Who has the lowest maintenance tank?

ZoeReef

ZoeReef

New member
I was intruiged by a comment made to me by a very good LFS owner. I had mentioned to her that I felt like I needed to get a degree in chemistry in order to understand everything. She said that some people just like to make it complicated.

So, I began to wonder...

Who has the lowest maintenance tank? Which system gives you the most amount of enjoyment for the least amount of time tinkering. If you have a very automated system that is fair game.

I'm not looking for the simplest system, just the one that tends to keep itself healthy and running well with the minimum amount of hours spent weekly.
 
a weekly water change takes about 20 mins tops and thats including cleaning the glass and removing detritus thats bulit up anywhere, and that is all you have to really do. And to check the levels takes 5 mins so thats 25 minutes not so hard. But thats with any reef tank, also a sump and refugim(sp) help. The biggest thing is waterchanges!!!!!!
 
if you have that 25 maybe like 5 gallons or less, I would just do 5. But when you get your 120 maybe 20-25 gallons just a guess I have never had a tank that big
 
My 120 reef has an auto top off system by airwaterice.com
It is connected to my sump. Everything is on a timer. I do 25 to 30 gallon water changes every 2 weeks. I have an incredible pod population and now rarely feed the tank and its occupants. I also have a fair amount of caulerpa in the tank which is harvested ever 2 to 3 weeks and sold. I really just clean the glass every few days.:D
 
I too am interested in the subject. Particularly interested in ideas/suggestions for setups with very hardy livestock, very low bioloads, relatively low energy requirements, and relatively low maintenance. The idea of the ecosphere from brookstone comes to mind as a no maint tank... I dont know that the ecosphere is a good/successfull product or plan, but the idea of it is interesting. Something perhaps involving no fish, low light softies, macroalgae, sunlight as part of lighting... perhaps some electric (such as fans and some lighting) driven by small solar panels. Would make it easier to spin as an office tank at work anyway :).. partially to lower the perception of time spent with hobby while on the clock, and partly to put forth a low energy environmentally sustainable reef biotope. Hope i didnt hijack.
 
no, thats a great post. There seems to be several levels in this hobby and I am interested in ideas that help keep a very good looking but low maintenance system. Of course there is no garden without a gardener, but it seems some live at their aquariums (which is..of course..fine) but we will be putting in a 700g reef tank at a church/childcare facility next year and I'm looking for principles.
 
I have a 55 gal tank. DSB, No Sump. Aquaclear Aquatics HO Skimmer, 3 Powerjets, HO Marineland Power Filter that I use only for water flow and running media such as carbon. It is approx. 5 yrs old.

I have a moderate bioload. A star polyp colony that I constantly harvest and trade. Various photo gorgonias that I purchased from a RC member. I am now fraging and trading them. 3 different Zooanthid colonies. Mushrooms here and there. 2 three year old feather dusters. 1 black cuke. My fish are all tank raised. 1 gramma, 1 neon goby, 1 blenny, 3 yellotail blue damsels. My DSB (knock on wood) still seems to be healthy and functioning.

I do a water change once every three weeks, clean the front glass and harvest macro algae when I do water changes. My only real hassel is dosing my make up water (kalk). I still do it the old fashion way w/ a one gallon jug drip siphon. If I could come up with a way to automatically do that, I would hardly ever have to touch it. Other than the sg of my replacement water, I dont think I have done a chemical test in over a year.

IMHO the tricky part to lowering your maintenence is achieving a balance between your tanks particular filtering capacity and your bioload.
 
