Why so hard?

[Sump Crab]

I just don’t understand why people seem to think a reef is a ton of work? All I do is clean the glass, feed the fish, top off ato 2 times a month, and do a 5 gallon water change once a month.

What’s all this about tons of work and time to keep a tank from going sideways? Is it because people are not using real live rock from the ocean? Is it because they are constantly trying to prop up a broken ecosystem due to their anti “pest” protocols? Just wondering what the deal is and please pardon my ignorance. Thanks!

 

[Saskdevil]

I hear you. We run our one tank it seems in the same manner that you do. However, we are using dry rock. Unfortunately due to price and our remote location we've had to use dry rock. That being said, with some patience and allowing the tanks ecosystem do its thing we now have a thriving tank. It seems some people tend to over complicate things just for the sake of it. A lot of people like to accumulate the best and biggest equipment they can find, even though most of it is not necessary. I stayed away from the hobby for years because I believed it was way too much work and too costly! I viewed the popular "Recommended Equipment" the complexity and price scared me away. My mind gets dizzy sometimes viewing the elaborate setups people create with pipes and hoses everywhere. My personal opinion is a lot of people don't understand how the ecosystem and the biology in their tank works. There is a mentality that to fix something in the tank you just need a new fancy piece of equipment to fix it. Unfortunately all this added equipment can make things more complicated and when things go wrong it's more difficult to located where the problem is.

 

[shakacuz]

the tedious part of it all is stability. but to keep that, you need proper maintenance/prevention, IMHO. those who have the money for automation(apex, ghl, hydros, etc) have it way easier.

 

[RichReef]

I agree that it's not a ton of work once you are there and have your routines down.

I am at 20 mins a day and 2-3 hours every other weekend.

The problem isn't the maintenance it's getting there that takes the work.

 

[Opus]

Lots of reasons. Why do people still change their oil every 3000 miles?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Okay, a ton of work comes at the beginning. New reef keepers do not have the knowledge of even how to set up a system generally. The science is overwhelming and so are the options. Just getting a handle on that is what is hard and a ton of work. If done right.

Once you have a system running and you understand how it all works, it becomes much easier.

 

[Jib]

This is such a humble brag post that doesn't add any meaningful discussion...

 

[bestfishes]

I think it depends on how deep you get into it. If you are measuring water parameters all the time one can become obsessed and try to keep it "perfect" when there is really a normal range to work in. That causes a lot of unnecessary fooling with the tank. If you approach dry rock correctly by adding things like bacteria, pods, etc, you can have good results and avoid some of the issues that come with not knowing what is on your liverock (eg aptasia, fire worms etc). It also depends on what kind of livestock you choose to keep. Someone raising mandarins will have more work feeding than someone raising fish that take pellets. For some, the work is part of the fun of the hobby.

 

[nereefpat]

Do you have any stony corals? What do you dose?

 

[gbroadbridge]

I just don’t understand why people seem to think a reef is a ton of work? All I do is clean the glass, feed the fish, top off ato 2 times a month, and do a 5 gallon water change once a month.

What’s all this about tons of work and time to keep a tank from going sideways? Is it because people are not using real live rock from the ocean? Is it because they are constantly trying to prop up a broken ecosystem due to their anti “pest” protocols? Just wondering what the deal is and please pardon my ignorance. Thanks!

It's because you've been lucky.

Go buy a raffle ticket.

 

[ReefGeezer]

I just don’t understand why people seem to think a reef is a ton of work? All I do is clean the glass, feed the fish, top off ato 2 times a month, and do a 5 gallon water change once a month.

What’s all this about tons of work and time to keep a tank from going sideways? Is it because people are not using real live rock from the ocean? Is it because they are constantly trying to prop up a broken ecosystem due to their anti “pest” protocols? Just wondering what the deal is and please pardon my ignorance. Thanks!

Reef Rule 193: Keep toddlers away from the sump;
Reef Rule 194: Never brag about how well things are going;
Reef Rule 195: Never look at an SPS sidways;...

 

[dvgyfresh]

Reef Rule 193: Keep toddlers away from the sump;
Reef Rule 194: Never brag about how well things are going;
Reef Rule 195: Never look at an SPS sidways;...

Man I looked at my sps sideways next day RTN

 

[chandavi]

It would be awesome to have all the automation,dosing, etc. But alas.......$$$$$$

 

[Jedi1199]

I just don’t understand why people seem to think a reef is a ton of work? All I do is clean the glass, feed the fish, top off ato 2 times a month, and do a 5 gallon water change once a month.

What’s all this about tons of work and time to keep a tank from going sideways? Is it because people are not using real live rock from the ocean? Is it because they are constantly trying to prop up a broken ecosystem due to their anti “pest” protocols? Just wondering what the deal is and please pardon my ignorance. Thanks!

Like everything in life... ALL tanks are different.

What works in one tank is NOT what will work in another. The variables here are uncountable. You are fortunate that your tank works as you run it.

