A simple solution for sps keeping idea.

[picoreefer5626]

Hello. I would love to get some feedback on a KISS(keep it simple stupid) method of reefkeeping for sps. I am thinking of starting a new sps dominated reef with 1x 400w 14k metal halide supplipmented with 2 t5's. Flow will be a moded mp40. It will be a 30 gallon tank and I was wondering if I could bypass all the doising of elements and kalkwasser in the top off by just performing a 10 gallon water change a week? Along with good husbandry and a decent skimmer could I have thriving sps colonys. Thanks!

 

[DaddyJax]

Hi!


Absolutely. One thing I can say is that you having a smaller tank is going to be a little bit of a challenge unless you have a decent size sump/fuge. I had a good success with never using a gfo, carbon, kalk...ect. Only WC's and Randy's 2 part along with a good skimmer and fuge.

 

[gig]

I dont see why not, I have a 180, I change out around 27 gallons every two weeks and I really never does, my tank is about 95% sps. Although once it starts to grow, the sps will likely require kalkwasser, at minimum to keep up with ca demand.

 

[picoreefer5626]

Great replies! I will create a build thread an let you all see how it goes!

 

[BHD]

Sadly no, I don't think its possible to keep a simple SPS tank at all.
Some people will say YES but how good is their sps tank? are they growing well or color up good?

I have been keeping reef tank for 7 years now. From 10, 20, 30, 46, 75, 90 gallons.
So I kept some sps for about 4 years without dosing, or dosing when I remember it. Do they survive? Yes, some hardy one will survive and grow while other stuns. The one that grows never color up very good.

I thought my sps were okay. I didn't know better and always brag about my sps are growing and I don't even dose or take good care of them. Until I went to buy some frags and see another person's 400 gallons tank and his sps. My sps are thin, dark, not good looking at all. Its like people say: You never know until you see the light.

So in order to keep sps, you need stable cal and alk. Unless you can dose manually everyday and never miss a day.
You need at least two dosers or a cal reactor, so not so simple anymore.

Once you get the cal and alk stable, but your sps still don't color up and wont' grow as fast. Why?? what now??
Then you find out that your nitrate and phosphate are high. How to fix them?? Bio pellet, vodka/vinegar dosing? GFO, algae scrubber, a big refugium? Not so simple anymore.

From my experiences, Cal and Alk are simple to get with dosers. But the nitrate and Phosphate aren't easy to reduce them at close to zero and keep them there most of the time. So in the end, its very hard to keep a simple, successful, and colorful SPS tank. Look at all the tank of the months. they aren't simple.

 

[kevlow]

I believe in the Kiss concept for many things in life. It works for me in a 10g nano. But as with all things there are pluses and minuses.

One plus is that I am only a WC away from fixing most any problem. and WCs are small and easy to manage. I only dose alk. I do not mess with skimmers and dosers.

Minuses are that it is more volitile and can go south in a hurry. It requires attention everyday, even if just for monitoring for problems.With no skimming or filtration or dosing, then WCs are frequent and mandatory for maintaining growth and coloration.

My 10g has ran for over 8 years. The last three sps dominate. As corals mature they must be fragged or removed.

I believe there is a trade off. All the equipment and supplements allow us to take our hands off our tanks, allows us to maintain larger tanks without constant massive WCs, and maintain stablity. The flip side is that not haveing all of that means constant hands on vigilance.

This is why I think the Kiss method works best on small nanos. I change 3-5g a week in a 10g tank. I would hate to do that in a 30g tank

Just my two cents.

 

[dzhuo]

Absolutely. [...] I had a good success with never using a gfo, carbon, kalk...ect. Only WC's and Randy's 2 part along with a good skimmer and fuge.

Sadly no, I don't think its possible to keep a simple SPS tank at all.
Some people will say YES but how good is their sps tank? are they growing well or color up good?

LOL. Try look up DaddyJax's tank. For starter: Just another "Show Off" thread!. Sadly many of the old timers (who really know how to grow SPS) seem to have disappear and no longer showing up here.

I have been keeping reef tank for 7 years now. From 10, 20, 30, 46, 75, 90 gallons.

I don't even remember how long I have been in this hobby.

To OP: Yes it's very doable. In fact, we used to grow SPS just like you described and are very successful. In a sense, I feel the way we used to maintain our tank is lot better and easier than lots of people's approach to this hobby today.

 

[MammothReefer]

Really depends on what your definition of KISS is.

Less equipment doesn't always mean KISS in my books. Especially if it results in more work, and monitoring. Things like ATO, and Dosers make things simpler, and easier to maintain. 500w over a 30 gallon SPS tank, with no ATO doesn't sound like the simplest way to do things. I ran an SPS dominated 29, for a while, it had a 250w DE over it, required a chiller and still evaped like crazy.

Is it do able sure. Are there easier routes yes.

To Kev, I change 10-20 gallons a week on my 65.. It's a pretty quick process if you have the right size buckets ^_^

 

[Alex T.]

I think simplicity in design is more accurate to say than a simple sps tank with no dosing or monitoring equipment.

