Is KISS the Key to Coral?

[oceans garden aquaculture]

1 x 10 gallon rated internal sponge filter. 1 x mp10. This tank will probably hurt some feelings in a few months lol.

 

[dough]

KISS is pretty broad term as others have stated. KISS is developed through experience. patience and understanding what and whys. I think having goals or vision of what you want to achieve helps one develop a plan, and when I truly am honest about my my goals/vision I always end back with the tried an true which is typically a simple set up and process which has kept me in this hobby for well over 20 years.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

yes i have replied to quite a few threads lately with this very idea. I am new to the hobby so i guess what i say doesn't carry a lot of weight but in my short tenure i have read so many responses that immediately go straight to the "dose cures all" ideology. i was taught and learned early on that one of the biggest mistakes i could do was to chase numbers because, lets face it, most tanks have a mind of their own anyways. My system is doing great and my corals are all staying colored up and growing, sometimes faster than i could have imagined. I have only once added anything other than fresh salt water once in the last 8 months. No calcium, no mag, nothing. Granted i read and learned what these things do and i encourage anyone to learn as much as possible, but lets be honest. NOTHING works as well as a regimented water change schedule and a minimal feeding schedule. If we dose our tanks and then do a water change later on are we not once again reverting back to where we began. And if this is true are our doses really just our own enemies when trying to stabilize a system. Its a never ending circle is it not. I'm sure lots of you more "experienced" reefers will come up with a hundred reasons why my reasoning is wrong but i do a consistent water change every week and keep my feeding schedule to a minimum. Most corals produce their own food any ways and believe it or not most times our fish eat they are over eating anyways. I love my tank and the ecosystem within it but i am only an observer of what nature can do if we leave it be and let it adapt to the enviornment we have it in. That being said i will continue to KISS and enjoy the beautiful reef i have....

This philosophy only works in a reef tank with a very low alkalinity and calcium consumption. My tank uses point5 DKH daily so over a weeks. My alk would drop 3 to 4 points from 8 to 4 or five which is way too low a weekly water change would be detrimental To my tank if that is how I replenished Dkh and calcium. Daily dosing is the only way to keep my parameters stable

 

[Doctorgori]

I dunno; whats so complicated about Inductively Coupled Plasma testing, potential of hydrogen levels, alkalinity, Degrees of carbonate hardness, calcium levels, trace element dosing, micro algae classification, sol-lunar tables, coral phylogenetic‘s, PAR levels, electromagnetic spectrum analysis, bacterial classification and husbandry, medicines dosages, et et

 

[TheOldSalt]

Hmmm...tough question.

Back in the 90's we all kept it simple because that was all we knew.
It worked.
Largely.
We enjoyed great success, but also suffered a lot of failures.

My main tank in 1996 had a skimmer with ozone, a redox meter which showed an ORP of around 390, big T-8 actinic-white VHO lights on an Icecap ballast, live sand and real live rock harvested from the Gulf of Mexico, and a great big clump of Caulerpa racemosa.

That was high-tech indeed back then!
I dosed kalkwasser a couple of times a week, too. Whoo-HOO!

My corals grew nicely, and I had to pull enough Caulerpa from the tank to fill a 5-gallon bucket every month.
The various life on the live rock stayed alive, too; every barnacle and sponge and tunicate. Coralline algae coated everything.

It was awesome.
At night, when the tank lights were off and the room was pitch black, I got treated to a show of bioluminescent flashes. You guys should try that if you haven't.

Anyway, I might have had faster coral growth with more modern additives and gizmos, but I was a happy reefer back then. Could I have kept the really difficult species under those conditions? No.

I guess I will say that I'd rather keep easier-to-keep species under simpler conditions than drive myself crazy trying to keep the really hard ones just to show off.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Quality skimmer, lights, mix of dry and live rock, fuge on reverse cycle, and a little TLC. Test every couple weeks or so.
Actually that sounds a bit complex now that I wrote it. But works for me and covers allot of bases.

 

[Lovefish77]

Agreed, the manufacturers in this hobby are always eager to sell gadgets, and hobbyists buy under the impression that it will make them advance faster and faster. But unfortunately a lot in this hobby is about trial and error (experience) and above all technique. Some of the best tanks like Joe Yaolo's 20,000 gallon in Long Island has no automation and is master minded by Joe Himself.
So in short, yes I think we overcomplicate things. I dont even own an aquarium controller and my tank is doing fine. I even still use mechanical timers for some things. I dont wanna put all my eggs in one basket (internet connection).

 

[JessenD]

I can say after leaving the hobby for a few years and starting over that it seem there’s 100 new things and ways to dose them. I feel like In a lot of cases a lot of what we to are tanks is because people like to always have something to worry about lol I’ve had very successful tankS with very simple regiments. So circling back to your question yes KISS.

 

[oceans garden aquaculture]

Hmmm...tough question.

Back in the 90's we all kept it simple because that was all we knew.
It worked.
Largely.
We enjoyed great success, but also suffered a lot of failures.

My main tank in 1996 had a skimmer with ozone, a redox meter which showed an ORP of around 390, big T-8 actinic-white VHO lights on an Icecap ballast, live sand and real live rock harvested from the Gulf of Mexico, and a great big clump of Caulerpa racemosa.

That was high-tech indeed back then!
I dosed kalkwasser a couple of times a week, too. Whoo-HOO!

My corals grew nicely, and I had to pull enough Caulerpa from the tank to fill a 5-gallon bucket every month.
The various life on the live rock stayed alive, too; every barnacle and sponge and tunicate. Coralline algae coated everything.

It was awesome.
At night, when the tank lights were off and the room was pitch black, I got treated to a show of bioluminescent flashes. You guys should try that if you haven't.

Anyway, I might have had faster coral growth with more modern additives and gizmos, but I was a happy reefer back then. Could I have kept the really difficult species under those conditions? No.

I guess I will say that I'd rather keep easier-to-keep species under simpler conditions than drive myself crazy trying to keep the really hard ones just to show off.

Big T12 VHO in 1996 lol. I don't remember even seeing a T5 until the 2000s.

 

[ACReefer]

I have a very simple 75 gallon setup,a skimmer,live rock,a hang on the back filter with chaeto on one side and carbon and gfo on the other side a 2 head wavemaker. The corals I keep are zoas,palys,acans,candy canes, Frogspawns,3 hammers,lobo,xenia,2 blastos,2 favias,2 duncans all doing great.

 

[Revnobody]

The goal, in my opinion, is to achieve stability through simplicity. In other words, find the most simple approach to keeping your tank stable. I have had tanks that were bare bones and tanks with lots of tech. In the end stability seemed to trump all else.