The Lazy Reef

[es_surf]

Thought I would post my tanks story, as proof to the lazy people in the world (like myself) that you can have a tank with essentially no effort.
Lazy caveat: I did do TONS of research on this site and others the first year to get to the point where I am at now. So no one should take this as me saying they could pull this off from day one, but eventually you can get to a point where you dont have to obsess over your tanks care. Also, I am not saying that what I do should be done by everyone, (to each his own), but my point that there is more than one way to have a successful and enjoyable tank.

Here is my usual expended effort:
1) daily I feed the fish
2) weekly I refill the RO/DI water jug.
3) clean off the acrylic, and the skimmer if needed.
Thats all, I never spend more than 10 minutes on it in a typical week.
*Many times I have left my tank for 2 weeks straight while on vacations, and used an auto feeder. No problems at all.

I now check my chemicals about 3 times a years. I watch my inhabitants closely for signs that my chemical levels are drifting.
Phosphates – None
Nitrates – None
Everything Else - do'n fine

Age - 3yrs, 75 Gallons, 440w VHO.
2 hippo tangs (yup, that’s right, 2 of ‘em), clown pair (constantly lay’n eggs), a blenny, a spotted goby, and a cromis.
Anemone, Derasa, Crocea, leathers, sps, lps, zoo’s, richordia, etc,..and by accident, a flowerpot (somehow ended up in the wifes bag from the lfs) Flowerpot is now 28 months in my tank, surprised its made it this long and grown as well.
Everything has been in the tank for at least 2 years

Filtration – Yup, I got em>BioBalls. They are mostly underwater though, so really they act as just more surface area for bacteria). Its cleaned maybe once every 18 months. I also have a Fluval (you read that correctly), mostly for added flow and additional surface area. Its cleaned once a year (maybe twice if its lucky).
Additional Equipment – Calcium Reactor (the single greatest purchase ever), and fresh water dosing pump for topoff (the second greatest purchase ever)

Water Changes - My first year with the tank I did them about every 2 weeks as suggested. The second year, I did about 6 to 12 water changes. Today, I haven’t done a water change in at least 12 months. I am thinking of doing one soon though, although I cant think of a good reason why (I guess just to freshn the water for whatever reason).

My only problems: flatworms that wont die easy with flatworm exit, and some bubble algae

http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/6372/2002891284537142658_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002891284537142658)

http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/6777/2002886379753371471_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002886379753371471)

http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/6804/2002824834005230157_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002824834005230157)

[michaeldaly]

Great looking tank, do you clean your sand bed?

[ron burgandy]

You are the master of your domain!!! I can't believe you haven't had any cyno outbreaks. Beautiful tank!!

[daveverdo]

Nice tank. Nice relaxed attitude. I feel most of the people who stress over their tank do it because it is their nature. They would stress over any hobby they had.

Keep up the good (and little) work.

Dave

[es_surf]

Thanks for the kind words

About 6 months ago i moved my tank, and did get some cyano after i set it back up. I think i got it from a bunch of junk in the sand getting kicked up onto the surface of the sand during the move. I didnt do anything to get rid of it and it slowly went away.
I think my success with cyano has been, 1) feeding nori, and 2) i feed the fish small amounts of formula 1 and 2 pellets slowly. making sure the fish eat it before it hits the bottom. by these two things i try to limit the nutrients going into the water. dont know if this is why i dont have cyano and other probelems, but i like to think its part of it.

I never clean the sand (its about 2 inches deep), i have some snails that do a decent job of stiring it up. And also the huge derasa loves to blast enormous amounts of water around the tank, which stirs up the sand as well

I think its great if people want to spend a lot of effort on their tank, its a labor of love for a lot of people. I used to be that way as well. But i have been working 15hrs a day the last few yrs and dont have the same time to put into it. I am just happy my tank has stayed nice despite my efforts (or lack of).

[ratherbediving]

I had to move my tank to my in-laws house in March last year. Hopefully I will get to move it back-- we were trying to sell our condo, and the real estate agent said that it would sell better if the tank wasn't there (whatever.) Anyway, we were having a lot of work done, such as getting tile put in, and getting the place painted-- so I didn't mind not having the tank around. Almost every week I give them jugs of RO/DI water to top off the tank-- feed the corals/ fish, and usually do a 10% water change. The inlaws are topping off the tank and feeding flake to the fish. Tank still looks good; only problems I am having is a 'green star polyps' outbreak. That stuff is growing EVERYWHERE, sadly. But everything else is doing fairly well.
I would agree that it is possible to maintain a tank without too much effort. Although I do believe in regular water changes, I don't have any reason to believe this is absolutely required.

[drgabe]

Nice tank, nice relaxed attitude.
I'll let the tank police fill in the rest! :) :)

As far as flat worms go - try increasing the flow. Mine hated flow and as I added it to the tank, they moved away from and eventually are gone without any FWE treatments.

[TBone303]

Do you feed your clams reguraly

[es_surf]

as long as my nitrates are zero, the only reason to do a water change is for replacement of elements that get depleted. these elements are probably my only need for water changes.

thank you for the water flow/flatworm suggestion, i will give it a shot.

i never feed my clams, or my anemone (unless i happen to have a nice piece of sushi for him) i did phyto for a couple months when the crocea was small about 2 years ago, but i stopped. i dont think feeding clams is needed (even if they are small clams). considering both my clams have trippled in size, i think my tank is giving them enough of what they need. maybe someone elses tank is so clean of nutrients that they need to supplement , i dont know.

[es_surf]

thought i would share how i got rid of a bunch of flatworms today.
since they dont really die with flatworm exit, but they are irritated. i took a bowl of my tank water, added 4 drops of flatworm exit, and dipped my corals one by one in the bowl. the flatworms are so irritated they dont stay on the coral, and jump off. i then placed the coral back in the tank.

i know it doesnt kill all the worms in the tank, but since the majority of the worms only stay on a couple corals, it does get rid of 90% of the worms i see.
unfortunately they will be back, but hopefully not as bad now that i have increased the water flow in those areas.

thanks for the tip

[lgoins]

If only I could leave my tank alone, it would probably look much nicer. The tank is beautiful, congrats.

[skeeter-doc]

surf, maybe try getting a mandarin to eat your flatworms, ...