Like others have said, you can keep them alive, but to make them thrive and color up like glow sticks requires stability of parameters and a rock solid maintenance schedule. If you have a fair amount of sps, then your dosing regimen is not going to be all that simple if you choose to do it manually. You're either going to spend the money to automate things or be married to your tank with daily, manual dosing and other tweaking.

You can have a simple reef tank, but a simple SPS reef tank is arguably the pinnacle of the marine keeping hobby, so to say that it can be made as simple as a fish only tank is IMHO steeped in myth. Browse through the TOTM profiles and see how many are "simple" when SPS and/or clams are the dominant animals being kept. Many of us spend time on our tanks daily, and don't like to admit how much time we allocate to our SPS care.

There's nothing simple about the utility bill that comes from keeping SPS either.:eek2:

 

[Reef264]

Mine is pretty Simple, High Flow, 2 Skimmers, Refugium, Filter Socks, Good Consistent Water Chemistry, 5 small fish, 32 Gallon Water Change every 2 weeks, No reactors, although I am going to get a Calcium Reactor soon as I find the one I want.I get good Color, Good Growth, Quick Color Up in New Corals.

It is Deffinately possible, I have seen incredible systems with no reactors, didn't have Ozone, or Heavy GFO Filtration, but that being said, I've seen systems that topped the simple systems, with all high tech Equiptment.

Overall view of the question Can a Simple system grow awesome corals?Sure!Why not...

Do all the High-Tech reactors work, Yes!They play a great rol

 

[DaddyJax]

I think simplicity in design is more accurate to say than a simple sps tank with no dosing or monitoring equipment.

Like others have said, you can keep them alive, but to make them thrive and color up like glow sticks requires stability of parameters and a rock solid maintenance schedule. If you have a fair amount of sps, then your dosing regimen is not going to be all that simple if you choose to do it manually. You're either going to spend the money to automate things or be married to your tank with daily, manual dosing and other tweaking.

You can have a simple reef tank, but a simple SPS reef tank is arguably the pinnacle of the marine keeping hobby, so to say that it can be made as simple as a fish only tank is IMHO steeped in myth. Browse through the TOTM profiles and see how many are "simple" when SPS and/or clams are the dominant animals being kept. Many of us spend time on our tanks daily, and don't like to admit how much time we allocate to our SPS care.

There's nothing simple about the utility bill that comes from keeping SPS either.:eek2:

There is some truth to this. I guess for me to put in two part daily and feed fish daily along with weekly wc's is simple in perspective to some others. I will consider having a dosing pump on my next system.


Btw, I think I had some pretty decent corals.

 

[kylebeano]

I believe my tank to be pretty simple. I have 2 10w par30 bulbs, and an AC70 HOB filter with chaeto and chemipureE. I do a 1g water change about 3-4 times a week depending on how I feed, which takes me 10 minutes to baste the rocks and do the WC. I top off in the morning, and at night as needed.
I dont dose anything yet, because I dont know what my parameters are. The corals are encrusting and growing well, and I dont expect huge swings with the frequent water changes. It is simple, not TOTM kind of material, but it looks great and is showing me good results.

A few of those corals are new, so they kind of look out of place right now but in a couple months they will fit in nicely. Also, with decent trimming they will fill out well.

And the tank is 4 gallons BTW.

 

[mantisshrimp]

I think people over complicate things waaay too much. I believe you can do it, but you will have to add calcium/alkalinity. All that other BS is not needed. These are some pics of my 30 cube from years ago running on a skimmer and water changes every 3 months.

Colors look fine to me, and growth was great:

before:

after:

OH BTW, I've never owned a testkit or controller or probes.

 

[dzhuo]

Btw, I think I had some pretty decent corals.

As usual, people who have the most success are the most humble. If these are decent, I don't know what's great coloration:

It's also nice to know these photos aren't under a gazillion watts of blue lights as well.

My definition of simple has relatively little to do with the amount of equipment used as people continue to refer to. Obviously, having better equipment just simply the day to day maintenance routine which reduce complexity. My biggest rant of most people's approach to this hobby today is their mentality which over complicated things. Instead of taking a bottom up approach (you start with quality basic equipment which are proven to work), most people go for a top down (with every known method, equipement, addictives, and chemicals all line up) system which is hard to understand, debug and maintain. Take nutrient, for example, there are a gazillion number of addictives and coral-food available and despite most of them haven't proven to work or even know exactly what they are, people continue to push and try-them-out.

That's what makes a system complicated. A simple system should not lean itself having to deal with all these extra complexity.

 

[dzhuo]

Many of us spend time on our tanks daily, and don't like to admit how much time we allocate to our SPS care.

Aside from feeding the fish, you shouldn't have to spend time on the tank every day. If you are, then there is something wrong.

 

[Alex T.]

Aside from feeding the fish, you shouldn't have to spend time on the tank every day. If you are, then there is something wrong.

