When did you "Stop"

[terraincognita]

Just for fun, was thinking about it.

I'm sure a lot of long time reefers can concur, that this hobby is not able to be a long time hobby if you can't get your tank to a point where you eventually are only testing maybe 1-2 times a month, doing some WC's, and feeding. Otherwise, you're just enjoying your tank, not making changes to dosing or tinkering, or moving coral or frags or QTing or dipping or crying and stressing.

So the question, What are some key things you're ultimately going for before you finally take your shoes off put your feet up and open the beer?

Obviously "Stability" and the other things in regards to an established and maturing tank, but please elaborate what you're using to define and decide that.

For me it's when I finally have 70% of my corals growing and gaining coloration.

At that point I'll consider my dosing is dialed in properly, and everythings moving along, and I'll finally stop checking every little thing all the time.

 

[KrisReef]

Seems like you might be doing this wrong, imo. Start with the beer open!

Actually this is a good question. It is important to be happy with ones tank along the road as we all have ups and downs that can impact tank quality.

Once I am happy with a tank it usually crashes, or something breaks and I have to attend to that. Point is, I have learned to enjoy the tank as it presents itself each day . I have to continue to keep abreast of parameters and equipment so that I hopefully don't have any big (negative) surprises that make beer consumption necessary vs. pleasantly optional.

 

[Dbichler]

I honestly only keep soft corals and fish due to this question. I couldn’t imagine losing corals/ money due to a crash. It allows me to relax and enjoy knowing nothing is in danger. Some people like the challenge of harder corals which require much more stability. Soft corals are easy keep salinity stable and due monthly water changes and your good.

 

[Conchman]

To think I will reach a place...meh...I am more on auto-pilot, check parameters, it’s a fairly stable tank. I check on it daily, more just to look and see what snail tipped over what. Clean the glass, whatever. Already on phase 2, final organization of electric, adding new lights and vortech’s. Thinking I may never be done per say but happy with the achievement...

 

[terraincognita]

To think I will reach a place...meh...I am more on auto-pilot, check parameters, it’s a fairly stable tank. I check on it daily, more just to look and see what snail tipped over what. Clean the glass, whatever. Already on phase 2, final organization of electric, adding new lights and vortech’s. Thinking I may never be done per say but happy with the achievement...

This is kind of what I mean though

You're definitely don't wake up every morning going. "****.... did I check on the tank yet".

At least for me, every time I start a tank, there's that small nagging feeling always on my mind when I leave for more than 6-8 hours out of my house of "my tanks gonna be fine... it'l'l be fine.... everything is fine.... I'm sure it'll be fine."

Haha at least until the above happens for me.

Then I finally stop thinking about my tank when I'm not at home lol.

 

[Doctorgori]

I’d like to know myself. You mean other than your maintenance routine( s)? Certainly over time things
require less monitoring & fidgeting, but seems always somethings breaking: errors, alarms, seems that never stops.

 

[terraincognita]

I’d like to know myself. You mean other than your maintenance routine( s)? Certainly over time things
require less monitoring & fidgeting, but seems always somethings breaking: errors, alarms, seems that never stops.

Really?

Maybe I'm just a lucky person.

There's always a point where I step back from my tanks, and don't even touch them for weeks at a time. Outside of feeding refilling dosers/dosing/ato etc.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I'm in the @Dbichler camp. It's larger FOWLER tanks, and much smaller softie tanks (just enough to 'dabble' in the world of corals) for me. Not much dies, and you will sooner get to the point where you can keep your hands out of the tank. But hats off to those successful mixed-reefers out there!

 

[Timfish]

Couple decades ago actually when I realized what we can test for falls far short of showing what's actually going on in a system, young or old. When I set up a system alkalinity is checked occasionally and to a lesser extent calcium, magnesium, phosphates and nitrates. The corals and the algae are better indicators of what's going on in my opinion.

 

[tony'stank]

I have been a reefer for 37 years. My tank is very very stable. I keep fish and primarily softies with some easy to keep sps. All my corals and fish appear very healthy. I don’t do water changes and rarely do testing. I enjoy my tank immensely. I will give up the tank when I no longer care for it. This is a real concern for me as I have lung cancer.

 

[Silent]

I stopped when things quit dying and tests were predictable. That is certainly not the case with my current tank but 8-10 years ago I had it made with a predictable, stable system with 75-100 different types of coral. I went on vacation and had a return pump mishap and lost it all so I took 5 years off.

 

[McPuff]

I go hands-off in the summer and then find a lot of projects during the winter. During covid I've also found and completed quite a few projects in and around the tank. Some are yet to be completed but it's very close (built a new sump, making a bigger lagoon, etc.). Last year I did a total stand and canopy refresh/rebuild with the tank in place. But in summer... I just do what is necessary and that's about it.

