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Suggestion for mature / maturing tank

newfly

newfly

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My tank is almost 3 yrs old. Everything doing well, no room at add corals.

I enjoy watching the corals/fishes but all the excitement of setting up, going through up and downs , etc all in the pass. An hour or so maintenance a week. I’m getting a bit bored. Corals are growing, parameters stable, no algae , fish happy. Hmmm.. I’m not needed anymore .

Wonder folks with mature tank, how do you keep the hobby alive and not get bored?
 
Give frags out so you can see your stuff grow other places. Invite people over so non aquarium people can say it looks cool, look for 35 seconds, and then ignore it. If you invite kids over you get another couple minutes here and there out of them.

Play with electric meters to figure out what you can do to run it, but at minimum cost.

Go out of town happy you don't have to babysit it, and then when you get home find you get to rebuild stuff since a bunch of stuff died because 1hr a week really is just what you tell yourself and it's really a lot of tens of minutes instances per day that kept it right.

:)
 
Or, you can come over and start working on my tank...

That is awesome that your tank is doing that well. Don't jinx it.

I think actively fragging the tank is a good idea. I have even heard of guys on various podcasts in your situation that will cut everything back to a nub and start all over again.
 
Agree with Gerry. You can do a tank reboot after fragging everything down, make some extra cash to pay for tank maintenance (or donate to an LFS), then start again with frags/mini colonies you like.

Keith just did the same:
 
richiev said:
Give frags out so you can see your stuff grow other places. Invite people over so non aquarium people can say it looks cool, look for 35 seconds, and then ignore it. If you invite kids over you get another couple minutes here and there out of them.

Play with electric meters to figure out what you can do to run it, but at minimum cost.

Go out of town happy you don't have to babysit it, and then when you get home find you get to rebuild stuff since a bunch of stuff died because 1hr a week really is just what you tell yourself and it's really a lot of tens of minutes instances per day that kept it right.

:)
Click to expand...

Good suggestions. I have given quite a few frags to members here. I got lazy after a while.

I am thinking re-scaping the tank. Remove the zoa garden and replace with Torch.
 
Try more difficult corals that are harder to keep and grow. Keeps it interesting on finding the right parameters, but makes it very rewarding when you finally get it and they take off. Same goes with fish. It'll also give you a lot of heartache and makes a bigger dent on the wallet :p
 
newfly said:
Good suggestions. I have given quite a few frags to members here. I got lazy after a while.

I am thinking re-scaping the tank. Remove the zoa garden and replace with Torch.
Click to expand...
Def like the idea of a torch garden. They're challenging enough to keep you busy for awhile. You'll be back to worrying about your tank in no time! Haha
 
CaseyP said:
Try more difficult corals that are harder to keep and grow. Keeps it interesting on finding the right parameters, but makes it very rewarding when you finally get it and they take off. Same goes with fish. It'll also give you a lot of heartache and makes a bigger dent on the wallet :p
Click to expand...
My approach have been letting the corals adapt to the tank parameters ( versus tweaking the parameters for the corals) . Not saying that’s the best but it works to some extend. I figure as long as I keep the parameters stable, corals will take off eventually and it did,

Most of us have mixed reef, I figure it’s difficult to optimized the parameters for everyone.
 
Frag your colonies and use those funds to buy new coral!

I am starting out with a mixed reef but expect to go SPS dominant over time. When I do that I will somehow find room to start a softie tank. My wife is not aware of this longer term plan . . .
 
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