Simple SPS tank setups

[Sarah24!]

I love Wincey's tank because it completely goes against what a lot of people would say you need for success. The majority of Reef2Reef would say that her method wouldn't keep SPS without seeing her tank.

Manual dosing 1x per day, 16hr light schedule, no water changes, no reactors, no refugium, manual top off, and it's a fully stocked SPS tank...It really goes to show how far simplicity and discipline can take you.

I also like her idea that the small swings from manual dosing and top off actually condition the corals to be more tolerant of changing parameters. If this is true, it's most certainly a more reliable method for long term success than relying on dosers and Ca reactors to function without hiccups for years on end. Her tank is also a million times easier to troubleshoot than some of these other high end builds. If something goes wrong she seriously only needs to check like 3 things.

Hello,

I do a lot of things she does as well and have had good success with it. There is no automation on my tank, I dose everything by hand and write down each day how much I use and test weekly sometimes more. I do have some swings which I think is good because again it makes them less sensitive.

But I dose my alk cal and mag by hand, and I carbon dose by hand, as well as my trace elements and I do about the same or less in what changes. I’m starting to frag a lot more because of growth and I won’t let my corals touch either. Mine are definitely (not all as compact as hers). But I do have some that are. I only have a skimmer and uv sterilizer and return in my sump.

I also feed once a day and I like to see my fish graze as well and sometimes they get lazy. In feeding my corals I have tried other foods and usually feed each one now. However now that my lfs stocks reef roids I am going to try them for the first time. I generslly use marine snow and other small polyp coral foods and mix it up.

I should probably add t5 lights to mine, since I only have led. Her lighting was pretty neat and wasn’t the typical set up which is awesome (I don’t run the typical leds either). But her tank is amazing for the age, color and growth. I also do my own top off and when I top off is when I mix my alk and cal. I just dump each one in my sump tank and call it good and my tank has done great. I definitely don’t have the selection of sps she does but I will get there. I’m starting to like no name corals just because most people don’t have them. It’s always neat when they go oh wow what’s that and i have to come up with my own name. simple very simple systems work well and very easy to trouble shoot if something goes bad.

 

[High ICP]

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[MTBake]

I have a sps dominate 40 breeder setup.

No reactors or controllers.

Halide lighting so no ramping of lights.

No sump either. I have a hang on back skimmer and filter. The filter has a bag of carbon in it. I use an ice cap gyre and a couple tunze pumps for flow. The gyre doesn't even alternate flow. It's set for 40% continuous flow. I do have an ATO though.

I manually dose ca and soda ash twice a day.

It works for me. If only I could get rid of the dinos I'm dealing with.

 

[Rakie]

All you need

1) Lights
2) Pumps/Flow
3) Doser/CalRx

That's it. That's all you need. WWC keeps things relatively bare bones.

 

[MrObscura]

There's a ton of awesome sps tanks running super simple, some without a skimmer even. Just do a quick search and you'll find plenty.

In fact the simple tanks seem to be the ones that have the most long term success.

 

[joseserrano]

I think there are great reasons to keep it simple, but don't see the benefit in causing purposeful fluctuations. To make the corals hardier? For who/what?

 

[High ICP]

I'd disagree and say that almost anyone on here that stocks SPS would say that Consistency and Stability are the keys to keeping SPS corals. I've never ready a thread that says electronics and equipment are the only method to keeping them alive.

The tank is 13yrs old and absolutely gorgeous though.

Electronics only replace your time.

You can be the controller and do everything the electronics can do.

How much is your time worth?

I’ve done Zeovit by hand for a couple years. It will all be electronics on the next system.

 

[hatfielj]

"I do have some swings which I think is good because again it makes them less sensitive."


I know they say that in the video, but I do not believe that there is any truth to that thinking. The assumption they are making is that keeping our tanks stable causes sps to become "too sensitive." I think that's a silly thing to assume. However, I think that her methods (and yours too) show that sps aren't as sensitive to brief changes as we think. Adding a bunch of alk all at once isn't going to cause problems because the tank will quickly utilize that alk and it will return back to it's baseline. They still prefer stability though.
The ocean varies in certain ways (pH, flow, temperature mainly), but the basic water chemistry such as Ca, Alk, Mg doesn't change much at all. And that's why we see people getting into trouble when they have fast Alk changes that aren't quickly corrected

 

[pelphrey]

maybe @shiftline can help answer some of these questions!

I'd love to have some of her corals, I struggle with anything labeled SPS.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Kudos to those who can do it. I couldn't maintain my reef without an ATO and a few other gadgets. I'm just wouldn't have the time or the discipline to perform daily repetitive tasks. I'm lucky if I get the fish fed daily!

 

[cain720]

"I do have some swings which I think is good because again it makes them less sensitive."


I know they say that in the video, but I do not believe that there is any truth to that thinking. The assumption they are making is that keeping our tanks stable causes sps to become "too sensitive." I think that's a silly thing to assume. However, I think that her methods (and yours too) show that sps aren't as sensitive to brief changes as we think. Adding a bunch of alk all at once isn't going to cause problems because the tank will quickly utilize that alk and it will return back to it's baseline. They still prefer stability though.
The ocean varies in certain ways (pH, flow, temperature mainly), but the basic water chemistry such as Ca, Alk, Mg doesn't change much at all. And that's why we see people getting into trouble when they have fast Alk changes that aren't quickly corrected

Why do you not believe there is any truth to that thinking?

