Simple Successful Reef

[wrestle1952]

Outside of the nano-tank craze, how many people out there keep really simple reefs? I have a 50 gallon breeder tank with 80 pounds of Fiji live rock and a lot of SPS corals in addition to acans nad blastos. My tank is pretty much Cap dominated although I have some fragas of nice acro last week. My tanhk has been set up for a couple of years. Things are grwoing so fast I have to frag and sell. I keep it pretty simple, Coralife Super Skimmer 65, Hagen Aqua Clear for 30 gallons with chemi pure and phosphate removal, heater, powerheads, no sump, 500 watts of 20k HQI (2x250). I add two part calcium and dose vodka. The tank is doing great. I have to deal with the heat of the summer.

Does anyone else keep things simple and have a thriving reef? I get upset when I hear how you have to get this controller, this brand of skimmer, this type of bulb to be successful.

[martinhal]

Mine is simple too 300L total. Sump , skimmer , Po4 reactor . Water changes and Kalk dripping plus testing. 18 months SPS and some LPS.

[martinhal]

Mine is simple too 300L total. Sump , skimmer , Po4 reactor . Water changes and Kalk dripping plus testing. 18 months old SPS and some LPS.

[Stanley-Reefer]

Live rock, live sand, strong lighting, small bag of carbon and skimmer for me....that's it. I'm a 2 parter and change 10% every 3-4 days in both tanks.

Although I have been reading up on calc reactors just for convenience and constant delivery of Ca+ as my 175 has LOTS of SPS growing into good size colonies.

[cveverly]

Mine are also pretty simple.

58 gallon display with a 29 gallon sump. EuroReef skimmer, 8X39 watt T5 lighting, two K3 powerheads, heaters, converted old RO filter to GFO/carbon reactor, live rock, DIY auto top off and dose 2 part. The tank is heavily populated with SPS.

40 gallon has a 20 gallon sump. NAC6 skimmer, 6X39 watt T5 lighting, two K3 powerheads, heater, using canister filter filled with GFO and carbon, live rock, DIY auto top off. This tank is mostly LPS.

20% water change every weekend.

[reefboy1994]

mine used to be a 110 gallon, 2 emperor 400 HOB, 4 bulb t5, live rock, and live sand. since then i have upgraded to a sump w/ small refugeum but im still skimmerless. i have acros, caps, milliporas, softies, lps. everythings growin good

[Electrobes]

Mine's a simple one... 40Br, AC500 (Fuge mod), MJ-900, 3 X 95W VHO, and auto top-off (No kalk, just water). I also have a dual Ranco temp controller (Heater and Lasko fan) and have nothing but praise for the thing. It saves electricity and keeps my temp ridiculously stable.

Low bio-load, 60 lbs of rock, all softies minus one blasto merletti.

12% water change per week.

[Diatome]

My 60 has been running a couple of years and was an upgrade of a 37 I started in 2005. LS, LR, modded millenium 3000 HOB I use as a small fuge and the returns are an algae scrubber. 5-10% water changes are it.

[DLANDINO]

Great thread and great tank pics. This is my simple reef.
46 Gallon all HOB no sump no fuge. Tank details in my tag line below.

[briangg57]

This is about as simple as you can get besides the 20 gal sump with a phos-ban reactor, It's just a prism delux skimmer, 1, 100 watt heater and a 45 watt back up heater. I sometimes run charcoal. I thew in a couple real cheap powerheads. 260 watts of PCs and 108 watts of T-5. I do 15 to 20% water change every 3 or 4 weeks. Every 2 or 3 weeks I check and add Alk, mag, cal. 3 weeks ago I had to take out an add in the local paper and I sold $960.00 worth of coral. This pic. is after my sales. As you can see, I may have to take out another add!!

[cveverly]

Here is mine from description above.

It is a pretty young tank but growing well.

