Minimum maintenance successful tanks. Who runs one? post pics.

[jasonrusso]

I think my 125 gallon is minimal maintenance. I collect and change water maybe 4 times a year when I feel like getting wet. I have no hospital or quarantine tank, no medications, no sump, no dosers, no controllers, no UV, no carbon, no bacteria in a bottle, no Chemiclean.

I do have a big DIY skimmer, DIY algae scrubber and DIY ATO. I make a lot of my food from clams and raise whiteworms.

And here is @Paul B telling us he hasn't done anything since Nixon was in office, lol.

 

[This guy is Extra Salty]

My acro-fuge is a custom 20gallon lagoon loaded with macro-algae and SPS.

My equipment:
two 75w heaters (redundancy)
1052gph DC pump (ran at 50%)
Two RFG (sponsored by @Vivid Creative Aquatics)
Auto aqua smart ATO/AWC
Two AI primeHDs paired with a T5hybrid

my maintenance consists of refilling the ATO biweekly, while adding 12 grams of Kalk+2 to 15 gallons of RODI. I only do a WC (5gallonwhen one of the acros are doing something weird.

 

[Paul B]

And here is @Paul B telling us he hasn't done anything since Nixon was in office, lol.

I do clean the glass. And Nixon never helped.

 

[Mrfd217]

Minimal maintenance...to me. I inspect the tank at least 2x per day while dosing and feeding.

Manually dose TM AFR every morning
Manually feed every evening
Clean glass, floor and back 2x a week
Replenish 5 Gallon RO 1x week
Water change when Alkalinity fluctuates more than usual, every 3-4 weeks
Ink bird to control heater and fan
Test Alk and CA 1x week

Cheers!

Beautiful tank!

 

[Crustaceon]

I’d call my 65g system pretty low maintenance. I don’t run a skimmer or refugium and rely on just rock, sand and a large basket of seachem matrix to handle denitrification. I do a daily 1 gallon water change for the sake of replenishing trace elements. My ato handles evap and magnesium addition. I dripped kalkwasser for the longest time and a few months back got a freebie Kamoer Fx-stp, so that handles kalk addition now. It’s probably the fanciest piece of equipment on this system. I’d say the most time I spend on this tank in one shot is cleaning the panels, which takes about thirty minutes and is done weekly. I could without a doubt stop doing everything else aside from feeding and refilling the kalk & ato reservoirs and everything would be perfectly fine.

 

[Crystalsreef]

My 55 has been up about 6 months. All i do is add water when needed. (Time to add today) i have a simple canister filter. I do have a bad habit of over feeding, so i have a small build up on bottom i need to clean. This phone doesnt take best pics either...

 

[Scolymia88]

I have two fairly low maintenance systems. A 155g and a 300g. Both have gravity fed ato, activated carbon, filter socks, peotien skimmer and a refugium. I dont add/dose anything just semi regular water changes. More so on 300g(has a shark) over the 155g which is very lightly stocked(3 small fish, small salfin, 1 adult engineer goby, 1 big hermit, a big turbo, and a pink urchin, no coral. Its going on 3 years with only 3 40gal water changes.

The 300g gets once a month 30 gal water changes. Sometimes I push every other month. I had an issue with over feeding several months ago due to expired nitrate test always reading yellow . If my nitrates are light orange I just leave the tank be and stick to normal light 1x daily feeding regimen, if test gets get darker orange go to 2-3 days a week. I like to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible. All equipment gets vinegar soak every 2 months. When I do water changes the sand gets a good vac, and blow rocks with powerhead. When I do maintenence, it is thorough. I never vac out plain water.

I rely on my refugiums to be work horse for natural filtration. Both always packed with algea and pods

 

[BTimms]

I think my 125 gallon is minimal maintenance. I collect and change water maybe 4 times a year when I feel like getting wet. I have no hospital or quarantine tank, no medications, no sump, no dosers, no controllers, no UV, no carbon, no bacteria in a bottle, no Chemiclean.

I do have a big DIY skimmer, DIY algae scrubber and DIY ATO. I make a lot of my food from clams and raise whiteworms.

What do you mean by “collect and change” the water? Do you simply mean, do a water change?

 

[Jonify]

Well it is pretty simple, I add once a month 30ml each of RedSea ABCD, I keep 6 bags in my sump, 2 gac, 2 phosgaurd and 2 purigen. I dose 10 to 20ml of Nopox daily. I have Kessils 3 160's and 4 360's lighting it. I throw in twice a week phyto and zoo plankton. I feed the fish 10 to 12 Hikari frozen cubes a day,, that is really it.

Oh, is that all?

A couple thoughts here.

- Minimal Maintenance vs minimal equipment vs minimal cost sometimes oppose each other
- Everyone journey is different. What works for some is a disaster for others.

For my build, I am going Ultra Low Maintenance (ULM). To me, this means optimization of equipment and techniques that reduces maintenance with nothing extra. It also means automation. You will have to decide what needs to be done based on your target reefing goals.

