What size (gallons) is your Pico tank?
Thanks for jumping in here. I think there are a lot of us 'minimalist reefers' here. But the bulk of the effort by R2R seems to be toward the big and the fancy hardware.
Normally, I was just changing about 20% every other week and kind of started leaning towards 10% weekly if I felt like it.
To an extent. I try to keep things as simple as I can but I do need some automation. My work schedule is extremely unpredictable and I have to work very long hours with no warning, so the tanks need to be able to go several days with little attention. . I have a few tanks with varying amounts of automation. All of my tanks have an inkbird temp controller. I've had enough heater failures that i won't run a tank without then. My 32 biocube and 34g red sea both have auto-topoffs. And LED lights on timers. The 34g also has an auto-doser. I'm going to put one on the biocube too but the consumption is low enough that manual dosing every few days is fine. Beyond that my only filtration is the live rock and I try to do a water change once a week. I toyed with the idea of buying a hydros system for the tank but ultimately decided its just a slicker way of accomplishing what im already doing and would rather spend the money on another tank or something. There's definitely a line somewhere between usefulness and cost that's different for everyone.
Thanks for getting in here.
It works for me. In the 34 my alk and calcium uptake are high enough now that my sps are taking off that with my parameters would swing wildly without the automation. I've been reefing for over 20 years and frankly I'm pretty set in my ways. I have a formula that's been working for my for a fmvery long time, and I see no reason to change something that isn't broken. The formula for a successful tank is pretty simple on paper; you need good clean water, good light, high quality food, and ample flow. Now there are more tools than ever to achieve that and how you achieve that is gonna be different for everyone. But i think to ultimately be successful you have to have a firm grasp of the basics, which is what i see a lot of people lacking. Its really easy to go to the store and buy a plug and play setup without really understanding how things work. I came up in the hobby reading books like the modern coral reef aquarium and trying to recreate a miniature ecosystem in a glass box, not to dump in some bottled stuff and grow a few flashy corals overnight. In my opinion reef tanks don't start hitting their stride until about a year old. It takes time for all of those microflora and fauna populations that drive our tanks to stabilize. I have no desire to automate away everything because tinkering with my tanks over a few beers is how I like to unwind after work. I'm not looking for a piece of art to plonk down in my living room and look at. I'm looking for a living dynamic growing complex system to nurture and care for through all the inevitable ups and downs.
All for Reef is pretty great even on larger tanks (mine is 300). I switched about 1.5 years ago from a calcium reactor in an effort to simplify. It has worked out very well. BUT, from what I can gather, AFR is best when you are trying to keep CA constant. When you get more and more coral and the ALK consumption goes up, then you have a situation like I do, where your ALK remains constant but CA and MAG very to very high levels. I need to reduce my consumption of AFR and add soda ash to keep ALK constant but allow CA and MAG to drop to the desired levels. This will also be cheaper for me!
Keep your mag up 1350-1400 and your calcium will fall in line. That’s been my experience with all for reef and my trident testing daily. I only use all for reef and mag myself.
No worries there. Mag is over 1500 and Ca is about 500 as of my last ATI test. :0) ALK I measure with KH Director and it is down to around 7 (used to keep it above 8).
It’s crazy watching this graph lol.. they go hand in hand. Cal up mag drops raise mag and cal drops.
And if you ask me questions, I'll do my best to answer them. You can even start a private conversation with me if you want.
