Does your equipment fail too?

[Beverly]

Jason,

We have adopted the "keep it simple, stupid" mode of reefkeeping by:

- keeping fish stocking levels low
- having various non-invasive macroalgae for nutrient uptake
- having a BB so we siphon out crud weekly
- having some mechanical filtration that gets cleaned weekly

This method has saved us:

- loads of money
- from having sophisticated equipment fail which may cause all kinds of problems
- from having floods, big or small
- from not overdosing something from an automated system
- there are probably more savings, but I can't think of them now

This method's drawbacks are:

- we have to do weekly maintenance on our tank religiously, but this is not a big deal now that we have only one tank
- daily top ups are done manually, which isn't a problem because it makes me look at our tank for signs of problems daily
- having to test for alk, Ca and Mg regularly and manually add the additives
- mmm, can't think of any else

Overall, our reef is a rather hands-in and hands-on experience, but the problems seem to be fewer than the ones you describe.