Minimum maintenance successful tanks. Who runs one? post pics.

[Reed_J_M]

Well it is pretty simple, I add once a month 30ml each of RedSea ABCD, I keep 6 bags in my sump, 2 gac, 2 phosgaurd and 2 purigen. I dose 10 to 20ml of Nopox daily. I have Kessils 3 160's and 4 360's lighting it. I throw in twice a week phyto and zoo plankton. I feed the fish 10 to 12 Hikari frozen cubes a day,, that is really it.

I find it REALLY hard to believe you’re not dosing anything and haven’t done water change in years...
there’s no way you could grow that many hard corals without SOME kind of ALK/Ca supplement.
it’s a beautiful tank

@GlassMunky I'm pretty sure they're dosing, just not autodosing. The post I quoted shows the routine they described later.

 

[GlassMunky]

@GlassMunky I'm pretty sure they're dosing, just not autodosing. The post I quoted shows the routine they described later.

Manually dosing on a daily basis is not what I’d personally consider minimal maintenance, but I guess that definition also varies by person.

min my mind anything more than KALK in the top off is work

 

[Privateye]

My maintenance routine: feed 1 cube 5x per week, 20% water change 3-4 times per year, and check chemistry monthly unless it's a problem.

I use K1 dosing pumps for KH, calcium, and magnesium. I refill the bottles when empty. Other than that I add a squirt of Kent Essential elements every week or two.

In some ways I'm a terrible reefer, but hey, the coral it grows covers the cost of all of my dry goods for 9 tanks. Most are freshwater.

I guess I should also mention I use a skimmer and a UV sterilizer.

 

[HB AL]

I find it REALLY hard to believe you’re not dosing anything and haven’t done water change in years...
there’s no way you could grow that many hard corals without SOME kind of ALK/Ca supplement.
it’s a beautiful tank

Of course I'm dosing, just manually.

 

[Reed_J_M]

My maintenance routine: feed 1 cube 5x per week, 20% water change 3-4 times per year, and check chemistry monthly unless it's a problem.

I use K1 dosing pumps for KH, calcium, and magnesium. I refill the bottles when empty. Other than that I add a squirt of Kent Essential elements every week or two.

In some ways I'm a terrible reefer, but hey, the coral it grows covers the cost of all of my dry goods for 9 tanks. Most are freshwater.

I guess I should also mention I use a skimmer and a UV sterilizer.

Is that a kryptonite candy cane in the very back? That's a lot of heads!

 

[dohc97]

Not sure how good this will look seeing as it's from my phone but here you go

 

[Blumy]

Red Sea E260 with rear sump only (no cabinet sump). 5 gallon water change every other week. Manually dose AB+ and NoPox daily. Manually dose Red Sea ABC and Coral Colors ABCD once a week. Carbon change every 2 months. Sounds like a lot but literally 5-10 minutes a day is all it is. Been up since January. Older picture, more frags and growth now.

 

[Privateye]

Is that a kryptonite candy cane in the very back? That's a lot of heads!

Yeah! I fragged that one 2 months ago. It's due! Pretty much everything gets harvested a few times per year. Good old T5 lighting.

 

[S&SReef]

My Nuvo 10 is great, no skimmer, no media, just an 80% water change when algae starts to grow too quickly in the glass (5 gallons once a month)

 

[arking_mark]

A couple thoughts here.

- Minimal Maintenance vs minimal equipment vs minimal cost sometimes oppose each other
- Everyone journey is different. What works for some is a disaster for others.

For my build, I am going Ultra Low Maintenance (ULM). To me, this means optimization of equipment and techniques that reduces maintenance with nothing extra. It also means automation. You will have to decide what needs to be done based on your target reefing goals.

The end goal for most reefers is maintaining an optimal water quality that supports the tank. Some key things for me were:

1. Rollermat for mechanical
2. Unlimited ATO
3. Simple AWC (single container; just add salt; everything else is automatic)
4. Minimizing powerheads with a spare to rotate in
5. Autofeeder
6. Single parameter (Alk) driven dosing
7. Throw-away media bags for organics
8. Simple lighting

One challenge I'm having is lower PH due to higher CO2 levels in the house. One option would be a skimmer/scrubber. However, this would not be a ULM solution. Skimmers have skimmate and cleaning to deal with and CO2 scrubbing media has to frequently be changed. What I'll end up doing is switching up my automated dosing reagents to use something (maybe kalk) to nudge my PH a little higher.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

@Danny's Aquariums this might be a good place for you to share your stuff

 

[cancun]

Mine is pretty simple too. Mixed reef, mostly LPS, some SPS, and 14 or so fish. 200 gallon.... skimmer in sump, plus Algae scrubber. Nothing automatic but the ATO. 10% WC once a week, manually add 2 part three times a week, Accropower, 16oz of phytoplankton, and Reef Energy AB+ every other day.

