MIDNIGHT REEF The Importance of the Three Ps
(Patience, Persistence, and Perseverance) JOHN WALDMAN
I
n the spring of 2010, my spouse and I moved into an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, and she bought me a saltwater aquarium to set up in the new space. Her one requirement was that it must have beautiful live corals. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about keeping a saltwater aquarium. I grew up in a household where my dad was an avid freshwater fishkeeper and breeder. I observed him maintaining at least half a dozen aquariums with all sorts of fish species, but they were all freshwater fish. Our saltwater journey began with a 90-gallon, custom-built tank measuring 48" × 24" × 18". Within 30 days of delivery, it was all set up and we began the cycling process with live rock. After 6 months,
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we started adding fish, and at approximately 9 months, we added our first corals. Sadly, for the next 6 months, we kept losing corals and just kept adding fish. Looking back, we completely lacked a basic knowledge of the hobby. At around 18 months in, we realized that we could keep fish but not corals, and for the next 9 years, we kept a FOWLR (fish only with live rock) system. Fast-forward to the spring of 2020, and the pandemic had us all in lockdown, particularly in New York. I found myself glued to YouTube, watching my favorite experts share their best hobby practices. One evening, I turned to my wife and asked, “Hey, how about them corals?” And so, our reset and restart began. At that point, our tank