Dear STW, after a 15 year break of fish keeping I have been given the green light to muse returning. What have I missed?
Tank will be 48” long 18” wide and as high as I can get it. tropical planted in dark middle of house, solid floor.

Had Marine, brackish Mono’s( Mrs wally’s faves) and planted CO2 injected with 80 Cardinal shoal and Cloan loach Colony( my Prefered)

Swore I would never return, so asking questions now. If I go for it, it will be committed.

However, I am more than a little concerned with the ethics of this hobby, certainly marine.

Why did you swear you wouldn’t return? Is it just way too much hassle? Asking because I have always fancied a small tank (but my wife doesn’t like them unfortunately)

What have I missed?

Nothing.

They don’t do anything.

Except shit.

Get a decent external filter – I had an amazing Eheim one back in the day (the ‘Classic’ as it is called now). So much easier to clean the filter and much better at tank filtration. You can get ones with integral heaters now too.

Also go for a broad spectrum of lights on timers so you have full daylight then switch to moonlight ones for the evening so you can see the fish without giving the algae too much light to thrive.

My old system was an eheim external pump screwed onto an enormous canister. So I will repeat that. fluval 407? I have read about external in line heaters, but they seem a mixed bag.
I guess lights LED’s have had the biggest change.

^^^ Yeah I am sure LED lights will be a big change – I hadn’t even thought about that. I assume you can get programmable ones now that just change colour temperature during the day / evening? If not, there should be 🙂

Do it! I’ve been reef only for about 5 years, but I still get a hankering for a big planted amazon tank when I see ramirezi, apistos, discus, cardinals etc in shops.

Re. ethics in marine – i agree and there is a growing movement for ethical reefkeeping, you will find far more availability for artifical liverock now than real, a lot (most?) coral is now fragged from farmed rather than harvested colonies, and a fair amount of common fish are now available tank bred, albeit for a higher price which is not ideal. I would welcome a complete crackdown on cyanide caught fish.