Start and maintain a saltwater tank

“I spend 3-4 hours a week at a minimum and probably average 5 to 10 hours a week over a year's time. And there are weeks when maintenance gets serious and I’ll spend more hours, or some piece of equipment breaks or fails and I may spent 20 hours if I have to pull something serious out of the tank, try to clean it and rebuild it, or buy a new one, and then reinstall it in the tank. That only happens once or twice a year, well, sometimes once a quarter! [...] This isn’t a simple journey. You don’t buy a glass tank, fill it with water and add fish and coral. It just doesn’t work that way.”

“Having a QT is necessary. But my QT is now more of an "observation" tank. Ive learned that some fish freak when you put them in a bare glass bottom tank. They don't need anymore stress than they already have. So my "OT" has a minimal amount of substrate and well as some simple hides. Fully cycled, same water parameters as my DT. So far the 3 fish I have in it are doing well and stress level is low if any. No meds at all. I do have a 10gal Med tank on standby in case of an illness/injury.”

“Copper....used as a cure for certain fish illnesses, even if used carefully can cause stress to fish and even death. [...] I've found that some fish as individuals can be more sensitive than others even of the same species. When added gradually before the "therapeutic" level is reached some fish die. Kicker is that copper has to be a specific ppm before its effective. Also at the "therapeutic" level it's not effective at all on certain stages of some illnesses you mabe trying to treat. If that's not enough, copper apparently can open the door to secondary bacterial issues. (My Racoon Butterfly) I used copper in my QT as recommended for a "pro active" treatment for newly acquired fish. Never again. I will only use this if I know the fish or fishes have a problem.”