Evan West
Well-Known Member
So I have only had a saltwater tank for about a month now but ive noticed several things that go with reef keeping that no one tells you. So without further adue here are 5 annoying things no one tells you.
1. Salt water is sticky when it drys on your clothes and skin. You know that sticky feeling when you just worked out or sweat a lot and then it dried before you got to take a shower? Yeah well that's caused by salt in your sweat, guess what saltwater has a lot of in it....yeah salt. If you get wet working on your tank and then it drys before its washed off it feels like you are all sticky with sweat.
2. Coral Glue gets all over your hands when mounting corals. Its kinda like using markers when your a kid, you try not to get them all over your hands but it always happens no matter what. Your hands will have this stuff all over them and the stuff I use at lease is white-ish when it drys so people are bound to ask what is all over your hands.
3. Salt Water leaves a mess when it dries. Not your average water spot, it also leaves a salty residue behind that does not just wipe up so easy. Wipe it with a wet towel and you get streaks galore, Windex is your new best friend for cleaning eternal surfaces that wont contact water.
4. Snails are dumb, like really really dumb. This is touched upon in clean up crew threads so its a bit of a stretch to say nobody tells you this however I don't think its conveyed bluntly enough. They are just plain stupid. Already in a single month iv had them try to crawl out of the tank, bumble into frags only to notice when they get stung to high water and back, and turtle themselves and not be able to roll back over (yes even trochus), and I even had one wedge itself in a hole in my live rock somehow and I had to pry it out.
5. Setting up a new tank is scary. This is mentioned but ive never seen it given as a piece of direct advice. My tank is only 20g and even that was scary at times and I found myself wondering what I was even doing. Push through it tho, trust me its worth it.
1. Salt water is sticky when it drys on your clothes and skin. You know that sticky feeling when you just worked out or sweat a lot and then it dried before you got to take a shower? Yeah well that's caused by salt in your sweat, guess what saltwater has a lot of in it....yeah salt. If you get wet working on your tank and then it drys before its washed off it feels like you are all sticky with sweat.
2. Coral Glue gets all over your hands when mounting corals. Its kinda like using markers when your a kid, you try not to get them all over your hands but it always happens no matter what. Your hands will have this stuff all over them and the stuff I use at lease is white-ish when it drys so people are bound to ask what is all over your hands.
3. Salt Water leaves a mess when it dries. Not your average water spot, it also leaves a salty residue behind that does not just wipe up so easy. Wipe it with a wet towel and you get streaks galore, Windex is your new best friend for cleaning eternal surfaces that wont contact water.
4. Snails are dumb, like really really dumb. This is touched upon in clean up crew threads so its a bit of a stretch to say nobody tells you this however I don't think its conveyed bluntly enough. They are just plain stupid. Already in a single month iv had them try to crawl out of the tank, bumble into frags only to notice when they get stung to high water and back, and turtle themselves and not be able to roll back over (yes even trochus), and I even had one wedge itself in a hole in my live rock somehow and I had to pry it out.
5. Setting up a new tank is scary. This is mentioned but ive never seen it given as a piece of direct advice. My tank is only 20g and even that was scary at times and I found myself wondering what I was even doing. Push through it tho, trust me its worth it.
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