DRAFT: What's Most Important to Keep a Successful Tank

Great resource! Is there a printer-friendly version easily available?

Servillius has been fighting with a new tank for a few months now, while mine is several years old and now supporting non-photosynthetic corals. Same guy set up both tanks. The difference is time. It takes years to get a tank truly stable. You have to be patient and it's best not to buy anything you would be heartbroken to lose until your tank is at least two. It is very easy to get frustrated.

Also, every tank is different, just like every coral and fish. Sometimes even if you do everything right it just doesn't work. Get comfortable with a low success rate. Nothing is going to work as well in the first year as it will in the second, or better, the third. Odds are when you finally "fix" a problem, it wasn't anything you did. Your tank just matured to the point where it took care of it by itself. You are building an ecosystem.

The ocean is more vast than anything you can imagine. We dumped millions of gallons of oil into the gulf, only to discover that there are oil eating bacteria ready and happy to mop up our stupid mess. Given enough time, your little tank can take care of your little stupid messes pretty well on its own too.

We use major holidays to time buying new livestock. I just bought a new blueberry gargonian. I may get something else at Christmas if it lives.