Tank not maturing

[GoldeneyeRet]

Hi RC, I need a bit of help.

I rebuilt my 4 ft. 120 over a year ago. I have 9 small fish and a variety of corals--mostly LPS, some zoos and some SPS, all of which are doing very well. I also have 2 shrimp, squat lobster(coolest ever) some trochus, nassarius cerith and a conch. All are doing well, haven't lost anything at all.

The problem I am having is the tank does not appear to be maturing as my last one did. I have zero coralline growth (not that I want any, I just should have some by now). I have no bristleworms, fanworms, amphipods etc. The tank just doesn't seem to be moving forward.

I set it up using Fiji rock from DFS, same as I used on my last tank. The cycling went normally so I don't think the rock was "dead", it just has no visible life.

I did have the normal succession of algae blooms. They all went away except I still have issues with a fuzzy type. It is very light colored and loosely attatched. I can blow it off easily but it grows everywhere, even in the shaded areas. I suspect leachin from the rock as P and Nitrates have been undetectable almost every test (done weekly since set up)

Params: Using IO salt temp 78, salinity 1.026(ato), Alk 7.8-8 via kalk, Ca 380 Nitrate and P both usually remain undetectable via Salifert, Mg I keep it around 1350-1400 (salifert). I am dosing 1/3 c vinegar daily and feed fish well.

I am using an older Euro reef skimmer, reefbreeder LEDs and have the flow as high as the LPS can tolerate with two jeabos and an sp4 return. 30 gal Sump with no refugium. I run carbon and have tried running with and without GFO, in separate TLF reactors.

I am thinking this live rocks is junk. I see they stopped selling it some time after I got it maybe I had old stock they were dumping? Should I replace it all? Replace some? add some fresh rock for seed? Or just be more patient?

I would have thought I would see more hitchikers by now from frags etc, even if I started with dry rock? Any ideas as to what I could be doing wrong?

I had my last reef up for around 15 years and my favorite thing was watching the progression of life over the years, now I am not getting that and as such am disappointed with my reef.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Neebles]

I started my set up with dry rock, sand etc. I would be very surprised if you don't have bristle worms etc. I don't see them very often but now and then I will find one in a filter sock and toss it back in the display. You could always seed your tank with pods and other life if you wanted to. I don't think you should start over...

 

[ReefWreak]

My nano has had less hitchikers than my old 120g's rocks had, but I prefer it that way.

If you're concerned, just get a small baggie of livesand from a fellow reefer with a nice big tank that you like, or buy a fresh grungy rock from a local store and leave it in your tank. You should be getting plenty of coralline algae with your kalk topoff, and as far as hitchhikers, first, take a look at the tank in the middle of the night with a flashlight. If you don't see anything then, I'd go out and grab a few more rocks/some sand to re-seed your tank.

 

[Buzz1329]

"I have no bristleworms, fanworms, amphipods etc. The tank just doesn't seem to be moving forward."

Just my two cents, but I'd add a few pieces of live rock from:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2509664

That should jump start your microfauna. If you're concerned about mega pests (Mantis Shrimp, gorilla crabs, etc.), keep the rock in your sump until you're comfortable you've eradicated all of them and you're ok with adding it to the DT.

Good luck,

Mike

 

[Cdodge1]

I started my set up with dry rock, sand etc. I would be very surprised if you don't have bristle worms etc. I don't see them very often but now and then I will find one in a filter sock and toss it back in the display. You could always seed your tank with pods and other life if you wanted to. I don't think you should start over...

Same here. I started my tank with live sand and dry base rock. Honestly unless the liverock was cured by yourself or you are %110 sure it has come from a trusted source, then I wouldn't use it in the tank. Call me paranoid but I prefer to manually add the "bio-diversity".

But, more specifically to Goldeneyes dilemma. Take neebles advice. Add all the stuff you want as long as you're in charge of what you're adding. If you get coral there'll be coraline and other types of algae and such. Small additions over time will eventually build up to a large community of diverse organisms!

ANother thing I did was use water and/or sand from %110 trusted tanks and just poured it into my tank. Did it do anything? Maybe, maybe not. But the idea behind it was to add some different coepod & bacterial colonies that might not have been present in my tank! All with no pests!

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[TylerHaworth]

Other than your Ca being quite a bit lower than where I like it(~420-440), everything seems fine...

In my opinion, even if the Rock was dry rock you should have coralline growing by now, so I wouldn't really blame it for the lack of "maturation" unless it is leaching something bad... Note that coralline algae isn't super well understood, and some tanks for whatever reason never really have it take off while it reaches plague proportions quickly in other very simple setups.

My favorite way to seed microfauna in a tank is to grab a big hunk of Chaeto from a local reefer or somewhere online...

I know this probably isn't much help, I'm still waking up, but... Continue your patience and don't do anything hasty, best of luck!

 

[Dmorty217]

Hi RC, I need a bit of help.

I rebuilt my 4 ft. 120 over a year ago. I have 9 small fish and a variety of corals--mostly LPS, some zoos and some SPS, all of which are doing very well. I also have 2 shrimp, squat lobster(coolest ever) some trochus, nassarius cerith and a conch. All are doing well, haven't lost anything at all.

The problem I am having is the tank does not appear to be maturing as my last one did. I have zero coralline growth (not that I want any, I just should have some by now). I have no bristleworms, fanworms, amphipods etc. The tank just doesn't seem to be moving forward.

I set it up using Fiji rock from DFS, same as I used on my last tank. The cycling went normally so I don't think the rock was "dead", it just has no visible life.

I did have the normal succession of algae blooms. They all went away except I still have issues with a fuzzy type. It is very light colored and loosely attatched. I can blow it off easily but it grows everywhere, even in the shaded areas. I suspect leachin from the rock as P and Nitrates have been undetectable almost every test (done weekly since set up)

Params: Using IO salt temp 78, salinity 1.026(ato), Alk 7.8-8 via kalk, Ca 380 Nitrate and P both usually remain undetectable via Salifert, Mg I keep it around 1350-1400 (salifert). I am dosing 1/3 c vinegar daily and feed fish well.

I am using an older Euro reef skimmer, reefbreeder LEDs and have the flow as high as the LPS can tolerate with two jeabos and an sp4 return. 30 gal Sump with no refugium. I run carbon and have tried running with and without GFO, in separate TLF reactors.

I am thinking this live rocks is junk. I see they stopped selling it some time after I got it maybe I had old stock they were dumping? Should I replace it all? Replace some? add some fresh rock for seed? Or just be more patient?

I would have thought I would see more hitchikers by now from frags etc, even if I started with dry rock? Any ideas as to what I could be doing wrong?

I had my last reef up for around 15 years and my favorite thing was watching the progression of life over the years, now I am not getting that and as such am disappointed with my reef.

Thanks for your input.

Get a piece of liverock that hasn't been sitting in a cat somewhere with little to no life. Tampabay live rock is a sustainable source with a ton of life actually on the rock

 

[nuxx]

Every tank is different, I wouldn't worry too much at the year mark.

Like other's said, maybe try bringing up the calc a bit.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Thanks for the advice everyone!