Two things I believe would have made this video even better... 1-TimeLapse of you cleaning the glass and then show the corals in greater detail. 2-Test the water and report if there were any changes in the parameters. Other than that, great video. Always good to remember to keep our hands out of the tank.
Learned a while back that most plants corals and fish do better being left alone. I only do a major 75%-90% water changes every 2-4 months. You should never have to vacuum the floor of a tank fresh or salt. It means you didn’t set up your eco system correctly. Every tank needs 1 top layer eater, 1 mid layer eater, 1 earth eater, 1 algae eater, and 1 bacteria eater. YOU NEED AN ECO SYSTEM!
I appreciate your channel very much as I await fulfillment of my own WB Reef 130.4 order. You've answered a lot of the questions I had that were pretty specific to this tank already. Thanks and looking forward to following this journey. :)
Understand you didn't clean the glass and yes always goes better when you keep your hands out..Why couldn't you clean the glass for the second half the video at least...Done with this..Your selling this tank and it shows in your videos...Used to be my favorite channel
Back in the 80s I had a very nice reef tank. I did everything we knew back then to manage it for 2 years and it was nice. Then I finished college and went to work and was also working nights and for a year I let it go, just topping off water. No water changes, very little feeding. I was tired of it and I guess I was waiting for it to self destruct. Then one day my gf motivated me to clean it up. You couldn't see in the tank at all as the glass was completely covered in encrusting algae and green algae. So when I scraped the glass the first stroke I was totally amazed. No hair algae, no dinos, no diatoms. In fact nothing but lots of macro algae and encrusting algae everywhere. Fish were absolutely gorgeous, corals had quadrupled in size. It was really stunning once it was all cleaned up and the macros cut back to a manageable quantity. I checked all the water parameters and it was all zero. I was totally amazed. Sometimes we do more harm than good, especially on a mature well balanced system.
Totally agree, the human element gets in the way. I also think it’s like watching water boil though. When I’ve been gone for 10+ days I’m always amazed with growth, compared with when I’m looking at it every day.
This is so encouraging to see! I would really like to get into the hobby, but am hesitant as I often work away from home for 10-14 days at a time and the cost of all the automation that I "thought" was needed is kinda prohibitive to a newbie to the hobby.
This goes for ALL Tanks. My freshwater planted tanks are on cruise control with the exception of weekly water changes and occasional pruning / thinning. The less I mess with them the more they thrive.... Same with the saltwater tanks, let nature alone and it will thrive.
I have a feeling it has nothing to do with supplements but your eyes not seeing your tank every minute. You see your tank everyday and don’t notice the little things. But when you are gone for even just the weekend you will notice the growth. I would agree with you on polyp extension. By us having our hands in the tank or trying to do minor parameter adjustments all the time really does affect polyp extension.
I live in Dubai and I love to start a reef tank but only thing I’m afraid of who will look after the thank when I’m on vacation .. can you do a video about how to prepare the tank for the vacation.. what to buy and what not to buy thanks
What I tell people who are always messing with their tank and then have problems. Once you have your equipment setup and a routine for maintenance keep your hands out let the tank do some auto pilot. My 300 gallon system had a top off good for about 15 days, calcium reactor, skimmer, auto feeder. Did not do water changes. If I was leaving would adjust skimmer for very dry skimming. Setup auto feeder but less feeding that I would do by hand. I could leave two weeks come home and just clean glass, refill ato and clean neck of skimmer.
%100 correct brotha. I'm so glad someone's putting this knowledge out there. I found out just like you did went on vacation...came back 2 WOW! %95 of my corals exploded only 2 zoas got smaller from getting beat with flow.
I've noticed the same with coral growth while away from the house for an extended time. I've always put it down to less co2 in the house and an increase in ph .
I always do that without getting my hands and I don’t clean the glass for two weeks and the tank and corals appreciate except the Scoly as that’s the only LPS loves to be spot fed otherwise all the other corals are healthy and fluffy.
I was on the hospital for 21 days and the only thing my wife did was replace the ato and feed the fish that was it when I came back everything was beautiful and growing the more you touch and are constantly changing stuff the worse it is
I have deff noticed my alk consumption drop 1 or 2 ml a day after i put my hand in the tank to glue some corals or move some stuff. Its amazing how much the corals dont like us messing with their environment lol
Great video on the fact on your system doing well. The only thing that is somewhat disturbing is to challenge other reef hobbyists to change their ways and to once again submit to trial and error. I hope their results are positive. I do support your channel. Stability and patience is key to this hobby. Don’t know suggesting otherwise is good.. peace✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼
Got my latest yellow acro mini colony encrusted to rock, also 98% of verrucosa had turned from green to pink 💕. Ugly side: got GHA on the side skeleton of died goniopora. Although the goni seems to regrow with new polyps.
