Maintenance Questions

[boizart1]

So i just started taking care of a 90 gallon reef that was passed down to me by my brother...which he never did any real maintenance to, not even water changes, and has had a bunch of fish including a blue atlantic tang that are supposedly hard to keep, for over five years. He didnt add anything at all to the water, and i recently gave him a xenia frag and it spread like wildfire. Meanwhile, i did all the maintenance recommended in my 30 gallon nano and couldnt keep neither fish or corals alive for any prolonged period of time. The 90 gallon tank evaporates about 5 gallons of water a week though. So my question is what does everyone else out there do for maintenance? Would you guys recommend just sticking to the "Fill it up with fresh water when low" approach which my brother told me to do????

 

[nietzsche]

well, the reason the xenia took off was because the water was dirty enough for them.
i use ro.di to top off and mix salt with
i run a large skimmer on my small tank
i change the water weekly
i have a lot of flow
feed every other day
check salinity with refractometer once in a while, but usually know how much to top off
and check the parameters that are necessary for my corals to grow
some people never change their water, each person has their own method, but i know that method wouldnt work well for me and my corals

 

[itom37]

Originally Posted by Boizart1
http:///forum/post/2465750
So i just started taking care of a 90 gallon reef that was passed down to me by my brother...which he never did any real maintenance to, not even water changes, and has had a bunch of fish including a blue atlantic tang that are supposedly hard to keep, for over five years. He didnt add anything at all to the water, and i recently gave him a xenia frag and it spread like wildfire. Meanwhile, i did all the maintenance recommended in my 30 gallon nano and couldnt keep neither fish or corals alive for any prolonged period of time. The 90 gallon tank evaporates about 5 gallons of water a week though. So my question is what does everyone else out there do for maintenance? Would you guys recommend just sticking to the "Fill it up with fresh water when low" approach which my brother told me to do????
If the tank has been running successfully for 5 years, I'd keep doing what has been working. If you're interested in changing things (having more sensitive corals or something), perhaps some improvements are warranted. I think you'd be crazy to start spending a ton of money doing things "the right way" when the wrong way is doing perfectly well.