Welcome to my (near) Zero Maintenance Reef!

[VintageReefer]

I’d love to try this method VintageReefer. Would you be willing to send me that next handful you throw ?

Who wants breakfast? Lol I just harvested my scrubber, I get this much about every 10 days. And turf algae holds more nutrients than 5x its volume of chaeto. This algae also doesn’t root to surfaces like hair algae, it comes out of the scrubber very easily

I literally take a few seconds to pull a few handfuls like this out, and then flush it down the toilet

Emptying the scrubber, cleaning my glass, and adding top off water is all the maintenance I do on my reef.

 

[mig.]

I do I do - I will DM you - since the last post the scrubber has been researched, designed and built into my sump. Helps to have a stack of acrylic, weld-on 4 and the right power tools on hand not to mention baskets of odds and ends from my freshwater tanks

I will Dm you

 

[VintageReefer]

New plate, blastos, exosphere’s, new goni not open yet, made a nps island, pandora zoa colony, and a good pic of my favia of the gods

I have a huge Duncan colony I had to remove and qt in another tank, fish started nipping it and now I need to rehome the fish, then I can bring back the Duncan’s

 

[VintageReefer]

overflow wall leptos do not seem to mind being glued to a vertical surface. This will look great once these start to spread. I wish I did this a year ago

Highlighter goni

I promise I am working on the aiptasia issues. Caught some of the berghia nudibranch out at night

Warpaint scoly is hungry

Exospheres - was a 25 polyp colony and over 2-3 days half the polyps melted. I have 10 that appear healthy and ok. And 2 that might open

Some glam shots

Rainbow plate baby lookin great

Tinkerbell goni

Unnamed maricultured blue/purple goni from a random lfs

Iron man goni

Palythoa grandis colony, started as 8 heads

Striped trachyphyllia

Call this my earth coral. Blue/green wellsophyllia - inflated in this pic. Only does this maybe 5% of the time. I’m not sure why they inflate but it’s a cool sight to see

Cotton candy torch is not happy about nps island and is trying to sting it. Massive long sweepers on this guy, he’s been moved several time and has nearly killed two corals on me

Bright neon orange Aussie scoly. Picture the orange highlighting a Warpaint scoly has…this is a scoly that’s entirely that orange color

 

[VintageReefer]

And more announcements.
1) My new tank is crated up and in transit
2) two new corals are bought, the colors on these corals is very uncommon for them, so I had to get them! Teaser pics attached

 

[VintageReefer]

Breaking out the macro lens

 

[VintageReefer]

New Cynarina, still adjusting from shipping

And some other pics mostly showing feeding response the other night

 

[Gretchacha]

Nice to meet you here VR. I’m trying to do “Ultra Low Maintenance”, but so far it’s just “Maintenance “. Rub some of your secret sauce on me.

 

[VintageReefer]

Nice to meet you here VR. I’m trying to do “Ultra Low Maintenance”, but so far it’s just “Maintenance “. Rub some of your secret sauce on me.

Hey now!

 

[VintageReefer]

Nightly feeding

 

[Dmmz]

Great pictures! I just went through this thread it was great

 

[VintageReefer]

Thank you!

Still no water changes or any work besides
1) empty scrubber every 10-14 days
2) clean glass 2-3x a week
3) add approx 1-2 gallons tap water + all for reef about once a week

I randomly checked nitrates and phosphate last week on 3/6/24
N - 1.7
P - .02

I think this tank is going on 3 years now with this setup/routine

 

[Seansea]

How many fish are you keeping? I think this is solid routine with light fish load. I have 17 fish in a 75g and the phos creeps high even with a scrubber. Lot of pooping and water fouling. So i still do 15% water changes every 2 weeks. Found the tank does alot better if i do.

 

[CMMorgan]

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!

Fascinating. I look forward to following your journey.
Glad that you are here!

