Recreating a 'miracle'

[vidextreme]

tats gd...

My main way of nutrient export is

to change water twice a week..

Only 2 fishes living in my tank

Not a reefer who chiong for every

New Shipment..hee

More Fishes = More nutrients

I also no Skimmer and my filter

only hang on..ten bucks..

haha you've beaten my 12 bucks filter.

[braincoral]

haha you've beaten my 12 bucks filter.

Yep,

Sometimes I also wondering

Do one really need/or must spent on

so much on equipment, latest chemical

from A to Z..ended up might be more complex

then the natural ocean~ hee

After all..Co just want to earn profits..

Just Keep it Simple~~Back to the basics

Sit back and relax~~

and this hobby will never become a burden

[cjh]

although not recommended... 4X2X2.5ft.. coral beauty, Powder Brown Tang, 2X percula clowns, bubble tip anemone, cup coral, cat eye bubble, pearl bubble, rocks and rocks and more rocks... of course with water too.. cannot measure phosphate and nitrate with salifert testkit (last measure 1 month ago before i started using my beckett skimmer again)... that was last time after my skimmer broke down... the tank is 4-5yrs old... so for the 1st 1/2 of the year, i did use a skimmer.. after that the pump broke down then no money to repair or buy new 1 and most impotantly parent complain my tank very expensive, and it did not have any ill effects on my tank except for the algae growth which i harvest manually... feeding regime is only pellets twice a day.. i used a chiller coz i am using a 250W MH with parabolic reflector (n the process of building my LED module)... i've just added a beckett skimmer so that i can keep SPS.. currently i have 2 big frag of orange monti and a radioactive birdnest frag from a kind reefer.. other inverts including 3 open brain, 2 wild acros, 1 anemone which i fail to identify (i think its corkscrew anemone). new addition on top of those i've already mentioned includes 1 powder blue tang which terrorise the tankmates right after it is put inside. yellow tang, baby regal tang and 5X firefish which always stays together..

[Nitro]

vidextreme > Yours seems to be a "very ideal set-up but does it really work" idea. If the emphasis is on juz keeping a small handful of LS and corals, juz so to make it probable without changing water, than I would said there is no joy in keep this set-up cuz there will be too many limitations.

If you're going to use only skimmer and air-stones, no filtration or sump/refugium, are you going to supplement the tank water perimeters with marine supplements? My concerns is that the skimmer not only removes DOC but also some of the required chemical compound along the way. So if you go without water change for a yr or more and no supplements are added periodically, I seriously doubt this set-up can host the LS and corals healthily.

Imagine, putting a person in prison and gives only food and water with a W.C and wash basin in the same small room with lights and no exposure to sunlight... I'm sure one can survive but to what expand at the optimal health (both physical and mental) of that person?

If those of us reading this seriously want to keep marine at a low cost with a good choices of LS and corals, lets not kid ourselves that juz a tank, with salt water, air-supply and sunlight can keep the whole system going. Look at the Bio-sphere at Science Centre (the totally enclosed self-sustain system), even that, the choice of LS and plants in it is only one species of very small dwarf shrimps and one kind of plant algae. Unless this is what one is trying to achieve.

vidextreme, I'm not discouraging you from keeping marine but juz want to share with you my fish keeping(both fresh and marine, fish only, planted with fish and mix-reef) experiences and thoughts. No offense ok

[Nitro]

If one really want to keep marine at low cost, I've got an idea to share. Maybe some of you might wanna try it!

Set up a 3 tank system... 1 main tank, 1 sump and 1 refugium. The system to be hooked up together and simulating a "high and low" tide period. Main tank of cse is for keeping all sorts of LS and corals, sump to house the most basic filtration system such as carbon wool, skimmer and FR (no light in this sump) and the refugium is to keep only algae for exporting nutrients (this area with photo-period). Algae can be cheatos, kelps, mangrove plants, red bamboo/grapes (which can harvest periodically to feed fishes like tangs) and turtle grass etc.

