Leave your tank alone!!!!

Vin's Reef · Dec 31, 2019

What I have learned in the past year. Hmmm. Don’t keep adding crap to your tank. After a decade of reefing I got back into the hobby 3 years ago. Over that time I have poured thousands into my system. After losing more than 3/4 of my livestock (fish) almost a year ago, I have realized there is no replacement for manual testing, and the less we pour into our tanks the better. After relying on my apex salinity monitor, I noticed my fish having problems. Mostly white spot. My apex read 34.5. I tested everything BUT salinity. I lost more than 3/4 of my fish to white spot. Finally I had my tank tested. The ICP results put my salinity at 31. I realized I relied too much on my apex. My fish were stressed and I lost most of my livestock due too the salinity. Now I have stopped adding all of the “extra” stuff to either combat cyano or GHA and I let the tank do it’s thing at 1.025. I run Triton method for two years now. After almost a year I have watched my tank bloom. No more testing every day. No more ICP tests. Just my hand held salinity hydrometer. I change out my CO2 media when it’s purple, I refill my dosing reservoirs. That’s it. I can’t stop the growth now. I do a water change of 30 gallons every month (270 gallon system) just for peace of mind. I don’t even think I need to do that. I have a 45 gallon refugium. I haven’t checked nitrates in almost a year. I have learned that less is more. Don’t chase numbers. Sometimes looking at your aquarium tells you all you need to know. BTW. It’s a 180 display with a 40 gallon frag thank and 30 gallon refugium.

Fishy212 · Dec 31, 2019

Nice to hear about your experience. I see so many people caught up in their controllers, charts and probes. Do they even look at their tanks anymore? or has that aspect of reef keeping taken over? Less is more. Thank you

hubble · Dec 31, 2019

Totally agree, I have no Apex or controller of any kind and just do water changes every 4 or 6 weeks. I dose the Triton supplements and grow chaeto in the sump.

Waynerock · Dec 31, 2019

hubble said:
Totally agree, I have no Apex or controller of any kind and just do water changes every 4 or 6 weeks. I dose the Triton supplements and grow chaeto in the sump.

wow one heck of a clam you got

H3rm1tCr@b · Dec 31, 2019

Yeah. I used to be a real chaser of parameters, now I just don't care as much! >

I gauge when I need to do a water change by looking at my algae and coral behavior. When the elegance is angry it's time to change the water.

H3rm1tCr@b · Dec 31, 2019

hubble said:
Totally agree, I have no Apex or controller of any kind and just do water changes every 4 or 6 weeks. I dose the Triton supplements and grow chaeto in the sump.

That rose bubble tip is amazing! I love the bubbles.

lilgrounchuck · Dec 31, 2019

This is my biggest nail biter issue. I’ve always been a tinkerer, and professionally I’m a network engineer. I know when I’m looking at something that there are things I can do to get to where I want to be. With other things, those changes come quickly (along with unintended consequences). With this hobby tinkering and having to wait quite some time for that change to manifest results drives me crazy. I was actually thinking about this today looking at my tank and the bta I have in there. I’m trying to make a change to a tiny ecosystem and expecting immediate results based on my concept of time for a creature that clones itself and has possibly existed (in some way as a clone of a clone of a clone) since before we crawled up out of the ocean. We’re basically putting aliens in glass boxes and seeing what happens.

old salt reefer · Dec 31, 2019

5 decades of saltwater and I still don't own a test kit of an kind, just a hydrometer. I long ago learned to leave my tank alone. It works for me, everything lives.

Thanks for posting this thread.

mich2599 · Dec 31, 2019

I don’t trust the conductivity probe. I just test the salinity with a hydrometer.

USMA36 · Dec 31, 2019

The salinity probe is garbage. Neptune shouldn’t even sell it. ive not hesrd Of very many people being happy with that probe.

tehmadreefer · Dec 31, 2019

Agreed! This tank never saw as much as a test kit...

tehmadreefer · Dec 31, 2019

Current tank,looking like poooo

SuncrestReef · Dec 31, 2019

mich2599 said:
I don’t trust the conductivity probe. I just test the salinity with a hydrometer.

USMA36 said:
The salinity probe is garbage. Neptune shouldn’t even sell it. ive not hesrd Of very many people being happy with that probe.

I have posted about this many times. Micro bubbles inside the Apex conductivity/salinity probe is the most common cause of incorrect readings. To combat this, I mount my probe submerged upside down so any bubbles float up and out of the tube on their own. I also calibrate the probe upside down by putting the calibration fluid and probe tip into a probe storage bottle, then tipping it upside down. If you don’t have a probe storage bottle, you can use a small plastic bag and rubber band to hold it in place on the probe for calibration. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-ph-orp-probe-tip-soaker-bottle.html

I still manually test my salinity once per week with a refractometer to confirm, and my Apex probe has been accurate for nearly 2 years now.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 31, 2019

We cant say we have a piece of the ocean while dumping 2 oz of this an 2 oz of that every other hour. This is a reef aquarium were dealing with not a tub of marinade sauce . . .LOL

" time add bacteria, then next is potassium to the ocean"

Brian W · Dec 31, 2019

I love the tech aspect associated with my reef. I have apex, smart plugs, smart cameras...the whole 9. However I often dont pay attention to it but it's nice to use when I want to. I test my tank weekly for temp, sg, alk, cal, mag, no3, nh3 and po4. I keep my hands out of my tank. More than I should..corals keep growing too fast and need regular chopping. I guess it's a good problem to have. I only dose 2 part, trace elements and aminos. This is my 3rd "main reef" and I've learned to not mess with anything, dont trust electronics and test often.

