As I have discussed numerous times in these articles, this is a hobby of patience. That is, we need to be patient and wait for things to occur in order to be successful such as waiting frags to grow into colonies, or tanks to cycle so we can fill them or new fish and corals to be properly properly quarantined and acclimated.
However, I have also come to realize that in a number of instances we also need to seize the moment. To paraphrase Mark Twain; we do not regret many of the things we have done, we mainly regret the things we haven’t done. Now I am not advocating that we change our approach to things and not be patient, but rather I hope to point out when we need to seize the moment and do things when the situation dictates that action is required.
The first of these may seem obvious and simple, but at least for me it is one of the things I no longer wait on. Most of us that have done this for a while, so we think we can look at our tanks and know when things are good. Conversely, when things are starting to go downhill, even a little bit we can tell.
Unfortunately, at least for me, I often do not do anything and simply wait, and often hope, that things will turn around without any intervention on my part. Sadly, it has taken me most of my time in the hobby to realize that this strategy rarely works. In talking with my friends in the hobby, they also often take this wait and see approach.
经过大量的心痛和讨论，我们都意识到，这不是阻止真正坏事发生的好方法。至少对我来说，我终于意识到，当我看到一些让我认为坦克中有问题的东西，即使它很小，我也需要抓住时刻并采取行动。因此，现在当我看到这种情况开始发生时，我不再等待它成为一个大问题，但是我试图将其夹在芽中。
First, I try to determine exactly what I am seeing that makes me think something is wrong. Then I start testing as many things as I can and if I do not see anything in these tests I send out a Triton test, even if it is not on the usual schedule. While waiting for the test results to come back I do a water change or several, and change the carbon and other media.
Some of these steps may seem a bit extreme, but now due to past mishaps I try to reduce the likelihood of small problems turning into big ones.Here are some examples of some of the seemingly small things that occurred that were not immediately really obvious, but which made me think that something bad was starting to occur.
The first occurred when my usually colorful corals started to brown out. Testing did not show anything nor did ICP testing and water changes and carbon did not slow this down. It was during the change in seasons in the Fall, and I had plugged in the heaters that had been off all summer.
When looking at the controller I was using it showed that the temperature was stable and in the range I wanted. However, when I put my hand in the tank early one evening the water felt a bit warm. When I checked it a another thermometer it showed that the tank was 3 degrees above where I wanted it to be and what the controller was showing.
现在，三个度的上升不应该有太大的问题，但是当我在监视器上查看记录时，出于某种原因，由于某种原因，加热器和他们所使用的控制器正在将水加热3度每天两个小时，但是控制器显示这些数字低于实际位置的三个度。
This rapid rise in temperature to a higher than desired temperature along with this swing were causing the corals to brown out. So luckily before I had a tank full of brown corals, I seized the moment and found out the cause of the problem.
In another case, a section of my tank, and only a section, looked stressed and not how it usually looked, while the rest of the tank was fine. I checked the flow around this area, looked for pests or something else that was causing the problem and could not come up with a reason.
当这样发生的事情发生时，我要做的就是在半夜检查坦克。我这样做是因为我发现这是找到您原本看不到的害虫的最佳时间。因此，我设置了闹钟，下来凌晨3点看一下坦克。令我惊讶的是，当我下来的坦克被照亮时，只有坦克上方的灯光在半夜亮起，然后在我早上倒下之前就关闭了。
这几乎恒定的光强调了the section of the tank where this was occurring. So I fixed the program and adjusted this light and within a month the corals were back to looking how they should.
The last problem that showed up as just a look, was again when the tank just had this look like something was a bit off. Again I did the testing, checked at night and could not come up with the cause. The tank was not failing, it just was losing its vibrancy. Fortunately, it was easy to find, as whenever I put my hand in the tank, I felt a slight tingle in any small cuts I had on my hands or fingers.
I always wear some kind of insulation on my feet when I work on my tanks and have GFIs to reduce the likelihood of being shocked or electrocuted, but I knew from experience that this tingling meant something electrical in the tank was bad. So my next step was to unplug every device individually while having an amp meter in the tank.
This is much better than just seeing when I was no longer felling the tingling and much safer too. To my consternation after taking a few devices off line I found that on one powerhead the electric line to it had completely corroded so all the current was going directly into the tank. Needless to say I will not use that brand of powerhead again. Once this was replaced the tank again came back to where it should be.
以上只是我认为我们需要抓住时刻并采取行动的地方。还有更多，例如我的最爱：当您开始看到侵略性，燃烧或落入其他事物时，不要移动某些东西。我知道这比没有抓住时刻更懒惰，但是我多年来曾经访问过的许多坦克中都看到了这种行为。
Something has fallen or this is a burned out area of a coral and the owner of the tank simply looks at it and says I will take care of it later. I on the other hand have been called rude, as I have had people over to see the tanks, see a coral that has fallen or fallen into another, stopped talking and made the necessary clothing adjustments and reached into the tank to move and/or glue the coral back into a safe place.
Leaving a coral or corals in place that are actively fighting or showing signs of one winning is a sure way to lose a coral. And sadly it my experience that the loser in these battles will always be the more expensive coral. So now I move corals that are out of position as soon as I see them. To me being rude is better than having dead or damaged corals.