 

[tinhorse]

75 gallon sumpless reef. Hob octopus 2000 skimmer, aquaclear 110 filter, 4 powerheads for flow, mainly lps with some sps and softies. $40 old TEK ho t5 4 bulb fixture. 20% water change every 2 to 3 months, clean filter and change carbon once a month, hand dose 2 part seachem every 2nd day 15 ml each. Other than that i feed 2 to 4 times a day, mainly spirlina flake and once a day frozen brine or mysis or plankton. 11 fish, 13 snails and 10 hermits with a sea cucumber added 2 months ago. I get excellent growth on all corals and have been fragging them to keep size down and fill in space in the tank. Reef crystals salt.

 

[Bizzie]

I run a very simple system, no controllers, no dosers, etc... I haven't done a water change in 4+ years. About as simple as you can have in a reef tank and having great success in my mind.
I have a skimmer and rock in my sump. Its a mixed reef with lots of different corals and lots of fish.

That’s impressive. I have a goal of doing same once my tank matures; it’s in 2nd month post cycle

 

[X-37B]

My 120 is mostly acros but is mixed.
40 breeder sump with no baffles, 7" filter sock, skimmer, carx, and small carbon reactor.
Clean glass every few days with the flipper. Every couple weeks flip it and scrape coralline of the glass.
Change filter sock 2 times a week.
Once a month suck out one area of the bare bottom.
Every 2 months clean all 4 powerheads.
Feed fish 3 times a day, wife does it during the week.
Daily dose 6ml of trace and test and log alk.
Daliy dose 10ml ez carbon to feed bacteria and coral.
Both take maybe a few minutes.
Trace in the morning and ez carbon when I get home from work.
Clean skimmer cup 2 times a week.
Skimmer and return pump get cleaned every 6 months.
Carx gets cleaned once a year media added as needed.
Add 400ml of new water twice a week to makeup for skimmer loss.
Tanks will be 18 months old on the 23rd.
No scheduled water changes.
1 10 gal around 12 months and one 12 gal after a fuconazole treatment.
Change bulbs once a year.
Clean Halide glass when needed.
Clean sump once a year.
Add ato water once a week.
Make 275 gallons of ro/di water every 3 months and store in tote.
It seems like alot but is really is not much on a day to day basis.
Frag when needed.
Alread removed 3 colonies to make room for others as the grew like weeds.
No controllers or ph probes on my carx.

 

[eag]

Wow... I have learned a lot from this thread. Thank you @Stephensx04 for starting it!

I've got a small tank (between 5 and 7 gallons depending on how you measure), the explicit goal of which is ultra low maintenance. Build thread linked on my badge.

No sump, no dosing, no skimmer, no kalk. I only recently started feeding, very lightly, because my sexy shrimps were eating my corals... but that's a different story. Go coral only if you want _really_ ultra low maintenance. Maybe the biggest takeaway of this thread is everyone has a different idea of "low" maintenance...

The tank is less than five months old. My acros and other SPS are happy and growing - in fact, most everything is doing well (save the corals that the shrimps ravaged, which are on the rebound now).

Here's a picture from about two weeks ago. I can even notice new growth today since this picture was taken.

Maintenance routine: every 1-2 weeks, I change two gallons water, check the filter pad, and fill the top-off water. That's it. My recent experiences make me think I can probably go longer between WCs, say 2-3 weeks... if I ran kalk, maybe even (a lot) longer. I'll need to do some experimentation on that front.

Top-off and WC water is all store-bought distilled. I go through about 3-4 jugs every 1-2 weeks. Easily purchased with groceries. I have found that WC of less than two gallons becomes difficult because it's not enough water to cover the WC heater and pump . In this setup, 2 gallon WC is ~40% change.

I'm working on a WC station that will also act as a stand, making the WC process as easy as possible.

 

[Carl Eckelman]

What do you think?
Anemone. 2 clowns cleaner wrasse feather dusters and sexy schrimp
That’s it 3 gallons

 

[Carl Eckelman]

What do you think?
Anemone. 2 clowns cleaner wrasse feather dusters and sexy schrimp
That’s it 3 gallons

 

[eag]

What do you think?
Anemone. 2 clowns cleaner wrasse feather dusters and sexy schrimp
That’s it 3 gallons

Wow sad clowns

You did not say anything about maintenance routines... Those clowns should probably be moved to another tank. Sorry, no offense...

 

[gregkn73]

Water change 3 times /year from June to September from Mediterranean. No skimmer, no carbon, no po4 absorber. Jebao dosing, 1.5-3€/kg of kh,CA,mg, K, bulk supplied, + trace elements. 4lt of Kh filled every ~ month. Jebao return, never cleaned, 1 tunze circulator ,cleaned every 4-6 months. Feed fish daily, DIY freeze food , made every 2 months. DIY ATO +LED LIGHTS 8*20watt custom ordered multichips, works great for 7 years. 550lt DT, 800LT total. RDSB, ATS, CHAETO, CRYPTIC ZONE, for filtration. Minimal equipment, minimal maintenance, minimal initial +running cost.