The Proof for the NON BELIEVERS!

[P3FE]

I decided to start this topic to tell you a story that you will be hard to believe. Ten months ago I started a new 60g cube reef tank, I started a threat here and talked about everything from start to finish, but that's not what I want to share with you. I also have a 200 gallon FOWLR because I like the best of both worlds, who doesn't? The part I forgot to mention is that I'm in the military, my wife is not a fan of my fish tanks, and I've been deployed since June. I'm not a member of any reef club, and the few friends I have, don't really care to much about the hobby, so how can I have a reef and a FOWLR when I'm mostly gone all the time?

When I started the reef tank I knew I needed it to automate it as much as I could and I bought the best equipment my budget could buy to make sure it would happen. It's really hard to get someone who don't love this hobby as much as I do to take care of the aquariums when they don't really want to do it, with that in mind it needed to come down to, water changes, clean the skimmer, replace the filter socks, clean the glass, fill the ATO container and refill the dosing containers when full, a simple task for people like us, a complete nightmare for everyone else. I will not bored you with details on how I convince my wife to do all this while I'm gone, let's just say that with a lot of DIY, written instructions, and love she got onboard and so far so good.

To the good part, the cube is an SPS dominant tank with a few softies and LPS, I know, I had to go for the hard to keep corals and take a chance on my plan. But I'm here to tell you that it's working and you will not believe how good everything is doing in the tank. Keep in mind that the doser hasn't been touch since I left and it will not be touch until I come back four months from now, there is no water testing in this tank, and what I think is one of the reasons for the success nothing has been change since I left. The fish get feed every day Larrys Reef Freenzy food, there's a five gallon water change every week, the filter sock gets change every week, and of course the skimmer gets dumped and clean twice a week. The FOWLR is the same work with different water change schedule.

I know we always talk about Stability Promotes Success and I can tell you from this experience that this is a fact that can't be ignore. There's no secret to have a beautiful reef, there's no snake oil that will make your corals grow faster, time, patience and dedication will definitely pay off at the end. I can't rest sure that my reef will survive till I come home, there's no way for me to know that, but I will continue to share this experience with all of you and hopefully I get to come home to a thriving part of the ocean.

Here are some pictures I took before I left in June, and some updated pics the wife took two days ago. They are cellphone pics and not of good quality but you guys will be able to see the progress. I will continue to update this threat in the following months and share my experiences.

Before I left

 

[P3FE]

Two days ago

 

[luxauterna]

Everything looks great! Glad things are going well. Thank you for your service!

 

[P3FE]

 

[P3FE]

The fish in the FOWLR, alive and healthy.

 

[dbl]

The tanks do look great and seem to be doing well in your absence but…

The important thing here is to thank you for your service to our country. Godspeed to you, your fellow soldiers and your family.

 

[J Rog]

The tanks do look great and seem to be doing well in your absence but…

The important thing here is to thank you for your service to our country. Godspeed to you, your fellow soldiers and your family.

I 2nd that! Congrats on the tanks keeping up well. And thanks for all that you do!

 

[blackz151]

Tank looks great I hope I can get mine that Stable. God speed and thank you as well

 

[P3FE]

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes, it is my pleasure and the ones around me to serve this country to protect our freedom! You guys are the engine that keep us going! Thank you!

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Thank you for your service!!!

The tanks look great!!

 

[P3FE]

Here is a little story i forgot to mention in the post. A month after i left the skimmer pump impeller broke. I get an email explaining that the skimmer is not making bubbles. I though, how am I going to explain how to trouble shoot a skimmer thru email? whats going to happen to the nutrients in the tank with the skimmer off? This is it, the end is near! I explain everything I though it was wrong with the skimmer and how to check it, some how she manage to do it with no luck, so I told her to email Vertex costumer service, it was my last resort and last chance in my mind to save the tank. I must say their customer service is top notch, they guided her thru their trouble shooting procedures, diagnose the problem and sent the new impeler in no time, I must say I was impresed with their service and now Im glad I spent the extra money on their product because it paid off big time at the end.

