Downgrade advice needed

[Navyblue]

At the moment I have a 120G (4x2x2') and a 18G (2x1.5x1) that shares a sump. They were both custom made and rimless. Equipments were geared for SPS keeping. 2x250 DE MH, H&S skimmer, Tunze Streams with multicontroller, Eheim 1262/1264 return pumps, chiller and etc.

I had high hopes and I spent quite a bit to set them up, but one thing lead to another, they were never fully stocked, I guess you could say that I moved on to other stuffs.

At the moment, the tank inhabitants for the 2 tanks are single clownfish (my first fish that have been with me for a decade), a banded serpent star, and 2 snails. :D

I think I stopped turning on the main light for more than a year. The skimmer isn't skimming anything. The macro algae in the refugium in the disappeared. Micro fauna once exploded but now scarce.

Of course it is a waste to run these equipments for what I keep. Not to mention the power and water wasted.

The reason that I kept the tank running pretty much fallow is I haven't really had fun with my old new toy and don't want to sell them off at a huge loss. Not to mention I have to spend more to get another set of smaller gears.

But one thing for sure is I am not getting rid of that clownfish of 10 years.

Today an idea struck me. I could sell everything except the 18G display tank. It is a shallow rimless tank (2'L x 1.5'D x 1'T). I could plant lots of mangrove and run it skimmerless (so no $$$ needed for small crappy HOB noisy skimmer). The ultimate minimalism, no sump, no return pump, no skimmer, and it will be to easy to make it dead silent. It's been a long time since I have a silent living room, this is definitely an allure for me.

My worry is, this is very limiting. I pretty much won't be able to keep anything else if I decide to get back in the game. Then there is the wife factor, who would have got rid of my 10 year old fish if she got her way. Once I made this step down, I am almost certain that it would be near impossible to have a bigger tank in the future.

I apologise for the long read. For those who have been long enough in the hobby, at one time or another you might have asked yourself similar question. Any advice is appreciated. :)

[HUNTER1]

I'm only starting in saltwater hobby but I had so many hobbies and that includes large freshwater tanks. I know after a while as in any hobby you get tired or it doesn't satisfies you anymore and you choose different hobby. The thing with any hobby we spent a lot and we only recover portions of it. You're saying you're keeping your small tank and might not be able to upgrade later if get the urges again, why not just sell all equipment from the large tank but put the tank aside just in case. I had some hobbies that I left and came back to it only wishing that I had kept all my stuff.

[cherubfish pair]

I wouldn't give up the clown. It should be like family after 10 years.

[Dr Colliebreath]

I would hang on to your 120 as it sounds like you won't be able to justify a whole new setup when you are ready to get back into the hobby (even it it is a handful of years). Put everything away for a couple of years and you will come back eventually given how long you have done it so far.

[Timfish]

Is it a problem or hassle to do a 15 gallon water change every other week? I've been maintaining this filterless 240 gallon tank for over 4 1/2 years with a 20 gallon water change every 10 - 14 days. The only supplement used is aragamight and Kent's superbuffer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eckf4Jne40 The aragamight is easy to dose with an autofeeder dumping a small amount in daily. Here's a picture with PAR readings and what it looks like just before cleaning:

[cherubfish pair]

Where can I get an auto feeder that dispenses liquid?

[Navyblue]

I'm only starting in saltwater hobby but I had so many hobbies and that includes large freshwater tanks. I know after a while as in any hobby you get tired or it doesn't satisfies you anymore and you choose different hobby. The thing with any hobby we spent a lot and we only recover portions of it. You're saying you're keeping your small tank and might not be able to upgrade later if get the urges again, why not just sell all equipment from the large tank but put the tank aside just in case. I had some hobbies that I left and came back to it only wishing that I had kept all my stuff.

I live in an apartment, so I don't have a basement or garage to stow the tank away.

If I were to keep the 120G (which makes sense), I could run it as it is and just add more fishes. But I'd prefer I can scale it back some how, to reduce the noise and running cost. I could use the same idea as the 18G but on a bigger scale.

Any ideas on how to do this and still have a good looking tank would be appreciated.

[Navyblue]

I wouldn't give up the clown. It should be like family after 10 years.

Exactly.

Where can I get an auto feeder that dispenses liquid?

There are dedicated aquarium stuffs for that, but you could also hook up a peristaltic pump on a timer. It takes a bit of dialling in but would work.

[Navyblue]

I would hang on to your 120 as it sounds like you won't be able to justify a whole new setup when you are ready to get back into the hobby (even it it is a handful of years). Put everything away for a couple of years and you will come back eventually given how long you have done it so far.

That sounds reasonable. Now I need an idea of what to do with the 120G.

[Navyblue]

Is it a problem or hassle to do a 15 gallon water change every other week? I've been maintaining this filterless 240 gallon tank for over 4 1/2 years with a 20 gallon water change every 10 - 14 days. The only supplement used is aragamight and Kent's superbuffer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eckf4Jne40 The aragamight is easy to dose with an autofeeder dumping a small amount in daily. Here's a picture with PAR readings and what it looks like just before cleaning:

How's your nitrate and phosphate? And do you get film on water surface?

Hassle is one thing, I wish I could cut down on the running cost and noise too.

That's a nice tank there! This is worth exploring to me.

[Timfish]

Delbeek and Sprung discuss Lee Chin Engs and Dr. Jauberts filterless skimmerless and pumpless methodologies in both Vol I and Vol III of their series "The Reef Aquarium" (they go into more detail in Vol III). If you have an internal overflow and a sump/refugium I would keep it. A fundamental axiom for ecosystems is the more complex it is the better it's stability. Having a sump and/or refugium increases a systems diversity (read up on Tyree's Zonal System) To simplify what you have get rid of anything that is using a pump and is attached to your sump/refugium. The only thing you need is one return pump giving your 1 - 4 turnovers an hour (or two smaller for redundancy).

12 vdc muffin fans are almost silent when run at 7 or 8 volts and are very cheap and can do an exceptional job of of reducing temperatures using evaporative cooling. The downside is you will be going through a lot of fresh water so you may need to make adjustments to your sump to deal with the "bounce" or changes in water level. This video is of a tank I maintain that has 7 250 watt MH running for 10 hours and is completely enclosed by the cabinetry. It is set up with 12 muffin fans (6 sucking and 6 blowing) vented through the attic to a soffet vent and maintains the temperature at 83 or below even when we had over 90 days of 3 digit temps last summer. Standing in front of the tank you can not hear any noise from it
(by the way it does not use a skimmer). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYDb2JAoUUw

As far as in tank circulation I would not bother going higher than 20X and I would be perfectly happy with powerheads only giving 10X total.