Stop testing water

[JumboShrimp]

I mix wood ash from my fireplace into my tap water, and then dose THAT. Afterwards, I can hear my corals singing M.C. Hammer-Coral’s, “Can’t Touch This!” :cool: Peace.

 

[road_runner]

I mix wood ash from my fireplace into my tap water, and then dose THAT. Afterwards, I can hear my corals singing M.C. Hammer-Coral’s, “Can’t Touch This!” :cool: Peace.

Ha ha ha.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Here’s a pic I just took after cleaning the glass on right side of tank. The frags on the frag rack at the other end have turned into colonies too.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I forgot to mention one of my favorite piece of equipment.
This is a must have for me.
Tunze ato.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Very nice results. Photos do tend to carry weight on this forum, and probably rightfully so. I guess the main point some have is that if someone has fantastic results/success via unconventional methods, newbies should at least know that things might fall to the outside of the bell curve. “Your mileage may vary.” ;)

 

[NeutronMan]

Here’s a pic I just took after cleaning the glass on right side of tank. The frags on the frag rack at the other end have turned into colonies too.

Nuff said, huh?

 

[road_runner]

Here’s a pic I just took after cleaning the glass on right side of tank. The frags on the frag rack at the other end have turned into colonies too.

Great coral collection.
What's your system details..would be nice to share.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Great coral collection.
What's your system details..would be nice to share.

I listed my entire setup at the beginning of this thread.

 

[road_runner]

I listed my entire setup at the beginning of this thread.

How about none coral inhabitants?

 

[Hemmdog]

I listed my entire setup at the beginning of this thread.

What bulbs do you use and what is your light cycle like? Truly impressive.

 

[tehmadreefer]

This is the problem with this site.... if you do anything against what is the norm and what's been hammered as absolute facts by amateur hobbyists you get shamed and attacked.

Great tank and who cares what the closed minded individuals think or say! Juat keeping posting pics of your success and let the jealously rage on...lol

 

[road_runner]

This is the problem with this site.... if you do anything against what is the norm and what's been hammered as absolute facts by amateur hobbyists you get shamed and attacked.

Great tank and who cares what the closed minded individuals think or say! Juat keeping posting pics of your success and let the jealously rage on...lol

For the record the comments was about the post about using tap water. Not about this op tank. Kodus to him and he is celebrated here no one have problem with him..

 

[mmw64]

Hi reef2reef!
I just want to say my tank has never healthier since I simplified my system. I used to run carbon, gfo, filter socks, test for phosphate. I really hated changing out the socks, carbon and gfo. Testing phosphates wasn’t much fun either. I let my tank run with just dosing two part and testing for alk, cal, and mag. It’s been going like this for almost two years. My frags have all turned into colonies. My system is 90 gallons 3x2x2 lit by a 36 inch Ati 8 bulb powermodule. Flow is by two tunze 6105 each on there own sea sweep. I dose esv two part and esv mag maybe twice a year. I feed one cube of mysis a day. That’s my entire setup.

That is a beautiful tank.

 

[tehmadreefer]

For the record the comments was about the post about using tap water. Not about this op tank. Kodus to him and he is celebrated here no one have problem with him..

I used to use tap water as well years ago.

Now in FL I do not.

 

[ScottR]

Here’s my word of advice for reefers who are having trouble with their corals.
You don’t have to add anything other than food, alk, cal, and magnesium.
Don’t even think about dosing nopox, phosphate, nitrate, or anything other than what I mentioned above.
Get a good skimmer, good light, dosing pump, and good flow.
This is the only equipment you need. You don’t need an algae scrubber. Chaeto In your fuge is all you need.
Leave your tank alone. There’s a lot of reefers on here who keep buying things and changing things around when they don’t see their corals growing. Set up a light schedule and profile and leave it alone. Set up powerheads for flow and leave it alone. Only add more or rearrange when corals fill in and start blocking flow. As for test kits just get salifert alk, cal, and mag test kit. They’re cheap and work very well.
Set up your protein skimmer and leave it alone.
Keep your hands out of the tank. The only time I reach my hand in the tank is when I clean my glass with the magnet cleaner
And have to take it out once I’m done. Set tour corals where you want them and leave it there. Move only if it’s getting too much or not enough light or flow.

Huge +1 to this.

 

[Guttersnipe]

What bulbs do you use and what is your light cycle like? Truly impressive.

I use 3 blue plus, 3 coral plus, 1 actinic, 1 purple plus.
9am-7pm all bulbs on 100%.
No dimming up or down.
The leds take care of that one hour before and 1 hour after.

 

[Jeremy Chatham]

Huge +1 to this.

Good advice. Try to keep things regulated and constant.
Don't necessarily chase numbers but get a good range and stick to it.

 

[GrumpyAlison]

I have a strange habit of throwing bits of cuttlebone into the tank and letting them disintegrate over time for calcium... It's what I did for my cherry shrimp and it *seems* to be working reasonably well for me, though I'm not really into sticks (I have a few frags, but not a forest of them), mostly mushrooms (for which I have a genuine obsession) and a few types of lps (duncans, acans, dendros, blastos, lephastrea).

I pretty much never test for anything though. My 4 systems are all small enough to just do a reasonably sized water change if things look salty. 99% of the time that will fix whatever the issue was and if it doesn't, then I might dig out my test kits and investigate further.

My tanks are also really low tech (basically just aquariums with sand, rock, super cheap amazon powerheads, aquaknight/alternative cheap amazon lights and blobs of algae floating around and that's it). At some point I'd like to invest in/make ATOs for all the tanks because that's easily my most variable parameter (especially when I go away and my roommates have to watch the tanks.....).

It's been working well for me, but most people look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them my maintenance routine/tank setup.

 

[Mark Novack]

Yes, the need for all of that complexity naturally reduces with maturity. Many aquarist find the same thing when the tank passes that first year. Often we try and force health into the system when what we are doing is confusing the chemistry and bewildering the biology. Stability seems to be the number one parameter unless there is a real anomoly in numbers. Salinity, CA, Mg, Alk, and 0 toxins.

Mark

 

[pjgazmen]

wow! i hope someday mine will be like that, they are growing but not much on coloration

nice tank