I respectfully disagree...unless you do none of the following:

1. Checking the skimmer cup (cleaning if necessary)
2. Monitoring health of fish, corals and inverts
3. Scraping coralline off glass
4. Making sure powerheads are clean and working properly
5. Checking ro/di automatic fill reservoir
6. Wiping salt creep off bulbs
7. Cleaning out the sump of detritus buildup
8. Changing filter socks
9. Feeding the fish
10. Vacuuming the sand (unless BB)
11. Performing a water change
12. Cleaning the viewing panel(s) of film buildup
13. Going to the LFS to buy food/salt/etc. (this counts too)
14. Monitoring parameters as SPS and clams grow
15. Acclimating new arrivals to tank parameters/lighting (fish or corals)
16. Watching over a qt of either fish and/or corals
17. Making RO/DI water...replacing filters
18. Mixing saltwater
19. Trimming macro algae if you run a refugium
20. Refilling dosing pump containers or calibrating CO2 bubble rate

These are a few of my favorite things....

I'm confident that if many SPS keepers look at how much time they spend on any of the above examples, they'd be amazed at how much effort and time allocation is given to their tanks unknowingly. These forums are filled with people that had to break down beautiful tanks because of additional travel for work or other reasons that took them away from their tanks for more than a few days on a consistent basis. I know that even with a tank sitter I stress when I'm away for more than a day. If all we had to do was feed the fish and do a water change on the weekend then everyone would...and could do it. If it were truly that easy and simple we wouldn't need these forums to seek out advice. We could just all set up automatic feeders and call it a day. However, the fact remains that it takes a skilled hand, knowledge, and a determined soul to learn from mistakes, provide the proper care, intervene when necessary, and hope for success over the course of years, not months. The words simple and SPS are rarely heard in the same sentence for a number of the above reasons, requirements, dedication and nature of this type of coral.

Just MHO

 

[Rockys_Pride]

I don't do any of that, lol.

 

[MammothReefer]

Alex is right we do more then we think imop. I remember when I broke down my tank after years and years with anywhere from 1 to 5 systems going at any time.. It was insane how much free time I found myself with, also how much quieter my house got, and how much more money I was saving on a monthly basis... ...but after 3 years I missed it and got back into the hobby on a much smaller scale.

I now break my tasks down into 4 types.. Daily/Every Other day. Weekly, and every other month, event triggered tasks (ex. run out of salt, buy more salt, clean pumps when needed, etc)

- Daily / Every other day
Inspect Tank for any anomalies (aka stare at tank)
Test Alk (Hopefully this will be cut down to weekly soon)
Feed fish
Add Oysterfeast (when I remember)
Troll RC, and a few online vendors for interesting new corals (lol)
Day dream of opening up shop again (and remembering why I got out of it in the first place)

- Weekly
Clean skimmer
Water change (inlcuding making up new batches of RO/DI, Mixing, cleaning buckets, etc..)
Replenish top off bucket (includes making up new RO/DI)
Test mag, calc, alk, salinty, ph, nitrate, and phophsate.
Blast corals for pests, and to kick up any detritus prior to water changes.
Clean glass
Change filter sock

- Every other month.
Replace Carbon & Rowa
Wash filter socks (I have like 20 so I wash them when I get to my last one)
Refill dosing jugs

 

[dzhuo]

1. Checking the skimmer cup (cleaning if necessary)
2. Monitoring health of fish, corals and inverts
3. Scraping coralline off glass
4. Making sure powerheads are clean and working properly
5. Checking ro/di automatic fill reservoir
6. Wiping salt creep off bulbs
7. Cleaning out the sump of detritus buildup
8. Changing filter socks
9. Feeding the fish
10. Vacuuming the sand (unless BB)
11. Performing a water change
12. Cleaning the viewing panel(s) of film buildup
13. Going to the LFS to buy food/salt/etc. (this counts too)
14. Monitoring parameters as SPS and clams grow
15. Acclimating new arrivals to tank parameters/lighting (fish or corals)
16. Watching over a qt of either fish and/or corals
17. Making RO/DI water...replacing filters
18. Mixing saltwater
19. Trimming macro algae if you run a refugium
20. Refilling dosing pump containers or calibrating CO2 bubble rate

Well, the list isn't long enough. I am sure if you try a little harder, you can list:

21. Vinegar both all your powerheads.
22. Replace your broken return pump.
23. Upgrade to a larger tank.

You even have the nerve to list acclimating new arrivals as a daily routine. Amazing!

On a little more serious note. I would probably consider scraping coralline and film algae (along with feeding the fish) as a daily routine (I only need to do this every 4 to 5 days so it's not exactly daily as well) but that's about it. And I don't consider checking the health of my fish and coral as part of the routine either. That's done when I feed my fish and part of the reason why I set up a tank: So I can look and enjoy it.

If you end up having a tank and have to do all of the above as a daily (or even semi-daily) routines, you will get out of this hobby faster than you can type your next response.

 

[westreef]

I enjoy watching my tank. And I also enjoy doing some maintenance for the tank everyday. Sometimes I even try to think of something to do to the tank. This is my hobby! If people don't like the chore they should drop out of it. This is my 2 cents.