Keeping it simple..and it works (part 2)

[Stolireef]

Hey Comfortable!! Didn't anyone tell you that you can't keep a successful reef tank that way.

Nice Job!

[der_wille_zur_macht]

People are in this hobby for different reasons. There's plenty of opportunities for vastly different styles, all of which can be successful. One person's "best" might be someone else's "can't do it."

I appreciate the Berlin method, that's what I learned early on, too. Yes, you can't keep a tank stuffed with SPS without some sort of supplementation, but using kalk for topoff fits nicely with a "keep it simple" approach and can be totally sufficient for maintaining parameters.

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by Zorin

You only do a water change every other month?

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On average. I can just look at my octo lps and can tell when its time... it is the first to hold back full extension (not my sps) if alk starts to get out of whack, which is usually the first thing that depletes. Its all I test for now.

Said octo when I first got it 20 months ago:


What it looks like now:




To me and the non-hobbyist folks who look at my tank, these are the more interesting corals. I also have a nice big neon green leather coral that garners some attention but the star of the show as far as most folks are concerned is this one:


A basic nem hosting a gold stripe maroon clown. People look and comment about those two more than anything else. Its not even close. Poor gal had her mouth nipped by another when young. She carries the scar two yrs later if you look closely. Aggressive thing tho. Fearless. She takes personal exception to my hand whenever its near her nem. Hasnt drawn blood yet, but I think that is only a matter of time. She even knows to target my under-wrist area as that is where I am most vulnerable.

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by Stolireef

Hey Comfortable!! Didn't anyone tell you that you can't keep a successful reef tank that way.

LMAO...only a couple on here, and recently too.
It must be those ineffective LEDS I use. *wink

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by der_wille_zur_macht

using kalk for topoff fits nicely with a "keep it simple" approach and can be totally sufficient for maintaining parameters.

Great comment. I may go back to using kalk on a more reg basis to see if it extends my water change interval. I dont have a lot of stonies, which is why I no longer test for calcium.. or pH <--which I never tested for. My lps would also probably benefit from a slightly higher level of calcium, so you make an excellent point. My calcium used to start at 410- 420, would gradually declined to the 390 - 400 area...until a water change brought it back up. The testing results went the same for about a yr, so I stopped testing for it on a reg basis.

[norfolkgarden]

You mentioned a 40% water change. 35 gallons??

Do you maintain an RODI unit or do you just buy the water by the gallon at the LFS?

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[ComforablyNumb]

Hi, yes, I use a couple of the Brute 33gal for mixing my rodi water with my salt. I also mix for a minimum of 2 days to get everything really dissolved and oxygenated. I put in a power head and a heater. I drain my tank down to whatever level is appropriate for the amount I want to change. Having the corals out of the water for 10 minutes doesnt seem to bother them.

I always change at night after the lights have gone off and most of my corals have withdrawn polyps anyway.

Sidenote: I used actual seawater for many months when I lived in Newfoundland. Worked well, but got to be a pain, especially in winter. Gave that up that in January.

[Bronx19]

Lovely softy tank.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by ComforablyNumb

Hi, yes, I use a couple of the Brute 33gal for mixing my rodi water with my salt. I also mix for a minimum of 2 days to get everything really dissolved and oxygenated. I put in a power head and a heater. I drain my tank down to whatever level is appropriate for the amount I want to change. Having the corals out of the water for 10 minutes doesnt seem to bother them.

I always change at night after the lights have gone off and most of my corals have withdrawn polyps anyway.

Sidenote: I used actual seawater for many months when I lived in Newfoundland. Worked well, but got to be a pain, especially in winter. Gave that up that in January.

Tried using NSW when I lived there. ...wasnt a time lol

[nereefpat]

Nice, healthy colonies in there for sure.

Any idea what your parameters are for alk, Ca, and Mg?

[smatter]

Nice tank, and you're not even stressed out and broke . SPS people, tell us something we don't know already, or even better, just go away.

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by reefwars

Tried using NSW when I lived there. ...wasnt a time lol

You lived in Nfld? Imagine that, small world. I was in Corner Brook for 8 yrs and St. John's for 3. What town did you live in?

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by smatter

Nice tank, and you're not even stressed out and broke .

Not over my reef tank, I'm not anyway.
Got a notice for an audit for tax year 2014 tho.
(looks like the feds can't take a joke)

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by Bronx19

Lovely tank.

Thank-you.

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by nereefpat

Nice, healthy colonies in there for sure.

Any idea what your parameters are for alk, Ca, and Mg?

alk - 10 range
ca - 410 - 420 after water change, gradually declines to 390 - 400
(got the same readings for a yr, so I dont really test for that anymore)
mg - don't test anymore, was always within range

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by Bronx19

Lovely softy tank.

Hi. You must be new to the hobby. That is a mixed reef, not a softy tank.

[Mishri]

mixed reef isn't really defined.. but a 95% softies, an lps, and 2 sps frags doesn't really make for a mixed reef imo

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by Mishri

mixed reef isn't really defined.. but a 95% softies, an lps, and 2 tiny sps frags doesn't really make for a mixed reef imo

I guess I am going to have post all of my lps and sps pics again?