 

[VintageReefer]

How many fish are you keeping? I think this is solid routine with light fish load. I have 17 fish in a 75g and the phos creeps high even with a scrubber. Lot of pooping and water fouling. So i still do 15% water changes every 2 weeks. Found the tank does alot better if i do.

I’ve done this with:
3 lyretail anthias
Black clownfish
Full grown mono
3 chromis
6” banana wrasse
When I had these fish I also used a skimmer


for various reasons, the tank currently only has had a couple of fish, for the last year or so. I will be adding more soon

 

[jackiemon]

Thank you!

Still no water changes or any work besides
1) empty scrubber every 10-14 days
2) clean glass 2-3x a week
3) add approx 1-2 gallons tap water + all for reef about once a week

I randomly checked nitrates and phosphate last week on 3/6/24
N - 1.7
P - .02

I think this tank is going on 3 years now with this setup/routine

You're literally my tank goal! Was debating between refugium vs algae scrubber and this post made me 100% algae scrubber. The only reason I was veering towards a refugium is because I want to populate copepods to eventually get a Mandarin. But I'll find other media for that.

Are you testing alkalinity to determine how much to dose all for reef?

Also you mentioned you top off with tap water. Do you leave it at room temperature for 24hours for the chlorine to evaporate?

Thank you in advance!

 

[VintageReefer]

You're literally my tank goal! Was debating between refugium vs algae scrubber and this post made me 100% algae scrubber. The only reason I was veering towards a refugium is because I want to populate copepods to eventually get a Mandarin. But I'll find other media for that.

Are you testing alkalinity to determine how much to dose all for reef?

Also you mentioned you top off with tap water. Do you leave it at room temperature for 24hours for the chlorine to evaporate?

Thank you in advance!

I tested alkalinity drop over the course of a week for about a month to figure out the amount of all for reef to use each day. I used baking soda to bring it back up each week and then tested again at be end of the week. Now I just test once every month or two in order to make sure I’m not slowly creeping up or down.

I do use tap water but I have a full home water softener / filtration system. It’s basically the first two stages of a rodi - sediment filter + carbon (the carbon media tank is bigger than a scuba tank but fits inside the water softener). The water filtration is self cleaning through automated backwashes and never needs to be replace. Chlorine is one of the things it’s certified to remove. I can get water from any faucet, tap, bathtub, or even a outside hose, and it’s filtered.

My scrubber floats in my sump refugium chamber and I filled the rest of the space around it and under it with live rock - some big pieces and a bunch of smaller pieces and some rubble. Pods and worms and tiny critters live in live rock just as good as anything else. I also have a 3” sand bed under the rock, and some sponge also. This area stays dark and is commonly called a cryptic zone. I don’t run filter socks or a skimmer so any detritus / food particles still can make their way into my refugium chamber for the pods and critters.

 

[tekknow]

Thank you!

Still no water changes or any work besides
1) empty scrubber every 10-14 days
2) clean glass 2-3x a week
3) add approx 1-2 gallons tap water + all for reef about once a week

I randomly checked nitrates and phosphate last week on 3/6/24
N - 1.7
P - .02

I think this tank is going on 3 years now with this setup/routine

clean glass 2-3x a week - doesn't sound like low maintenance to me!

 

[VintageReefer]

clean glass 2-3x a week - doesn't sound like low maintenance to me!

Everyone has to clean glass lol
I like it spotless because I do a lot of photography

 

[VintageReefer]

NPS Dendro shelf

Variety


New Cynarina is hungry and awesome


Other new cynarina


Rainbow plate


Raja rampage colony


24K blue tip


Yellow chromis and 2 spot wrasse


Holy grail



Hello! From the yellow chromis


Cotton candy


New wrasse


Blue raven blastos

Orange Yuma


“Orange” lol torch don’t ask. Or do ask over dm


Rainbow Goni macro


Gold wall hammer


Tank right


Tank center


Ring of fire lobo mother colony, and my frags progress


Frag rack