When to leave well enough alone

[ScooterTDI]

I find myself constantly trying to think of ways to improve my tank system even though I think the system is generally in good health. For instance, I currently keep looking at LED strip lights to fill a gap in lighting on the display even though growth in the display has been fine. I also keep thinking about calcium reactors, but luckily the price has kept me away so far.

 

Sometimes, this obsession has resulted in notable improvements. For instance, I recently changed out two smaller circulation pumps for one slightly larger circulation pump and found the flow in the display to dramatically improve. I spent 2 years fussing with those two original pumps unnecessarily (constantly cleaning to keep up flow, semi-frequent replacements, etc.) and really wish I had just experimented earlier to find a better solution.

 

Other than sunk costs, some changes are easily reversible (like changing out the pumps), but others can cause major damage (bleaching with a new light, alkalinity spike from tuning a new calcium reactor, etc.)

 

How do you know when things are "good enough" and how to you keep yourself from messing up a good thing?

[treesprite]

2 hours ago, ScooterTDI said:

How do you know when things are "good enough" and how to you keep yourself from messing up a good thing?

 

I just don't know. The hardest thing is to just look at the tank and relax. It feels impossible to not find things to pick over without even looking for problems. When it finally does seem like there are no problems,  the good conditions are a prompt  to add new coral or new fish. Adding to livestock then provides something to fuss over, but if there is a problem with the addition, it can pull the focus back on the system as if the system is to blame for that problem. 

[ScooterTDI]

Glad to see I'm not the only one then. Good point on the livestock additions. I'm the opposite when it comes to livestock though. When the tank is doing well, my anxiety about introducing new corals or fish increases because I don't want to disrupt anything when its doing well.  In particular, anxiety about introducing coral pests often makes me refrain from picking up any new corals.

[YHSublime]

When I see decent growth and steady numbers. 

When my alkalinity is consistent day to day, week to week, then things are good. The only thing I have to remember to do is to feed the fish. I hate to sound cliche, but when somethings wrong, my corals let me know, be it color, stagnant growth, or the worst: dying. When I setup my tank in the new house, I forgot to plug the heater in. Most of the corals were completely fine, but I definitely had some that nearly didn't pull through, and I lost a colony of Red Dragon. I had just taken apart all my pumps and cleaned them, so the next step was to make sure everything was working. 

 

The time before that one, I had corals in the center of my rock work that started receding from the base up. At first I thought for sure it must be pests, but after observation and watching polyp extension on the outside pieces, I realized I didn't have enough flow getting through the colonies around the outside pieces. I remedied this by adding an additional MP10, and nearly doubling my flow in the tank. The downside of that is I had to get rid of a bunch of softies that couldn't keep up! 

 

I feel you though on making changes. Whenever I come back from work trips, the tank always looks 10 times better, either because I've forgotten how it looked, or keeping my hands out of it has made all the difference. That and not making any changes and just letting it do its thing. 

[menglish]

This is a very difficult question for me to answer and i certainly "feel your pain"

Similarly, when i look at my tank i only see what is not "quite right". I pick on the littlest of things yet when people come to my house and see the tank, they often say is is nicer that other reefs in public aquariums. 

I think the way to look at this is that we are very passionate about that hobby and will always stride to get things better. I say thats a good trait to have.

i would bet that folks who are having big issues with their tanks are not spending the same amt of "quality" that with their tank as those who have "good tank"

[treesprite]

I somehow have always figured most reefers have Type A personalities. I think this is just the type of hobby that attracts people who thrive on having something to fuss over in extreme detail. 

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

When your tank is all your thinking about, even at work, then it’s time to just take a step back.  Really as long as things are stable, not touching things is the main thing that makes tanks run best. 

[treesprite]

12 hours ago, GraffitiSpotCorals said:

When your tank is all your thinking about, even at work, then it’s time to just take a step back.  Really as long as things are stable, not touching things is the main thing that makes tanks run best. 

 

Sometimes obsessing about the tank while at work prevents obsessing about the retaliatory bullying supervisor.

[paul b]

Eventually, if you live long enough, your tank will run by itself with no help from you.  I rarely think about my tank unless I walk in front of it in my Man Cave.  Then I will say.  

Wow, look at that, I have a fish tank!  

 

I may look in there and if there is a coral that fell on another coral, if it looks to be fine or if some of the tissue already died from the other coral, I may go out to dinner and fix it later.

 

If I see a line of LEDs went out, as long as there isn't much smoke coming from the thing, I will still go out to dinner.   Maybe have the fried Calamari.   When I get time from "playing" with my other hobbies, I will tend to it.

 

I rarely stick my hand in the tank, almost never, partly because my very old and cranky Fireclown will tear my hand off and partly because there is rarely a life threatening event which will cause me to do that.

I don't ever worry or think about hitchhikers because I have never had a problem with any of them.  I do have some huge bristleworms and I did trap some last week, mostly because I wanted to test my new bristleworm trap, but those 10 or 12 bristleworms will not change anything in the tank.  There are probably thousands.  The food supply or lack of it will keep those from becoming Godzilla size. 

 

 

I never have to think about diseases because I keep my fish immune and they are not allowed to get sick and haven't since Nixon was President, he was after Lincoln. 

 

I do almost every day put my finger on the glass to check the temperature,   If the tank feels cold, it is probably fine but I have a temperature.  But if that is OK, which it always is, I will check to see if there is water in the tank.  That is an easy test because if it is not on the floor, it is in the tank unless the sponges soaked it all up. 

 

I also almost all the time forget to dose anything.  As a matter of fact, I should do that today.  I won't test because I can guess my alk is about 6 and the calcium is probably three hundred something.  It doesn't matter because the corals (contrary to popular opinion) do not need a steady diet of those parameters, as long as I get to it eventually and don't let it go until Easter.

 

My corals are growing just fine and some of them are almost as old as Bernie Sanders,  Maybe a little younger.  I'm not sure  

 

I think the tanks with the most tinkering are the ones that eventually crash or the owner has to go on the disease forum because of spots, bloating stringy poop etc. .  Then they start to add things to "cure" cyano, bubble algae, flatworms, ringworms, hair algae, male pattern baldness etc.  Then from all those chemicals the tank crashes and they start a "Getting out of the hobby" thread.   After that they go on to run the merry go round at the local county fair telling the kids they are to short to ride so their Mother has to go on with them which causes the kid to cry and the Mother to Curse at them.  

 

 

[treesprite]

Oh, thanks for the reminder to mention the bristleworms as part of the CUC.  They also serve as live food for some fishes.