New Tank....what do we really know

[Srixon]

Having had several Fresh water tanks and Reef Tanks and Planted Tanks and Nano tanks i have come to the realization that algae of the nuisance has become part of the natural cycling of your aquarium..........Like "I have been here and done this" type of knowledge and still attacks the expert and I don't consider myself an expert but I do know what the end result is and I don't think the basic aquariust can "not deal" with it.....Let me hear your ideas please

 

[magdelan]

Let me hear your ideas please

Just like the puck in a urinal, if people took a pill that had bowel deoderizing capabilities, would we still need air fresheners in the bathroom?

 

[tmz]

Algae is naturally occurring, even on natural reefs at low nutrient levels.
Many green algae are limited at less than .03ppm PO4. Cyanobacteria wane at lower PO4 as well. Some nuisance species of rhodophyta, red algaes, and some brown algae, do fine even in low PO4 water.
Nutrient management ,competition , and predation helps keep single celled and micro algae from becoming a nuisance in an established tank.
Supplements like iron may boost algae growth too.
New tanks are likely to cycle trough several types of nuisance algae and cynobacteria as die off in rock,growth in microfuana including bacteria , etc. keeps organics and nutrients and the overall "qi" (life energy) of the tank in flux for a period of time.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

to be honest

to be honest

I'm confused with what kind of response is being sought here

 

[tmz]

Gary.

I'm always confused but I don't let that stop me from chirping away.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

:lmao:

I need to re-read Sagan's epic 'COSMOS'

 

[Srixon]

Thanks Tom ... Your insight is helpful.

Gary.....I was just wondering if there is ever the "perfect" tank right at the start. And if so what are the secrets....lol

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

perfect as in no algae ?

perfect as in no algae ?

must define perfect- sorry I'm not trying to be difficult you lost me

 

[Srixon]

yes little to no algae

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

well... to be honest I've set up marine aquariums with no algae.

It's easy and they suck.

 

[Gravesj1s]

It probabaly depends on how the tank is setup from the start.I think bacteria responsable for the N cycle eventually get the upper hand on algae when the tank becomes stable. I think in the early stages this is why we see in a new setup different algaes bloom and reside starting with diatoms & ending with blue/greens.

Theres a pretty interesting paper I read that documented the results of over fishing on a wildreef. What was intersting ,to me anyway was that although po4 was measured at .03 in the absence of herbivorous fish or atleats in low numbers from over harvest ,algae began to appear.And,when the population of herbivours was re-established the algae had dissapeared.

-Steve

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I love setting up a new aquarium (especially a reef aquarium) and watching the (natural) progression of order... which includes diatom/algae/cyano/sponge etc. blooms

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

I had diatoms come and go in a week. Now two weeks later the algea on the back panel is slowly being devoured by thousands of pods, asterinas, recently limpets, my tang and the Solaris; I'm soo glad I didn't get a reefcleaners package. All my rock came out of holding and use and never left salt water. I'm waiting for what comes next. Helmeda isn't growing in my fuge, though it was in bad shape having gone a day or two too long without light waiting for the fuge to come online. The caulerpa isn't showing much for growth either in the fuge or the couple small rocks in tank. Im switching out a half cup of GAC a mix of lignite and ROX, and a 1/2 cup of GFO at two (alternating) weeks. I think I have a fairly decent skimmer. I loved watching this rock come in when I first got it nine or so years ago, back then drmac was getting some really nice stuff and the life it had for the first year was amazing.

 

[tmz]

I think using well cured live rock ;not newly shipped stuff or dry rock gets you cycled much faster. Dry rock is ok but needs curing, just like live rock or it will probably leach PO4. Preferably rock that has been freed of pests like aiptasia. Early corals like capnella, discoma and star polyps move it along nicely too;; they use nitrogen and phosphorous ,some organic carbon and the photsyntetic activity limits CO2 and adds O2.

FWIW, I just set up two tanks for seahorse grow out with live rock from my main system sump acoupleof weeks ago. In one I added lot's of capnella and gsp. I also threw in a screen separator to keep the young seahorses away from the intakes and the corals and the amphiprion pair . I added flow to the screen with some airstones. Algae is growing there; I wantd it to. The seahorses pech near it an pick off whatever hangs out in it. i think I'm going to up th pod population . It's a a happenstance algae turf srubber!
Both are doing well with little nuisance algae except on the screen and no cyanobacteria depsite heavy feeding and just an hob filter with granulated activated carbon. One tank is lit for corals the other is not.

Quailty liverock kept wet . Attention to salinity using newly mixed water aged for a day or two limited PO4 producing livestock like fish early on along with water movement and surface agitation can move it along pretty fast.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Gary.....I was just wondering if there is ever the "perfect" tank right at the start. And if so what are the secrets....lol

Besides defining "perfect" you need to define "tank." And "right at the start."

I've had many systems where I started out with a dry tank and never had a cycle or "new tank syndrome" but that was usually because I was starting with live rock from another system, or some other atypical approach, such as starting with dry, sterile rock and focusing on adding livestock in an order that makes sense from a nutrient cycle perspective.

As with many hobbies, the "standard" approach isn't always the ONLY approach, and it has some characteristics that you might consider flaws. There are other approaches that can skirt those flaws, though they're usually not as well supported or as foolproof as the "standard" approach.

 

[Gravesj1s]

It is an interesting part of reefkeeping to me ,too as far as the progression goes.But I think cycling in the dark is the only way I'd go nowadays.I'd use baserock but live or several good seeded pieces along with barerock.

Iv'e had a very fortunate opportunity to have had some of the most diverse live rock back in 92-93'.The Dominion Replublic had opened it's waters far a very, very,limited time back then.I was able to purchase 3 rocks that arrived at my lfs.This stuff showed up,about the size of footballs, raw, fresh,and just completly covered.
The rock had some tiny lps that eventually grew out,several gorgonians,some sp. of Brarieum(aka false coral), true palythoa (aka seamatt) ,imbedded coco worms,varying types of zoanthids (couple hundred at least)couple dozen ricordea's, mantis shrimp,sea urchin larvae (took about 2 months before I could tell what they were, say about the size of a pea at that point.imbeded clams ,snails, limpets, crabs ,feather dusters,albalones ,barrel sponges ,seasquirts..ect...
The rock also had a lot of plant life,including kelp and even sargassum algae.Lots of leafy and calcaleous types.The sargassum was about a foot tall as I rememeber it.

I tried hard to keep it like it was,but found it impossible.Eventually all live rock ends up looking the same from what ive seen.all the algae died off,and certain sp. dominate.

I sold all the rock I had in 98-99 and got out of the hobby.There is some of this same rock at one lfs here in syracuse,purchased at the same time.Eventually pink & purple coralline dominate ,certain corals take the lead, and all the plant life dies from ive seen & experienced.

-Steve