Low overhead reefkeeper seeks discussion/advise.

[SarahSturzoa]

Hello - I typed a lot. Sorry for the tldr post but wanted to share more broadly about my reefing experience.

I have a Red Sea xxl 750. I do not have a skimmer, wave maker, or really any other fancy equipment. I'm pretty sure my 3 measly reefLEDs would raise an eyebrow or 7. Since 2002 I have kept reefs despite being a single mom of 3 boys on a Florida teacher's salary for most of those years. I have kept them without skimmers, ATOs, controllers, dosing systems, phone apps, or fancy test kits (aside from the essentials, of course).

I have relied on water changes, thoughtful livestock and placement choices and a ton of effort over the years.

Now that my boys are mostly grown I have more time. I frankly want to spend this newfound time doing something other than water changes. I'm hoping for some advise on budget friendly equipment for my Red Sea xxl750. This tank has been running for about a year now... it was a splurge brought about by a much cheaper setup springing a serious leak one night, which necessitated a replacement that very minute. I used the old tank's equipment which was old, relatively cheap, and mostly underpowered.

The tank is healthy, no algea issue, mixed reef - mostly LPS and Montis but I also have several anemones, softies and plenty of zoas. moderate bioload. No trouble with nitrates or any of that.

*2 clowns (Sally and Tom) who avoid anemones and chase and bite my hand (Honestly I hate Sally)
*1 spot foxface rabbitfish (Jojo Rabbitfish) he is king of the tank and everyone's buddy)
*Sailfin tang (Desmond) Dez loves Jojo and is never far away. Jojo is indifferent to Dez.
*Hippo tang (Freckles) playful with everyone.
*A large, solitary, Banghai Cardinal (Poncho) who always looks ticked.

Equipment I am considering and would love some advice on:

Fuge light
Dosing system
Protein skimmer
New powerheads
Tank Cover (I need a ruby red dragonet in my life)

Thanks for reading and any advice or thoughts you can share.how does one reef on a buget?

 

[Adrift]

If you are successful with how you are doing it, have you considered auto water changes. Make bigger batches set it and forget it. My two sense.

 

[SarahSturzoa]

If you are successful with how you are doing it, have you considered auto water changes. Make bigger batches set it and forget it. My two sense.

Brilliant. I've thought about this in the past but never looked into it. Definitely will do some follow-up on your suggestion. Thanks much!

 

[ff2807]

Hello - I typed a lot. Sorry for the tldr post but wanted to share more broadly about my reefing experience.

I have a Red Sea xxl 750. I do not have a skimmer, wave maker, or really any other fancy equipment. I'm pretty sure my 3 measly reefLEDs would raise an eyebrow or 7. Since 2002 I have kept reefs despite being a single mom of 3 boys on a Florida teacher's salary for most of those years. I have kept them without skimmers, ATOs, controllers, dosing systems, phone apps, or fancy test kits (aside from the essentials, of course).

I have relied on water changes, thoughtful livestock and placement choices and a ton of effort over the years.

Now that my boys are mostly grown I have more time. I frankly want to spend this newfound time doing something other than water changes. I'm hoping for some advise on budget friendly equipment for my Red Sea xxl750. This tank has been running for about a year now... it was a splurge brought about by a much cheaper setup springing a serious leak one night, which necessitated a replacement that very minute. I used the old tank's equipment which was old, relatively cheap, and mostly underpowered.

The tank is healthy, no algea issue, mixed reef - mostly LPS and Montis but I also have several anemones, softies and plenty of zoas. moderate bioload. No trouble with nitrates or any of that.

*2 clowns (Sally and Tom) who avoid anemones and chase and bite my hand (Honestly I hate Sally)
*1 spot foxface rabbitfish (Jojo Rabbitfish) he is king of the tank and everyone's buddy)
*Sailfin tang (Desmond) Dez loves Jojo and is never far away. Jojo is indifferent to Dez.
*Hippo tang (Freckles) playful with everyone.
*A large, solitary, Banghai Cardinal (Poncho) who always looks ticked.

Equipment I am considering and would love some advice on:

Fuge light
Dosing system
Protein skimmer
New powerheads
Tank Cover (I need a ruby red dragonet in my life)

Thanks for reading and any advice or thoughts you can share.how does one reef on a buget?

Awesome job

 

[Dbichler]

I’ma low budget reefer as well jebao mow 22 would be great for your tank Wi-Fi controllable and push a ton of water. Have you thought of diy algae turf scrubber instead of protein skimmer that’s cheap easy and effective

 

[dcal1985]

If you are successful with how you are doing it, have you considered auto water changes. Make bigger batches set it and forget it. My two sense.

I second this. I built a simple mixing station and automated with a Neptune DOS. It's easily the biggest upgrade I've made.

 

[Timfish]

Sounds like you're doing pretty good and I really wouldn't change anything. I have animals decades old using simple ssytems equipment wise and don't see a need for lots of equipment. From the research I've read water changes are critical as they remove the hydrophilic DOC and refractory DOC skimmers and reactors can't remove and scrubbers actually add to the system. You didn't mention how big of water changes you're doing (I do ~5% weekly) but an automatic siphon might be a possible answer to simplify them.



