Is KISS the Key to Coral?

[chaoticreefer]

I don't like being called stupid.

I know!!! How rude of them!!!

 

[Ippyroy]

I know!!! How rude of them!!!

How about Keep It Stupidly Simple?

 

[Buffalou]

Kiss is fine for fish only tank and lps, but when it comes to SPS just the amount of water testing, water and salt replenishment, water flow, lighting, and feeding makes it much more complicated. As we all know when a SPS tank starts going south it does it in a hurry. I do believe consistency is the key. Consistent water changes, salt choice, ph, ALk, Calcium levels, etc. Having had just a LPS and then going to SPS is a whole other creature in my opinion.

 

[Jhav89]

Yes absolutely keep it simple! Stability is key don't chase numbers

 

[JJ440]

How my brain works when someone says keep it simple

 

[JJ440]

I agree with keeping it simple but also believe that will mean different things for different people and how they like to organize there systems. Learning the basics and how to simply tasks for your unique setup

 

[Max_nano]

I absolutely think we overdo it. The fact that we see people dosing nitrates and phosphate intentionally kind of points to that. (Atleast to me, in all my years of exposure to this, I've never seen it like it is now).

That’s a bit of a blanket statement, I think it depends on the situation, there’s a different requirement for each tank depending on how it is stocked. For example, I am dosing nitrates to my tank. But I’m doing that because they were 0 and I have a 25 gallon tank with 2 clowns and a good amount of coral. I can’t feed enough to register any nitrates so I started to dose them. I don’t have a skimmer or fuge and just rely on biological filtration and a poly pad prefilter I remove as the only form of nutrient export which somehow is working too well still.

but, when I see systems with so many forms of nutrient export like a fuge, turf scrubber, skimmer, and roller mat and then they dose nitrates that’s when it gets questionable since they are dosing what they are also removing.

 

[Bob Weigant]

I would say KISS is great for LPS and for a while I also had the same thought for most sps. But this year has not been kind to my sps using the KISS system

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Absolutely. My favorite tank I had was doing best when the skimmer died, and I was just running ~10 gallon refugium and a return pump as filtration for several months. Some of the best acro and other coral growers refuse to run even carbon, just socks (sometimes), rock, and water changes.

 

[DSEKULA]

I think it is, for the most part but the individual view of what is simple varies a lot person to person. Is it easier to do many wc, to maintain an automated system, hand dose? That depends on the person, what their comfort is, and what they have time for.

 

[SebastianReefer]

Yes keep it simple that why I’m able to have 6 tanks but I stoped the hobby came back after 15 years but I kept my old school real live rock and it stayed in my fathers tanks over the years I put most of my success in the bacteria I have I run a fuge filter cups Uv sterilizer love sand bed in all my tanks

 

[SebastianReefer]

Yes keep it simple that why I’m able to have 6 tanks but I stoped the hobby came back after 15 years but I kept my old school real live rock and it stayed in my fathers tanks over the years I put most of my success in the bacteria I have I run a fuge filter cups Uv sterilizer love sand bed in all my tanks

And I manually dose pro reef

 

[Thaxxx]

How my brain works when someone says keep it simple

This is me before every golf swing I make.

 

[ca1ore]

For reefing it is KISS = keep it stable stupid!

Keeping/growing SPS won’t ever be simple. Doesn’t mean one cannot overcomplicate things of course .....

 

[RobB'z Reef]

This is KISS

Otherwise there's nothing simple about keeping a reef in your house. If you want simple, get a cat.

 

[JCTReefer]

I am in the process of dosing nitrates and reducing phosphates. When you say it will eventually equal out, what do you mean? Will I eventually get to the point where it is not necessary to maintain values of say, 12ppm of NO3 to 0.05 ppm of PO4?

Just curious. If so, I can't wait! It'll be nice to not have to dose eventually.

I’m curious on this also. Been dosing nitrates and phosphates for months now. Doesn’t matter how much I feed. They bottom out quickly if I don’t dose. And then the dreaded dinos come back. That’s been a battle. Keeping nutrients up is the only way I’ve found to keep them at bay. I wish I could keep it simple.

 

[adobo]

KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid

Does it seem like the more complicated we make it, the more difficult that it is? I realize that part of the fun of this hobby is the gadgets, electronics and new stuff but are we overdoing it? Are we over analyzing it? There are many examples of some very successful KISS reef tanks and companies but World Wide Corals comes to mind because I recently watched a video of one of their systems and how simply it was set up. I've also visited WWC many times and one thing that always stood out to me was how simple they keep the "logistics" of their reef display tanks. Simple yes, but amazing in coral growth and color. So let's talk about it today and I would love to see some of your successful KISS systems.

Is KISS the Key to SPS and every other coral?

Are we overdoing it? Are we over analyzing it?

@WWC 900 Gallon Broodstock tank

I guess the question is, how do you define simple?

Which of the two approaches is part of the KISS approach:

• ATO or manually refilling your tank to account for evaporation daily?
• Dosing calcium / alkalinity automatically or manually adding by hand?
• Using a controller to turn on a cooling fan or manually checking the tank temperature and turning the fan on as needed?
• Auto water change or hauling buckets?

I'm sure there are tons of examples but I guess my point is, most of us are probably trying to keep it as simple as possible. It's just that what is simpler for one person may be more complex for another.

 

[ReefBeta]

I don't think "simple" is the right term. Even WWC's way is not simple, they just don't use electronic to implement it.

I think we can all agree that over engineering is bad. That includes all the "chase the number" stuff. Over complicated system are tend to be fragile, hard to get right, and easy to fail. That's bad for stability.

Stability is what we aim for. But for how to get there, I tend to think about "easy" instead. That depends on the comfort level of individual skills. A simple system that "only" need a change of socks every couple times a day, dose couple stuff, and WC once a week, is an easy system to run for some. But for me it's difficult because I suck at consistency. For me an easy system is a fully automated. Writing code once so it can keep doing the same thing for me over and over again is easier than having me to keep doing that thing.

So just run the system in the easiest way for you, so that you can continue running it that way for years to come. That's the key to stability and thriving system.

 

[mkwarner77]

definitly yes, I had better results with sps's when I first started and didn't know anything. Now that I know "to much" I struggle. Some times ignorance truely is bliss. lol

 

[oceans garden aquaculture]

I get anxiety from all the over complicated advice I see in reef related Facebook groups. If these people could spend 1 day in a real coral farm and see how simple it can be to have insanely healthy fish and corals....they'd feel pretty foolish for that mortgage payment of a biocube they have created..