125g show, 75g frag/fuge 40g sump, 240g total
Running 2+ years
Empty & clean the skimmer once a week or when I think of it
Water change once a month - 40g
Sometimes 2x a month - usually more water changes in the summer
clean the glass - viewable on 3 sides. So I clean one side one day, then the other another day
Once a week I scrape corraline
I "allow" my tank parameters to move around
It's a mixed tank, Softies, LPS & Cap
I keep having to remove large todstools that grow & other softies
I add kalk, but not on a reg basis
Manual top-off I have a pump in a 55g drum that I use to pump top-off RO/DI water into my sump

Planning on upgrading to a 180g ahow, the 125g will become frag tank. With a new sump this will push my system volume over 400g

Everything is growing great. In October I had to do a tank clean out to make room & sell off stuff that was "too big" or was spreading too much

I know people who have smaller tanks & spend a LOT more time
Depends upon what works for you
 
Thx Jim..Dave.

Jim..what elements do you consider to be part of your filtering system. Do you think that the DSB reduces the maintenance? It sounds like you have a very stable system.

I have about a 2" sandbed in my small nano, and I'm setting up the 120 in about a month. I am one of those who spends much more time on it although I am adding things to stabilize it more fully.

One concern I have is that I've read about systems crashing and killing all livestock when the DSB goes out of whack or gets disturbed. This from people who have had stable systems for years.

As we do pre-planning on our 700g reef tank for next year I'm considering doing a very thin layer of sand in the display tank and adding a larger DSB in the refugium. That way I could isolate the DSB if there are problems. I will have plenty of water flow and will probably spring for a Deltec skimmer.

Thanks for your input
 
I scrape my tank's glass once a week (5 min or less). Other than that, I do my weekly water changes which takes 20 minutes maximum.

I usually just stick my skimmer cup under the sink after I finish feeding the fish. Takes a minute or two every 2-3 days.
 
I don't do much of anything to my 55 reef. Just clean off the inside of the front pane of glass from light algal growth and the outside from dog-nose smudges. I replace whatever water evaporates accordingly to the salinity, oh yeah and feed the fish. I've had my reef running for just about 2 years and I've been treating it as I currently do for the last year. I test all levels once in a while just to make sure things are still okay. Lights are timed and that's it. Everything runs incredibly well!
 
tu..did it take you a long time to get to that balance and, what would you credit the ease of maintenance?
 
think i win on the low maintence side. 70g tank. never check parameters with kits but through the health of the inhabitants. in my 70g there is 1 cb dwarf angel, 1 false perc clown and 1 bi coloured blenny so very little fish waste. almost all soft coral so no heavy calicum use. i do a Natural sea water change (15%) once a week and clean the glass when its needed. dont need to vacum or clean detritus as the clean up crew, consisting of snails( which have spawned twice :) ) and small crabs take care of it. just use a skimmer. thinking that its almost the lease possible maintenance required and looks beautfiul.
 
My system can go a few weeks with me doing nothing and then again I could be tinkering all day every day. I feed twice a day, clean the skimmer every 3 days or twice a week and clean the front once a week with a magnet cleaner.

Don't really do water changes but every 6 weeks or so I end a hypo cycle in my QT so water from my display goes into that to raise salinity and equalise water params for the new fish so that's about 50 gallons of new water that has to go back in the display over a few days every six weeks.

Every month I siphon out about quarter of the SSB and replace it. Once a week I have to give two sections in the sump a good clean to wipe out the diatom and cyano and I suck that out with a cannister filter. Also once a week I try to blow off the rocks with an MJ1200.

Bi-Weekly I get the cannister filter in teh main display and suck out and collected detritus blown out to the back.

In Summary:

Daily: Feedings (2)
Twice a week: Skimmer Cup cleaning
Weekly: Display magnet cleaning, sump cleaning and blow off rocks
Bi-Weekly: Siphon out detritus from display.
Monthly: Sand siphoning and replacing
6 Weekly: Water changes

I think I'm pretty low maintainance. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

griss
Aqua World
Replies
4
Views
150
griss
griss
M
Back to this wonderfull hobbie after 10 years
Replies
4
Views
278
griss
griss
S
Overskimming on New Protein Skimmer
Replies
2
Views
145
wvned
wvned
M
What’s your biggest headache in reef tank care?”
Replies
6
Views
3K
game misconduct
G
G
Back after 20 years - cycling advice
Replies
4
Views
156
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
Back
Top