Reefing changed for me when I stopped chasing the magical Unicorn

[InspectorGadget]

Hey Everyone! I haven’t posted in a very long time and I want to list my current situation to maybe help someone with similar issues. As you can see from the title, I was chasing the magical unicorn for the past two years. What is the Unicorn of reefing? To me it’s the highly publicized ULNS and zero algae reef tanks. To go more into this I need to give you a little background:

9 years ago, I exited the hobby after fighting serious GHA problems with zero phosphate and nitrates. At that time, some nasty stuff entered my tank with a newly added live rock and killed all my fish. I gave my corals away and gave up. About two years ago, I missed having a reef tank and decided to get back into it. I spent HOURS researching ways to prevent the issues I had with my first tank. So I built a tank, sump and lighting system. I used the aqua forest ULNS program. My tank was only 40 gallons and was a bare bottom tank. I had all sps frags as my coral of choice. Things were ok until I had several epic fails (autofeeder falling into tank and almost killing all my corals and my acrylic was about to separate in the main tank). I then moved everything to a 20 gallon Nuvo. Things went downhill from there. I could not keep my Ph above 7.8. I could not dose kalk due to my corals not consuming alk. I tested and tested and tweaked and tweaked everyday but things were going south. My tank was unstable. I made it unstable by my frantic actions. I would stare at my Apex every 30 minutes, worried what would happen next. My corals began STN so I pulled them out of the tank and gave them to a LFS. Then....

I gave up....

I sold my Apex, GHL 2.1 and my Kessil A360. Only thing left in my tank were two clowns. Still just a Nuvo 20 with two T5 bulbs.

A few months later....

At this point I wasn’t testing anything but salinity. I just did a bi-weekly water change at 60%. And then... I saw a hint of something neon green in two locations on the rock. Located where I had an unknown acro and a sunset monti. I couldn’t believe it. I let the tank just keep going the way it was, see what happens. They started growing, little by little. This sparked life back into my reefing. I designed an overflow (100% silent) to go to a small 5 gallon refuge. I added a 4 inch deep sand bed and cheato with a Home Depot $8 plant light. So what happened? The stability was brought back to my tank and my corals have taken off. The tank is crystal clear with zero algae and none forming on the glass for over a week at times. Cheato is growing like crazy.

You see, I bought into this magical unicorn tank idea. For me, it was the wrong choice. I figured out that nano reefs just need stability and consistency. I feel like the ULNS would have worked if I had a larger bio load but in the end, it’s sticking to the basics for me. These corals by theory shouldn’t be thriving, I don’t have high par (2 24watt bulbs). Do I know what my perimeters are? Nope (not recommended). I just stay consist in what I do. I let my tank tell me what it needs and then adjust to it. Bi-weekly 60% water change, 30ml GFO, 2 TBSP bulk reef RXO.8 carbon changed with water change, deep sand bed, bare bottom in main tank and cheato. That’s what has worked for me. As I add more corals and my reef increase, I will go with the flow and started testing again... but not in an OCD way.


-For the first time in a long time, I’m enjoying this hobby again-

 

[InspectorGadget]

The two corals now

 

[raylinds]

I think there is a lesson to be learned here- you shouldn't just chase numbers. As long as parameters are within an acceptable range, leave them alone. Consistency is key. I tend to be a perfectionist and want everything just so, so I need to keep this lesson in mind. Thanks for sharing and congratulations on your growing 'family'.

 

[Jon Fishman]

I prefer to "not test" and just watch my corals...... things look off, I change some water..... things still look funky in a couple of days, I test.

 

[BeardedMcG]

Interesting turn of events. Glad your enjoying it again!

 

[JayKim]

I guess the magical unicorn misses you chasing it so it decided to chase you and found you.

 

[wkd4b11]

I've been in the hobby about 6-7 years now and I started the same way chasing numbers and making sure everything was perfect. I would read the forums all day and research as much as possible to make sure my tank was spot on. I would regularly test, do weekly WC, pull algae etc..

