Temp control
I've had numerous situations where I've screwed up and had my heaters disabled. In some cases it was running them over an unreliable setup (reef pi controlling a kasa power strip over wifi). In multiple others it was accidentally unplugging the controller itself and not noticing. In another it was accidentally bumping the heater outlet.
I've done this multiple multiple times to multiple different tanks. It's embarrassing, and was correlated to a ton of SPS losses in my frag tank.
The big fix I made was much higher redundancy and automated alerting:
- reef-pi controller monitors temp
- Reef-pi set to send email alerts when something goes awry (and having actually tested that notification works)
- External monitoring that the reef-pi itself is up (UptimeRobot hitting my reef-pi remotely every 5 minutes and sending up/down notifications when it flips)
- [todo this week] running one heater set to below target temp and the main heater controlled by the reef-pi. Also ensuring the main heater's target temp is slightly higher than what I want, versus something like 85°F. That way if the controller fails off, the other should correct, and if it fails on, there's a higher chance the other one will keep it near the target.
- [possible todo again] setup a second temp probe
Filtration and Phosphates/Nitrates
I was having ongoing STN in my frag tank. I did water changes and it didn't really get better, and I did a ICP test and things seemed fine (phosphates ~0.5 but I knew that). I thought I must have a parasite or something going on. Eventually I decided to throw my protein skimmer on that tank (it didn't have one) and almost immediately, in ~24hrs, that tank looked better. It might've been a total coincidence, but suddenly I had a lot more extension and things just looked better.
I don't know if there was a bunch of unmeasurable weird stuff in there, maybe some chemical warfare the carbon wasn't catching, but I'll always run some sort of skimmer now. Even if it's underpowered, it seems like there's just too many benefits to running one versus not.
Additionally, I've been trying to buy into the "higher nutrient levels, including phosphates are fine, as long as you have the ratios right" mantra. I know there's some tanks out there that are successful that way, to some extent even including my 130gal that I recently set up, but I definitely see healthier looking corals with levels low (very low phosphates, pretty low nitrates) then I do with higher numbers. I don't know what the explanation is on why it seems to work so well for some folks, but for me it's not (maybe it's a phosphate type, or phosphate:nitrate:<other thing> ratio). I'm going to stick to the low phosphate club in 2023 to see what happens.
Bargain hunting
I love getting deals on things, and as such have accrued a collection of stuff I don't need right now. However it's useful to have a quiver of devices and stuff, so I don't feel bad about that. The bigger thing is wasting time on the bargains.
Spending time flipping through forums, and CL, and FB Marketplace (my preference), followed by driving 40 minutes each way to get a deal is not a good ROI. It doesn't matter if you have an electric car and some access to free charging; saving $20 and spending 2hrs of your free time is not a worthwhile use of time. Sometimes it's meeting up with someone to chat for a bit as well, or maybe just an excuse to get out of the house, which is certainly worthwhile, but it's really easy to be just a dumb use of time.
Irrational QT practices
It's silly to be super diligent about QT, and then decide "oh, I got this one cheap off Marketplace/swap/forum; I'll save time and just toss er in". Similarly thinking "I got this from a known online source, let me toss it in". The former led to monti-eating nudis in my previous display. The latter led to ich in my little 13gal isolation tank from a snail / shrimp order (*cough* that well known site about reef clean up crews I'm looking at you *cough*).
I can see the logic in having a varied tank with natural disease prevention techniques, but you better have a tank setup for that (eg a bunch of wrasses and cleaner shrimp). Also I can see the logic of going the other way and being super-QT, but then you better stick to it.
My current approach is try and buy most things from places like High Tide (
@under_water_ninja) so I don't have to think about it. Costs a bit more in direct cash outlay, but comparable after you factor in buying chemicals and all the wasted saltwater and tank electric and ... from a good QT setup. I also love you folks on this forum, but I've convinced myself to consider you all full of parasites and disease and hold you to the same standard as other acquisitions
. If you're gonna QT, QT.
Remote availability when possible
Lastly, I learned if I'm going to set something up to be controllable or monitorable, I should set it up so it's remotely accessible to. I had things arise early in the year where I needed to urgently travel, and all my reef-pi controllers and other monitoring was completely inaccessible. I had monitoring, but it was even worse than dumb devices because you couldn't just look at a control pad under the tank and see things. Getting all that stuff controllable / readable from outside the house was super valuable.
Calibrate, calibrate (post-submit edit)
@grizfyrfyter 's post made me remember one more, diligently calibrate things that can be calibrated. My hanna salinity gauge was off for awhile, and also screwed up my salinity. I now try and be diligent about using the calibration fluid to sync it up. I tried buying a milwaukee, but the one I got wasn't calibrating right so I sent it back and gave up.
Similarly my temp probe was off in my frag tank recently. I'm pretty confident it was because I rerouted my cables and had the probe cord too close to an AC cable causing noise. Oopz, and it led to my tank being overheated a bit. Wah wah. Should calibrate those when making changes too.