The end goal for most reefers is maintaining an optimal water quality that supports the tank. Some key things for me were:

1. Rollermat for mechanical
2. Unlimited ATO
3. Simple AWC (single container; just add salt; everything else is automatic)
4. Minimizing powerheads with a spare to rotate in
5. Autofeeder
6. Single parameter (Alk) driven dosing
7. Throw-away media bags for organics
8. Simple lighting

One challenge I'm having is lower PH due to higher CO2 levels in the house. One option would be a skimmer/scrubber. However, this would not be a ULM solution. Skimmers have skimmate and cleaning to deal with and CO2 scrubbing media has to frequently be changed. What I'll end up doing is switching up my automated dosing reagents to use something (maybe kalk) to nudge my PH a little higher.

For ULM, kalk is a good option, just go very low. Like 1/2 teaspoon per gallon, max. Anything more will be a shock. If you want to work up to a higher pH, do it slowly, and make sure you have safeguards in place in case your ATO gets stuck on. Personally, that is not ULM for me. I don't want to worry about Kalk getting overdosed. I'd rather run a skimmer hooked to a scrubber. I empty my skimmer cup once a week, change the scrubbing media once a month. Probably the same amount of work as refilling an ATO and adding kalk--without the risk of overdose.

I have a RSR450. I converted the ATO reservoir into a refugium with cheato and macro algae. I have a skimmer but no filter stocks. I don’t do water changes. I do an ICP test every 3-6 months and manually dose as necessary. I have a ATO in the basement feeding the tank on the first floor (32G brute as a reservoir). Maintenance is lean the glass as needed, weekly to biweekly empty and clean skimmer cup, and weekly removal of charts. My parameters are not ideal but are very stable and the tank is thriving

That can't be all! You're not dosing anything? Even manually? How's your feeding schedule?

I think my 125 gallon is minimal maintenance. I collect and change water maybe 4 times a year when I feel like getting wet. I have no hospital or quarantine tank, no medications, no sump, no dosers, no controllers, no UV, no carbon, no bacteria in a bottle, no Chemiclean.

I do have a big DIY skimmer, DIY algae scrubber and DIY ATO. I make a lot of my food from clams and raise whiteworms.

Nice! How's the food prep? Is this mostly softies?

I setup this tank i think back in march 2020. I havent done anything to this redsea nano max other than top off once a week. No equipments, dosing, feeding or waterchange. There’s a damsel in there that’s still alive all this time without feeding. But this nano is mostly zoa with some lps and sps oh and anemone survivors from powerhead

You don't feed at all? Like anything??

12ml of All for Reef daily using an X1 doser, change filter sock every three days, and 15gl biweekly water change that’s it. I spend more time cleaning the glass than anything else and that’s once every 3 days or so.

This is my current regimen. It's as low-effort as it gets, once you figure out your tank's Ca/Alk uptake (but please, test this monthly so you don't end up under-dosing when your corals grow, which they will, with All-for-Reef). The twice-weekly filter sock changes and weekly water changes keep everything on track. But I will add, I do have one other weekly chore: dosing Vibrant, so I don't have to clean the glass, and pouring a week's worth of Reef Energy AB+ into a jar to daily dose my SPS/LPS on the cheap BRS doser.

I’d call my 65g system pretty low maintenance. I don’t run a skimmer or refugium and rely on just rock, sand and a large basket of seachem matrix to handle denitrification. I do a daily 1 gallon water change for the sake of replenishing trace elements. My ato handles evap and magnesium addition. I dripped kalkwasser for the longest time and a few months back got a freebie Kamoer Fx-stp, so that handles kalk addition now. It’s probably the fanciest piece of equipment on this system. I’d say the most time I spend on this tank in one shot is cleaning the panels, which takes about thirty minutes and is done weekly. I could without a doubt stop doing everything else aside from feeding and refilling the kalk & ato reservoirs and everything would be perfectly fine.

This setup will take you quite a ways! Unless you have a tank full of growing and demanding SPS. That's when it starts to get a little more labor-intensive. And when the kalk-ATO top-offs starts to throw of the ionic balance of your foundational elements. That takes a bit of effort to get back in line. But if you're testing frequently, it's really a non-issue.

I have two fairly low maintenance systems. A 155g and a 300g. Both have gravity fed ato, activated carbon, filter socks, peotien skimmer and a refugium. I dont add/dose anything just semi regular water changes. More so on 300g(has a shark) over the 155g which is very lightly stocked(3 small fish, small salfin, 1 adult engineer goby, 1 big hermit, a big turbo, and a pink urchin, no coral. Its going on 3 years with only 3 40gal water changes.

The 300g gets once a month 30 gal water changes. Sometimes I push every other month. I had an issue with over feeding several months ago due to expired nitrate test always reading yellow . If my nitrates are light orange I just leave the tank be and stick to normal light 1x daily feeding regimen, if test gets get darker orange go to 2-3 days a week. I like to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible. All equipment gets vinegar soak every 2 months. When I do water changes the sand gets a good vac, and blow rocks with powerhead. When I do maintenence, it is thorough. I never vac out plain water.