Now all I do is let the tank run itself and add water to the ATO once a week. I'll do a 10% WC maybe once a month and I'll usually test Alk at the same time. That's it. My tank has never looked better.
As everyone else is saying it's all about consistency.

 

[InspectorGadget]

I guess the magical unicorn misses you chasing it so it decided to chase you and found you.

Lol exactly

 

[Xam]

Thank you for sharing this! It's a great reminder that worrying/trying to fix every little thing can lead to creating more problems. I'm learning this little by little.

 

[Auquanut]

Hey Everyone! I haven’t posted in a very long time and I want to list my current situation to maybe help someone with similar issues. As you can see from the title, I was chasing the magical unicorn for the past two years. What is the Unicorn of reefing? To me it’s the highly publicized ULNS and zero algae reef tanks. To go more into this I need to give you a little background:

9 years ago, I exited the hobby after fighting serious GHA problems with zero phosphate and nitrates. At that time, some nasty stuff entered my tank with a newly added live rock and killed all my fish. I gave my corals away and gave up. About two years ago, I missed having a reef tank and decided to get back into it. I spent HOURS researching ways to prevent the issues I had with my first tank. So I built a tank, sump and lighting system. I used the aqua forest ULNS program. My tank was only 40 gallons and was a bare bottom tank. I had all sps frags as my coral of choice. Things were ok until I had several epic fails (autofeeder falling into tank and almost killing all my corals and my acrylic was about to separate in the main tank). I then moved everything to a 20 gallon Nuvo. Things went downhill from there. I could not keep my Ph above 7.8. I could not dose kalk due to my corals not consuming alk. I tested and tested and tweaked and tweaked everyday but things were going south. My tank was unstable. I made it unstable by my frantic actions. I would stare at my Apex every 30 minutes, worried what would happen next. My corals began STN so I pulled them out of the tank and gave them to a LFS. Then....

I gave up....

I sold my Apex, GHL 2.1 and my Kessil A360. Only thing left in my tank were two clowns. Still just a Nuvo 20 with two T5 bulbs.

A few months later....

At this point I wasn’t testing anything but salinity. I just did a bi-weekly water change at 60%. And then... I saw a hint of something neon green in two locations on the rock. Located where I had an unknown acro and a sunset monti. I couldn’t believe it. I let the tank just keep going the way it was, see what happens. They started growing, little by little. This sparked life back into my reefing. I designed an overflow (100% silent) to go to a small 5 gallon refuge. I added a 4 inch deep sand bed and cheato with a Home Depot $8 plant light. So what happened? The stability was brought back to my tank and my corals have taken off. The tank is crystal clear with zero algae and none forming on the glass for over a week at times. Cheato is growing like crazy.

You see, I bought into this magical unicorn tank idea. For me, it was the wrong choice. I figured out that nano reefs just need stability and consistency. I feel like the ULNS would have worked if I had a larger bio load but in the end, it’s sticking to the basics for me. These corals by theory shouldn’t be thriving, I don’t have high par (2 24watt bulbs). Do I know what my perimeters are? Nope (not recommended). I just stay consist in what I do. I let my tank tell me what it needs and then adjust to it. Bi-weekly 60% water change, 30ml GFO, 2 TBSP bulk reef RXO.8 carbon changed with water change, deep sand bed, bare bottom in main tank and cheato. That’s what has worked for me. As I add more corals and my reef increase, I will go with the flow and started testing again... but not in an OCD way.

Awesome thread! I try not to chase the unicorn, and think I'm starting to learn to get a feel for what the tanks needs. Glad to see your tank and your passion for the hobby flourishing! It can be a little hard not to chase the unicorn though. I mean who doesn't want a unicorn, right?

 

[Softhammer]

You found the secret. It’s that there isn’t one. Less futzing, more watching.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Don't get me wrong though....... there's nothing "wrong" with chasing that unicorn! Whatever/however people want to approach the hobby is fine... as long as they aren't telling the other people they are "doing it wrong"

We all know there are "wrongs" such as tap water (in most cases) and.... well, honestly I don't know what I would consider "universally" accepted.... people quarantine or not, skimmer or not, fuge or not...... live rocks or something else.... heck I don't know.... but either way, I think people can fall into three categories with this hobby.

