I hear that eventually, every tank will crash...

[ectoaesthetics]

I've been reefing since the 90s. Crashes will happen. You will hear a lot of talk on BRS about heaters failing and power outages. Those are real. Eventually something in the tank will fail if you do this for long enough. Also life happens. 7 years into a tank eventually you will slack enough on maintenance at some point to stress your system... hopefully it won't be bad enough to cause a full blown crash. But I do promise you like anything in your life at some point you will be pulled in enough directions that you will slack. I hope you do not take it personally and realize that it does happen to everyone. I still have not automated water changes -but realize that doing so would be a huge step in avoiding this pitfall.

I wish I could tell you that this no longer happens due to hobby changes or whatever. But I do promise that if you do it long enough it will more likely than not occur. The larger the tank the bigger the buffer... You will see many signs of neglect before a full crash... but the larger the tank the longer it takes to turn the ship and the longer it will take for things to come around. All good things happen slowly. One of the number one ways I see a crash or near crash is from people trying to fix something quickly -especially algae stuff. The good news is that post crash you are still working will a full tank of LR and sand that is totally populated bacteria, probably covered in coralline still, and you will still have some survivors. But you will also be heart broken and feel pretty awful about loosing pets. But I do agree with the adage that it will more likely than not happen someday if you do this long enough. Unless you are PaulB... That dude has had tanks much longer than I and I don't know that his have ever crashed.