Complex Setups: What gives?

[Delphinus]

That's exactly it - you do what works for you to keep things simple from your perspective.

In my case, I tried dosing and I tried calcium reactors. For me, nothing beats the "set and forget" part of the calcium reactor. If I go away on a trip, my tank sitter doesn't have to do any kind of dosing, just check to make sure things are running. For me, that's simpler. But if another way seems simpler to you, then that's not wrong either.

Basically Chin nailed it:

I currently have a lot of "gadgets" in and out of my sump and while they may seem overwhelming, each and every item has a specific function to simplify the complexity of the hobby. Understanding the functionality of each gadget will reduce the perception of complexity.
As complex as some systems may be, there is not one guaranteed recipe of success when putting together a tank which results in continuous modifications and improvements to our existing "already-complexed" systems.

I totally agree. (Although it seems to me that was the point I was originally trying to make, so I guess I'm just agreeing with myself now. Haha oh well.) Point is, it only seems overwhelming if you don't understand what it's for. And you should not do anything if you don't understand why you're doing it. So while someone says "you should use halides" (or whatever), if you don't understand why you need halides, then you don't need them. As your experience grows and your interests shift, you may realize that you do one day need them. But until then .. it's whatever makes your tank work, that works.

[draco]

I would say start off small,Everyone I know has had a crash,the bigger the more expensive it is to recover,And if you start off simple you get a better understanding of how everything works.When you want to upgrade the best thing is to ask on canreef,there will always be someone out there that is upgrading one step more than you,you can get your upgrade for half the price of new.keep reading other peoples problems it helps so you dont make the same mistake.The people here know more than your local petstore,they have had these problems,the guy at the petstore needed a job!We started with a 55 gal with pc and now we upgraded to a 90 gal with halides and overflows and sump.I would have been lost with out having had the 55gal first,and with out the people here anwsering all my questions.Good Luck

[Snappy]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

That's exactly it - you do what works for you to keep things simple from your perspective.

In my case, I tried dosing and I tried calcium reactors. For me, nothing beats the "set and forget" part of the calcium reactor. If I go away on a trip, my tank sitter doesn't have to do any kind of dosing, just check to make sure things are running. For me, that's simpler. But if another way seems simpler to you, then that's not wrong either.

Basically Chin nailed it:
I totally agree. (Although it seems to me that was the point I was originally trying to make, so I guess I'm just agreeing with myself now. Haha oh well.) Point is, it only seems overwhelming if you don't understand what it's for. And you should not do anything if you don't understand why you're doing it. So while someone says "you should use halides" (or whatever), if you don't understand why you need halides, then you don't need them. As your experience grows and your interests shift, you may realize that you do one day need them. But until then .. it's whatever makes your tank work, that works.

These statements describe what I was trying to say a lot better than I did. However in my previous post I said I couldn't run my system without a skimmer, and that is true but I have a larger than average bioload. Last summer my skimmer crapped out on me for a few months and I battled huge algae problems because of it. It got so bad it was literally killing corals and took about 7 months to get rid of it. I agree with what's been said in that adding more equipment make the hobby less complex. I can now spend more time enjoying the tank instead of just always working on it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed working on it and learned a lot but it seemed I spent most of the time just putting out fires. With a little more automated system it is now less hectic and has fewer emergencies. I still have a long way to go before it's fully automated so I still do regular maintanence but it's just easier than it once was.