Self sustaining reef aquarium

[xroads]

Do to an incredibly demanding schedule, I havent touched my tank in months, sometimes I havent even fed for 2-3 weeks at a time.

Last night was the first time I was able to see it with the lights on in weeks. To my surprise, everything looked really good. (other then the coralline all over the front glass)

I have mainly LPS, and a leather.

3 purple tangs
2 african flame angels
4 oscellaris
6 line wrasse
3 fire fish

and various clean up crew

My thoughts are between the clown, snail, and shrimp spawns, the reef is sustaining & feeding itself.

I am thinking about keeping a more hands off approach other then cleaning the glass & see what happens.

Anyone have any thoughts or experiences?

 

[Drewbaby]

My concern would be that as the clowns go longer without feedings they may stop spawning to conserve energy and that would cut off your food supply for the other fish. Also I can't imagine that eating solely clown fry is healthy for your tangs and angels.

 

[DoubleM 10]

i agree this cant be good. no tank is self sustained and proven

 

[sedor]

Unfortunately there just isn't enough biodiversity in our aquariums to maintain a self sustaining tank. It is a nice thought though. I'm impressed that its gone 2 - 3 weeks in between feedings!

 

[syrinx]

One of my tanks hasn`t had food added for years. the original reef tanks were self sustaining due to the fact fish were but a small part of the system.

 

[mscarpena]

One of my tanks hasn`t had food added for years. the original reef tanks were self sustaining due to the fact fish were but a small part of the system.

That maybe, but your fish maybe strictly pod eaters or you may have low levels of fish. I would not encourage the original poster to not feed their tanks. I would say with the tangs and the angels they need a very specific diet. I would not think you have enough algae to keep your tangs well fed. They will get stressed out and die relatively soon IMO. Also if you have a reef tank what are your parameters? Seriously though if you dont even have time to feed your fish you should get rid of them. I only feed 4 times per week, but thats because I want to keep nitrates and phospahtes low. I observe my tanks everyday. Things can go wrong really fast and if your not there to watch your fish will suffer and that is just plain not fair to them.

 

[syrinx]

I don`t think anything I said implied it was suggested to not feed a fish tank. But a balanced reef is very possible- and was the original concept of reef keeping. My response was more to help some of the other posters understand the validity of the concept- not that the OPs tank follows it.

 

[xroads]

Thanks all

I guess I should elaborate a little on the system, it is a 250 gallon tank witha 125 gallon sump, refugium.

I am assuming the smaller fish are finding plenty of pods and such. Unfortunatly, there is enough algae for the tangs. They all appear very fat & happy.

My point is that it appears to be a self sustained eco system right now.

 

[frankpayne32]

While a truly self-sustaining mini-ecosystem is impossible it does appear that yours is fairly self-sustaining in terms of nutrients. That IS possible. I've seen it in rainforest vivariums. Just keep a close eye on all of your inhabitants health. If their health (behavioral and physical) starts to decline then make adjustments accordingly. Nobody on here can say your tank is unhealthy as they haven't seen it.

 

[EnderG60]

Large tank, large sump, lots of rock, few fish and lots of algea. This can very easily be self sustaining. I doubt the corals will grow much without suppliments, but I have seen tanks(usually after months or years of niglect) that have reached a self sustaining equilibrium like that.

Only problem I see is that the few tanks Ive seen like that look so bad I would rather not have a tank!

 

[EnderG60]

oh yeah, buy this!

http://www.marinedepot.com/Eheim_Fe..._Food_Feeders-Eheim-EH3581-FIFDFEAF-4-vi.html

 

[foreverreef]

it is possible to be self sustaining...depending on your definition of the term. yes your fish can survive and even flourish feeding from the tank from all kinds of stuff. and yes the tank would reach some level of happiness so to speak, but you will still need to clean a filter sooner or later, or maybe add a few trace elements, to benifit you corals. anyway i a firm beliver that if it aint broke dont fix it. i have had a reef for 10+years with no routine water changes other then top off, and the tank thrived and looked pretty darn good. Soooo rock on man!