I rely on my refugiums to be work horse for natural filtration. Both always packed with algea and pods

Yes, this is the right approach! When nitrate and phosphate tests start ticking up, reduce feeding, but stay the course. Tank will right itself. And if nothing else, do a 25% water change, all good.

 

[Paul B]

What do you mean by “collect and change” the water? Do you simply mean, do a water change?

Just like it says. I go to the sea, Back my Jeep up to the water so I can pump it into containers, usually about 40 gallons. Bring it home, warm it up and do a water change.

Nice! How's the food prep? Is this mostly softies?

It's a mixed reef with many SPS, softies gorgonians etc.
I feed live white worms, LRS food and clams.

 

[Reefingmama]

Some of this minimal maintenance sounds like a TON of work. Manually dosing everything every day is WAY too much work for us.

I would consider our tank minimal maintenance. We have a 120 gallon mixed reef tank, very heavily stocked with fish, corals and inverts.

Maintenance consists of every other week mixing salt water and pressing a button to kick off a water change.
1x a month vacuuming the sand and blowing off the rocks.
Cleaning the glass when I feel like it (usually 1 x a week).
Trimming our macro algae and corals when overgrown
Testing PO4 and NO3 regularly
Manually dosing coral colors 1x a week
feeding nori and frozen 1 time a day.

All of our dosing is on dosers. Our water changes are automated. Nopox is automatic. Feeding is automatic. We don’t change socks, we use a filter roller. We don’t empty the skimmer cup, it auto dumps into a huge bin. we love feeding our fish, so it’s nice to have the majority of the “maintenance” be feeding. Automating things have been a huge part of getting consistent maintenance done without the physical work of actually doing it.

Photos under blues and under whites.

 

[BTimms]

Isn’t low maintenance supposed to be minimal input and low tech? A sustainable naturalist approach?
I’d love some input on how people define low maintenance.
Cheers!

 

[CanuckReefer]

Very minimal here... 90g, HOB skimmer, polishing powerhead, live rock, small UV. That's it. Had a canister filter for 5 or 6 years out of the 20 and ditched it.
Not near as pretty as many of the images here, but it works for me. All softies, many inverts, pretty big CUC, and 5 decently sized fish. 2.5% water change twice a week religiously.
Simple is what works for us....

 

[shoelaceike]

MY last tank which was up for 8 months...this is how it looked right before I upgraded. Canister filter cleaned every 2 weeks, water change about once a month. That's it.

 

[BTimms]

Very minimal here... 90g, HOB skimmer, polishing powerhead, live rock, small UV. That's it. Had a canister filter for 5 or 6 years out of the 20 and ditched it.
Not near as pretty as many of the images here, but it works for me. All softies, many inverts, pretty big CUC, and 5 decently sized fish. 2.5% water change twice a week religiously.
Simple is what works for us....

I like that philosophy!

 

[BTimms]

MY last tank which was up for 8 months...this is how it looked right before I upgraded. Canister filter cleaned every 2 weeks, water change about once a month. That's it.

That’s what I’m talking about

 

[CanuckReefer]

I like that philosophy!

I screwed things up for quite awhile, with just too much going on...I know my boundaries now lol, occasionally take a risk, but nothing major. I currently have two Centropyge (Eibli and Coral Beauty) living in it seems harmony thusfar, one here 3 years the other added two weeks ago, still nervous. Best advice I ever received about 15 yrs ago was 'let your rock do the work'....

 

[CMMorgan]

90g

Those Triggers must be some seriously hungry fish. (Or else, I am grossly underfeeding my fish - LOL) You still have me thinking of adding a trigger or two. I had been thinking purple tang but dang... I'd love a Clown or a Picasso. I'm going to make a run to the not so LFS tomorrow and see what's out there. I'd like to get something on order and in QT, so I can add all the critters to the new tank at the same time. Looking to add a handful of Anthias also.

 

[Reefingmama]

Isn’t low maintenance supposed to be minimal input and low tech? A sustainable naturalist approach?
I’d love some input on how people define low maintenance.
Cheers!

I consider maintenance to be work I’m putting in... not low tech. Or else I would say, let’s see those low tech tanks... I consider low maintenance to mean my daily, weekly, monthly etc maintenance is very minimal and takes little to no effort.

 

[don_chuwish]

My 25G Cube started out very simple:
Eshopps sump
Sicce Syncra 1.5 return pump
AI Prime light
Modular Marine overflow
Used Hydor powerhead
JBJ ATO
4 port American DJ power bar
Water changes when I get around to it

I didn't even test any parameters for the whole first year.

I've since added:
Sicce powerhead replaced Hydor (it's smaller and quieter)
Fuge light for growing chaeto
Tunze skimmer
Manually dosing 2 part since I finally tested and found Alk low

Tank is doing quite well but I do long for an ApexEL and dosers.