1) You get enjoyment out of meticulously test, elaborate dosing systems, space-aged computers running the entire thing with ICP testing religiously, probably on salt-brand #732 by now, and they work as a senior scientist in a sterile field 9-5 M-F and they love the cause/effect of everything they do to their tank, and are constantly adjusting and theorizing everything regarding their tank. They enjoy it immensely.

2) You treat the husbandry like an art..... you make mistakes here and there, but you're happy with your winfalls when you perhaps add a couple cap-fulls of some amino acids or whatever on a powerhead or into the sump by the return pump, because you've got some bubble-algae happening and want to see if it goes away and it does. You do your water changes, sometimes you turn off the skimmer to see what happens, sometimes you move a coral or two to see if they will grow better. You look at the fish and coral, and you're happy you're able to keep this big glass box of water and life in your living room, and it looks really cool. You're happy to feed the fish, and look at the tank.

3) You do something in-between. You test some of the 'bigger' ones, are pretty steady with water changes, begrudge some of the maintenance, but enjoy the finished product and believe the effort is mandatory, so you keep doing it.


EDIT: At the end of the day, if you're NOT getting enjoyment from it...... the question would be.... "Then why do it?"

 

[steve meyers]

Hey Everyone! I haven’t posted in a very long time and I want to list my current situation to maybe help someone with similar issues. As you can see from the title, I was chasing the magical unicorn for the past two years. What is the Unicorn of reefing? To me it’s the highly publicized ULNS and zero algae reef tanks. To go more into this I need to give you a little background:

9 years ago, I exited the hobby after fighting serious GHA problems with zero phosphate and nitrates. At that time, some nasty stuff entered my tank with a newly added live rock and killed all my fish. I gave my corals away and gave up. About two years ago, I missed having a reef tank and decided to get back into it. I spent HOURS researching ways to prevent the issues I had with my first tank. So I built a tank, sump and lighting system. I used the aqua forest ULNS program. My tank was only 40 gallons and was a bare bottom tank. I had all sps frags as my coral of choice. Things were ok until I had several epic fails (autofeeder falling into tank and almost killing all my corals and my acrylic was about to separate in the main tank). I then moved everything to a 20 gallon Nuvo. Things went downhill from there. I could not keep my Ph above 7.8. I could not dose kalk due to my corals not consuming alk. I tested and tested and tweaked and tweaked everyday but things were going south. My tank was unstable. I made it unstable by my frantic actions. I would stare at my Apex every 30 minutes, worried what would happen next. My corals began STN so I pulled them out of the tank and gave them to a LFS. Then....

I gave up....

I sold my Apex, GHL 2.1 and my Kessil A360. Only thing left in my tank were two clowns. Still just a Nuvo 20 with two T5 bulbs.

A few months later....

At this point I wasn’t testing anything but salinity. I just did a bi-weekly water change at 60%. And then... I saw a hint of something neon green in two locations on the rock. Located where I had an unknown acro and a sunset monti. I couldn’t believe it. I let the tank just keep going the way it was, see what happens. They started growing, little by little. This sparked life back into my reefing. I designed an overflow (100% silent) to go to a small 5 gallon refuge. I added a 4 inch deep sand bed and cheato with a Home Depot $8 plant light. So what happened? The stability was brought back to my tank and my corals have taken off. The tank is crystal clear with zero algae and none forming on the glass for over a week at times. Cheato is growing like crazy.

You see, I bought into this magical unicorn tank idea. For me, it was the wrong choice. I figured out that nano reefs just need stability and consistency. I feel like the ULNS would have worked if I had a larger bio load but in the end, it’s sticking to the basics for me. These corals by theory shouldn’t be thriving, I don’t have high par (2 24watt bulbs). Do I know what my perimeters are? Nope (not recommended). I just stay consist in what I do. I let my tank tell me what it needs and then adjust to it. Bi-weekly 60% water change, 30ml GFO, 2 TBSP bulk reef RXO.8 carbon changed with water change, deep sand bed, bare bottom in main tank and cheato. That’s what has worked for me. As I add more corals and my reef increase, I will go with the flow and started testing again... but not in an OCD way.


