Minimalist Reefer

[Lennie]

This is a great topic, both for experienced people to share their ways of reaching success with a minimalist approach, but especially for people like me who has always been hesitant to try SW/reef tanks due to hearing it being extremely costy all the time and seeing those very highly priced equipments around.

I know many experienced freshwater hobbyists around me who would also be great sw hobbyists, but it is a common sense that “saltwater hobby is very expensive” and this puts off people from trying.

If I gotta be honest, I am trying my first reef tank with a minimalist approach ( thanks Ron for letting me know that’s my way!), and it is still costlier than setting up a minimalist freshwater tank, but nothing like I expected it to be from what I have been hearing. Even freshwater tanks are costy when you go for co2 dosing, aquascapinng, aquasoils, high tech equipments… and I easily find success without any of those high tech stuff in my fw tanks too.

I will be following this topic closely and recommend it to some of my experienced hobbyist friends to make them join me in this journey!

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

This is a great topic, both for experienced people to share their ways of reaching success with a minimalist approach, but especially for people like me who has always been hesitant to try SW/reef tanks due to hearing it being extremely costy all the time and seeing those very highly priced equipments around.

I know many experienced freshwater hobbyists around me who would also be great sw hobbyists, but it is a common sense that “saltwater hobby is very expensive” and this puts off people from trying.

If I gotta be honest, I am trying my first reef tank with a minimalist approach ( thanks Ron for letting me know that’s my way!), and it is still costlier than setting up a minimalist freshwater tank, but nothing like I expected it to be from what I have been hearing. Even freshwater tanks are costy when you go for co2 dosing, aquascapinng, aquasoils, high tech equipments… and I easily find success without any of those high tech stuff in my fw tanks too.

I will be following this topic closely and recommend it to some of my experienced hobbyist friends to make them join me in this journey!

Welcome aboard lol

 

[Lennie]

Welcome aboard lol

Thanks for the warm welcome!

People have been a great help since I registered to the forum. I am looking forward to learn more&more, and be one of the future contributors to this topic

Cheers

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Now, how do we get newbies to consider this approach and not get roped in and confused by the need for lots of hardware?

I’ve always felt that patience and observation are key components to successful and enjoyable minimalist reefing. Also, a willingness to apply equal or greater attention to the micro level life in your system rather than the corals or fish.

The difficulty for new hobbyists is that they generally have a kind of myopia towards very specific outcomes. Anemone hosting a clownfish or keeping SPS for example. A lot of decisions and sometimes unnecessary purchases are then made based on obtaining these outcomes alone, as quickly as possible.

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Forgot to say I also feel a dedicated section on the site promoting simpler, biology focused approaches to reefing would be great. I feel like new hobbyists with an interest in simpler methods could find more coherent advice, assistance and mentoring in a dedicated section.

 

[jda]

Most of the tanks on this thread seem pretty maximal to me... let the ecocystem do it's thing to the max. Reefer interference is minimal, I guess, but reefers are not as good at this as the ecosystem anyway, IMO.

Metal Halides, wavebox, flow pumps, return pump, heaters on Ranco, 3 inch sandbed, fuge, 3x skimmer and calcium reactor for me. This is maximal to my needs. I could do with less sand and the fuge if I didn't have so many fish... but I like them and they provide the good stuff for my corals.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Is this allowed? I was down in keys last year and there was a cool orange favia looking coral right in water just outside hotel. I was told it was big troub e to take it.

Rules... OK, laws related to private individuals collecting in the Keys (or ANYWHERE in Florida) are strictly enforced. You must have a saltwater fishing license (unless you are a senior citizen). Next is a maximum of 20 live animals total, allowed per person per day (BTW each zoa polyp is an animal). Then there are other limits on specific animals (like 5 zoas per person per day). Then there are some outright bans like ABSOLUTELY no stony corals (lps or sps) and no Condy anemones. And there is absolutely no collecting in the state mandated preserves off shore.

Trust me, my wife and I pay very close attention to the laws as they change and we follow them 100%. As to your question about RFAs, they are allowed to be collected. I seriously doubt that you found a favia in the Keys, but it would be a stony coral and you would be prohibited from collecting it. Fines range from $500 to thousands of dollars depending on the infraction.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

People have been a great help since I registered to the forum. I am looking forward to learn more&more, and be one of the future contributors to this topic

Cheers

Glad to have you here and if we can ever be of help to you, please ask!

I struggled quite a bit when I first started 20+ years ago. Now I with this minimalist approach and all the knowledge I gained over the years, I find it quite easy to keep a 40g sps & lps dominate tank with no fish.

