Welcome to my (near) Zero Maintenance Reef!

[paragrouper]

 

[bakbay]

Welcome to R2R - this is a great community!

Great looking reef! Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing...I love those torches & scolies, one of my favs! The color balance is spectacular. Congrats!

We do share something in common as well - attempting to achieve (near) zero, or super low-maintenance reefs. My last mixed reef went 6+ years w/o a WC and my current SPS-dominant 150g is now 3 years old w/o a WC. I'm on a CaRx & CO2 scrubber since SPS & coralline algae consume a lot of Alk. I do have some maintenance tasks though:
1. Clean the glass daily
2. Clean skimmer cup every 2 weeks
3. Replenish CO2 scrubber media every 4-6 weeks (yes, I chase pH - pegged at 8.3+)
4. Replenish CaRx media and replace CO2 canister every ~11 months

Welcome aboard!

 

[VintageReefer]

Lighting - ReefBreders Photon 48 v2
Feeding - flake 1x daily, large pinch PE mysis flake food. Sometimes I feed frozen mysis
Filtration - Santa Monica surf 2 algae turf scrubber

I have a reef octopus Diablo skimmer but haven’t had to use it in about a year

Fish - 3x cardinals and a purple filefish

I feed corals when I feel like it. sometimes a few days in a row. Sometimes a few times a week. Sometimes I skip a week or two. I mix the flake in water, and target feed with a baster.

 

[VintageReefer]

I do have to clean the glass every 2-3 days. I originally was a mag float user for many years but switched to a flipper and like it way better

I recently started adding aminos. No reason really other than I read good stuff and figured I’d try it. Sometimes I add liquid phosphate or nitrates. Despite the no water changes my parameters are good

Nitrates consistently 1-5
Phosphates usually 0 to .05
Calcium is 440-480
Alk naturally wants to be around 7

If I dose nitrates or phosphates or Alk I can measure the spike but it comes back down on its own in a day or two

 

[Reefer Matt]

 

[bakbay]

I do have to clean the glass every 2-3 days. I originally was a mag float user for many years but switched to a flipper and like it way better

I recently started adding aminos. No reason really other than I read good stuff and figured I’d try it. Sometimes I add liquid phosphate or nitrates. Despite the no water changes my parameters are good

Nitrates consistently 1-5
Phosphates usually 0 to .05
Calcium is 440-480
Alk naturally wants to be around 7

If I dose nitrates or phosphates or Alk I can measure the spike but it comes back down on its own in a day or two

I run my N&P on a higher side (25, 0.12 respectively) but also run higher Alk (8.5 - 9.0) so this makes sense at lower nutrients, lower Alk for yours.

I think you should start a build thread to document & share your journey?

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R. Your corals are beautiful.

 

[CoralB]

Welcome !!

 

[zheka757]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[TheGrimReeferTx]

Cant wait to see more on this reef! Welcome!

 

[VintageReefer]

Turf scrubber growth - this has been my primary filtration for many many years. It starved out my cheato - can’t even grow it anymore. It keeps hair algae away and out of the display. Phosphates and nitrates are always near zero. And it’s completely silent once the cabinet doors are closed, all it’s cost me for the cost of 8 years was the cost of running 4 small led’s

 

[VintageReefer]

Sump is a trigger systems ruby 30S
Flow is a MP10 and a MP40
Return is a generic dc controllable one from Amazon. Works great

What else can I share…oh…this is not the only reef I keep…

 

[TheGrimReeferTx]

Turf scrubber growth - this has been my primary filtration for many many years. It starved out my cheato - can’t even grow it anymore. It keeps hair algae away and out of the display. Phosphates and nitrates are always near zero. And it’s completely silent once the cabinet doors are closed, all it’s cost me for the cost of 8 years was the cost of running 4 small led’s

How often do you clean the scrubber? Also did you "seed" this with an algae or just run it and it naturally formed?

 

[00W]

Welcome Welcome to R2R !

