What is the best thing for your aquarium?

[reefhead]

I am wondering what people think is the best thing to do for your reef tank? To be more specific I wanna know what is the best (makes the biggest difference) maintenance to do. Not something that has to be bought like a doser, skimmer, etc Just something someone can do regularly to improve their aquarium.

 

[BigJohnWoody]

I think research is the number one thing you can do for the health of your tank. A close Second would be water parameter consistency. Keep your salinity, temperature, Alk, Ca, Mag etc. consistent. Plus I think regular water changes are extremely beneficial.

 

[caudill187]

+1 Stability. I think a nice skimmer is worth buying too.....

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I am going to say a stable temperature makes a difference.

 

[Joe Knows Reefs]

Stability and patience +1
Skimmers, lights, flow etc are very important things but won't make much difference without stability in parameters

 

[Snprhed]

kalkwasser

 

[Tyrrell109]

Water changes :wink:

 

[Reed639]

Definately Water Changes NO QUESTION

 

[coloradoreef]

+1 research

 

[MattL22]

Defintly stable temp / alk

 

[sexycorals]

Best thing i think i do is use a turkey baster to blast all the flat dead spots in the tank almost daily.

 

[mjaustin22]

second the kalk

 

[cungdien]

i do water changer every week my coral happy

 

[nuff40]

Best thing....not messing with it day in and day out....leave it alone, it'll take care of itself if it's setup correctly

 

[Chops30]

Best thing....not messing with it day in and day out....leave it alone, it'll take care of itself if it's setup correctly

+1 on that, I'm a big fan of leaving it alone with minimal "hand in tank time."

 

[FaviaFreak]

Perseverance

defined as : continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition

 

[AcroholicReefer]

IMO, this strictly depends on the type of reef that you are wishing to run.

For SPS Reefs, a good quality skimmer really makes a difference. This allows you to depend less on using GFO and Carbon for nutrient removal. Also, you don't risk stripping your zooplankton from the water column.

With that being said, you can run a sps reef on a lower quality skimmer, run gfo and carbon, and bump up your water changes. It is just more effort and much more risky to run a sps reef this way. I choose a good quality skimmer for my nutrient removal.

All sps reefs need some way to supplement calcium and alkalinity on a regular basis. I choose kalk to do the majority of these supplements. On my reef(s), kalk is the most important part of keeping my acros healthy.

 

[mainereefer]

add powdered MSM! it is a supplement you can buy at gnc naturally most abundant in the ocean and we dont have any in our aquariums

 

[AcroholicReefer]

add powdered MSM! it is a supplement you can buy at gnc naturally most abundant in the ocean and we dont have any in our aquariums

you are dosing powdered sulfer? Be careful not to overdose.

 

[SaltyReefs]

I would say 1. Parameters (includes water changes and making your own water), 2. Hands OFF the tank, 3. Replenish all essential nutrients