Success with lazy reefing?

[matt_97055]

Out of curiosity how many people on here have had success with just about every type of corals and clams with out dosing or frequent water changes? I just started today testing and dosing mag, cal, and alk. I am a very lazy reefer. Up until today I didn't do anything to my tank. my system is 135gal. Totall and I do about a 20gal water change every 3 to 4 weeks. I have a huge skimmer and some cheto in my fuge. All of my sps and my clam and corals are doing great.

 

[austinlyons88]

I'm interested too. I'm also a lazy reefer but I don't have to many corals. I do weekly water changes and besides feeding that's all I really do for my tank lately.

 

[100%hydrophylic]

All you really need is regular water changes, feeding, and stable top off of some sort. cal/mag/alk can be replinished in many non stony dominated systems by just water changes.

If you have some decent equipment, you can be a really lazy reefer and really only do slight maintenance once a month.

 

[Fishshed]

I am a lazy reefer. Biggest thing for keeping water parm stable and low, was a refugium. I was able to keep lps and softies without any problem. No luck with sps though. Good quality reef salt helps to keep alk, mag, and calcium in check, I used tropic marine. Expensive..yes but it was worth it.

 

[Decadence]

I'm super lazy…. I do monthly 10% water changes and feed daily… other than that, all I have to do is maintain my large arsenal of equipment.

I use dosing pumps, calcium reactor, kalk, occasiional lanthanm chloride, a big skimmer and a 5 gallon bucket full of chaeto with a ton of flow and a big light. My skimmer has an automatic neck cleaner and a waste container with a full alarm which shuts off the skimmer. I have to empty it roughly once a month because I skim dry but one of my nine dosers adds vinegar to the tank so the skimmate is very nasty and I consistently read no nitrate or phosphate. I used to run GFO but it took my nutrient levels too low and I was losing color in my SPS collection. Now I'll be dripping lanthanum chloride if PO4 ever reads above 0.03ppm but it hasn't yet it over a month of heavy feeding with a ton of fish.

On top of maintaining equipment, water changes and feeding, I syphon and blow out the rocks roughly once a month. I don't need to do more than this because I run five vortechs in my 90 for TONS of flow and keep a bare bottom tank. Almost everything finds its way to the skimmer.

 

[moses13]

Guilty... 135 gal coming up on 10 yr old. I do 20 gal water change maybe 2-3 times per year.
Try to empty skimmer once per week. Check chems if the corals start to look "off" (maybe every couple months) and add Ca, Alk, Mg as needed. Kalk in the topoff, no other dosing.
Mostly softie / LPS and a few sps.

 

[Rot26]

All of my sps and my clam and corals are doing great.

What does that mean? I see quite a few people say their coral or fish are doing great or are very happy. What do great coral do? Are they just not dead? Do they double in size every week? What % growth is "great"? What's "bad"? Is anything except DEAD, great?

I honestly don't know how to rate my tank nor my husbandry since I can't tell what a happy fish looks like. Honestly, my firefish and royal gramma have the grumpiest looking faces I've ever seen.

 

[whiteshark]

What does that mean? I see quite a few people say their coral or fish are doing great or are very happy. What do great coral do? Are they just not dead? Do they double in size every week? What % growth is "great"? What's "bad"? Is anything except DEAD, great?

I honestly don't know how to rate my tank nor my husbandry since I can't tell what a happy fish looks like. Honestly, my firefish and royal gramma have the grumpiest looking faces I've ever seen.

Quite a good point. This is why pictures need to be included, especially progression shots.

 

[Decadence]

What does that mean? I see quite a few people say their coral or fish are doing great or are very happy. What do great coral do? Are they just not dead? Do they double in size every week? What % growth is "great"? What's "bad"? Is anything except DEAD, great?

I honestly don't know how to rate my tank nor my husbandry since I can't tell what a happy fish looks like. Honestly, my firefish and royal gramma have the grumpiest looking faces I've ever seen.

I can personally say that I have the best growth of any SPS tank that I have ever seen under LEDs. My color and polyp extension are also terrific. My fish are happy: I can tell because I have one large angel, four medium-large tangs and one medium butterfly as well as tons of other fish and there is no aggression, no heavy breathing, no faded colors, no missing fins, etc"¦

You really don't have to be neglectful to be a "lazy reefer" if you build your system to automate large chunks of your maintenance rather than just not doing them.

Before the tang police come out, the butterfly and two other tangs are in separate tanks attached to this system all run off of the same filtration. We have a 300dd which is in the build phase and will be up in the next couple months and we also already have the next upgrade which is 11ft long. :uzi: