeeding (2x a day). I learned on these very forums that I needed to cut that all the way back to 2-3x which I did, and within days my ongoing ammonia problem vanished. I had a nitrate spike which soon vanished. My cycle was finally complete. I also upgraded from a piece of crap PC lighting to T5s.

8. about 3 weeks ago I moved to a 55 gallon, 48" long (which I love, it gives me awesome veiwing angle fits perfectly in my tight living space), carrying over all the water from the 30 gallon, I dumped most of the water from the sand in the sump, and dropped in black sand in the 55g, rearranged my rock, bought and dropped in base rock.

9. Keeping an eye on my ammonia, nitrates, nitrites still, I am convinced the cycle is truly complete as the months of ammonia being present, I can finally do a test and see all registering 0 almost every time. a few days after moving to the 55 gallon, I expected the tank to have a mini cycle, which also proved to have passed by the evidence given by regular water testing.

10. Green algae EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!! about a week into the 55g I kept coming up to the glass looking like a picaso painting due to all the thick algae coverings only broken by the zigzag snail trails. Ammonia was gone, but a new nuisance was here. A week of it and I got tired. Two seperate people told me it was due to using tap water, and I saw it posted numerous times on here. I got a silicate grabbing filter pad, which I cut into shape and loaded all though my cannister filter, and through my sump, I also added a chemi-pure bag to my canister filter. in 2 days Algae vanished.

Now, I have splotches of purple coraline alage, algae blooms seem to be over, cycle over, I'm seeing all my fish thrive, corals seem to be doing fine, TONS of feather dusters peeping out of rocks (babies).

Only thing I'm still actively working on is calcium, alkaline, magnesium levels.

Am I there yet?

 

Sounds like you are there!

 

"there" is very hard to define in this hobby
however Happy or content is another thing !!

 

Trial and error, patience, success!! I think I reach milestones with each successful step in reefing, and I am always researching and will continue to do so, learning from the mistakes and enjoying the benefits of my results, for many years to come is my goal!! Happy reefing!

 

you are on your way there. Good luck!

 

nice work rewris. its a good start by the sounds of it. just keep plugging away and asking questions. and you will be a full fledged member of the land of "there" . lol

 

Not killing everything you put in your tank is a sign that you are on your way.

Having corals or fish grow is a sign you have made it there already.

 

Personally, My "There" changes constantly.

Starts off with a cycled tank.
Get a fish to survive.
Get softies to thrive.
Get LPS to thrive.

And and now focused on SPS.

Your goal should change and evolve as you learn.

As to where you are now, Congratulations. Keep at it and just enjoy.

 

My first definition of getting there was helping my tank to one year mark without crashing. Now that I passed that, the new definition is getting my numbers under control (nitrates). Once that is achieved, the definition will change yet again, focusing on livestock and corals.

I figure that in six months, it will be ready for auto-pilot.

 

Thanks a lot guys, I've got a lot of help from you and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be back for more. It's a great learning experience and obviously keeps expanding.

I like that idea of a year of no crashing as a milestone.