 

[dennis romano]

Rules... OK, laws related to private individuals collecting in the Keys (or ANYWHERE in Florida) are strictly enforced. You must have a saltwater fishing license (unless you are a senior citizen). Next is a maximum of 20 live animals total, allowed per person per day (BTW each zoa polyp is an animal). Then there are other limits on specific animals (like 5 zoas per person per day). Then there are some outright bans like ABSOLUTELY no stony corals (lps or sps) and no Condy anemones. And there is absolutely no collecting in the state mandated preserves off shore.

Trust me, my wife and I pay very close attention to the laws as they change and we follow them 100%. As to your question about RFAs, they are allowed to be collected. I seriously doubt that you found a favia in the Keys, but it would be a stony coral and you would be prohibited from collecting it. Fines range from $500 to thousands of dollars depending on the infraction.

A Texas woman spent 15 days in jail for collecting 40 live queen conchs off Key West. She intended to kill them and give the shells as gifts.

 

[Ron Reefman]

A Texas woman spent 15 days in jail for collecting 40 live queen conchs off Key West. She intended to kill them and give the shells as gifts.

Queen Conch, Long Spine Urchins and Bahamian Stars are all seriously protected. I wouldn't be at all surprised at that penalty for killing 40 Queen Conchs.

 

[lil sumpin]

Glad to have you here and if we can ever be of help to you, please ask!

I struggled quite a bit when I first started 20+ years ago. Now I with this minimalist approach and all the knowledge I gained over the years, I find it quite easy to keep a 40g sps & lps dominate tank with no fish.

Just curious, do you remember what areas in the hobby gave you a hard time as a beginner when you first started?

 

[fishnchip]

I’ve always felt that patience and observation are key components to successful and enjoyable minimalist reefing. Also, a willingness to apply equal or greater attention to the micro level life in your system rather than the corals or fish.

The difficulty for new hobbyists is that they generally have a kind of myopia towards very specific outcomes. Anemone hosting a clownfish or keeping SPS for example. A lot of decisions and sometimes unnecessary purchases are then made based on obtaining these outcomes alone, as quickly as possible.

Interested in how you pay attention to the micro-level life in a system. I would love to diversify mine as much as possible

 

[GARRIGA]

I'm all about KISS because as I get older I get lazier and realize I have less time to accomplish my dreams and last I want is slaving over fish. Why I'm researching all methods to simplify my interest vs trying to fit my schedule to accomplish finally getting my dream tank which won't be small therefore needs to be efficient along with the fact space is at a premium as I don't want a bigger house as that needs greater up keep. All about having time to vacation and family while still having the box of water full of living art. I'm prioritizing life over keeping to the point I'm liquidating my reptile business that I've nurtured as a side business since the late 80s and have been running as a premium breeder last 20 plus years. Can't do everything. Must eliminate something.

Goal is an AIO to eliminate external sump and it's associated noises and potential leaks. No skimmer to service. No socks or rollers to stink the house up or require maintaining. Oversize closed loop biological filtration to not only satisfy full decomposition or at a minimum down to mulm which will be periodically extracted along with moving enough water that wavemakers will be needed at a minimum. This way main filtration can be run 24/7 should a power outage occur whether home or away by just backing up one pump at slowest flow setting to keep biological running even if inhabitants not at their happiest. Keep evaporation at it's lowest thereby minimizing the need for top off while I'm away as well as large enough Fuge to remove excess co2 along with adding oxygen that skimmer and open top would have provided. Large enough dosing containers to keep everything in check along with an obvious controller with redundancy to control all aspects along with hopefully auto testing that can be relied onto to check main parameters when as sleep or away. Keep needing others to a minimum for emergencies as last I want is another not as versed messing my dream in the worse way. Not exactly minimalist being dossers and controllers being used but minimal in equipment or need for a separate room to house everything. Nice to have that I can't have. I'm also looking at applications such as advanced oxidation process to assist with solving items such as coral warfare since it seems that's the last reason we need to change water considering where filtration and ICP testing has progressed. If I could automate ICP then that would be the final frontier I'd seek.

What I keep will have to fit above versus forcing Sticks and the inability to make both work. Life beats Sticks

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I'm all about KISS because as I get older I get lazier and realize I have less time to accomplish my dreams and last I want is slaving over fish. Why I'm researching all methods to simplify my interest vs trying to fit my schedule to accomplish finally getting my dream tank which won't be small therefore needs to be efficient along with the fact space is at a premium as I don't want a bigger house as that needs greater up keep. All about having time to vacation and family while still having the box of water full of living art. I'm prioritizing life over keeping to the point I'm liquidating my reptile business that I've nurtured as a side business since the late 80s and have been running as a premium breeder last 20 plus years. Can't do everything. Must eliminate something.