I'll go for the 10 day challenge. I havent got an auto feeder but I'll put a little food in and see what happens. I only have lps so nothing demanding. I need to keep my hands out.
Oh well tried it with no noticeable difference i'm afraid, perhaps it works on bigger tanks better my 20gallon apart from a little algae on the glass was all good. Next challenge i think would be 3 weeks :)
Challenge accepted Antonio 💪😊 you can see the progress in my Instagram, nelsonsreef and I will post it on there. The tanks do better when we stay our hands off them for sure
Lets do it. I was super interested in this as i am a travel agent and when the world gets back to normal i will be travelling again, sometimes up to 3 weeks. I have no one i can trust to look in on the tank, so this should be a super cool test. Let the clock begin. You should have a # for instagram #eatsleepreef10daychallenge
It bugs me that he didn't clean the glass...
😂😂😂
Two things I believe would have made this video even better... 1-TimeLapse of you cleaning the glass and then show the corals in greater detail. 2-Test the water and report if there were any changes in the parameters. Other than that, great video. Always good to remember to keep our hands out of the tank.
The corals were like...."Thank goodness! The human has left us be. Party!"
Learned a while back that most plants corals and fish do better being left alone. I only do a major 75%-90% water changes every 2-4 months. You should never have to vacuum the floor of a tank fresh or salt. It means you didn’t set up your eco system correctly. Every tank needs 1 top layer eater, 1 mid layer eater, 1 earth eater, 1 algae eater, and 1 bacteria eater. YOU NEED AN ECO SYSTEM!
I appreciate your channel very much as I await fulfillment of my own WB Reef 130.4 order. You've answered a lot of the questions I had that were pretty specific to this tank already. Thanks and looking forward to following this journey. :)
Understand you didn't clean the glass and yes always goes better when you keep your hands out..Why couldn't you clean the glass for the second half the video at least...Done with this..Your selling this tank and it shows in your videos...Used to be my favorite channel
I've always been tempted to leave my glass a few weeks just to have the satisfaction of cleaning it off 🤣
lmao
Same
As someone obsessed with Otocinclus, and Plecos I am seeing how spoiled I am never having had to clean my glass once on the inside of a tank.
Are you gonna get a lid?
Back in the 80s I had a very nice reef tank. I did everything we knew back then to manage it for 2 years and it was nice. Then I finished college and went to work and was also working nights and for a year I let it go, just topping off water. No water changes, very little feeding. I was tired of it and I guess I was waiting for it to self destruct. Then one day my gf motivated me to clean it up. You couldn't see in the tank at all as the glass was completely covered in encrusting algae and green algae. So when I scraped the glass the first stroke I was totally amazed. No hair algae, no dinos, no diatoms. In fact nothing but lots of macro algae and encrusting algae everywhere. Fish were absolutely gorgeous, corals had quadrupled in size. It was really stunning once it was all cleaned up and the macros cut back to a manageable quantity. I checked all the water parameters and it was all zero. I was totally amazed. Sometimes we do more harm than good, especially on a mature well balanced system.
Very true I done this and it’s very noticeable on growth and how happy the reef gets.
Totally agree, the human element gets in the way. I also think it’s like watching water boil though. When I’ve been gone for 10+ days I’m always amazed with growth, compared with when I’m looking at it every day.
This is so encouraging to see! I would really like to get into the hobby, but am hesitant as I often work away from home for 10-14 days at a time and the cost of all the automation that I "thought" was needed is kinda prohibitive to a newbie to the hobby.
A lot easier than you think once it’s balanced.
This goes for ALL Tanks. My freshwater planted tanks are on cruise control with the exception of weekly water changes and occasional pruning / thinning. The less I mess with them the more they thrive.... Same with the saltwater tanks, let nature alone and it will thrive.
All throughout this video I was going "scrap it man, just scrap it!!!"
Did he forget to mention that he has a doser, auto feeder and auto water tester? That’s what’s technically taking care of his reef while he is away
Doser isn’t doing any supplement at all only dosing ATO Water. KHD has never been hooked up in this system.
I'm a pet transporter and I have to have an automated system set up because I'm away from the house almost two weeks at a time
I have a feeling it has nothing to do with supplements but your eyes not seeing your tank every minute. You see your tank everyday and don’t notice the little things. But when you are gone for even just the weekend you will notice the growth. I would agree with you on polyp extension. By us having our hands in the tank or trying to do minor parameter adjustments all the time really does affect polyp extension.
