where is your balance?

[saabtech]

ok i hope this doesn't get overly complicated but i am interested on your tanks delicate "balance"

in my 125 gallon tank with over 100 lbs of rock and shallow sand bed with skimmer in sump, bio balls and no refuge, with a 5 gallon water change every week i had.......
6 fish (about 14 inches of fish) and little coral and i fed about one cube of food a day and never!! had any blooms or outbreaks

now i have 7 fish (one is a 5inch tang 18 inches of fish total) with a gorg, 20+heads of acan 30+ heads of sun coral and dendro that get spot fed. installed a refuge, do about 10 gallons a week and i feed the equivalent of 3+ cubes of food each day and i had a cyano outbreak (i think i know the root cause) but basically were is your balance of amount of food vs fish/coral vs water changes.

[Regric25]

I have had a 29g with about 5 small fish in it and lots of coral. Some I had to spot feed like my dendro and my sun corals and my green hairy shroom. I feed my tank 1 mysis cube every other day. It seems to help keep my parameters in check. Also I do a 5 gallon H2O change a week in my 29 gallon.

[saabtech]

thanks regric25.

it seems as if this may have been a silly question....

[BIGBIRD123]

Actually Kevin, it's not a silly question. It's just most people can't answer because they have the same problems. It seems that ANY time we try and change something in our tank or add something specific, we have some sort of cycle or algae outbreak. I don't believe we will ever get it totally right...even when we move stuff from one tank to another immediately...

[kkiel02]

Actually Kevin, it's not a silly question. It's just most people can't answer because they have the same problems. It seems that ANY time we try and change something in our tank or add something specific, we have some sort of cycle or algae outbreak. I don't believe we will ever get it totally right...even when we move stuff from one tank to another immediately...

This is true. My tank has become much more stable by not adding any new fish in a couple months. I still add a coral here or there but the bioload doesnt change as much as it is usually a small frag. I also only feed one cube a day but supplement with either nori or caulerpa from the fuge. I have a small area of red slime but I know my filters are pretty bad as my tds is above 10ppm last time I checked. I just havent had the time to change them recently. As far as maintenance I do around a 10 gallon water change on my 180 so after the month I am changing around 20%. Maybe less with the fuge and all. Oh and I did also change out my sump for a fuge not too long ago and believe this might have also helped the red slime along.

[ACE]

This is one of those questions that have a variety of answers and and tons of variables. Also, you can have two identical set-ups, identical water, filtration, etc. and I guarantee you there will be two different results. I think most if not all people strive to find that balance you seek, but seldom find it long term because your not dealing with controllable factors. If your looking for advice on your set up, I have a 125 and your welcome to come by and take a look. One thing I noticed in your post is the water changes. I used to do 5-10 GAL a week and my tank started having filtration issues. I found that for me 20-25 GAL a week has been much more affective and my tank is much happier.

[BIGBIRD123]

I agree with the concept that not everything works for everyone. I quit doing weekly changes of 10g and started doing 20g every other week and seemed to get more stability and my tank is only 58g. Kevin, you are also welcome to come by and see my set-up, too.