Due to my work schedule and life in general I haven’t been on top of tank maintenance like I used to be. But I also was intentionally not doing water changes or any maintenance other than cleaning the glass, this includes no reef additives, no feeding corals, and no skimmer. I wanted to see how simple I could make reef keeping.
The reef has been self sustaining for about 8 months now with no maintenance. I’ve lost some corals but not due to water quality or chemistry, it’s been due to coral growth over shading some other corals, which I’ve only lost two or three frags over the last 8 months due to that. Other than that recently I’ve been dealing with some algae problems I assume being mostly due to my T5 bulbs needing to be replaced as they are a bit over due but corals are still growing. (Bulbs will be getting replaced soon) I however did unfortunately lose my tridacna clam unsure of reason.
Other than feeding the fish and cleaning the glass I haven’t done any maintenance in the past 8 months, and the corals have grown substantially and still look healthy other than loosing a little bit of color. My clown fish have laid multiple batches of eggs and all the other fish have been doing great. In the end I was trying to see if my reef would be able to self sustain with no maintenance and how long it would be able to self sustain which today at this point it is still going strong considering no maintenance has been done. I plan to keep it going with little to no maintenance and see how long it will self sustain.
So it is true and I do believe if you have a well established reef, it doesn’t have to be complicated to maintain a beautiful living reef, it can be maintained very simply with little maintenance and relatively hassle free and cheap, as I have not spent much money over the past 8 months maintaining the reef. It can be as complicated or as simple as you make it, and also depends on what your visions are for your reef.
HAPPY REEFING!
The reef has been self sustaining for about 8 months now with no maintenance. I’ve lost some corals but not due to water quality or chemistry, it’s been due to coral growth over shading some other corals, which I’ve only lost two or three frags over the last 8 months due to that. Other than that recently I’ve been dealing with some algae problems I assume being mostly due to my T5 bulbs needing to be replaced as they are a bit over due but corals are still growing. (Bulbs will be getting replaced soon) I however did unfortunately lose my tridacna clam unsure of reason.
Other than feeding the fish and cleaning the glass I haven’t done any maintenance in the past 8 months, and the corals have grown substantially and still look healthy other than loosing a little bit of color. My clown fish have laid multiple batches of eggs and all the other fish have been doing great. In the end I was trying to see if my reef would be able to self sustain with no maintenance and how long it would be able to self sustain which today at this point it is still going strong considering no maintenance has been done. I plan to keep it going with little to no maintenance and see how long it will self sustain.
So it is true and I do believe if you have a well established reef, it doesn’t have to be complicated to maintain a beautiful living reef, it can be maintained very simply with little maintenance and relatively hassle free and cheap, as I have not spent much money over the past 8 months maintaining the reef. It can be as complicated or as simple as you make it, and also depends on what your visions are for your reef.
HAPPY REEFING!