Here's some videos you might find informative:

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)


Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching


Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

 

[flyfisher2]

Would be nice to know what your parameters are.
That’s a starting point.

 

[SarahSturzoa]

I’ma low budget reefer as well jebao mow 22 would be great for your tank Wi-Fi controllable and push a ton of water. Have you thought of diy algae turf scrubber instead of protein skimmer that’s cheap easy and effective

Will check out. Thanks for the recommendation.

Christmas Shopping list gonna be fat!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

I just tried the jebao sine wave pump, the slw-5 size, and so far I really like it. Instructions are not the best, but once you get it figured out they're easy. Definitely budget friendly that's why I chose it. On my next large build I will use these in the larger flow sizes for sure. I've been using this one for 4 weeks.

 

[SarahSturzoa]

Would be nice to know what your parameters are.
That’s a starting point.

Sorry, didn't include as I'm not having problems. Just looking for budget friendly equipment advice.

Most recent check was 460ppm CA, 9 dkh, 1490 mag. Nitrates are below 2ppm. Tank temp stays pretty stable at 79. Salinity is 1.026

I change 25 gallons every Sunday. Works out to be about 15%

 

[mdb_talon]

Sounds like your current setup is working great with healthy livestock and no nutrient issues from what i gather and you just want to spend less effort to the same results?

If that is the case i would suggest things like ATO and auto water changes be at the top of your list. If you are currently manually dosing then a doser can be a huge benefit(if not dosing already then it seems you dont have the need). Personally i find the jebao 4 head dosing pumps to work quite well. In several years of using them the only issue i had was my fault in setup.

 

[SarahSturzoa]

Sounds like you're doing pretty good and I really wouldn't change anything. I have animals decades old using simple ssytems equipment wise and don't see a need for lots of equipment. From the research I've read water changes are critical as they remove the hydrophilic DOC and refractory DOC skimmers and reactors can't remove and scrubbers actually add to the system. You didn't mention how big of water changes you're doing (I do ~5% weekly) but an automatic siphon might be a possible answer to simplify them.



Here's some videos you might find informative:

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)


Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching


Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

Tim, you are an absolute boss! Thanks for all the information. I've got lots of homework to do!

 

[SarahSturzoa]

Sounds like your current setup is working great with healthy livestock and no nutrient issues from what i gather and you just want to spend less effort to the same results?

If that is the case i would suggest things like ATO and auto water changes be at the top of your list. If you are currently manually dosing then a doser can be a huge benefit(if not dosing already then it seems you dont have the need). Personally i find the jebao 4 head dosing pumps to work quite well. In several years of using them the only issue i had was my fault in setup.

I am dosing daily and that, combined with water changes, keeps me tied to home. I'll check out the doser you mentioned. That might be the best thing for me since I will be traveling more in the future.

 

[Chrisv.]

I just wanted to throw out there that you may be able to find good deals on used equipment, if you decide you want more equipment, via your local reef club. Also, you might be able to get some used equipment deals from an aquarium maintenance company in your area.

 

[flyfisher2]

Sorry, didn't include as I'm not having problems. Just looking for budget friendly equipment advice.

Most recent check was 460ppm CA, 9 dkh, 1490 mag. Nitrates are below 2ppm. Tank temp stays pretty stable at 79. Salinity is 1.026

I change 25 gallons every Sunday. Works out to be about 15%

Thanks for the info, Just thinking that a skimmer or other filtering device may affect your parameters once you install it as it will be removing nutrients. I'm impressed that you keep stable parameters without the gadgets or would be "essentials".

 

[DonTavo27]

Let’s see some pictures of the tank, We’re all interested in seeing what it looks like...

I’d start with a doser, from either Jebao or Bubble magus, a ATO system, and maybe a some macro algae. It sounds like you have a good system at play, and these few additions would simplify things for you.

 

[slojim]

You are changing 1250 gallons a year. That's probably costing you at least $300. an algae scrubber can reduce the need for water changes and pay itself off i have had one for 2 years. When I carbon dose, I'm skimming wet and still replacing water (but not nearly as much as a water change). I will say that I'm glad I have a skimmer, but it's rare im exporting much through it when the scrubber is on line. Some people don't like cleaning the screen, but it's a lot easier than a 25g water change.
AWCs are cool and id like one eventually, but my priority was first reducing the need for my bi-weekly changes before setting the wc on autopilot.

 

[ZoWhat]

@SarahSturzoa

I have a 6ft 180. Rough numbers:

Takes about 7kwh to run my take 24/7. That alone is $80-$90 a month in electricity

I go thru about 8 boxes of salt at $50/box (great inside deal with LFS owner)... so that's $400 a year or $33 a month

Food, testing, supplements I'd say $300 - $500 a year, so roughly $40 a month

With making RODI water and the fact 4 gals goes down the drain to every 1 gal of RODI... that a lot of water/sewer rates. Probably an additional $10-$20 per month easy

Equipment replacement due to failure I'd say $300 - $500 a year, so roughly $40 a month

So, without any fish or coral purchased I would EASILY estimate hovering around $200 per month for my hobby



.

 

[PeterC99]

Have you looked at used equipment on R2R Marketplace or Craigslist? You might be able to pickup some great equipment at excellent prices.