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The tank that should have failed


PulposTriste
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Exactly as in the title, I'm a complete beginner. My tank is almost 2 months old, a softies dominated, second hand IM Nuvo 10.

20190907_215449.thumb.jpg.e8a13fa94646d6916644ad31f71ff6b4.jpg


I don't use RODI water like everyone says, only dechlorinated SG tap water and Red Sea Black bucket salt.

I don't run a chiller or a fan either, the temperature can even swing up to 30°C occasionally.

I just top up manually every other day, sometimes even forgetting to do so. The salinity can range from 1.024 to 1.027

I don't dose anything, or test for anything. Its starting to even have some small coraline growth.


20190907_215633.thumb.jpg.42884db64ba5d1d031a64553693b383f.jpg


As for lighting I just used a the stock IM Skyye 8w light that came with the tank, not the best but it allowed my corals to grow. My zoas and all corals are growing and opening up nicely. I even have a montipora digitata frag in there that's growing faster then I expected, even after I accidentally broke it into small 1cm pieces

There's even a small rock flower anemone that never moved from it's spot, which kinda shocked me since I was worried it would one day venture into my powerhead.

I also run a protein skimmer, just the IM Desktop ghost skimmer, it does release a bit of bubbles occasionally but it's not the worse, I do get some tea coloured skimmate.

I do have a small refugium for chaeto though, it's just a small air driven breeder box with a cheap LED light but the chaeto growth is insane. Same goes for the pods population, I'm even considering to get a Mandarin goby haha


20190907_215547.thumb.jpg.ff517e27b0fde560e86a20c9023a9a16.jpg


But of course, I'm not spared from algae growth, though it's not as bad as I thought. It's mostly kept under control by my astrea snails. It recently got better ever since I started running phosguard. There's also this rock covered in a sort of macroalgae and my orange yuumas that looks way better under actinic.

20190907_215608.thumb.jpg.24c0549d7a78884f632ef394b21ba258.jpg

As for lifestock, all there is a single fire goby that I can't take a pic of, he's so damn fast.

And here's my small rack of zoas and misc corals
20190907_215622.thumb.jpg.c2d8768e8457e68e0ccf3a243e9c7c7e.jpg

But yeah I went into this hobby without realizing what I was doing is wrong, and even then it still worked out somehow. Just figured its interesting to share with you guys since I've ran into a lot of people that insists a lot of this and that like "no chiller no corals", "no dose no sps/lps", "no ro water don't even bother". Well i did the exact opposite and it's worked out nicely for me so far, so yeah I hope you enjoyed this short presentation of my tank haha

Edited by PulposTriste
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Exactly as in the title, I'm a complete beginner. My tank is almost 2 months old, a softies dominated, second hand IM Nuvo 10.
20190907_215449.thumb.jpg.e8a13fa94646d6916644ad31f71ff6b4.jpg

I don't use RODI water like everyone says, only dechlorinated SG tap water and Red Sea Black bucket salt.

I don't run a chiller or a fan either, the temperature can even swing up to 30°C occasionally.

I just top up manually every other day, sometimes even forgetting to do so. The salinity can range from 1.024 to 1.027

I don't dose anything, or test for anything. Its starting to even have some small coraline growth.

20190907_215633.thumb.jpg.42884db64ba5d1d031a64553693b383f.jpg

As for lighting I just used a the stock IM Skyye 8w light that came with the tank, not the best but it allowed my corals to grow. My zoas and all corals are growing and opening up nicely. I even have a montipora digitata frag in there that's growing faster then I expected, even after I accidentally broke it into small 1cm pieces

There's even a small rock flower anemone that never moved from it's spot, which kinda shocked me since I was worried it would one day venture into my powerhead.

I also run a protein skimmer, just the IM Desktop ghost skimmer, it does release a bit of bubbles occasionally but it's not the worse, I do get some tea coloured skimmate.

I do have a small refugium for chaeto though, it's just a small air driven breeder box with a cheap LED light but the chaeto growth is insane. Same goes for the pods population, I'm even considering to get a Mandarin goby haha

20190907_215547.thumb.jpg.ff517e27b0fde560e86a20c9023a9a16.jpg

But of course, I'm not spared from algae growth, though it's not as bad as I thought. It's mostly kept under control by my astrea snails. It recently got better ever since I started running phosguard. There's also this rock covered in a sort of macroalgae and my orange yuumas that looks way better under actinic.

20190907_215608.thumb.jpg.24c0549d7a78884f632ef394b21ba258.jpg

As for lifestock, all there is a single fire goby that I can't take a pic of, he's so damn fast.

And here's my small rack of zoas and misc corals
20190907_215622.thumb.jpg.c2d8768e8457e68e0ccf3a243e9c7c7e.jpg

But yeah I went into this hobby without realizing what I was doing is wrong, and even then it still worked out somehow. Just figured its interesting to share with you guys since I've ran into a lot of people that insists a lot of this and that like "no chiller no corals", "no dose no sps/lps", "no ro water don't even bother". Well i did the exact opposite and it's worked out nicely for me so far, so yeah I hope you enjoyed this short presentation of my tank haha
tbh is a chiller needed? I plan on doing a mixed reef but chillers are quite costly :0

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Regards,
Snickerdoodle
The Reef Noob

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Exactly as in the title, I'm a complete beginner. My tank is almost 2 months old, a softies dominated, second hand IM Nuvo 10.
20190907_215449.thumb.jpg.e8a13fa94646d6916644ad31f71ff6b4.jpg

I don't use RODI water like everyone says, only dechlorinated SG tap water and Red Sea Black bucket salt.

