Minimalist Reefer

[Ron Reefman]

I'd like to see R2R start a 'Minimalist Reefer' forum for those of us who want to keep it simple and maybe be a bit 'old school' in the way we do things.

I'm a member of the Reef Squad here and in talking with a few other Reef Squad members, I've found they have some very similar feelings. So I invite anybody who wants to 'keep it simple' to join me here with this thread. W ether you are new to the hobby, new to aio tanks or experienced and just want to get back to simple basics, feel free to post and discuss ideas here.

Here is a bit about how I got to this point in my aquarium keeping career.

Over 20+ years I've kept a variety of bigger tanks (75g to 180g) and at one point had over 700g of saltwater in the house. I also worked for an aquarium led lighting company for a few years. But I felt it was time to give the hobby a rest.

However, I live near saltwater estuaries and beaches as well as snorkel in the Florida Keys several times every year. And I enjoy doing some collecting. So, I sold most of my equipment and livestock. I only kept a few small tanks (5g to 40g).

After about 6 months I discovered the AIO (All In One) tank idea. So I started a 40g breeder AIO tank that would be mostly local stock of coral, anemones, sea stars, a sea cucumber, a mantis shrimp, some rock boring urchins and CUC (just 2 clownfish I inherited from a friend who was shutting down a tank). The tank is just a 40g breeder with an AIO insert that uses a filter sock and a return pump. There is room for more hardware or mini refugium, but I don't use it.

It worked so well and required so little effort to maintain, I started a 40g cube with another AIO insert. This time it would be all sps & lps corals, some anemones, a couple stars, a coral banded shrimp and some CUC, NO FISH. It's been 18 months now and everything is doing just fine.

I find the amount of high tech hardware, other equipment and the glut of chemicals and additives to be a waste of time and money.

I spend 5 minutes each morning dosing Ca and alk. BTW, I use Dow Flake (snow melt salt) for Ca and swimming pool soda ash for alk. I use Randy Holms-Farley's recommendations for mixing. And I do testing once a week, but my parameters change very little over time.

 

[ScottD]

I’ll be following along. Working on getting a 135gal tank setup and want to skip the filter socks/roller and skimmer and just run a sump with refugium, heater, and return pump.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Following. Easiest tanks I have found for this are picos that are round. Air pump (or wavemaker if squared) and light. Adding heater for first time tomorrow. And with my liking to aquascape, makes it easier to break down and redo lol.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I know I've seen a few different threads about basically tanks with just flow, biofiltration, lighting as needed, and (if needed) a heater or chiller - getting some more info out there on how to run these sorts of tanks, the pros and cons to them, etc. would be great.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I’ll be following along. Working on getting a 135gal tank setup and want to skip the filter socks/roller and skimmer and just run a sump with refugium, heater, and return pump.

Happy to have you along. I found the roller thing to be way more work and expense than it was worth. I do use the filter sock just because I don't have a refugium (or really enough room for one that would be worth the effort). And I only clean it once a week. But then with no fish and very light feeding, I don't have much of a waste issue either.

I think you can do just what you are considering, especially if you don't over stock the tank.

 

[ScottD]

Happy to have you along. I found the roller thing to be way more work and expense than it was worth. I do use the filter sock just because I don't have a refugium (or really enough room for one that would be worth the effort). And I only clean it once a week. But then with no fish and very light feeding, I don't have much of a waste issue either.

I think you can do just what you are considering, especially if you don't over stock the tank.

Thanks. I’m hoping this thread gets some traction, maybe even the forum section you suggest because it’d be nice to have more info out there about this way of running a reef.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I know I've seen a few different threads about basically tanks with just flow, biofiltration, lighting as needed, and (if needed) a heater or chiller - getting some more info out there on how to run these sorts of tanks, the pros and cons to them, etc. would be great.

Yup. And I'm not concerned about any one system to make this easier, anything anybody does to keep it simple is fine by me. The amount of equipment and computerization going on in this hobby is out of control IMHO.

However, some people are really into that high tech stuff and there is plenty of room for them here at R2R already!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks. I’m hoping this thread gets some traction, maybe even the forum section you suggest because it’d be nice to have more info out there about this way of running a reef.

Thanks. I hope somebody at R2R will take notice as well! Time will tell.

 

[VintageReefer]

I'd like to see R2R start a 'Minimalist Reefer' forum for those of us who want to keep it simple and maybe be a bit 'old school' in the way we do things.

I'm a member of the Reef Squad here and in talking with a few other Reef Squad members, I've found they have some very similar feelings. So I invite anybody who wants to 'keep it simple' to join me here with this thread. W ether you are new to the hobby, new to aio tanks or experienced and just want to get back to simple basics, feel free to post and discuss ideas here.

Here is a bit about how I got to this point in my aquarium keeping career.

Over 20+ years I've kept a variety of bigger tanks (75g to 180g) and at one point had over 700g of saltwater in the house. I also worked for an aquarium led lighting company for a few years. But I felt it was time to give the hobby a rest.

However, I live near saltwater estuaries and beaches as well as snorkel in the Florida Keys several times every year. And I enjoy doing some collecting. So, I sold most of my equipment and livestock. I only kept a few small tanks (5g to 40g).

After about 6 months I discovered the AIO (All In One) tank idea. So I started a 40g breeder AIO tank that would be mostly local stock of coral, anemones, sea stars, a sea cucumber, a mantis shrimp, some rock boring urchins and CUC (just 2 clownfish I inherited from a friend who was shutting down a tank). The tank is just a 40g breeder with an AIO insert that uses a filter sock and a return pump. There is room for more hardware or mini refugium, but I don't use it.