It's not right to dismiss a theory as "silly" especially when there's a large amount of evidence backing it up. It's widely known and accepted that wild colonies from the ocean are more sensitive than captive bred colonies. It would be reasonable to assume that the captive bred colonies have been conditioned to better tolerate the relatively unstable conditions in our tanks. Furthermore, it would be reasonable to theorize that corals grown in a tank that experiences regular small parameter swings will be less sensitive to larger accidental parameter swings.

I know there are other variables involved, but you can't completely dismiss the theory like that.

 

[Flatlandreefer]

To me simple is the right balance between automating the important stuff and not adding every new gadget that comes out. My theory is a big sump that provides stability, simple but reliable two part dosers, large ATO reservoir that doesn't need to be filled frequently and a convenient way of performing water changes results in a simple but effective tank. I don't know how people get by with manual top offs and manual dosing. I'm sure I could find time 80% of the time to get those tasks done but what about the other 20%. Unless you are a hermit and never leave your house it seems like a very intensive way to maintain a tank.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

All you need

1) Lights
2) Pumps/Flow
3) Doser/CalRx

That's it. That's all you need. WWC keeps things relatively bare bones.

Think you missed the whole point of the video and this thread. You don't NEED a doser/CalRX. You can keep a beautiful SPS dominant system with manual dosing by hand as evidenced by this tank.

 

[Rakie]

Think you missed the whole point of the video and this thread. You don't NEED a doser/CalRX. You can keep a beautiful SPS dominant system with manual dosing by hand as evidenced by this tank.

Yeah, but eventually you won't be there for some reason or another. That's the only bit of equipment I would say is truly necessary outside of light and flow. Additionally, hand dosing can mean you're constantly subjecting your water to small spikes instead of a stable alk number.

 

[hatfielj]

Why do you not believe there is any truth to that thinking?

It's not right to dismiss a theory as "silly" especially when there's a large amount of evidence backing it up. It's widely known and accepted that wild colonies from the ocean are more sensitive than captive bred colonies. It would be reasonable to assume that the captive bred colonies have been conditioned to better tolerate the relatively unstable conditions in our tanks. Furthermore, it would be reasonable to theorize that corals grown in a tank that experiences regular small parameter swings will be less sensitive to larger accidental parameter swings.

I know there are other variables involved, but you can't completely dismiss the theory like that.

What evidence? There is absolutely no research to back such a broad claim (That keeping parameters stable will weaken the coral and make it "too sensitive") My point is that it's a very broad claim with all sorts of assumptions built into it that shouldn't just be taken as fact.

 

[cain720]

What evidence? There is absolutely no research to back such a broad claim (That keeping parameters stable will weaken the coral and make it "too sensitive") My point is that it's a very broad claim with all sorts of assumptions built into it that shouldn't just be taken as fact.

And there's also no absolutely no evidence to dispute it as "silly". It's not fact, but it's very plausible. If anything, there's more evidence supporting the idea that corals become more hardy in slightly unstable conditions mainly from the comparison between wild and aquacultured colonies.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

Yeah, but eventually you won't be there for some reason or another. That's the only bit of equipment I would say is truly necessary outside of light and flow. Additionally, hand dosing can mean you're constantly subjecting your water to small spikes instead of a stable alk number.

I get your point about not being there. Still not a necessity imo as you can just ask somebody to dose for you while you're gone. Small changes in water parameters IMO, doesn't harm SPS at all. I used to manage Seaside Tropical Fish which you're probably familiar with. At one point we had a 2k gallon system stocked heavy with SPS frags and colonies. I had to hand dose it daily due to the owner not wanting to pony up for a large CaRX. That system had a KH fluctuation of probably 1-2 throughout a 24 hour period and both wild and aquacultured corals were fully colored up and had explosive growth in that system. So I am always skeptical about people blaming small swings in parameters for their coral woes within reason of course due to my own professional experience. On the other hand, an instant ten degree temp spike or instant drop in salinity from 1.026 to 1.000 would be very bad indeed.

 

[High ICP]

And there's also no absolutely no evidence to dispute it as "silly". It's not fact, but it's very plausible. If anything, there's more evidence supporting the idea that corals become more hardy in slightly unstable conditions mainly from the comparison between wild and aquacultured colonies.

Where is the evidence?

 

[cain720]

Where is the evidence?

The evidence is aquacultured corals being more hardy than their wild counterparts.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

The evidence is aquacultured corals being more hardy than their wild counterparts.

This is another semi-myth that makes the rounds on the forums. It really depends on the corals and where they're collected from. Some Aussie SPS wild colonies are fairly hardy and hold their color well(highlighter, shortcake, echinata). There are also some aquacultured corals that RTN easily and can't hold their color...Most hobbyists have very little experience dealing with wild SPS corals IRL and are just parroting what they've seen on the forums and this has become accepted as gospel without any legit science based or quasi-science based testing around to back it up.