Welcome to my (near) Zero Maintenance Reef!

[Seansea]

Welcome. Nice tank. Big fan of algae scrubbers myself. Had my first one on tank in 2002. Wouldnt run a tank without one.

Why such a light fish load? Just for the no waterchange? I have a 75gal with 14 fish in the reef. I do have to do water changes tho with such a high bioload. If i dont tank suffers. Keep sps and lps. Just cant imagine a reef tank with hardly any fish.

 

[VintageReefer]

Few reasons
I need the tank to be low maintenance due to my life

I’ve been limited in coral selection in the past due to fish becoming coral nippers/eaters/annoyers

I’ve had fish coexist then decide to fight and pick each other off

I don’t have another reef to rehome a fish if needed

This keeps my coral fed and my stress low

When I started the redesign of this tank I wasn’t going to have any fish and was thinking it would just be a coral display/grow out tank…but I caved and got the cardinal fish to give a nitrate source, then I caved and got the fire fish

In 20+ years of reefing I’ve had sunburst anthias and other varieties, clownfish, filefish, wrasses, angelfish, chromis, tang, dottybacks, gobies, blennies etc you name it. I can tell you something about each one that would prevent me from getting another.

Cardinal fish have caused no issues for me, and they shoal instead of fight, so I got 3. Fire fish are very nice to look at and peaceful but are jumpers. Since I have a solid lid and a solid top overflow (it has its own removable lid/cover) I rescued this purple fire fish from Petco and brought him into my reef.

I might consider another fish but the way things are going right now the tank is in autopilot and fits my life

 

[VintageReefer]

Well, these are coloring up nicely

 

[VintageReefer]

New stuffs plus some pre/post feeding pics

 

[CasperOe]

Some great pieces you have in here, well done! It looks really good mate!

 

[VintageReefer]

Some more pics
And custom frag shelves I designed and had made for me - they hold standard 2” ceramic tiles. But also can use 2” 3d printed tiles I created that have cutouts for standard round frag plugs. Allowing you to take any existing frag plug and mount it onto a 2x2 grow out tile without removing the frag from the old round plug. I don’t sell these but gave the idea to a 3d printer and he now sells this as a kit. Pm me if you are interested in buying a set and I can send the link

 

[VintageReefer]

More pics of the custom shelf in action

Nobody sells a magnet shelf for growout tiles - so I had them made! Then I had an idea for custom growout tiles and had them made also!

 

[vlangel]

Very nice reef! It seems many of us who stay in the hobby a long time move toward a reef that is manageable by our standards. I also have a very low maintenance reef and although my methods are slightly different I am experiencing similar results.

 

[Gman83]

Welcome, awesome photos!

 

[VintageReefer]

Is any day better than new coral arrival day?
Blue green splatter wellsophyllia
Teal/orange acans
Orange glitter lobophyllia

Aussie Dendro’s coming soon! Vendor pics attached - let’s hope they end up looking like this!

 

[Seansea]

Nice lookin collection. That dendro is sweet. Is that NPS?

 

[VintageReefer]

Nice lookin collection. That dendro is sweet. Is that NPS?

Thank you!

Yes they are nps, requires periodic manual feeding

There’s 6 more of these dendro on eBay if you want !

 

[VintageReefer]

Baby rainbow goni getting brave

 

[Brazilian Reefer]

Hello there…I’m V.R. And I haven’t been without at least 2 reef tanks running at once in the last 23 years.

Some background on me…I have been keeping coral reefs for over 20 years. I was around when leds were new, and I love to see how far they have come. I was an original investor in both reefbreeders led’s and Santa Monica turf scrubbers when they both came out. I’ve had full sps dominant reefs and grown colonies from 1” frags to football size colonies. My mixed reef was a huge hit on that other forum many years ago. Basically. Been around the block..but always willing to learn.

Most people who quit have the same common issues

• it takes too much time
• it’s too complex / costly to maintain
• or they hit a disaster and are so devastated they can’t even imagine starting over.