My 55g runs similar to yours, top off the tank every couple days and it runs itself. My 32g needs much more hands on care. The 180 I pretty much ignore..... These are all different tanks, and even though all of the source matter is identical, the lights, content, and demands of the tanks are different.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Its seems youre very pro live rock and pests looking at your other posts and see them as part of the ecosystem. For the most part id agree with you, my 15+year old 265g has aiptasia, bubble algae, invasive palys, and more. To be honest none of them have kept the reef from thriving. But you know what will? Nudibranchs, flatworms, bugs, etc. They will decimate colonies no matter what fish and inverts you have that eat pests. Ive dealt with montipora eating nudis, and ever since then everythings been quarantined. Losing all my 5-8 year old monti colonies one after another is quite painful and not something i want to go through again.

Live rock certainly makes things easier on start up and establishes a health biome very fast. I am by no means saying it doesnt work, but i certainly dont want to embrace any pests coming in. Ive setup tanks both with live rock and dry and both ways can be equally successful but dry does take more effort.

I believe most of the failures from new hobbyists come from rushing into things. Even with live rock if you are inexperienced you will most likely have difficultly keeping a thriving reef right off the bat. These hobbyists spend a ton of money of what their lfs tells them to, do everything theyre supposed to but throw coral and fish in immediately. Then when discouraged by the death of their new live stock thats usually when they come in here for help and saying this hobby is hard. And i would agree, compared to keeping other animals reefing is quite difficult.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just don’t understand why people seem to think a reef is a ton of work? All I do is clean the glass, feed the fish, top off ato 2 times a month, and do a 5 gallon water change once a month.

What’s all this about tons of work and time to keep a tank from going sideways? Is it because people are not using real live rock from the ocean? Is it because they are constantly trying to prop up a broken ecosystem due to their anti “pest” protocols? Just wondering what the deal is and please pardon my ignorance. Thanks!

Back in the day, you literally had to be a chemist to survive in the salt world. get to the late 2000's, and suddenly there are better test kits, equipment, dosers, controllers, salt mixes, lighting and information.
We didnt have these forums and seminars as we do now. there is a required level of discipline and patience to be successful BUT with little effort now

 

[Jedi1199]

Its seems youre very pro live rock and pests looking at your other posts and see them as part of the ecosystem. For the most part id agree with you, my 15+year old 265g has aiptasia, bubble algae, invasive palys, and more. To be honest none of them have kept the reef from thriving. But you know what will? Nudibranchs, flatworms, bugs, etc. They will decimate colonies no matter what fish and inverts you have that eat pests. Ive dealt with montipora eating nudis, and ever since then everythings been quarantined. Losing all my 5-8 year old monti colonies one after another is quite painful and not something i want to go through again.

Interesting that you mention bubble algae... My 55g had it very bad not long ago. Through no effort of my own, it seems to have gone away on its own. The only change I have made recently is I upgraded my lights. I am curious if higher quality lighting will eliminate those types of nuisance algae?

I was running black box lights on my tank for a while... I upgraded to Kessil A360X tuna blues in December. I no longer have GHA or bubble algae in my tank.

My 32, which runs under SmartFarm 165 is infested with GHA... I have tried Flux RX on that tank several times and the GHA keeps coming back. I am curious if I upgrade the light if it will go away.. Hmmm....

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Interesting that you mention bubble algae... My 55g had it very bad not long ago. Through no effort of my own, it seems to have gone away on its own. The only change I have made recently is I upgraded my lights. I am curious if higher quality lighting will eliminate those types of nuisance algae?

I was running black box lights on my tank for a while... I upgraded to Kessil A360X tuna blues in December. I no longer have GHA or bubble algae in my tank.

My 32, which runs under SmartFarm 165 is infested with GHA... I have tried Flux RX on that tank several times and the GHA keeps coming back. I am curious if I upgrade the light if it will go away.. Hmmm....

Hard to say if itd be from the lights, maybe the all blue spectrum may have led to it not being able to thrive anymore. Could also be a coincidence and something like your nutrients dropping could have killed them. Mine certainly isnt going anywhere but the tangs keep it from getting out of hand. I do have to pick it out of the bases of some of my sps from time to time.

 

[Jedi1199]

Hard to say if itd be from the lights, maybe the all blue spectrum may have led to it not being able to thrive anymore. Could also be a coincidence and something like your nutrients dropping could have killed them. Mine certainly isnt going anywhere but the tangs keep it from getting out of hand. I do have to pick it out of the bases of some of my sps from time to time.

I suspect it is a combination of things, Light upgrades, as well as more corals taking up nutrients. My tank is very much overstocked with corals. Most of which are thriving so I expect they are utilizing the nutrients that would otherwise be feeding algae.

I would do the usual quote of my current parameters, but I don't check them so Your guess is as good as mine.. lol... maybe I will check them tonight just so I could say what they are... Probably not, but it sounds good to say.. lol

 

[Jedi1199]

I will also add that with the new Kessil lights, I run zero whites. The black boxes I ran in the past, I ran a combination of blue and white. I suspect that algae is triggered by white lights more than anything. Would be an interesting experiment to see what the difference is between running part white vs all blue.