Complex Setups: What gives?

[rickjames]

Originally Posted by Moogled

What is another example of a piece of equipment that makes the overall reefkeeping experience easier?

Light timers, top off resevoir/float valve, and Calcium Reactor. I would go crazy without them.

I think there is a couple of reasons why complex tanks overall seem to do better. The biggest is experience. Usually everyone starts off with a little tank with a HOB skimmer and some maxijets. You don't usually see a newbie with Reactors/timers/wavemakers etc right away. An experienced reefer could run an excellent tank without that stuff. But it would be WAY more work.

Another reason is that while a setup might look complex, the goal is usually automation of the mundane tasks. Turning on/off lights, toping off the tank, replenishing Ca/Alk, making water current. When all of that is taken care of, you really start to enjoy your tank. You get to use your "reefing time" to do things you might not have had time for otherwise. Like tweaking Ca/ALk/Mg levels. Checking each coral colony for polyp expansion, health, and growth, feeding your fish and watching the frenzy, nuking those aptasias. Epoxying that frag you got last month to the rock instead of it rolling around on the bottom of the tank.

My tank is in a public office so I usually get a lot of questions about how hard it is to maintain and why it looks so clean. I always tell them "you get out what you put in". A complex setup will help, but the more time you put in to a tank the better and healthier it will look.