I’ve been through all three and that’s how my tank evolved into what it is today.
My current display tank has got to be my favorite project since I started in this hobby, the zero maintenance reef! Let’s face it, life changes and eventually you don’t have the time you used to, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a awesome reef!
This particular tank has been running with coral living in it in one way or another for the past 10+ years. This is the original rock and sand. It’s gone through many stages, and some near total wipe outs. I’ve learned and adapted.

In its current stage haven’t performed a water change in 2 years. I don’t test regularly. I don’t chase numbers. I don’t dose. I don’t run a skimmer or any reactor. Im very careful and particular with what I add to the tank. I anticipate growth and would prefer to wait and grow out frags into large colonies. I monitor and maintain one parameter - salinity. I add fw top off with a few squirts of All For Reef about once a week. I empty my scrubber as needed. I added berghia nudi once when I had an aiptasia explosion, and now a year later I’m starting to get more again so I think I’ll do another round.

Most of these coral colonies started as single heads or were small frags that I grew out myself over the last 1-2 years. To me, the tank is a perfect blend of value vs time. I put very little effort into it, but I’m blown away by it every day.

So what does a nearly zero maintenance reef look like after 2 years…let me know what you think

Let me know if you want any more info on my equipment, corals, clean up crew, or lessons/setbacks along the way to get here. My biggest piece of advice is take your time - wait for the tank to be established, don’t rush, don’t make too many changes or additions at once, let things grow into place. And finally, only buy from trusted/reputable sources. Enjoy!

Welcome to R2R and Happy Reefing!

 

[VintageReefer]

New full tank shot and some close ups

I rush I started keeping Goniopora years ago. I’m super excited to see these grow out into colonies

 

[Digimes]

Love the tank !! After many years with mid sized tanks, I downgraded to a nano at home and pico at the office. I do test for several things but agree that not chasing the parameters all over the place is important. I let nature handle most of the things and like to grow small pieces out. I feel they merge together better and trying to squeeze full size colonies in a space. I started around 1994, so almost 30 years on/off for me. Welcome aboard !!

 

[VintageReefer]

I’ve struggled with an acan (center colony) that just hasn’t been open fully in a while. Two other frags from the same seller, that are adjacent are always happy. This center one’s been on a decline for unknown reasons. Wondering if it was irritation from sand or lack of space, I mounted all 3 to frag tiles and after a week…fully open! All acans looking better than ever!



Highlighter goni rescued from my nano is starting to recover and open up


Cynarina coloration looked fantastic so I took an updated pic


Mystery goni decided to pose and show off


Mystery Rainbow Goni


Cotton candy torch with multicolor tips


Knicks torch and Banana Holy Grail


And then three tank pics -
Left, Left-Middle, Right-Middle, Right




And because someone always has to be a brat on photo day, here’s my banana torch doing whatever the heck this is. Few hours ago fully open. Photo time…brat.

 

[VintageReefer]

Updates…well my gold hammer colony that was in my sandbed, has taken a turn for the worse and sadly was lost despite efforts to save it. I have a separate thread on my attempts to frag it.

My wife made a surprise order of coral frags for me from one of my favorite vendors, so I had to do a little rearranging to fit 7 frags in. My 15g nano is still being cleaned up so I don’t want to put anything in it until the algae is under control.

And I also will have some more arriving next week that I’m excited for, and will need to make some space for. Here are some updated pics of everything from this morning!


The first 5 pics is the surprise order my wife got for me. Oh yea. very improtant tank advice. Get a good partner that not only supports your hobby, but ideally, encourages it!



And some updated tank pics and close ups

 

[VintageReefer]

More new corals! And some rearranging


Also my aiptasia is getting out of hand , I added 14 Berghia two days ago. Hopefully they colonize and in 2-3 months my aiptasia are eliminated

Also added two pithos crabs to help with some bubble algae. I confirm they actually eat bubble algae, I dropped a few bubble clusters in their acclimation container and they grabbed it and started eating it in front of me!

 

[musel101]

Welcome to R2R