Goal is an AIO to eliminate external sump and it's associated noises and potential leaks. No skimmer to service. No socks or rollers to stink the house up or require maintaining. Oversize closed loop biological filtration to not only satisfy full decomposition or at a minimum down to mulm which will be periodically extracted along with moving enough water that wavemakers will be needed at a minimum. This way main filtration can be run 24/7 should a power outage occur whether home or away by just backing up one pump at slowest flow setting to keep biological running even if inhabitants not at their happiest. Keep evaporation at it's lowest thereby minimizing the need for top off while I'm away as well as large enough Fuge to remove excess co2 along with adding oxygen that skimmer and open top would have provided. Large enough dosing containers to keep everything in check along with an obvious controller with redundancy to control all aspects along with hopefully auto testing that can be relied onto to check main parameters when as sleep or away. Keep needing others to a minimum for emergencies as last I want is another not as versed messing my dream in the worse way. Not exactly minimalist being dossers and controllers being used but minimal in equipment or need for a separate room to house everything. Nice to have that I can't have. I'm also looking at applications such as advanced oxidation process to assist with solving items such as coral warfare since it seems that's the last reason we need to change water considering where filtration and ICP testing has progressed. If I could automate ICP then that would be the final frontier I'd seek.

What I keep will have to fit above versus forcing Sticks and the inability to make both work. Life beats Sticks

There are quite a few options. Even can have custom tank made if you dont find what you exactly want. Neptune system can take care of most things you want including redundancies and monitorung as well as I believe an auto tester. There are also a few others out there. If you want simple, do bare bottom, and back chamber with filter floss you can just throw instead of clean. Will also cut down on detritus removal. You can setup dosing as well and setup another chamber as a refugium. They even have small containers for this now with its own light inside or even just grow macro algae like chaeto. Carbon will also take care of most chemicles caused by any warfare but they should be spaced enough or get along to not cause depending on type. I believe triton method might be something for you to look into. Supposed to reduce need for water changes.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

just remember, nothing is bullet proof and more gear means more maintenance and things to go wrong. But well do what we can to get you in the right direction

 

[Merry]

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'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.

 

[Merry]

Sounds like Heaven to me, the hobby seems to have gotten so intense and expensive the last few years. I try to keep things simple with my two 30 gallon biocubes. With such small tanks I do weekly water changes and to be truthful it seems I'm always fighting something which may well be my own fault. Being older and a busy person (especially this time of the year, CPA) I'm hoping to easily be able to enjoy both tanks. I'll be checking in to learn from others.

 

[GARRIGA]

There are quite a few options. Even can have custom tank made if you dont find what you exactly want. Neptune system can take care of most things you want including redundancies and monitorung as well as I believe an auto tester. There are also a few others out there. If you want simple, do bare bottom, and back chamber with filter floss you can just throw instead of clean. Will also cut down on detritus removal. You can setup dosing as well and setup another chamber as a refugium. They even have small containers for this now with its own light inside or even just grow macro algae like chaeto. Carbon will also take care of most chemicles caused by any warfare but they should be spaced enough or get along to not cause depending on type. I believe triton method might be something for you to look into. Supposed to reduce need for water changes.

Not a newbie. Just sharing my goals to keeping it simple but I'm sure these points can help others. Thx

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Not a newbie. Just sharing my goals to keeping it simple but I'm sure these points can help others. Thx

Since you mentioned researching and goals of what you wanted, thought I would throw out some ideas. I dont know what you have researched or how long you been in hobby, just wanted to help if tgat was the case. Guess I read wrong lol. Hopefully they can. Let me know when you start. Liked to follow along.

 

[Seansea]

Rules... OK, laws related to private individuals collecting in the Keys (or ANYWHERE in Florida) are strictly enforced. You must have a saltwater fishing license (unless you are a senior citizen). Next is a maximum of 20 live animals total, allowed per person per day (BTW each zoa polyp is an animal). Then there are other limits on specific animals (like 5 zoas per person per day). Then there are some outright bans like ABSOLUTELY no stony corals (lps or sps) and no Condy anemones. And there is absolutely no collecting in the state mandated preserves off shore.

Trust me, my wife and I pay very close attention to the laws as they change and we follow them 100%. As to your question about RFAs, they are allowed to be collected. I seriously doubt that you found a favia in the Keys, but it would be a stony coral and you would be prohibited from collecting it. Fines range from $500 to thousands of dollars depending on the infraction.

Thank you for the update. It was this coral.