Successful tank without testing?

[aggrofish]

So I often think back to the last 125 gallon tank I had 10 years ago when I lived at the beach. I had a canopy and with higher humidity I really had almost zero evaporation. I didnt have an ATO nor did I really ever top off. I changed about 30 gallons of water once per month, nothing died. I didn't own a single test kit. At the time I had more money than sense, often times not even knowing the name or type of coral I was buying. I never bought frags, like I have now.

T5's, no test kit, no idea what I was doing. Back then though you could actually buy real fiji live rock with lots of hitchhikers. With 150 lbs of live fiji rock and 100 lbs of caribsea live sand I never had an algae outbreak. No diatoms, dinos, cyano, nothing. Corals grew big and I never fed them. Maybe it was the coral salt pro I was using.

Anyone else have a successful tank like that through blind luck. Bioballs, oversized skimmer...miss the simpler times.

 

[nereefpat]

Yes I did. My old 90 in the mid-late 2000s was just:
2 heaters
modified maxi jets
hang on tank coralife skimmer
Power compact lights
about 100 lbs of actual Fiji live rock

10 gallon weekly water change with no testing beyond salinity and temperature.

I didn't try any SPS, but grew huge colonies of Euphyllia, candycanes, duncans, brains, zoas, leathers. The tank actually looked really nice. I should have taken more pictures.

 

[stanleo]

My 20 gallon in my fish room is never tested. All it has is one powerhead, a HOB filter and a heater. I haven't tested since I cycled it 8 months ago. Granted it was just used as a frag tank with some snails and one six line wrasse but the worse algae I get is brown algae that is easy enough to clean weekly with a 50 % water change. I don't even have to clean the glass that much. I ran tests yesterday and the results were good. Granted I am turning it into a nano tank tank and just added a 15 lb rock yesterday so that may change and I doubt that the numbers are stable.

 

[Frogspon]

Absolutely. The thing with most ecosystems is the more you intervene the more you'll have KEEP intervening.

If you're not testing or dosing, and you're doing fine, that ecosystem has adapted to your level of care.

People like to flex about their automated systems/high tech and all but the real flex are the tanks that are not artificially maintained, because it can sustain itself.

 

[wonroc]

people over test...over react to the tests.....and so many tests are inaccucurate.The more you F with your tank, the more chances of it bombing.
If running a smaller tank with lots of water changes, you just need a salinity meter. I dont own a test kit.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Yes for sure! My old 90g 10yrs ago never once saw a test. All softies and lps. My current 112g which does have some sps gets tests once a month (if that)

 

[xAndrewx]

Yep,
About 20 years ago had a 125 gallon. Glass tops to prevent evaporation, no skimmer, power compact lighting, maxijet power heads, deep sand bed and a couple hang on back filters. Did a 30 gallon water change per month. Used one of those old style hydrometer. Guarenteed to be wrong and I never checked it against a refractometer. The biggest kicker, is I used tap water ran through only a DI filter. Granted my tap water had very low TDS to begin with. Real Fiji live rock too. I had so much bio diversity in that tank. Loved watching it more after the lights went out, than when the lights were on. Had a long tentacle anemone that grew from a tiny little guy to a 12” monster. It hosted my pair of clowns that spawned all the time. Two fat mandarins, they couldn’t keep up with the constant multiplying pod population. Huge banded coral shrimp. So mad I sold the whole set up to start a smaller sps tank, complete with metal halide, and huge skimmer.

 

[Pedal Dangit]

pretty happy with my ULM tank. I only just recently started testing ALK and using Kalk because I noticed a decline in the tank ever since an accidental montipora took off growing. Otherwise, for two years I never tested anything and only did water changes when I got around to it. It is all about expectations. Many years ago (different tank and location) I would stress over testing everything, but now with this tank... it is what it is. I never QT either. and yes I have bubble algae, blue polyps and who knows what else. but it works for me .

 

[zuri]

So I often think back to the last 125 gallon tank I had 10 years ago when I lived at the beach. I had a canopy and with higher humidity I really had almost zero evaporation. I didnt have an ATO nor did I really ever top off. I changed about 30 gallons of water once per month, nothing died. I didn't own a single test kit. At the time I had more money than sense, often times not even knowing the name or type of coral I was buying. I never bought frags, like I have now.

T5's, no test kit, no idea what I was doing. Back then though you could actually buy real fiji live rock with lots of hitchhikers. With 150 lbs of live fiji rock and 100 lbs of caribsea live sand I never had an algae outbreak. No diatoms, dinos, cyano, nothing. Corals grew big and I never fed them. Maybe it was the coral salt pro I was using.

Anyone else have a successful tank like that through blind luck. Bioballs, oversized skimmer...miss the simpler times.

I wouldn't call this blind luck if your getting water from the ocean and live rock. there is no reason someone should fail with t5 and this kind of setup. i do get your point tho

 

[zalick]

Yup. Multiple tanks late 90s early 2000s
Power compact and halide lights
HOB skimmer (which didn't do anything)
Top off with brita filtered tap water
Plastic swing arm hydrometer.
Would dump salt straight in tank
Never tested
Dropped frozen cubes in daily
No water changes. I dumped in two part if I felt the tank needed it. Never tested levels. Just a capfull or two here and there.

No algea, dino, cyano etc.

No sps but lps, softies and clams grew like gangbusters.

Always clean and prestine looking.

I actually could sit and watch my tank without worrying about parameters and gadgets.


I miss those days....

 

[aggrofish]

I wouldn't call this blind luck if your getting water from the ocean and live rock. there is no reason someone should fail with t5 and this kind of setup. i do get your point tho

I was making my own RODI water. Water in SoCal is basically sewage.

 

[Mkus]

I never test in my 24 just 3 gal water changes a week with tropic marine pro salt Check salinity all LPS corals Running a fuge setup 13 years original clown fish I moved from a 14 to 24? Couple years ago

 

[blueridgereef]

About 10 years ago, I had multiple tanks I didn't really test, used those strips occasionally but nothing else. Used a swing arm hydrometer, tap water for the first few years because I didn't know any better, mixed the saltwater in a 1 gallon jug right before putting it in the tank (nanos). Never dosed anything, except iodine for a few months because I heard it was good for pulsing Xenia. Once monthly water changes, or when I felt like they needed it, 25-50%. No skimmer, sometimes no heater. Really winged it and sometimes I had problems, but euphyllia grew wonderfully, I kept maxi mini, rock flower and bubble tip anemones with great success, didn't loose fish to swings.

Hoping to recreate something similarly simple but a with a little more method to the madness in my next tank.

 

[mindme]

Really depends on your load. For example, I have an anemone tank that I never water test. It's a 29g tank, it only has a RBTA, some zoas and xenia. So the calcium demands are basically 0. I do a water change every now and then mostly for nutrient export.

Meanwhile my 180g mixed tank requires testing and dosing.