Doing it simple..and it works!

[ComforablyNumb]

Can you have a decent reef without all the bells and whistles? Of course!

Here's a couple pics of my 2 yr old 55gal mixed reef. There are 10 fish as well.
No sump, no dosing, no filtration at all. Only thing that has been treating the water is a protein skimmer.


Full tank shot:



SPS and blue mushrooms; started out with 5 mushrooms, have 17 now.
[/img]


Ricordia, candy cane, and flower polyps



Started with 2 RTBA's, now have 12. I have stopped feeding them lol. They do some damage occasionally...notice the Purple Stylo in top right, one wandered up near the edge of the coral, they had a war and the stylo lost some polyps and the offending anemone also moved back down once stung by the stylo. The polyps on the stylo are coming back thankfully.




Yes, my corals are close to the glass :



Random pic:


Full tank shot this afternoon:



Only water changes every 2 months, approx 60% water change each time. Lighting is Kessil only.
Cheers, Tim

[jimmy n]

Looks great! I suspect your success can be attributed to the large volume water changes. Nice work!

[heathlindner25]

Very nice tank.

[Pond Boy]

I do the same KISS rule for me for over 25 years. I get a kick outta some of the stuff I read regarding this hobby.. Nice tank!

[nereefpat]

Nice big and healthy colonies

[wildman926]

It looks great, and will continue to look great, until your rocks are soaked with nitrates and phosphates, and then you will be like everyone else, having issues with hair algae.

Deploy and ATS to keep it looking this way. That is KISS in and of itself.

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by wildman926

until your rocks are soaked with nitrates and phosphates, and then you will be like everyone else, having issues with hair algae.

Its been 2 years, no probs yet. The poster above is correct I think..those pollutants get taken care of with the water changes. I have zero probs with algae.

All I ever seen are some traces of cyno after two months ...and they are easily blown off out of the light.... or are removed by the water change I do every couple of months. I believe the trace cyno may be coming, expectedly, from the food I feed the fish. Maybe I feed too much, but its only trace cyno, does no harm and only shows up after a few weeks.

Originally Posted by wildman926

Deploy and ATS to keep it looking this way. That is KISS in and of itself.

Not sure what ATS is, but I have been reefing since 1989 and have had my share of failures with non-essential elements such as sumps and external pumps. Had a really a bad failure when a sump seam let loose and another when a pump failed. Almost drove me out of the hobby.



Here's a pic of an old reef I had in the early '90's...this is the one that had the sump seam failure.




Thought I would add a couple of pics of the growth of the SPS you saw above:

The two frags I started with 20 months ago:
[/IMG]

And its current state:


Thanks for your kind comments and interest. -Tim

[pbradley0]

I'd be happy if my new tank looked half as good as your in 2 years. Awesome work.

[Ritten]

Gorgeous tank!

[BaltimoreFish]

Tim

Would love to hear more details on your husbandry. I too KISS as much as possible.

How do you topoff evaporation? What do you feed and what is the feeding schedule for fish/corals?

Any other "secrets for success" would be great!

[BaltimoreFish]

....also

What kessils do you use and what's your schedule (time and power) with them?

[mpderksen]

Originally Posted by wildman926

It looks great, and will continue to look great, until your rocks are soaked with nitrates and phosphates, and then you will be like everyone else, having issues with hair algae.

Deploy and ATS to keep it looking this way. That is KISS in and of itself.

Totally untrue and scientifically not proven. Rocks don't absorb PO4 until some magic point where they just dump it all into Algae growth. Bollocks. Being a card carrying member of the ATS cult will be a joke in the next generation of reefing. Actually, I'd say that an ATS is one step away from an under gravel filter. The biggest difference is that the ATS crowd is as militant as someone that uses Apple products...,
This guy has a successful reef tank. Provided he continues to test and keep on top of it, there is nothing looming in the future that should make him change his current protoco

[sde1500]

Very nice tank!

Got a laugh out of the ATS (Algae turf scrubber) comment. So unwarranted. I mean really? "nice tank, but get an ATS before it isn't nice anymore" what the heck?

[djbon]

Nice tank!. I too believe in KISS, no chemicals and water changes for more than 3 years. Once your tank reached maturity, good parameters and survived the new tank syndrome its a smooth sails ahead. Just continue doing what works for you and it should thrive.