看到这一点，我应该注意到，当发现受损或脱落珊瑚时，有一个例外，即在储罐中发生快速组织坏死RTN时，有一个例外。在这种疾病中，最初一两个珊瑚开始非常迅速地从组织上剥离，除非对水箱进行特殊的护理和更换，否则它可以迅速消灭整个水箱。
Fortunately, this problem is not as widespread as it once was but special care still needs to be taken. This problem usually manifests itself when a tank is at a higher temperature than normal, usually over 82-83, and is overcrowded.
There have been several hypotheses as to what its cause is, I still believe that it is a bacterial infection as it acts like one by how it progresses. As such, when it occurs I take special steps to reduce its spread and minimize its impact.
First, when a coral is see that is rapidly shedding its tissue I do not just pull it out of the tank. Pulling it out without planning allows for the tissue to slough off and fall on other corals and even if this interaction is brief it can still lead to the rapid demise of the coral that is touched.
So instead before removing a damaged coral all of the flow is shut off and then a plastic bag or even plastic wrap is placed around the coral to reduce the chance that any tissue will fall on neighboring corals. The coral is then removed and discarded, I no longer even attempt to get frags from this coral.
我发现的唯一治愈方法是将储罐的温度慢慢降低到74度以下，并用卢戈尔的碘处理水箱。通过这样做，我在过去的5年中没有损失超过一两个珊瑚，但我的几个朋友在最后两个夏天仍然遇到了这个问题。
The last two two examples of when I feel we need to seize the moment and often don’t are again based on my experience and realization of my own shortcomings. First, is when we decide to set up a new tank rarely do we go as big as we should. I know the rule is go big or go home, but when setting up a new tank, not following this rule often ends up costing us in a lot of ways.
I understand how this doesn’t apply when we are setting up our first tank, as we are not sure if we will be successful, or how much time and money it will take so we want to be conservative when selecting a tank. So this makes sense. But once we have achieved success and decided to move up to a bigger tank, we often do not seize the moment and go as big as we can at that moment.
取而代之的是，我们他，haw和妥协，似乎总是比我们真正想要的坦克稍小，因此，无论如何，无论如何，下线都会得到更大的坦克。从一开始就获得更大的坦克不是很容易，更聪明吗？那时，我们本来只与其他重要的人打架，并曾曾一度招募我们的朋友和亲戚来帮助坦克，并曾经完成所有计划和预算。
取而代之的是，当我们不断满足对越来越大的坦克的需求时，我们进行了两次或更多，这会导致更多的战斗，时间和金钱被浪费了比必要的更多。作为一个从120到240到540，再到1200加仑的坦克和离婚的人，我想我知道我的讲话。
我从120年到1200年,我想我的李吗fe during that time would have had less tension and angst in it than was the case with the seemingly constant need to increase tank size. So my suggestion if you are going to get a bigger tank, do what you need to do at that moment and get the size of tank you really desire and do not compromise, as over time when you are successful you eventually will get that tank any way and this is the smart way to limit the stress on you, your mate and your fish and corals.
In a similar vein, I now seize the moment when I see a fish or coral that I feel I have to have or that I have not seen before and get it and I suggest you do the same. I say this for several reasons now. First, since most of us that get serious about this know, we all have OCD to some degree and if we see something we feel we have to have we tend to obsess about it until we get it or obsess about it since we believe we will never see it again.
这显然是不好的。其次,我学会了the hard way to look at adding things now in terms of quality instead of quantity. That is, now when I see or am getting in frags I no longer try to get in 10 or twenty of them at once, because truth be told when I get in that kind of quantity they all tend to look similar when placed in a tank, and until they grow out, I lose track of what is what.
因此，现在我现在没有少量碎片，而是当我在网上进行表演或购物时，当我将它们带回家并将它们添加到水箱中时，我会选择少数最昂贵的碎片更容易跟踪。在这方面，我仍在抓住选择珊瑚的时刻，但是我以我学到的方式这样做是更有意义的。
While seizing the moment in regards to managing a tank can be important for a number of reasons, there is another aspect of it that I think we miss out on too much, and that is enjoying the moment. Very few of us have the experience of our tanks being perfect all the time.
As a result, most of us work under the premise that our tanks are always a work in progress and there is always room for improvement. However, from time to time we all experience moments when viewing our tanks when they just look “right”. Sadly, I don’t think enough of us take the time to sit back and savor that moment when the tanks are exactly where we want the to be.
And just as importantly, I don’t think enough of us share that moment or time with the people we care about when that does happen so they understand why we love this hobby so much. In my own case, now when I am really happy with how one of my tanks look, I try to share that time with the people I care about. I also try to take pictures, of when they look how I would like, I just wish I was a better photographer.
Regardless, we all should enjoy the moments when our tanks bring us joy, because as we all know they also can bring us deep sadness and pain when things quickly go bad, so that is why seizing the moment for taking are of the tank and enjoying it has become more the way I look at my tanks. And when I don’t tank the time to enjoy my tanks I am often left with regrets.
