To tinker or not to tinker...

[4Fish]

Here is a thought. I have a 125 reef, with some rock, coral and fish that are over 10 years old. In the past two months, I have been busy, and have not completed a water change, added chemicals, or had the skimmer on; believe it or not, the tank looks better than it ever has in years.

So, as they say. If it is not broke - don't fix it.

Regarding the skimmer, I always thought that although skimmers do help, I think they kill beneficial items, which is why I believe the tanks soft corals look so good.

 

[INFAMOUS]

Thats great.... I just started my 125 reef tank and so far so good. The only problem I have is, I need to buy a test kit for magnes. My water conidtions are on point but I cant test themagnes. yet....

 

[batt600]

You should do a water change ,the purpose of this is to restore the Ionic balance of the water that the main point of a water change . And also to replenish trace element and supplements that the coral take up.

 

[INFAMOUS]

I would love to see that setup... Do you have pictures of the tank?

 

[rookie07]

+1

Please

 

[tenMann2]

I guess its okay to neglect for a bit but just don't forget about it either. Your softies my be benefiting from the extra nutrients in the water column but if you sps, they probably wouldn't like it so much.

 

[tosiek]

After not doing a water change for over a year, no chemicals and no skimmer running come back and let us know how well your tank is doing =0P

 

[tosiek]

Increasing the nutrients in your tank by not running a skimmer or doing WC's for a month will make certain coral in your tank look better. Maybe you might have been running your tank too low on the nutrient ladder?

 

[Belwell]

If you have enough sand and live rock it isn't surprising that things are ok, especially if you aren't over feeding, but your corals are going to be upset as I am sure they are being underfed, no matter how good you are at spot feeding excess food hits the tank and adds ammonia over time, so if you don't have any most likely you have very little growth in yours corals. I would recommend doing a few 5% water changes over the next month and slowly freshen things up. Get your skimmer up!