The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[shilala]

Originally Posted by md4958

Ive always wanted a salt-water tank.

On average how much time do you need to dedicate on a weekly basis to the maintenance of the average sized tank?

How difficult is that maintenance?

Hey Moe-sy,
I keep a reef tank, and it's super low-end. Despite that it's gorgeous and there are so many awesome critters living in there that you can see something new every day.
I spend maybe an hour a week doing maintainence. That consists of scrubbing the inside of the glass every other day with a magnet thingie (takes 2 minutes) and cleaning the glass with windex because a lunare wrasse I have splashes water out of the tank every time it eats.
The best thing I ever did that made this so much easier on me is:
1.) Added plants
2.) Bought an RO unit (makes 100% pure water).
My tank has been 15 years in the making and has frozen twice due to power outages while I was away.
Despite that, not everything died.
I do a lot of things that guys say that you should never do, but it's because I've wanted to create a self-sustaining biosphere, or a symbiosis.
Withh fresh water tanks it's very easy to do. With reef tanks it's taken me 15 years to get it right.
Carlos' tank is the extreme polar opposite of mine. His is like a hospital while mine is like a swamp.
His costs a fortune, and while mine isn't by any means cheap, it's definately affordable.
It takes a few years to cycle your tank, or at least it has mine.
If you get a good light, a good filter, and a good skimmer, and an RO unit you're on your way. Then you use a lot of live sand, coral, live rock, critters (crabs and snails), and some little fish and watch it like a hawk and do lots of water changes.
Add some razorwire chaeta (a plant) and it will come with all the "bugs" you need. Little shrimp and worms and stuff. They clean the bottom and process all the waste. In turn that processed waste feeds the plants. The plants clean the water. The baby bugs feed the live rock.
When it's time to add corals, everything is there that they need.
While my tank isn't a striking art statement like Carlos', it's beautiful in it's own right because of all the colors and activity. Much like cigars, it's one's taste that dictates what they want.
What you want will dictate what you have to do and how much work you have to do.
Carlos has to know a LOT to keep the environment he's created. He has to be right on top of it, too.
Mine is a lot less delicate, and it takes care of itself for the most part.
I still have to pay attention to it though. I'd say I do as much work on my tank as I do on my cat. Maybe less.
Nothing is "hard" either.

You should try a little nano tank. They're little tiny desktop environments and you can put a couple little fish in there, some live rock and some corals. They're inexpensive and a real bang for the buck. Easy to care for, too.
That way you could see if you like it before going crazy and spending millions. Plus you could just move your stock to a bigger tank.
I bet you'd love it.