The whole system is to be operated based on a 12hrs tide period. Meaning the water in the refugium is to be hold for 12 hrs before being pump into the main tank. This will simulate high-tide in the main tank while it's low-tide for the refugium. After 12hrs, the process will vice-versa. 12hrs is a good time for nutrients to be broken down by the algae and marine plants, which in away purifying the water and this act as fresh sea water when being pumped into the main tank. Of cse the photo-period between the main and refugium had to be syn too.

With efficient LEDs sets, and skimmers and pumps in the market, with the proper sizing I'm sure one won't need to buy all the high-end equipments. But one still need to have 3 tank of almost the same size and also a fairly large floor area

[vidextreme]

vidextreme > Yours seems to be a "very ideal set-up but does it really work" idea. If the emphasis is on juz keeping a small handful of LS and corals, juz so to make it probable without changing water, than I would said there is no joy in keep this set-up cuz there will be too many limitations.

If you're going to use only skimmer and air-stones, no filtration or sump/refugium, are you going to supplement the tank water perimeters with marine supplements? My concerns is that the skimmer not only removes DOC but also some of the required chemical compound along the way. So if you go without water change for a yr or more and no supplements are added periodically, I seriously doubt this set-up can host the LS and corals healthily.

Imagine, putting a person in prison and gives only food and water with a W.C and wash basin in the same small room with lights and no exposure to sunlight... I'm sure one can survive but to what expand at the optimal health (both physical and mental) of that person?

If those of us reading this seriously want to keep marine at a low cost with a good choices of LS and corals, lets not kid ourselves that juz a tank, with salt water, air-supply and sunlight can keep the whole system going. Look at the Bio-sphere at Science Centre (the totally enclosed self-sustain system), even that, the choice of LS and plants in it is only one species of very small dwarf shrimps and one kind of plant algae. Unless this is what one is trying to achieve.

vidextreme, I'm not discouraging you from keeping marine but juz want to share with you my fish keeping(both fresh and marine, fish only, planted with fish and mix-reef) experiences and thoughts. No offense ok

Thanks for the input. Of course, no offense taken dude. Actually, just to clear things up, the main reason I'm doing this is not just to make it work but to understand a possible simpliest minimal balanced marine tank system. It's not suppose to be a display tank, rather a tech tank. I guess for me, I prefer to fail but to understand rather than being successful with a stroke of luck (I don't believe in luck anyway) but not understanding how did it come about, this is my joy. After finding and understanding that simpliest minimal balanced system, then I'll make my display tank (ofcourse after having the funds for it too).

I'll give you an example... let's say an increasing nitrate problem. For me there are two ways of solving this problem. One is to introduce a component that will neutralize that problem. I prefer to start with a biological component first, say a cyano-algae or a mangrove. If it the problem is still persists then thats the only time I'll introduce a mechanical/chemical means. But only in that order, because anything that is nature driven has its way of self-sustaining, self-adjusting and self-maintaining as long as all its life support stuff are there. Nature has its way of solving problems. The second way of solving this, aside from neutralizing, is preventing or elimating/isolating the source of the problem. Maybe I have too many fishes or have the wrong species mix. Maybe its my lighting that over expose or over oxyginate the water that forces the nitrate bacteria to retreat deeper in the live sand. The idea is the start with the simpliest system. For all we know, I'll end up water changing and having a sump tank and will the apparatus-maximus just to make it work, at least at that time, I know.

Anyway, this is just an idea how I'm going to handle this 'experimento'.

I think it's kinda subjective if we are truely giving our 'pets' the optimal care. I think we barely scratched the surface on understanding these wonderful creatures on how they survive and/or thrive.

[DUCADOS]

Good idea!

Too bad we're all in Singapore.(a country where space is limit)

Even people who stays in landed mostly also can't afford to do it le.

For HDB personel dun even have to think unless.... Willing to sacrifice.