I don't run a chiller or a fan either, the temperature can even swing up to 30°C occasionally.

I just top up manually every other day, sometimes even forgetting to do so. The salinity can range from 1.024 to 1.027

I don't dose anything, or test for anything. Its starting to even have some small coraline growth.

20190907_215633.thumb.jpg.42884db64ba5d1d031a64553693b383f.jpg

As for lighting I just used a the stock IM Skyye 8w light that came with the tank, not the best but it allowed my corals to grow. My zoas and all corals are growing and opening up nicely. I even have a montipora digitata frag in there that's growing faster then I expected, even after I accidentally broke it into small 1cm pieces

There's even a small rock flower anemone that never moved from it's spot, which kinda shocked me since I was worried it would one day venture into my powerhead.

I also run a protein skimmer, just the IM Desktop ghost skimmer, it does release a bit of bubbles occasionally but it's not the worse, I do get some tea coloured skimmate.

I do have a small refugium for chaeto though, it's just a small air driven breeder box with a cheap LED light but the chaeto growth is insane. Same goes for the pods population, I'm even considering to get a Mandarin goby haha

20190907_215547.thumb.jpg.ff517e27b0fde560e86a20c9023a9a16.jpg

But of course, I'm not spared from algae growth, though it's not as bad as I thought. It's mostly kept under control by my astrea snails. It recently got better ever since I started running phosguard. There's also this rock covered in a sort of macroalgae and my orange yuumas that looks way better under actinic.

20190907_215608.thumb.jpg.24c0549d7a78884f632ef394b21ba258.jpg

As for lifestock, all there is a single fire goby that I can't take a pic of, he's so damn fast.

And here's my small rack of zoas and misc corals
20190907_215622.thumb.jpg.c2d8768e8457e68e0ccf3a243e9c7c7e.jpg

But yeah I went into this hobby without realizing what I was doing is wrong, and even then it still worked out somehow. Just figured its interesting to share with you guys since I've ran into a lot of people that insists a lot of this and that like "no chiller no corals", "no dose no sps/lps", "no ro water don't even bother". Well i did the exact opposite and it's worked out nicely for me so far, so yeah I hope you enjoyed this short presentation of my tank haha


Well, it’s not exactly clear cut when people say those statements.

No chiller, I would say, no sensitive corals. And pple who have their tanks maintained at 28 or so, or below, becuz of aircon and fan. Can afford to also keep some higher demand corals. Fan of cuz will have to compensate for higher evaporation rates. Generally most softies that u are keeping, are hardy and can survive probably below 30 deg.

No dose no sps/lps. applies to most of e corals in these categories. There are some that can still manage fluctuating parameters. Of cuz, by water changing, u are already topping up the lost elements. It’s e flunctuations, esp for small tanks with large water changes, that doesn’t work for sensitive corals.

No RO water, don’t even bother. Well. It’s not exactly true. Guess many pple are not using rodi. But definitely, it will encourage more undesired algae control. As long as u have other mechanisms in place, to manage ur algae issues, no RO water can work too.

Your tank is still new, so give it more time to stabilize ya.




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I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but I would hardly consider a 2 month old tank to be a success story. Granted, some of the advice that you have received may seem a little extreme, but it is important to note the purpose behind those advice. It depends on your ultimate goal, what you want to achieve for your tank, and applying the knowledge that you have acquired to get it done.   

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In this hobby, you can go against the flow and things might work. Just how sustainable and if things happened, just accept and reef on. 

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Tank : 4 X 2 X 2 with low iron front panel and external overflow

Skimmer : BK SM200 with waste collector

Return Pumps : Red Dragon 6m3 and Ehiem 1262

FR : 2 X Deltec 509 & powered by AB2000

Nitrate Filter : Deltec NF 509 and tee off from AB2000

Calcium R'tor : Deltec PF 501 with RM secondary chamber

Kalkwasser R'tor : Deltec KM500

Chiller : Pansonic 1 HP Compressor with 20m titanium Coil

Wave Makers : 4 X Tunze 6055 with 7096 & Vortec MP40w

Controller : GHL Profilux

Lighting : ATI Powermodule 10 or 8 tubes

Water Top-up : Water Top-Up tank powered by Tunze Osmolator

External Monitor : American Pinpoint pH and Temp. Monitor for main tank and GHL Profilux Controller to measure temp, pH, Redox

Ozonizer : Sander C50

UV : Corallife 6x

Algae Scrubbler

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Just my 2 cents, its not about whether u can or cannot be successful if you dont follow the “golden standard”. Its more about when things start going downhill, if too many variable in the equation it will make troubleshooting very complicated, which factor causing the issue you dont know for sure. So its better to follow the rulebook and use Chiller/RODI and save yourself some trouble? My 2 cents lah


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  • 4 months later...
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Nice. Keep it up. I do agree with some if the other comments that it is still new but who knows this might work very well for you and I hope it does. Keep the updates coming. Always good to see alternative methods of success.

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