oh sorry
bells and whistles meaning more "complex (read $$)" equipment. Like metal halides and waveboxes and controllers and dosing pumps/calcium reactors (have had both, currently using doser).
I dunno, I tend to think of the simple as also inexpensive (but not cheap, lets say like, thrifty). Like running a maxijet vs a tunze, or running a lower end skimmer rather than a bubbleking. I applaud those that can get by using tapwater (actually it just amazes me because if I even look at my tank wrong using RO, algae grows). And dosing daily, well thats not my thing. Some days I don't even remember my own name let alone remembering to dose my tank.
My first tank (no SPS, mostly softies and a couple LPS, maybe a frogspawn or something like that) was an algae fest but it was the most lush, vibrant green hair algae you'll ever see. It was quite lovely but was choking out the corals so I ended up finally getting an RO unit. Then I upgraded to a larger tank and wanted to try SPS and clams so I upgraded to metal halides. Dosing would have been ridiculously expensive (locally it was available from one store that charged an arm and a leg) so I bought a calcium reactor. Then various timers failed so I bought a controller. Then my calcium reactor failed so I bought a doser to go with the controller. Ad infintum. My system certainly isn't simple but I don't think its all that complex either (not like some of the systems I've seen that just blow my mind). Besides, I just like saying deeeeluxe
Ooohhhh-eeee, my system is deeeeeluxe!