 

[VintageReefer]

Strange unexplainable event - my knicks coral is not a knicks. It’s a Sun God and was from a reputable dealer and it was expensive. It somehow morphed and lost the full gold coloration it was full gold for a few weeks, then the purple came in on the bottom half of the tentacles and I was extremely disappointed. But it did end up growing into a beautiful piece. Just not what I was expecting. And I would have spent half the money if I just bought a knicks torch

Baby sun god and some close ups of my rainbow acans

 

[VintageReefer]

I didn’t seed the scrubber. It’s on a timer and the first few weeks you leave the leds on for extended time, and the turf algae will grow naturally. Then you dial back. Mine runs I think 14 or 15 hours a day

It’s not hair algae or anything that grows in a display. It just kinda started growing inside

I bought this in 2013, hooked it up 9/1

This were pics from 9/14 and 10/4. No seeding. Air running 24/7 and lights started at 15 hours a day, increasing 1 hour per day until I hit 22 hours per day. Once I got growth I dialed back to 14-15 hours a day to prevent burning the algae

 

[VintageReefer]

About 6 months ago I had a hair algae outbreak in my tank. I was like whaaaatt why is this happening. Found out my air pump for the scrubber died. I bought a new air pump, and let the scrubber do its thing. And in about 2 months all the hair algae was gone - no chemicals or treatments needed. Natural filtering !!

I’m a full believer in algae scrubbers. I was able to eliminate my skimmer completely and my phosphate reactor. I do believe the scrubber is also a part of why I have success without water changes

And…it kinda was the downfall of my sps reef years ago…I brought my phosphates down to zero and starved out a lot of colonies. In retrospect I could have dialed it back and run it less hours, or dosed phosphate/nitrates….but this was a time period where people strived for zero nitrates and phosphates. I was younger and less experienced, and RTN happens sooo fast. I didn’t really have time to react and it’s so difficult to bounce back from.

I have kept sps since, With the scrubber running less hours. And was successful. But chasing Alk became a nightmare for me, and I had life changes that reduced the time I could dedicate to the tank. And so the tank evolved to better fit my life

 

[VintageReefer]

Cleaning the scrubber doesn’t really matter how often. usually once every 2-4 weeks I grab a handful of algae out and flush it. You leave some behind so it can grow without needing to reseed. I aim to take out 50-75% at a time

If I wait longer, I have more to take out. If I do it sooner, I have less to take out. Doesn’t really matter as long as growth doesn’t cover the leds on the lid

 

[TheGrimReeferTx]

About 6 months ago I had a hair algae outbreak in my tank. I was like whaaaatt why is this happening. Found out my air pump for the scrubber died. I bought a new air pump, and let the scrubber do its thing. And in about 2 months all the hair algae was gone - no chemicals or treatments needed. Natural filtering !!

I’m a full believer in algae scrubbers. I was able to eliminate my skimmer completely and my phosphate reactor. I do believe the scrubber is also a part of why I have success without water changes

And…it kinda was the downfall of my sps reef years ago…I brought my phosphates down to zero and starved out a lot of colonies. In retrospect I could have dialed it back and run it less hours, or dosed phosphate/nitrates….but this was a time period where people strived for zero nitrates and phosphates. I was younger and less experienced, and RTN happens sooo fast. I didn’t really have time to react and it’s so difficult to bounce back from.

I have kept sps since, With the scrubber running less hours. And was successful. But chasing Alk became a nightmare for me, and I had life changes that reduced the time I could dedicate to the tank. And so the tank evolved to better fit my life

Whats the reasoning to run a scrubber over chaeto in a refugium? Scrubber can handle lower numbers?

 

[VintageReefer]

Cheato couldn’t keep up. I was growing cheato so fast, I was able to start selling it to forum members and on eBay. But, it seemed like cheato was just growing in the sump, and hair algae in the display. My rocks became bound with phosphates. I needed something stronger than cheato.

After hooking up the scrubber all my cheato, which I healthily grew for months and months without issue…it all died out. The scrubber outcompeted the cheato and hair algae in my display simultaneously

It will literally suck the phosphates out of rock. New users - algae will get worse before it gets better. That’s a phase that’s normal and passes. Time needed depends on his bad your rocks are bound up.