What is your secret to keeping a successful reef tank?

[Paul B]

This is easy. Keep it natural. That means natural foods that the fish ate in the sea as much as possible. Only feed food with living bacteria in it. (That is the biggest secret) No dry foods. Don't do too many water changes. Add natural bacteria from either soil or better, the sea.

Never use medications or chemicals. After you figure out how to keep your fish healthy using their own immune system, and the tank has a few years on it, "never" quarantine or treat for assumed things.

Build plenty of Natural, tight hiding places where the fish "can not" see you and you can't see them. PVC fittings are not natural and fish hate that and will hate you.

Don't clean up every bit of food or detritus you see. Don't clean the back glass.

Thats my secret.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

very low expectations

Keep your expectations low and you will never be disappointed. I say that all the time haha

 

[exnisstech]

I'm not sure how success is measured? If it's keeping things alive then I've become more successful than I was years ago. If it's having everything thriving and corals ALL growing well then I'm still searching for the secret. If it's having no nuisance algae and cyano and the tank sterile looking then I'm a total failure.

I'll go with keeping things alive and I have no secret. Everyone has heard it, patience. People don't like to hear it. Our society is not patient. People want it all and they want it now so they start chasing the instant cure. A tuft of hair algae shows up, OMG we need to add this or that. Then when that's gone from the chems cyano arrives and the it's more chems for that and the cycle continues.
I'm not saying intervention is never needed but I believe people intervene too soon rather than letting the tank mature naturally and take care of itself. My most stable tank is going on 8 years old and has really just become stable within the last couple of years because I made the same mistakes mentioned above. The tank has gha and even some gha covered in cyano. I pull it occasionally but when I do I see pods and micro brittle stars in what I have removed so I tend to not remove it very often unless it's bothering a coral.

Before I forget a good and sufficiently numbered CUC early before the nuisance stuff gets out of hand. I'm not talking 3 astrea snails and an urchin but possibly hundreds of snails crabs and urchins depending on tank size. For years I under estimated the number of snails needed to form an effective CUC

Keep your expectations low and you will never be disappointed. I say that all the time haha

I love it. When I was working I always told folks I never set goals so I was never disappointed for falling short.

 

[Dbichler]

Do as little as possible responsibly

 

[Wasabiroot]

Take some time each day to observe everything. Don't panic over any emergency - act as quickly as the situation warrants, but being deliberate can get you out of some tight spots. Especially when it comes to correcting chemistry - go slow.

Change as little as possible, and if you have to make several changes, don't do them all at once. Stagger to minimize impact and allow you to diagnose if issues pop up.