Lets see here..do you consider a stone-building candycane a softie? I have a large colony and two frags I've taken off it already, with another 12 head one coming up. Do you consider digitata's softies? I have two of those. Do you consider stylo's softies? I have 4 of those. Do you consider seriatopora a softie? How about my orange sps? Do you consider octo's softies? I have 2 lovely examples of those. Do you consider poci's softies? I have a nice pod of those going.

Thats 18 by my count, not 3. You were only off by a factor of 6.




In addition to those named above, I also have:



Is that a softie?

How about these three, softies?:



How do you classify corals pls? It certainly does not match up to the standards everyone else uses.

[ComforablyNumb]

Hey Comfortable!! Didn't anyone tell you that you can't keep a successful reef tank that way.

Nice Job!

Originally Posted by ComforablyNumb

LMAO...only a couple on here, and recently too.

And here they are again.....lol

[Jonny3009]

This is amazing.

Such a beautiful tank and yet no real hi-tech gear I honestly didn't know this was possible.

I may have missed you say this when I read through but what size litre/gallon tank is this? I saw you post the lights and skimmer you use but what do you use for circulation? A wave maker of some sort?

Ive just had a tank crash and lost my fish. Seeing you can get a result like this gets me smiling again.

Cheers,

Jonny.

[Bronx19]

Who said you can't keep a reef tank without the equipment? I don't run my skimmer for
a week at a time if my SPS need nutrients.

[Stolireef]

I've slowly come around to a KISS approach with some modifications. I do dose two part and everything is on a controller. But, really the controller is there to do things I don't like to do. It's really easy to set up my lights, dose two part, top off the tank, and turn everything off when I do maintenance. I can't remember the last time I looked at the ph reading (don't really care so long as kH stays in a stable range).

[NS Mike D]

Originally Posted by ComforablyNumb

In the first pic? 2 are Aquaclear 500's I ran during cycling for the first 3 weeks. The other two are the inlet and output of the skimmer. It cycled quickly (about a week actually) because I was fortunate enough to have 70lbs of decent live rock available to me from a guy in Charlottetown, PEI who was shutting down. I asked for pics of his entire tank before I bought it to make sure it was decent. He also assured me it had no pests, and it didn't, except for some minor aiptasia..but I knew the cure for that, thus the matted filefish. I got it all for $140, fresh, here in about 4 hrs and ready to go. Very lucky.

When starting, if you are using live rock as your main filter as was my intention with this reef, it is very important to start with good rock.

Re: Berlin method..probably best to google it for full explanation, but it is basically a simple system from the '80's that relies on live rock, bare bottom, basic water changes and foam fractionalization (skimming) to maintain water quality. It works.

I had a couple of tanks with all the bells...but after a disastrous sump seam failure, I went back to sumpless and got rid of my dosing stuff and ato's etc.
They often turn out to be things that eventually fail, sometimes causing mayhem. Don't need it, didn't want it..so didnt do it with this tank.

The only other things in the tank now are the skimmer, a big powerhead and a good heater. I also replace my heater every two yrs, no matter how well it is working.

Here's a couple of pics of my previous tanks throughout the years. I got moved every 5 yrs or so with my company, so there were more than one, and the first reef pic is from 1990:
(edit note: I removed the pics to simplify my comments)

Cheers..and keep 'em coming, I enjoy answering. -Tim

Beautiful tank.

Those new to the hobby should read this thread and take notice. A mixed reef is possible without the bells and whistles and expensive gear (aside from good lights and a decent skimmer) and since we all basically start off with softies, we end up with mixed tanks as we graduate up the coral ladder.

Nothing wrong with automation and testing but I do think it's important that you "read" your corals. I haven't tested in about six months as my tank is quick to remind me a missed a water change or I'm overfeeding.

I presume with the bare bottom, you don't get much in the way of detritus build up and and thus no algae issues - without any downside to the lack of microfauna that would otherwise live in the sand bed.

[djbon]

Even a SPS dominant tank will thrive with very minimal setup. I run mine without a skimmer, no refugium, GFO or whatever chemical resins/media for nutrient control. In fact the simpler it is, the better, a well established tank with good biological filtration system will run perfectly fine. I don't do WC as well.

Be patient is the key, learn all the basic and intermediate water chemistry, buy all the essential test kit and make sure you don't rush yourself. A lot of us wants a TOTM at very short time, without tons of money it won't happen for sure.

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by Bronx19

Who said you can't keep a reef tank without the equipment? I don't run my skimmer for a week at a time if my SPS need nutrients.

That is a good comment. And a topic of interest to the Berliner's... as the original goal of that method was to keep dissolved organics to a minimum. We now know that some nutrients in the water are necessary for many corals to grow. Your water can indeed be too clean..that is one reason I no longer mechanically filter my tank. The other thing to bear in mind is even the best skimmers removes less than half of all organics in a typical reef aquarium.