[Nammy]

Great looking tank Tim as usual. I know Tim personally.
I'm also a strong believer of the KISS method in reef keeping, however I haven't had the opportunity to kept a mix reef longer than four years because of my moving every four years (29 years in the military). I cannot say I have long term experience because four years IMO isn't long term, but I always kept a great looking "clean" system.
I'm now retired and the owner of my very own LFS.
Although I have access to all the latest and greatest equipment, I still chose to keep all my systems as basic and easy to care for as possible. Unlike Tim, I do have sumps an I've been poking Tim to get one setup so he won't have to get his nephew to top off his tank every time he goes away. lol

[wildman926]

Originally Posted by mpderksen

Totally untrue and scientifically not proven. Rocks don't absorb PO4 until some magic point where they just dump it all into Algae growth. Bollocks. Being a card carrying member of the ATS cult will be a joke in the next generation of reefing. Actually, I'd say that an ATS is one step away from an under gravel filter. The biggest difference is that the ATS crowd is as militant as someone that uses Apple products...,
This guy has a successful reef tank. Provided he continues to test and keep on top of it, there is nothing looming in the future that should make him change his current protoco

Really? Is that why the advice is given to put rocks in a container, and do water changes until nitrates and phosphates read 0? That is given all of the time to those that have algae issues with their rocks. What he feeds, if not consumed, is in the water column, and will be absorbed by those rocks.

So, offering advice of something that works, that is proven, and that is still used today, is a joke? You, sir, are the joke with that condescending attitude. UGF work, and some still use them. Just because they are not the preferred method of filtration, does not mean they don't work. Ask Paul B, who has been running one on his since 1970! You and that attitude are why good people leave this site.

To the OP -

I am only trying to help. I have been reefing as long as you have, and have been successful also. You can do a search here on RC, and find all of what I am speaking of. There is a ton of evidence of what I am saying.

I personally went through what I am warning of, like so many others have. At my 3 year mark, I had a nasty hair algae outbreak on both of my tanks due to no excess nutrient export. It was not until I used API's Algaefix Marine to kill it, and then launched an ATS (algae turf scrubber), to keep it completely gone. It has been 3 years since. I am speaking from experience. Here are my tanks, a 150g and a 90g. I run an ATS, a skimmer, and a chaeto reactor for equipment. I also have large colonies of softies, and LPS. I am starting with sps's, while still keeping it simple. The 3 colonies of neon trumpet in the 150g was actually one, until I bumped it and it broke up. A lot of the coral in both tanks started as a small frag 3 years ago.

[CeresReef]

Tank looks great. You are so close, next step is to remove the skimmer! just more water changes!

[Nanook]

Wild man, you have a PM.

[Nanook]

The OP does a 60% water change every couple of months, that is nutrient export at its simplest.

[Nanook]

BTW, with so many mature corals, most nutrients are taken in by them. The virtue of a well planned Reef tank. Beautiful.

[sde1500]

Originally Posted by Nanook

The OP does a 60% water change every couple of months, that is nutrient export at its simplest.

Exactly! And way more nutrient export than I can mange at one time lol.

[d2mini]

No, you do not need an ATS.
Keep doing what you're doing.

[robertifly]

Beautiful tank love it! Can't argue with success, I noticed looks bare bottom which is what I plan doing when I get the nerve up to strip down tank and move out the rock and current stock which I've been getting the itch to start over anyways.

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by BaltimoreFish

Tim
How do you topoff evaporation? What do you feed and what is the feeding schedule for fish/corals?
What kessils do you use and what's your schedule (time and power) with them?

Top-off: The water level requirements for my skimmer (Reef Octopus BH1000 HOB) allow for over a week of evaporation before it starts sucking air. If we are to be away for over a week, I have a nephew (holds a degree but has trouble with the phrase "Don't feed too much") that drops by and throws in some RODI water. I don't feed the fish if I am going to be away for just a week.

Feed: Fish fed once a day a good quality, fresh flake food (even my matted filefish now eats flakes) because of the well rounded nutritional punch of flakes vs frozen brine shrimp, for example. Once a week or so, I'll throw in what I think is a taste treat, something like frozen spirulina brine shrimp or frozen bloodworms... but they get 95% of what they need from the flakes. I have never had a disease in this tank, knock wood. Last fish that died (disappeared actually) was the smallest of 4 chromis I have, but that was right after I got them almost 2 yrs ago.
I stopped feeding the anemones altogether because they have gone from 2 to 12, the horny bast*rds. lol
Corals are fed nothing.

Lights: I have 2 Kessil a360's with the spectral controller, 12 hr photoperiod, ramp up to 100% intensity over first 3 hrs, run 100% for 6, ramp back down last 3 hrs.

Thanks for your questions! -Tim

[ComforablyNumb]

Originally Posted by sde1500

"nice tank, but get an ATS before it isn't nice anymore" what the heck?

heh heh