Casey Erb · Dec 31, 2019

Vin's Reef said:
What I have learned in the past year. Hmmm. Don’t keep adding crap to your tank. After a decade of reefing I got back into the hobby 3 years ago. Over that time I have poured thousands into my system. After losing more than 3/4 of my livestock (fish) almost a year ago, I have realized there is no replacement for manual testing, and the less we pour into our tanks the better. After relying on my apex salinity monitor, I noticed my fish having problems. Mostly white spot. My apex read 34.5. I tested everything BUT salinity. I lost more than 3/4 of my fish to white spot. Finally I had my tank tested. The ICP results put my salinity at 31. I realized I relied too much on my apex. My fish were stressed and I lost most of my livestock due too the salinity. Now I have stopped adding all of the “extra” stuff to either combat cyano or GHA and I let the tank do it’s thing at 1.025. I run Triton method for two years now. After almost a year I have watched my tank bloom. No more testing every day. No more ICP tests. Just my hand held salinity hydrometer. I change out my CO2 media when it’s purple, I refill my dosing reservoirs. That’s it. I can’t stop the growth now. I do a water change of 30 gallons every month (270 gallon system) just for peace of mind. I don’t even think I need to do that. I have a 45 gallon refugium. I haven’t checked nitrates in almost a year. I have learned that less is more. Don’t chase numbers. Sometimes looking at your aquarium tells you all you need to know. BTW. It’s a 180 display with a 40 gallon frag thank and 30 gallon refugium.

I still test as things grow, and adjust for gradual changes. But I couldn’t agree more that less is more. Keep things simple, don’t make “fixes” when things aren’t broken. And most of all watch your livestock, if they are happy and healthy your tank is too. Happy new year reefers.

Daddy-o · Dec 31, 2019

I have a bunch of tanks and rarely do any testing. Only alk/nitrates in my SPS system and nitrates in our eel tank. I do believe in adding as much bio-diversity as possible in all of my reefs.
Cheers! Mark

ca1ore · Dec 31, 2019

Nothing wrong with using technology to help to manage a reef tank - just understand its limitations! I’ve yet to encounter anyone who has more Neptune modules than I do (in part because I’m a tech geek at heart), BUT I use most/many of them purely as monitoring/alerting mechanisms, certainly the critical ones, and I never rely on a single measurement tool. Agree that salinity probes can be a bit dodgy, though hard to understand how actual salinity can fall without an obvious loss of salt water somewhere in the system. I fully agree with the comment made earlier about the loss of the basic skill of looking at your tank. I can almost immediately tell just by looking at my tank if something is amiss. Sometimes the ‘fix’ Is easily found; other times it is more elusive. It’s also a long-held reefing axiom that fiddling less is better than fiddling more. Other than dipping my hand into the tank every couple of days to retrieve the veggie mag, my arm rarely goes into the tank.

James Johnson · Dec 31, 2019

Vin's Reef said:
What I have learned in the past year. Hmmm. Don’t keep adding crap to your tank. After a decade of reefing I got back into the hobby 3 years ago. Over that time I have poured thousands into my system. After losing more than 3/4 of my livestock (fish) almost a year ago, I have realized there is no replacement for manual testing, and the less we pour into our tanks the better. After relying on my apex salinity monitor, I noticed my fish having problems. Mostly white spot. My apex read 34.5. I tested everything BUT salinity. I lost more than 3/4 of my fish to white spot. Finally I had my tank tested. The ICP results put my salinity at 31. I realized I relied too much on my apex. My fish were stressed and I lost most of my livestock due too the salinity. Now I have stopped adding all of the “extra” stuff to either combat cyano or GHA and I let the tank do it’s thing at 1.025. I run Triton method for two years now. After almost a year I have watched my tank bloom. No more testing every day. No more ICP tests. Just my hand held salinity hydrometer. I change out my CO2 media when it’s purple, I refill my dosing reservoirs. That’s it. I can’t stop the growth now. I do a water change of 30 gallons every month (270 gallon system) just for peace of mind. I don’t even think I need to do that. I have a 45 gallon refugium. I haven’t checked nitrates in almost a year. I have learned that less is more. Don’t chase numbers. Sometimes looking at your aquarium tells you all you need to know. BTW. It’s a 180 display with a 40 gallon frag thank and 30 gallon refugium.

how long have you been reefing? Low salinity doesn’t cause ich (or white spot as you are calling it) it would actually help. In fact hypo salinity is one way to treat ich and other parasites. Most wholesales keep their fish tanks at a lower salinity just to help prevent the spread of parasites. Ich comes from not quarantining your fish. Your fish died due to stress, most likely neglected nitrates or alkalinity causing PH issues. In fact I have had traces of ich in my tank for years and never lost a fish to it. Looking at your sand bed I would say that poorly maintaining that was your problem. It looks pretty deeep and your tank is a couple years old. Deep sand beds create pockets of anaerobic bacteria, as they remove nitrates from the system they create pockets of methane gas as a by product. Sooner or later a sandsifting creature or burrowing creature will disturb this sand bed and release the toxic gas into the tank. that is most likely what killed your fish. A neglected sand bed also frequently causes cyano and algae blooms.
Honestly your Just giving people bad advice telling them not to test their tank. That’s like driving without your speedometer sooner or later your gonna get pulled over. We have tools to help guide us in this confusing hobby and you’re telling people to fly blind just because you got lucky. While it’s good not to “fiddle” with your tank too much, it is important especially in the beginning to learn the hobby by testing and adjusting your water parameters. There’s a very common saying “you take care of the water and the water will take care of your fish”. A lack of knowledge is why people struggle in this hobby.