KISS Reef Aquaria

[kysard1]

I've been in and out of the hobby for years. Unfortunately my proffesion requires a lot of moves. I've been trying to get up to speed after about 2 years away from the hobby. Most of what I see are SPS dominated styles with high energy and maintenance requirements, for me its not a good option. I'm sure there are others that would like more info on simple efficient tanks
I'm looking for links to setups with the following

1. No CO2 canisters
2. Little required daily maintenance
3. Low power comsumption
4. Minimal algae scraping
5. Lower $ investment
6. As much DIY cost saving as possible

I'm considering a soft/LPS 100 gallon tank with fish. Considering a single 250W MH bulb for light with about 60 lbs of rock. If you have links to similiar setups to the above please share.

[SaltwaterNovice]

Kysard:

Try the GARF website.

There is also another web page that has a similiar set up to Garf's but I can not remeber its name. I think its is called easy reef or something like that. Search the web.

I do not know if these setups work. You may want to check the board for others' experiences.

Good luck,

Brian

[SaltwaterNovice]

Sorry for the double post.

[zimmy]

The KISS priciple. Easy to do on a reef tank. Here is my two cents worth.

Lighting -Go with PC's They will do the trick and do it very well. Better illumination over entire tank. Your 1 MH will not light the whole tank, far from it. If you want MH's use 1 per 2 foot of tank space for best results. PC's also generate much less heat. Keep the sheild clean for max light trans.

Plenum with DSB. This is extremely low maintenance. It will keep your nitrate at or near zero. It also help with your phosphate too! This really helps with algae and reduces the amount of H2O changes. Increases fish load.

Filtration - make a sump and put in a super efficient skimmer. (KEY!!!)

H.O.T. can be a pain and unsightly.
Run carbon. Buy a Mag return pump. Inexpensive a high quality. You do not even need mechanical filtration. I run my tank without any and it is cyrstal clear. No more worrying about buying or maintaining the filter. Avoid sponge filters unless you clean them often to kill off nitrifying bacteria. Question this? Just ask and I will explain.

Water changes 10-20% every 10 days to two weeks keeps things in tip top shape. This one factor I believe has kept me in the hobby for more than twenty years. I have fish so old they have beards! I attribute this longevity to H2O changes. Use RO water if possible. DEFINITELY WITH EVEPORATION LOSSES!!!

Use a two part Calcium/buffer. I like C-balance.

Use a couple of PH's connected to a wavemaker. Even better, hook up your return water to a Sea Swirl.

Don't overstock or over feed. Light fish loads are easier to maintain. Feed your corals. (if applicable) Avoid all miracles in a bottle. Not needed and rarley helps.

Set it up. Enjoy it. Low cost, low maintenance and oh so beautiful.

zimmy

[Sweet N Sour]

To lower your cost and electricity, I would consider a T5 lighting application over your tank. Produces less heat, less electricity and MAJOR amounts of light. Bulbs are inexpensive as well, compared to VHO and PC.

[kysard1]

So with either the T5 or the PC lights how much wattage do I need over the 100 gal to keep LPS/softies?

[Dargason]

I just ran across MalHavoc's website in another thread. You might find it interesting:

http://malhavoc.homeunix.com/personal/reeftank.html

[Jon_Hewett_85]

I would just like to clear up a common mis-conception over lighting and heat. PC's do NOT produce less heat than metal halides. It's just more concentrated. Watt's are watt's. 400w of MH produces the SAME amount of heat as 400w of PC's. HOwever with pc's the heat is spread out over (i don't know lenths of PC's) but with 4 x 110w VHO bulbs it's 16 FEET of bulb. With a Metal halide bulb it's an INCH of arc tube. Same heat. but 192 times more concentratec. But for your application PC's are just fine for lps and softies. Percect. You may want to look into the T-5's tho..they show alot of promise. Dunno what size tank you have but probably 4x4 foot bulbs.+

Keeping your sponges rinced out is a wonderful idea but it's not to kill off nitrifying bacteria...the surface area of a sponge is insignificant compared to your live rock. It's to rinse out trapped organics and detritus.

I feel that one of the most important parts of having a sucessful reef is a GOOD skimmer. Don't skimp on this part. You'll have to pay for a good skimmer....but do some research and get quality the first time around. If you don't you'll regret it later.

Depending on your tank size i wouldn't use a mag as your return pump. They are IMO reliable pumps but they have issues being run in-line. They have a tenency to leak, run submerced they add a heat to the water. For circulation, i feel that wavemakers are nice but not absolutly nessesary, your tank will do fine without them.

Water changes are a MUST. Do them frequently and definatly use RO. Depending on how bad your water is, you may go with RO/DI. Thats what i use on my tank. I'd avoid addatives exept for Ca and Alk. Stay away from the bottled miracles, like zimmy said. Light fishload etc, and you should be set.