It worked so well and required so little effort to maintain, I started a 40g cube with another AIO insert. This time it would be all sps & lps corals, some anemones, a couple stars, a coral banded shrimp and some CUC, NO FISH. It's been 18 months now and everything is doing just fine.

I find the amount of high tech hardware, other equipment and the glut of chemicals and additives to be a waste of time and money.

I spend 5 minutes each morning dosing Ca and alk. BTW, I use Dow Flake (snow melt salt) for Ca and swimming pool soda ash for alk. I use Randy Holms-Farley's recommendations for mixing. And I do testing once a week, but my parameters change very little over time.

I’m pretty minimalist

I have a sump with an algae turf scrubber, live rock in darkness, heater and return pump

I don’t do water changes. I don’t run a skimmer. I don’t dose or run anything else

I add top off water weekly with a capful of all for reef. I empty my scrubber every 10-14 days. And I clean my glass 2x a week

 

[Ron Reefman]

I’m pretty minimalist

I have a sump with an algae tied scrubber, live rock in darkness, heater and return pump

I don’t do water changes. I don’t run a skimmer. I don’t dose or run anything else

I add top off water weekly with a capful of all for reef. I empty my scrubber every 10-14 days. And I clean my glass 2x a week

I had never heard of All For Reef additive before this. How well does it do at keeping the Ca and alk in the range you want? I would have thought that over time one or the other would get out of balance? How big is your tank and how often do you test for Ca and alk?

I appreciate your adding to this minimalist reefer idea! Thanks.

 

[lil sumpin]

I decided to go the HOB route w my first reef tank, for some reason I felt AIO builds might be a headache. Glad to see there’s a group of reefers who also prefer to keep things simple!

 

[Troylee]

Yup. And I'm not concerned about any one system to make this easier, anything anybody does to keep it simple is fine by me. The amount of equipment and computerization going on in this hobby is out of control IMHO.

However, some people are really into that high tech stuff and there is plenty of room for them here at R2R already!

I run my tank old skool… it has nothing more than a skimmer and live rock for filtration… I did get into bacteria here recently so that’s new school I guess! But I keep it simple.

 

[Troylee]

I had never heard of All For Reef additive before this. How well does it do at keeping the Ca and alk in the range you want? I would have thought that over time one or the other would get out of balance? How big is your tank and how often do you test for Ca and alk?

I appreciate your adding to this minimalist reefer idea! Thanks.

All for reef is the bees knees! I love that stuff! So much easier than 2 part or 3 part etc. great results with it and it adds trace elements.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I decided to go the HOB route w my first reef tank, for some reason I felt AIO builds might be a headache. Glad to see there’s a group of reefers who also prefer to keep things simple!

Nothing wrong with HOB systems. I have used them in the past and still do when I set up a small quarantine tank when I bring home things I collect in the wild.

Surprising to me is the fact that I have never had any issues with wild collected corals or other inverts (shrimp, snails, crabs, stars, cucumbers, urchins and even a 3" mantis shrimp). I don't try for fish and almost all sponges are hopeless in a reef tank.

 

[jimk60]

I run my tank old skool… it has nothing more than a skimmer and live rock for filtration… I did get into bacteria here recently so that’s new school I guess! But I keep it simple.

Sounds alot like what we used to all the Berlin method.

 

[Troylee]

Sounds alot like what we used to all the Berlin method.

I’m not familiar with the Berlin method I’ll have to check it out.. I’ve heard it a million times but since my old days I’ve always just been a vodka, mb7 guy with a skimmer.. I’ve advanced that now to zeo with my current display for fun lol.

 

[Fishy Guy]

Following! This is the way I'm trying to go with my first reef tank.

 

[Troylee]

Sounds alot like what we used to all the Berlin method.

Just looked it up… yeah that’s pretty much what I do! I keep my tanks simple with a skimmer only but ventured into bacteria as a food source for my corals.

 

[VintageReefer]

I had never heard of All For Reef additive before this. How well does it do at keeping the Ca and alk in the range you want? I would have thought that over time one or the other would get out of balance? How big is your tank and how often do you test for Ca and alk?

I appreciate your adding to this minimalist reefer idea! Thanks.

My tank is 75g and I have a sump approx 20g.

All for Reef keeps my Ca stable around 440ish and Alk around 8. It also replenishes a ton of trace elements I was testing monthly for a while and once I began to trust the product I started to stop testing. Now I test maybe every 3 months just to make sure things are correct, they always are. It adds things in a balance. You need to get your parameters right before you start using it. It won’t fix an issue if things are out of balance. But it will maintain the balance if things are correct

I measured the amount alk and ca degraded in a week, and calculated the dosage needed to replace that. Then when I add freshwater I just add in the correct dosage each week.

I don’t use an ato either, I just fill up a jug with tap water (I have a whole house filtration system - not as good as rodi admittedly - but it takes out any chlorine and a bunch of other stuff) and add the all for reef. I pour it all in at once

All for Reef is a game changer. I don’t know when it came out, but I started using it about a year ago and it’s way easier than having dosing pumps and making two part mix.

 

[VintageReefer]

I have a self enclosed floating scrubber that handles all my nutrient control. I take a handful of algae out every 10-14 days. Super easy. Eliminated water changes and my skimmer

Keeps my tank completely stable with nitrates 2-5 and phosphate .02-.05