I live in Dubai and I love to start a reef tank but only thing I’m afraid of who will look after the thank when I’m on vacation .. can you do a video about how to prepare the tank for the vacation.. what to buy and what not to buy thanks
this video just reaffirms why less micromanaging a reef system can go far, with the caveat with still being careful with what you add to the system
Look like an episode of life after humans
I’ve always heard that your tank often looks better after you leave it then before. Strange, but makes sense
I think that the corals are going to look great. I am always amazed at how well my tank looks after coming back from a vacation.
Curious did your ph increase during your vacation?
I bet it did
Whats the distance from your water to lights?
Get a wyze camera and a 3D printed magnetic mount that has a slit for a filter lens looks great great when checking your tank.
What I tell people who are always messing with their tank and then have problems. Once you have your equipment setup and a routine for maintenance keep your hands out let the tank do some auto pilot. My 300 gallon system had a top off good for about 15 days, calcium reactor, skimmer, auto feeder. Did not do water changes. If I was leaving would adjust skimmer for very dry skimming. Setup auto feeder but less feeding that I would do by hand. I could leave two weeks come home and just clean glass, refill ato and clean neck of skimmer.
They will look great!!!!!
%100 correct brotha. I'm so glad someone's putting this knowledge out there. I found out just like you did went on vacation...came back 2 WOW! %95 of my corals exploded only 2 zoas got smaller from getting beat with flow.
I've noticed the same with coral growth while away from the house for an extended time. I've always put it down to less co2 in the house and an increase in ph .
Great vid! I'm curious of water parameters before and after vacation.
What were nitrates, phosphates, ph, alk, calcium before and after?
Get a screen lid why would you put fish in that could jump and not have a lid
Agreed I will never run another tank without a lid nothing is more devastating then finding a otherwise healthy fish dead on the floor.
A big contributor is human CO2, it really impacts pH and slows growth, i think.
Just done a 20% water change, cleaned the glass and fed the corals. Not gonna touch the tank now for ten days 😰😰😰
Mother Nature vs Human Equation
I always do that without getting my hands and I don’t clean the glass for two weeks and the tank and corals appreciate except the Scoly as that’s the only LPS loves to be spot fed otherwise all the other corals are healthy and fluffy.
I was on the hospital for 21 days and the only thing my wife did was replace the ato and feed the fish that was it when I came back everything was beautiful and growing the more you touch and are constantly changing stuff the worse it is
How is your tank doing?
I have deff noticed my alk consumption drop 1 or 2 ml a day after i put my hand in the tank to glue some corals or move some stuff. Its amazing how much the corals dont like us messing with their environment lol
alk consumption should raise
i think they are good as long as every thing was working with no power outage and stuff
I don’t know if I can leave my filter floss in for almost 2 weeks, I got to change it every 3-4 days lol
Done my weekly water change today so starting challenge from now 🤞🏻
Five seconds in, and I'm 100% sure your alk consumption went up. Always does when we stop touching stuff
Full extension and vary reactive to food and movement
Corals love it👍
will a uv sterilizer kill copepods?
Great video on the fact on your system doing well. The only thing that is somewhat disturbing is to challenge other reef hobbyists to change their ways and to once again submit to trial and error. I hope their results are positive. I do support your channel. Stability and patience is key to this hobby. Don’t know suggesting otherwise is good.. peace✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼
I'm up for the challenge.
Got my latest yellow acro mini colony encrusted to rock, also 98% of verrucosa had turned from green to pink 💕.
Ugly side: got GHA on the side skeleton of died goniopora. Although the goni seems to regrow with new polyps.
I'll go for the 10 day challenge. I havent got an auto feeder but I'll put a little food in and see what happens. I only have lps so nothing demanding. I need to keep my hands out.
Wayze camera works great.
Anyone else get pissy he did not clean the tank at the end? 🤣
Oh well tried it with no noticeable difference i'm afraid, perhaps it works on bigger tanks better my 20gallon apart from a little algae on the glass was all good. Next challenge i think would be 3 weeks :)
Interesting videos! Happy to join the community.
I am down. Challenge accepted
you were gone and did not see it day by day
Wow that's a challenge lol I for one will be taking the challenge up
Clean the glass....please.
i dont know rick .........
What no glass cleaning your such a tease 😈
Challenge accepted Antonio 💪😊 you can see the progress in my Instagram, nelsonsreef and I will post it on there. The tanks do better when we stay our hands off them for sure
Will do that
Iam going to do this challenge
I accept the challenge!
Lets do it.
I was super interested in this as i am a travel agent and when the world gets back to normal i will be travelling again, sometimes up to 3 weeks. I have no one i can trust to look in on the tank, so this should be a super cool test. Let the clock begin. You should have a # for instagram #eatsleepreef10daychallenge
Dont even get a like and its my idea to create a # thanks :(