[tyesmithND]

My tips

1)If your job requires that you travel a key will be a simple top off system (Many DIY ideas for less than $50 just do a search).

This will keep your water at the proper level when you are gone on road trips.

2) Find a reef buddy with some understading so if your gone for a week he can stop by and feed the fish and corals and just check everything.

3) As for your idea of one MH bulb. I doubt it would do a good job lighting the entire length of the tank. Most recomend one bulb per 2 feet so with a 100g tank you will need more than one.

Thats why I agree with the PC lighting comments. You can find fan cooled hoods which are just plug and play. As for watts per gallon go with as many as you can afford. You can often find good sales on Ebay or in the R.C. selling forum.

4) Don't use a rio pump for anything. For low power consumption go with the mag drive pump.

5) For scraping the glass the only advice I can give is to get one of the floating magnents. It does not do as good a job as a long scraper but for a quick clean it does its job

6) I would say that the vast majority of setups do not have CO2 (calcium reactors) tanks. Many people dose with several of the products on the market. All you do is pour some in.

7) They also make automatic feeders/ I have no experience with the quality or reliabilty but I have seem them around

Hope this helps and good luck. I am recent college grad and know you can do a lot on a budget

7)

[Turtlesteve]

1. No CO2 canisters
2. Little required daily maintenance
3. Low power comsumption
4. Minimal algae scraping
5. Lower $ investment
6. As much DIY cost saving as possible

I fit all but #3. I have a 38 gallon mostly LPS-SPS reef, that usually requires little maintenence (less than 15 minutes/day). No sump or refugium. Automated very low maintenence topoff system. Glass scraped monthly to remove coraline (most comes off with algae magnet). Setup cost about $800 (including about $50 waste), not counting livestock. MH hood, topoff system, seaclone skimmer modifications, overflow box all DIY.

My maintenence is:

Daily: feed tank (10 minutes average)
Weekly: Use algae cleaner magnet to clean glass (ususally not needed), make DI water, mix kalk/buffer (20-30 minutes)
Every 2 weeks: clean skimmer intake (5 minutes)
Every month: prune algae, scrape glass, small water change, wash salt off of tank cover glass, change carbon, re-stick suction cups if necessary (20-45 minutes)

I have had very few problems with my system, and only 2 real close calls. One was a house fire, and the other was this morning, I found my GFCI had tripped because water had leaked out of my skimmer onto the power strips

Livestock:

mandarin goby, maroon clown, lawnmower blenny, snails (7-8 months)
Pectinia? coral, ricordia (7 months)
Xenia (6 months)
brittle star (4 months)
Pearl coral (2 months)
Maxima clam (1 month)
Squamosa clam, pavona, acropora, open brain, fungia (1 week)

The only weakness i feel this system has is a crappy skimmer (the seaclone). It produces a fair amount of nice dark foam but a small amount of cyano and hair algae still shows up.

The tank is 9 months old, details, pics on my website (address in .sig).



[Added comments]: This system has been successfully left for several periods of more than 1 week on vacations, etc. with no maintenece. The best maintenece/money-saving methods i have come across are:

1. Auto-topoff!!! it is a must for when you go out of town. I use 2 grainger float switches and a maxi-jet in a 5 gallon bucket.
2. Algae magnets! they rock! Make sure you have a string for retrieval on the inside-tank magnet, though, or else it will fall down into the rockwork.
3. DIY surface skimmer. made topoff a lot more accurate and beats the heck out of constantly removing scum from the water's surface. the best part: it cost me $10.
4. DIY MH hood. if you can build it or know someone who can, it will save you a lot of money.

[kysard1]

When I said I move I mean relocate, I sold my reef last time I moved at a huge loss so I want to keep my investment small I pretty much know how to do that.

The other issue is lighting.
To be honest with you'all, I think the hobby as a whole will have a black eye if we don't start being more energy conscious. These 2000 watt systems, don't want to sound sanctimonious but lets look at the big picture. If we don't come up with more energy efficient systems we will be looking at legislation, I know there has been talk in Washington it wasn't about wild collection either it was about the power consumptions.

I was thinking of putting the 250watt MH in the center with a smaller hill of LR in the center.

[Sweet N Sour]

With T5 lighting, to answer your question - You can do 3x80 watt bulbs and 2x 03 actinic bulbs and be very happy with what you have. You are looking at 250-300 watts but are getting alot more light, as well as more of a spread with T5s, than you would a single 250. Plus a 100gal is not that deep either so you can more than likely keep most everything thats out there. Beleive it or not.

If you want to know more, hollar. I have a T5 thread around there that shows you were to pick them up. Running off an IC 660 ballast - I don't think your going to get any more cost effective and lower electric costs than that :)

PC's are a sheer waste IMO. Unless they are on nanos - they are crap. Remember - this is MY opinion!

[kysard1]

Thanks for the advice , even better coming from a fellow engineer!