Now to the biggest lesson I learned from this experience, the tank did just fine and there was no lost of life or outbreak of algae. I estimated that the tank spent a month without a working skimmer. Im sure nitrates and phosphates went up a little in that time, or maybe they didnt, theres no way for me to tell since there was no water testing done in the tank. I dont know what the results would have been if she coulnt have fixed the skimmer, but one thing was clear to me, water changes and a set husbandry schedule is one of the most if not the most important thing you can do to have a thriving reef.

 

[DrBoxedWine]

Do you have some examples of your DIY projects to automate things?

 

[ReeferRookie]

Wish my girl would have got on board with cleaning. Sigh

 

[SABOB]

First, thank you for your service to our country,second your tanks look amazing and third any possibility of loaning your wife out to care for my tanks, Maybe I spend too much time tinkering and should leave things alone

 

[kutcha]

i would like to hear more about the DIY projects cause i my self am also in the military and my wife isnt fully super happy about the reef tank and i worry about when i deploy if she will have the interest or dedication to do what needs to be done while i am gone so the more automation the better

 

[Shookman]

Same here. I'm in the military and I have a 28 gal bio cube reef tank. I use the Ehiem automatic feeder with several different types of food mixed together and a JBJ ATO system. Since I don't have a roommate or significant other the tank can only go about 4 weeks unattended before my ATO setup runs out of water. My problem is the algae bloom when I get back. I've mitigated it as much as possible with an awesome clean up crew, but the flake food doesn't help their efforts at all. Water parameters are fairly stable considering, but there's nothing I can do about that. Do you have any other suggestions? I'd post a pic, but I'm in the process of breaking down the tank for a move.

 

[P3FE]

My DIY projects are not anything out of this world, simple stuff I though about to make things easy while Im gone. The first thing I did was buy what I though it was and so far what I think it is a great RO system. I set it up in my laundry room right next to the utility tub. I set up two 32 gallon Brute trash cans with float valves to shut off water once full in the garage, one I lable clean water, the other one holds clean water but it has a submersible pump inside and its use to mix the salt water for the FOWLR tank and do the water change. Once empty it automatically refills with water and its always ready to go, of course after a lot of trial and error I figured out the exact amount of salt that needs to be added to achieved the right salinity level of that particular tank. It's very easy to tell someone " add this much salt, turn on this switch, wait a few hours and you are ready to go"

To change the water I made what I call a goose neck out of PVC and connected to a lot of tubing and a good water pump and marked the amount of water that it needs to be drain out of the tank in the glass. This made it easy to explain, and didn't required a lot of effort, the explanation went something like this " once the salt water is mixed, take the goose neck with the pump, gooseneck in utility sink, pump in the tank, turn on the pump, once water reach this line, turn off pump, put goose neck in tank, move pump to new salt water in garage, turn on pump, once the bucket is empty, turn off pump, turn on the tank, put everything away and you are done" in my opinion it doesn't get easier than that, and it worked. The ATO buckets are big enought that only need to be refill twice a week, and that's done by hand, but they do have an alarm that you can't ignore if they are empty other than that everything else is simple, dosing pump comtrols CAL an d ALK, Apex controls the entire systems and the skimmers get clean twice a week. Like I said not to complicated DIY stuff but very simple and effective.

 

[P3FE]

I went a step further and convinced the wife to join the forum and follow this thread, she will bring a completely different prospective to the topic, the one of the rest of the world that can't understand our addiction to this hobby, plus she will be able to share her experiences with this crazy journey!

 

[Dory]

I only do this because I love you and I don't want the death of anything on my conscience. Besides, it provides good fodder for school and I don't have to worry about becoming bored because there is always something to do.

 

[P3FE]

i would like to hear more about the DIY projects cause i my self am also in the military and my wife isnt fully super happy about the reef tank and i worry about when i deploy if she will have the interest or dedication to do what needs to be done while i am gone so the more automation the better

I had the same fear, and my best advise is to approach everything as if you would have to teach a five year old how to take care of your tank, the simpler you can make everything, the more likely they will get on board.