Keeping it simple? Going more complex ? what say you?

[Meista_Flya]

I am in the frame of thought that simple is always best. I do like the new technology and the insight that I have into my tank at any time, but I don’t run dosers or reactors or any of that. I have a Hydros system to know my tank is at temp, there’s no leaks, and control the timers on my T5’s and skimmer. I think this hobby is like any other. You can spend a ton of cash on flashy cool things that are supposed game changers for your reef. But in the end I’ve seen some folks on here with tanks that have been around for over a decade without any of that equipment. Lol

are you planning to expand on your hydros ?

 

[Meista_Flya]

i went simple on my new setup just less stuff to break and to maintain

hows ur success been so far ?

 

[Meista_Flya]

Ive been looking at the Apex Trident bundle for awhile now.

nice! have you looked at other controllers ? what is swaying your decision to swing toward neptune ?

 

[Meista_Flya]

In my opinion I had the most success without water changes. I think people fail to realize you need to do 8 test kits on the new batch of water and match it to your old tank water for there to be no swings of any kind. I think most hobbies are lazy and don’t do that then find somthing wrong. I have gotten the most growth leaving stuff alone. Done pick up coral get better growth. Don’t do water change better growth but I add supplements for it the same amount daily for months. Whatever you do it the same all the time.

True I've been doing less water changes myself latley with my filter roller protein skimmer cheato chamber and corals my nutrients been doing well so far. but I know sometimes I need to add extra trace stuff for corals to be happy

 

[kevgib67]

I had reef aquariums for 16 years that started in the mid 90’s. Didn’t have all the stuff we have now not even leds. When I jumped back into the hobby just over a year ago my set up and maintenance is almost the same. I was successful before why change? I have live rock, ceramic biomedia ( didn’t have before) , mechanical filtration, carbon , protein skimmer and a uv (didn’t have before). I feed my coral (didn’t before), dose AB+ (didn’t before), dose phyto and religiously do a weekly 12.5% water change with a deep clean on the last Sunday of the month. I had to dose Reef Flux, due to bryopsis, and refrained from water changes for 3 weeks and it gave me anxiety!

 

[Ef4life]

I prefer simple low tech setups, i dose my main reef and frag system manually once a day, it helps me keep eyes on The system daily, I do visual fish checks every mornings, give at least a quick look over of all the frags and corals. Make sure pumps are flowing properly, check and change filter socks as needed. I do have an ato on it so that takes care of that but everything else is manually done by me.

I currently don’t even run a skimmer anymore, I have been dosing nitrate and phosphates trying to get the levels up, I replaced it with an airstone just to aerate the water and help gas exchange. Noticeable ph drop without the skimmer


my other 2 tanks I just run a dosing pump as an ato, I mix in a bit of kalk, it makes a nice setup without much fear of overdose like a typical kalk/ato can have. I have wifi power strips I use to set timers and turn pumps on/off for feeding


my main setup

 

[LRT]

nice! have you looked at other controllers ? what is swaying your decision to swing toward neptune ?

No real reason other than its probably the most versatile system ive found to fit my particular needs that I've ran across through research.
@Ef4life your tank is looking super nice! I totally forgot until you mentioned it. I am also running cheap wifi strips on an app!

 

[Ef4life]

No real reason other than its probably the most versatile system ive found to fit my particular needs that I've ran across through research.
@Ef4life your tank is looking super nice! I totally forgot until you mentioned it. I am also running cheap wifi strips on an app!

Thanks,

true story - I actually have an old apex setup before they had built in wifi on one system but I don’t have a wired Ethernet connection where that tank is so I used a wifi gateway for a while with poor results. So it’s basically just a heater controller now and I use a $20 wifi strip to turn stuff on and off. I like the strips that have controlled outlets and controlled USB ports to use for fans and led strip lighting

 

[LRT]

Thanks,

true story - I actually have an old apex setup before they had built in wifi on one system but I don’t have a wired Ethernet connection where that tank is so I used a wifi gateway for a while with poor results. So it’s basically just a heater controller now and I use a $20 wifi strip to turn stuff on and off. I like the strips that have controlled outlets and controlled USB ports to use for fans and led strip lighting

For sure man the controlled outlets are the only way to go. Nothing like being able to shut different things down when needed. It would be epic if the wifi strips would allow power supply control to those outlets as well so I could use it as a dimmer for my T5 strips! Come to think about it I'd probably need to change ballasts in my T5 even if I could control power supply!
For now they are ran off timer on controlled wifi strip.

 

[resortez]

I have a friend who thinks just like you everything was simple and hand done. timers notes everyday ! very very particular with set schedules and feeding times....

but he eventually caught the controller bug and at this point uses a doser a trident and uses the controller for timers and such. he still is there manually testing the tank and still takes notes but feels as the controller assist in helping him keep things stable and simple.

he loves his tank and this hobby and even tho he has his controller he never stop being as involved with his tank as he was prior too. it just given him some opportunity to work on other aspects of his tank!

I used to have a digital aquatics controller on my system, lol, that’s how far back I go in the hobby. It was exciting to see an advancement that huge in the hobby & I jump on it right away. The DA can’t be compared with todays high tech but it was the latest & greatest advanced tech available & it was great, extremely helpful. I got off the bandwagon because probes would fail & the bus would also fail. Because of the expense involved in replacing equipment, taking in mind how involved I am with my tank, I might as well scrap it & redirect full attention to the care of the animals rather than the care of expensive equipment that will eventually fail. Also, with enough time in this hobby an eye is developed that can quickly identify visual queues that give early warning of potential negative changes in parameters & vise versa, the eye can ID when the tank is stable & thriving, it’s like sunshine & lollipops in the tank.

 

[MinnieMouse2]

I keep it simple. I started to go fancy, and it was not for me. That could be based on my age. I am 56 years old and life is getting to be more tiring. Just want a simple set up that works.