 

[najer]

Once the engineer goby grew and started visiting deep, dark places under my scape the tank basically cycled, the amount of cloudiness varies by the day, today is a cloudy day!
I only do water changes if required, the last one was about 40 litres to set a tank up in a day, a replacement for my little tank that leaked so all the stock was in my big tank, I swear the display sulked for a week after the change!
I dose and top up manually, I have the stuff here to sort out top ups and 2 part dosing, I don't trust it enough to set it up.
I accept that I can't do acros again but there is a second reason for that, bottom right, it chewed one of my acros!
Let it establish and evolve, am I attacking my cyano issue, no, I'm letting it be because it keeps me on my toes observing the corals, currently flow by the way mostly as if I clean areas it doesn't really come back.
Daily maintenance is about 3 - 5 minutes, still trying to figure out how I can be even more lazy without trusting a machine!

 

[Perthegallon]

Honestly if I could get a refund for it all I got and send this tank directly back I would be out of this hobby so quick but I have it so I keep getting corals

 

[terraincognita]

I have been a reefer for 37 years. My tank is very very stable. I keep fish and primarily softies with some easy to keep sps. All my corals and fish appear very healthy. I don’t do water changes and rarely do testing. I enjoy my tank immensely. I will give up the tank when I no longer care for it. This is a real concern for me as I have lung cancer.

That's great and Im happy you have such a beautiful reef with such low maintence for yourself!

I'm glad you could find that spot for sure. Some reefers NEVER find it I guess. So I'm super happy for you! Congrats! And all my prayers.

 

[terraincognita]

I go hands-off in the summer and then find a lot of projects during the winter. During covid I've also found and completed quite a few projects in and around the tank. Some are yet to be completed but it's very close (built a new sump, making a bigger lagoon, etc.). Last year I did a total stand and canopy refresh/rebuild with the tank in place. But in summer... I just do what is necessary and that's about it.

There's definitely a point on this.

Even though now I'm done majorly tinkering with my 45, I'm now trying to build a cabinet next to it which will be my mini "fish room" inside my living room lol. So I can put everything inside there, including a water change station with 30G of always ready salt. HAHAHA

While the tank tinkering may stop, the hobby love and projects don't I guess that's true.

 

[terraincognita]

Once the engineer goby grew and started visiting deep, dark places under my scape the tank basically cycled, the amount of cloudiness varies by the day, today is a cloudy day!
I only do water changes if required, the last one was about 40 litres to set a tank up in a day, a replacement for my little tank that leaked so all the stock was in my big tank, I swear the display sulked for a week after the change!
I dose and top up manually, I have the stuff here to sort out top ups and 2 part dosing, I don't trust it enough to set it up.
I accept that I can't do acros again but there is a second reason for that, bottom right, it chewed one of my acros!
Let it establish and evolve, am I attacking my cyano issue, no, I'm letting it be because it keeps me on my toes observing the corals, currently flow by the way mostly as if I clean areas it doesn't really come back.
Daily maintenance is about 3 - 5 minutes, still trying to figure out how I can be even more lazy without trusting a machine!

This is to me a reef that's succeeding even though maybe un-orthodox because nature is fighting to balance itself out, which I find anywhere you go it will always try to balance itself out and find harmony.

Without too much tinkering you're letting it naturally do it's thing and that to me is one of the greatest approaches in this hobby and it seems to very readily be sorting itself!

 

[terraincognita]

I stopped when things quit dying and tests were predictable. That is certainly not the case with my current tank but 8-10 years ago I had it made with a predictable, stable system with 75-100 different types of coral. I went on vacation and had a return pump mishap and lost it all so I took 5 years off.

Yeah. It's good after a crash or something to take a break though for a bit it's an intense hobby.

 

[najer]

This is to me a reef that's succeeding even though maybe un-orthodox because nature is fighting to balance itself out, which I find anywhere you go it will always try to balance itself out and find harmony.

Without too much tinkering you're letting it naturally do it's thing and that to me is one of the greatest approaches in this hobby and it seems to very readily be sorting itself!

When I designed the tank I thought about how to be as hands off as possible, it took a couple of years to settle, I know what I did wrong at the start up, it will never be as stable as a lot of reefs but it is my little reef rockpool!

 

[Paul B]

If I didn't succeed by now, I really should give up. I never have a dead or sick fish, I mean in like over 40 years. I only have one tank, no hospital or quarantine tank and no medications as that would be silly.
I would never quarantine or medicate anything because as I said, I think I am there and my feet are up.

My maintenance is cleaning the DIY skimmer top maybe monthly as the effluent goes into a drain. I add calcium and alk every few days and test a few times a month.

I do have to clean the glass every two or three days and feed almost every day.
A couple of times a year I run my diatom filter over the gravel and rocks where I can reach and I trim corals when they hit the front glass so I can't clean it.

I don't remember the tank ever crashing since 1971 when I set it up and i don't think I ever emptied it to change all the water although I did move it twice in the last 45 years. I put everything into vats and threw it into a truck.

I also have to clean my DIY algae scrubber maybe once a month.
Almost all my fish are paired and almost all of them are spawning.
Most of the time I just sit in front of it with a glass of grand Marnier.
I have about 25 fish