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

[tony'stank]

I have a RSR450. I converted the ATO reservoir into a refugium with cheato and macro algae. I have a skimmer but no filter stocks. I don’t do water changes. I do an ICP test every 3-6 months and manually dose as necessary. I have a ATO in the basement feeding the tank on the first floor (32G brute as a reservoir). Maintenance is lean the glass as needed, weekly to biweekly empty and clean skimmer cup, and weekly removal of charts. My parameters are not ideal but are very stable and the tank is thriving

 

[Paul B]

I think my 125 gallon is minimal maintenance. I collect and change water maybe 4 times a year when I feel like getting wet. I have no hospital or quarantine tank, no medications, no sump, no dosers, no controllers, no UV, no carbon, no bacteria in a bottle, no Chemiclean.

I do have a big DIY skimmer, DIY algae scrubber and DIY ATO. I make a lot of my food from clams and raise whiteworms.

 

[tony'stank]

Stupid spellcheck - shoulr read clean glass and remove chaeto

 

[MFoote]

I think my 125 gallon is minimal maintenance. I collect and change water maybe 4 times a year when I feel like getting wet. I have no hospital or quarantine tank, no medications, no sump, no dosers, no controllers, no UV, no carbon, no bacteria in a bottle, no Chemiclean.

I do have a big DIY skimmer, DIY algae scrubber and DIY ATO. I make a lot of my food from clams and raise whiteworms.

Sometimes you throw in a glass bottle or two right? haha Isn't that this tank? I love it.

 

[krash7172]

The best decision I made for low maintenance was a roller filter for my mostly soft coral 180. I also have an algae scrubber and a protein skimmer but I don't run the skimmer 100% of the time. I have no fear having someone else watch my tank for weeks at a time. I can go a month or more with nothing entering the tank except ato and fish food. The rollers last about 6 weeks and that's when I might check a few params and do a WC. No controller, no dosing.

 

[Paul B]

Sometimes you throw in a glass bottle or two right? haha Isn't that this tank? I love it.

What glass bottles?

 

[REPOWER]

Minimal maintenance...to me. I inspect the tank at least 2x per day while dosing and feeding.

Manually dose TM AFR every morning
Manually feed every evening
Clean glass, floor and back 2x a week
Replenish 5 Gallon RO 1x week
Water change when Alkalinity fluctuates more than usual, every 3-4 weeks
Ink bird to control heater and fan
Test Alk and CA 1x week

Cheers!

 

[afboundguy]

25 gallon cube with a HOB refugium and no skimmer no sump just have a 5.5 gallon ATO reservoir and dose 2 part through a doser only 10-12ml a day so the 1 gallon containers last me well over a year. I do a water change every 1-2 months.. I also have a frozen food thawer so I just throw in a frozen cube of food once a day! Only part I really do that's a PITA is my live food cultures (phyto, pods, white worms and baby brine shrimp) but I do that on my own accord and I have even made those super easy... Tank has never looked better!!!

 

[Super Fly]

93 cube mostly sofies, dosing 2 part w 24/7 skimming, Marinepure block with caulerpa (lit by cheap Amazon UFO led grow light) & miracle mud in sump. DT has deep sand bed with live rocks from Tampa Bay Saltwater that came directly from the ocean. WC few times/year with weekly change of filter floss that gets tossed into garbage (no filter sock). I credit having real live rock from the ocean to tank's stability.

 

[Bacon505]

I setup this tank i think back in march 2020. I havent done anything to this redsea nano max other than top off once a week. No equipments, dosing, feeding or waterchange. There’s a damsel in there that’s still alive all this time without feeding. But this nano is mostly zoa with some lps and sps oh and anemone survivors from powerhead

 

[Easy Reefing]

My fluval evo 13.5 is pretty low maintenance. Just a 1 gallon water change once a week and no skimmer , just filter floss.

 

[vlangel]

Shared album from Dawn 📸

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Here is a link to my 56g high nutrient tank. It has a attached 30g refugium/20g sump in the basement. The display has a multi level DSB to help with denitrification. The coral have been specifically chosen to tolerate high nutrients in the water column. The 16 fish provide nutrients for the macro algae and seagrass in the display and fuge.

Maintenance is a bi-monthly 10% water change and weekly cleaning film algae off the glass. Very little else except an occasional vinegar soak of equipment when I think about it and tweaks to the aquascape.

 

[brandon429]

fishbowl+fitted lid+live rock+ airstone+tetra preset heater+abi tuna light off amazon $25 + a thousand in top shelf frags can be ran twenty years off just weekly or bi weekly water changes alone. the only tests the entire time are temp and salinity. = lowest maintenance reef possible. not for fish but gobies have been done long term in a few. excellent office setup due to topoff only once a week.

this one isn't mine, its the sharpest one out there I know of. its M's tank

 

[eag]

I setup this tank i think back in march 2020. I havent done anything to this redsea nano max other than top off once a week. No equipments, dosing, feeding or waterchange. There’s a damsel in there that’s still alive all this time without feeding. But this nano is mostly zoa with some lps and sps oh and anemone survivors from powerhead

Wow, beautiful tank!

I'm surprised you get away with no water change and no dosing when you have LPS and SPS... do you check your alk and calc levels?

 

[Ruben Sacramento]

My rule in this hobby is keepin it simple while trying to account for potential issues ahead of time. To do that I try to work my way around those in a simplemanner.

With that in mind I run my 500L peninsula mixed reef tank by using only 4 powerheads, 4 black box leds, 2 return pumps and 2 heaters on a controller and an ATO that is usually sufficient for about a week.
Regarding filtration I run an ATI Powercone 250is skimmer and a couple of Kilograms of Pond matrix for bio filtration.
Some of the equipment is plugged to two large UPS units that should maintain the system running on minimum life support for at least 6 hours if power fails.
On the supplementation department I rely only on carbocalcium+A Elements+K Elements or all-for-reef, depending on what's available, to keep my water chemistry levels under control without the need for water changes, which I have successfully done for over 13 months so far.
I also dose phyto, aminos and iodine.
I do use an auto feeder to feed pellets twice a day and 5 frozen food cubes every day at dinner time.

Here's how it looks:

 

[Bacon505]

Wow, beautiful tank!

I'm surprised you get away with no water change and no dosing when you have LPS and SPS... do you check your alk and calc levels?

I havent done anything to the tank since i set it up. I dont know what the numbers are, i dont even know the temperature to be honest

 

[Reed_J_M]

I setup this tank i think back in march 2020. I havent done anything to this redsea nano max other than top off once a week. No equipments, dosing, feeding or waterchange. There’s a damsel in there that’s still alive all this time without feeding. But this nano is mostly zoa with some lps and sps oh and anemone survivors from powerhead

Nice! Are you typing or with RODI?

 

[Bacon505]

Nice! Are you typing or with RODI?

No just tab water from my sink

 

[Reva_loution54]

12ml of All for Reef daily using an X1 doser, change filter sock every three days, and 15gl biweekly water change that’s it. I spend more time cleaning the glass than anything else and that’s once every 3 days or so.

 

[jasonrusso]

Minimal maintenance...to me. I inspect the tank at least 2x per day while dosing and feeding.

Manually dose TM AFR every morning
Manually feed every evening
Clean glass, floor and back 2x a week
Replenish 5 Gallon RO 1x week
Water change when Alkalinity fluctuates more than usual, every 3-4 weeks
Ink bird to control heater and fan
Test Alk and CA 1x week

Cheers!

This is hardly low maintenance. Nice tank, not low maintenance at all