[sanababit]

Simple huh, well no water changes, running carbon, phosban, denitrifier, skimmer, live rock, live sand, calcium reactor, i dose iodine once a week just for kicks to see what happens (LOL, seriuosly, i read it helps with zoas and blues), except for that i have to keep myself busy inventing something to do to the tank,
like lowering the light, raising the lights, cleaning the skimmer (which i really dont need to do because its conected directly to the drain), cleaning salt creep, cleaning the glass, well you get the idea......the tank has been running for 2 years now and its mostly sps, this hobby is getting easier by the minute

This picture is from december, i need to get some new ones, lol



Sana

[LeslieP]

I have a very low maintenance, low tech 55g - HOB skimmer, HOB refugium, DSB, 20% water changes every 3-4 weeks and Kalk drip for top off. Eight years old and in great shape. Oh, I did put a RO/DI system in my basement for all water.

[Anemonebuff]

Originally posted by Diatome
My 60 has been running a couple of years and was an upgrade of a 37 I started in 2005. LS, LR, modded millenium 3000 HOB I use as a small fuge and the returns are an algae scrubber. 5-10% water changes are it.

I love the cap on the intake!

Great idea.

[Ohiomom]

Great thread and beautiful tanks everyone! Always went the simple route myself too..figured if all looks good why change it...

Will have to take some tank pics..

[Rich D]

cveverly, you might want to watch out for those red shrooms youve got all over the place. They have a tenancy to take over everything.
My tank is relatively simple. I do have a sump, fuge and skimmer but no calcium reactor, kalk, phosban reactor or any of that stuff. I use driveway deicer for calcium and do water changes about every 3 weeks. The tank is only a year old and there have only been corals in there for about 5 months but it seems to be doing well so far.

[Acolin]

Beautiful tanks, but none sound simple as miniature coral reefs used to be. Now you have skimmers for protein fractionation of dissolved organics, surface overflow for surface skimming of dust particles and gaseous (oxygen) exchange, sumps for additional filtration equipment, chemical filter medium for phosphate and other chemical removal, fans and heaters for temperature stability, power heads for increased water flow, intense (10 watts per gallon) lighting, plus dosing for calcium and vodka. Plus measuring kits for multiple chemical levels.

Maintenance of an established miniature coral reef may be simple, but the technology and science are not.

[tipmoff]

I have a 50gal cube Extra Tall tank 7 months in with AquaC skimmer, Fluval 305 with LR and carbon canister filter, Poly-Reactor with phosphate media, no fuge or sump, K4 and K2 powerheads, LS, LR. Dose 2 part calcium and add some Reef race elements twice a month. Started dosing Vodka 2 weeks ago. 10% water changes every other week. Mixed reef with 10 fish and inverts. Use a computer fan to keep the tank at 76-78F. Will post new pics later on. I am trying to subscribe to the K.I.S.S. method.

[aaron1987]

47g column: Aqua C Remora fed by an MJ1200 and a BRS single chamber media reactor that I run GFO and carbon in. Change the water entirely less frequently than I should: average once every 3 weeks or so.

[got2envy]

My 75g was set up for over a year no sump, just transferred everything to a 125g RR
aqua C HOB skimmer
HOB with suface skimmer
2x maxijets 900's with sure flow Mods
80lbs live rock
60lbs live sand
bi weekly water changes with natural sea water

[saltjohnswharf]

Well about a year ago I got sick of doing a lot of work on the tank. I took apart much of the equipment and ran it bare bones.

2 - Koralia 2 powerheads
250 watt Visi-Therm stealth heater
Bak-Pak protein skimmer
DSB
40 pounds of LR
260 watts of 10K Kelvin PC light
5 gallon water changes performed weekly
Topped off by hand
Skimmer cleaned daily

Thats it. I kept polyps, mushrooms, a feather duster, couple of sponges, a photosynthetic gorgonian, thin finger leather, cauliflower colt, and a few LPS. NO FISH at all. There was a skunk cleaner shrimp and a scavenger group. I was lucky but I never had one major problem.

That was then... This is now. Added a sump, an Aqua C Urchin Pro, HOB fuge, 2 X 175 Halide with 192 watts of actinic supplentation, Eheim 2026 canister, etc. Looking to add a Tunze Osmolator. Same sand bed, same rocks, same coral. Just rearranged. The only things that are new are some SPS and those dang messy fish. Facing algae for the first time... It is like my high school home room teacher said. Keep It Simple Stupid KISS

In my opinion it is not just possible it may be beneficial.