Keeping it simple.
I have been in the hobby for about 12 years now and look back at all of the different trends and items I have bought in the past. Did I really need a fluidized sand bed filter or nitrate reactor?
My first tank was what I considered to be one of the best tanks I have had. And did I have some crazy over the top system? Nope. I had a glass 75 gallon tank that sat on a built in bookshelf in the game room. For lights I had 2 55w PC bulbs, and for filtration I had 2 emperor 400 bio-wheel hob filters.
No sump, no skimmer, no controllers or dosers. I cant even remember check my alk levels or phosphate levels. I constantly fought nitrates above 20ppm, but the tank was thriving. I never saw any sps at my local lfs so I don’t know how they would have done in my tank, but I had a saebae anemone, zoanthids, lps and other random corals that thrived. I kept reading on another forum how halides were the way to go and no way could my coral be kept under these lighting conditions. Being a newbie I jumped on a halide deal from the auction site and couldn’t wait. My lights showed up and got them installed and wondered why they were so ugly. I guess I should of read more and realized bulbs come in different color temperatures. Those 6500k bulbs made my tank the algae grower of the year. The algae smothered all of my coral before I realized it. I got rid of those lights as fast as I can.
Now I fast forward to my current tank. A 125 gallon reef ready tank. I have a 40 gal sump with a big old oversized skimmer. I see the skimmer pulling out crud, but do I really need it?
I am running a diy led setup and things have been growing pretty good. I have good par readings on my tank and the light is bright enough that I need to shade some corals so they don’t bleach out. I never had that problem with my PC lights.
I add chalk to all of my top off water and dose mag and vitamin-c type of supplement. I only did water changes on my first tank and everything was still growing great.
I test my tank constantly for nitrates, phosphates, alk and calcium. My levels all stay pretty consistent and I probably don’t need to test as much as I am, but after you see enough tanks crash from alk dropping or phosphates creeping up, it has me double checking everything. The only thing I tested on my first tank was nitrates, and I was told they were the cause of all issues from color of corals to algae growth.
My current setup may seem simple to everyone out there running controllers, 3 channel dosers, calcium reactors and the like, but I think even my current setup has too much technology in it.
If I had the time and money I would like to setup an exact replica of my tank using the old hang on filters I have in the garage and put a few PC lights over it and just see if I could duplicate the success I had in the past.
How many others are longing for the simplicity of the past?
Turbo21 (Bob Cox)
Here is a pic of that first tank
I have been in the hobby for about 12 years now and look back at all of the different trends and items I have bought in the past. Did I really need a fluidized sand bed filter or nitrate reactor?
My first tank was what I considered to be one of the best tanks I have had. And did I have some crazy over the top system? Nope. I had a glass 75 gallon tank that sat on a built in bookshelf in the game room. For lights I had 2 55w PC bulbs, and for filtration I had 2 emperor 400 bio-wheel hob filters.
No sump, no skimmer, no controllers or dosers. I cant even remember check my alk levels or phosphate levels. I constantly fought nitrates above 20ppm, but the tank was thriving. I never saw any sps at my local lfs so I don’t know how they would have done in my tank, but I had a saebae anemone, zoanthids, lps and other random corals that thrived. I kept reading on another forum how halides were the way to go and no way could my coral be kept under these lighting conditions. Being a newbie I jumped on a halide deal from the auction site and couldn’t wait. My lights showed up and got them installed and wondered why they were so ugly. I guess I should of read more and realized bulbs come in different color temperatures. Those 6500k bulbs made my tank the algae grower of the year. The algae smothered all of my coral before I realized it. I got rid of those lights as fast as I can.
Now I fast forward to my current tank. A 125 gallon reef ready tank. I have a 40 gal sump with a big old oversized skimmer. I see the skimmer pulling out crud, but do I really need it?
I am running a diy led setup and things have been growing pretty good. I have good par readings on my tank and the light is bright enough that I need to shade some corals so they don’t bleach out. I never had that problem with my PC lights.
I add chalk to all of my top off water and dose mag and vitamin-c type of supplement. I only did water changes on my first tank and everything was still growing great.
I test my tank constantly for nitrates, phosphates, alk and calcium. My levels all stay pretty consistent and I probably don’t need to test as much as I am, but after you see enough tanks crash from alk dropping or phosphates creeping up, it has me double checking everything. The only thing I tested on my first tank was nitrates, and I was told they were the cause of all issues from color of corals to algae growth.
My current setup may seem simple to everyone out there running controllers, 3 channel dosers, calcium reactors and the like, but I think even my current setup has too much technology in it.
If I had the time and money I would like to setup an exact replica of my tank using the old hang on filters I have in the garage and put a few PC lights over it and just see if I could duplicate the success I had in the past.
How many others are longing for the simplicity of the past?
Turbo21 (Bob Cox)
Here is a pic of that first tank
