A low maintenance or maintenance free aquarium - no work at all, entirely on auto pilot. Nothing to do but to view and enjoy the myriad of coral colours and the various reef fish.

Most or perhaps all aquarists would tend to call that aquatic heaven perhaps or perhaps not. Can this really work, is it possible?

Is there a way that the aquarist can design a marine system where, once all is settled and mature, there is nothing else to do? Has automation taken away the ultimate challenge to the aquarist?

Let's compare the two scenarios:the hobby aquarium versus the wild reef.

The first thing is to compare the aquarium to the wild reef. The fish and corals are similar, only on a smaller scale, and there are the same kind of inhabitants in the aquarium as on the wild reef, just fewer of them.

Also, there are far fewer species of livestock in the captive reef. So, there's the first point - the wild reef has far greater diversity of life. Every species has it's own niche on the wild reef, feeding on maybe quite different sources of food, the different species have their own niche on the wild reef, each having a food source.

Nature provides for them all, there are some overlaps of course but generally it is all very well organised. Nature has everything under control. In the aquarium, all potential disasters must be anticipated.

The first problem that the aquarist is likely to face is in making sure that all potential difficulties are dealt with before problems arise, from dealing with different forms of nuisance algae to having enough food for fish if these are kept.

If the aquarium is stocked with only corals and no fish, there is less of a problem with the water, as there is no fish food to add, and no fish waste to subtract.

So what if fish are not kept, just a reef with corals. This immediately makes the question of water quality easier to deal with, as the wastes from the fish are gone.

In addition, there isn't any need to feed the fish. So if the aquarium is filtered with a deep sand bed and live rock, will that solve our automatic maintenance question?

Let's take a closer look at the corals, which need plenty of light:

Minerals such as magnesium and calcium and traces of others need to be regulated. So in comes the calcium reactor, which can supply calcium along with magnesium, and probably other minerals in traces, if the correct media is used. That solves that. Wait a minute though, the calcium reactor needs servicing on occasion, and also the media needs renewal periodically.

Consideration must also be given to the care of soft corals. These can exist with less light, fluorescent tubes often being employed. They also need less calcium. Some aquarists say that iodine helps soft corals to grow and stay healthy. If this is true, the automatic aquarium should be possible. The marine system is set up with a live rock reef in sufficient quantity. The lighting cycle is controlled by electric timers. There is a very efficient and properly set up protein skimmer in use. Algae can be controlled successfully by adding snails. An automatic top-up system using reverse osmosis water is employed. Hey, we're maintenance free! OR ARE WE?

"Discover All The Information You Need To Create Your Very Own Slice Of The Ocean And Have An Aquarium Which Is So Spectacular That Anyone Who Sees It Will Simply Say WOW!"

Marine Aquariums The Beginners Guide

This is a concise guide which provides all the information the beginner needs from research, equipment sections, filtration techniques all the way to caring for and maintaining a successful marine aquarium. Packed with 60 Chapters of Information.