-For the first time in a long time, I’m enjoying this hobby again-

 

[steve meyers]

like you I am re-entering the hobby. so I've been doing my homework as well. Those perfect numbers are just that "perfect". Stable is what you can maintain. If its close and your tank is fat and happy then those are your magical numbers.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

My first salt water tank was my 27g hexagon... no sump nothing speciap just a hob and 2 425 koralia power heads.. and a 24 inch t5 fixture with 4 ati bulbs . I had fish and like 20 corals in it.

No issues at all.. i moved to a bigger 55g hexagon.. same thing.. no sump. Just a power head and two pumps and sane light.. went to 32 corals no coral died.

Now im in a 135 gallon tank.. have over 42 corals.. no sump no protien skimmer.. just a 24 and 48 in h t5 4 bulb fixtures... 2 1150 and 1500 power heads and two emperor 400s.. and i still to this day havent lost a coral except for a acropora and monitpora i killed by doing something dumb.

I think basic is better then fancy equipment

 

[Bob Weigant]

I stopped chasing numbers long ago with the exception of alk. As long as the corals are doing well for me all is good

 

[Todd Kellley]

Great thread guys! Thank you! I have also re entered the hobby after about 10 yrs out of it. Boy has a lot changed! In the past I never checked anything except salinity and did bi weekly water changes in a 60 gallon tank. Only time I lost anything was when the ex decided she thought the temp was low and turned the heater up and left for a shift at the hospital, only for me to come home to find all my life boiled and dead! I was devastated! This was not a reef tank but a fish only and I had some amazing fish, growing like weeds. I would routinely (before they got boiled) be trading with the LFS. Was funny to go in there and have the owner complain my fish were pigs! Most were predictors and I kept another tank full of live food so I could feed them whenever I wanted. But everything thrived for years without all the "magic" doses and test or even a protein skimmer.

Now we jump ahead 10 yrs to where we are today. 90 gallon mixed reef. All the reef critters being new to me I started doing my research and thought "dang! is there a lot to worry about" and being extremely OCD I bought test kits for everything, I tested daily, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day! I found that in trying to "fix this" I would change "that" creating the next parameter I tested for off and so the unicorn would fly away and me flapping my arms trying to catch it! I would read a blog then go home and scour the tank to see if I had and "dinos" cause I read about those, then this, then that. UGH! Finally decided to just stop the testing, watch my salinity and ALK and that is it! I let my livestock tell me if something is wrong and treat issues as they come. I test parameters once every week or two just to do so and my results are always good. I stopped worrying, do I need a sump? Do I need a skimmer? Are my lights good enough? All that can be answered by the health of your system and the life within it. If you are getting growth and everything looks healthy and is eating well then I would say you are doing something right.

We do not take our kids to the doctor weekly for tests to make sure they are fine do we? I think the stress of other hobbyist "professional advice" and testing is what drives so many out of our hobby.

Oh and by the way. I had a large freshwater tank in the 10 yrs I was not into saltwater. Wife number 2 killed half my fish when she decided to clean the tank with a sponge from the kitchen sink. Note to self....keep wife away from tank! lol 2 wives, 2 separate tanks, 2 kill offs resulting from wives!

 

[saltyhog]

I think the ULNS unicorn has pretty much fallen out of favor for most in the hobby. I agree stability is key, there are thriving tanks with a wide range of parameters.

That said I will always test.....especially alkalinity because swings there can happen quickly and be disastrous. Once it's very stable I won't test nearly as much but for now I check it every couple of days. The proper reason for testing should be to establish stability, not to chase a magical number. For me testing just helps me confirm/maintain stability

Any time I change something I up my testing. In my limited experience running GFO or dosing anything without testing introduces some risk. If it's a risk I can avoid....I would like to. ;Joyful