Coral bio load.

[Jayva]

My 6g tank finished cycling a few days ago. Added a small CUC. 1 trochus 1 nasarrious and 2 hermits and 1 cerinth. On Thursday.

 

Everything looked good especially with all that snail poop. Double checked perams today. Everything was good. So I added 2 tiny clowns. Less then an inch in size. Monitoring everything. Everything's remaining stable.

 

Can I add coral lets say tomorrow? I heard they don't add to the bioload I don't wanna over load it and restart the cycle.

[aviator300]

My 6g tank finished cycling a few days ago. Added a small CUC. 1 trochus 1 nasarrious and 2 hermits and 1 cerinth. On Thursday.

 

Everything looked good especially with all that snail poop. Double checked perams today. Everything was good. So I added 2 tiny clowns. Less then an inch in size. Monitoring everything. Everything's remaining stable.

 

Can I add coral lets say tomorrow? I heard they don't add to the bioload I don't wanna over load it and restart the cycle.

Why be in such a hurry and how did you determine it's finished cycling. Just because the Ammonia and Nitrite level dropped or went away doesn't mean the tank has developed enough bacterial colonization to support a CUC, 2 Clowns and new coral yet. Let it settle down for a week or two more and give it time to develop and then resolve the common Diatom bloom that's almost certain to happen.

 

The number one mistake most folks make on a new tank is being impatient and the number one sign that indicates this is when asks a question like yours. Relax, take your time, sit back and enjoy watching the tank age a little more and you will have a healthy, long lasting reef tank.

[Jayva]

Why be in such a hurry and how did you determine it's finished cycling. Just because the Ammonia and Nitrite level dropped or went away doesn't mean the tank has developed enough bacterial colonization to support a CUC, 2 Clowns and new coral yet. Let it settle down for a week or two more and give it time to develop and then resolve the common Diatom bloom that's almost certain to happen.

 

The number one mistake most folks make on a new tank is being impatient and the number one sign that indicates this is when asks a question like yours. Relax, take your time, sit back and enjoy watching the tank age a little more and you will have a healthy, long lasting reef tank.

Rock came out of a 3 year old tank. Live sand. Bio spira

[seabass]

I doubt that coral would cause an ammonia spike. However, there is nothing ever wrong with waiting a bit, even if your system can handle more. Bacteria populations take a little time to adjust to changing bio-loads and to stabilize. Not that coral will add that much. But if it eats, I tend to count it as adding to the bio-load.

 

If you have a new sand bed, your tank will likely experience a diatom bloom. I agree with aviator300, I'd probably wait until the diatom bloom has come and gone before adding coral.

[Clown79]

Wait. As mentioned, corals don't add to the bioload but you have already added quite a bit to a new system already.

 

Even though you added established liverock, the system is new which makes it vulnerable to spikes.

 

Its best to go slow

 

 

Slow and steady wins the race

[Jayva]

Oh I'm not adding nothing. It was a hypothetical question.

 

Another question will phosgaurd prevent the whole diatom situation by soaking up all the phos and silicates?

[seabass]

Possibly. However, diatoms are not really much of a problem for most. When using Phosguard (or any other phosphate reducing media), you need to monitor phosphate with a low level test kit (so it doesn't go too low). Phosphate should usually be detectable, but (to help prevent accelerated algae growth) no higher than 0.03ppm.

[brandon429]

agreed, diatoms are not usually associated with a live rock setup that was pre cycled and rinsed sand, diatoms as a stage are something a reefer opts into or out of, but not requisite. the white reflective surfaces of new setups paired with bright white lights might be the biggest initial driver of all.. age and tuning and coloration of the reflective surfaces (into purple and darks) makes a big diff too. we cover how the unrinsed initial sandbed promotes diatoms independently of phosphates as well in our threads.

 

I never get them across all reefs day 1 onward. at least handy to know that can be skipped so that our investments never have a rough looking phase. a vast majority of the tanks that show up later for algae work followed the dated cycling advise of leaving X in the tank to see if it goes away, the prep of the sandbed from older systems was much different (silt inclusive, hands off, diatoms and all invaders like this mode) so by doing things 2016 the end results are so much cleaner

[Clown79]

Why do ppl advise not to be pro active regarding algae?

[Jayva]

Why do ppl advise not to be pro active regarding algae?

What is your thoughts? I'd love to hear them. I have Purigen. Phosgaurd. And some kinda fluval thing that came with my tank. Removes phos and trates. Didn't install any of them yet.

[brandon429]

Clown that's a good question, I googled this:

 

reef tank uglies phase

 

 

look at all that... so many reasons we are told the uglies phase is required. Mainly its a misunderstanding of microbiology happening (you will cause a cycle if you X, or your will kill bacteria by doing X) but moreso its the thought that early intervention causes instability.

 

 

 

of course leaving things alone in a tank might have stasis changes that takes an invader back out of the picture. Could work, agreed. But, for those it didn't work for, they literally had no other course of action due to the misunderstandings that makes people repeat the same events over and over regarding early tank procedures

 

often times we find that leaving anything in the tank which is invasive can seed other areas for later popups, a bad overfeeding weekend etc, tank correctors cannot find any value in leaving an invader in a position to take on mass when simply blasting it out of the tank is an initial option. New tank cycle coaches might disagree on early proaction, the search results show.

 

 

Probably the worst common advise is the one about leaving green hair algae in place as it comes up, or to do things to the water nutrient balances when it comes up, never actually acting directly on the algae. So many thousands of tanks are wrecked like that, which we fix using opposite biology, one would think things would catch on that hands off is problematic until balance has been met.

 

 

 

 

Most of the people giving new tank advice or uglies phase advice simply haven't had to use a hands off method to fix a wrecked tank, or they'd change the initial advice.

 

Having to fix wrecked tanks online in threads where one is accountable for what works or not drastically changes all advice angles.

[seabass]

Probably the worst common advise is the one about leaving green hair algae in place as it comes up, or to do things to the water nutrient balances when it comes up, never actually acting directly on the algae.

 

Yep, this is what happens.

[Jayva]

 

Yep, this is what happens.

Oh dear lord I want to avoid that at all costs. That's why I wanted to put phosgaurd in there.

[seabass]

Go for it. But phosphate is an important nutrient to the zooxanthellae in coral (they use it to make food for the coral), so you don't want to strip it all out. It should be detectable but no higher than 0.03ppm. You need a low range test kit to determine when to replace the media, and when to discontinue it.

[brandon429]

hey you did that on purps for the awesome turnaround ability now if I could muster the bllz to dump some dinos into my tank, to prove they are easy removed with a rip cleaning, we'd be even. I cant muster that, but still believe in the process heh

[seabass]

Brandon, don't do it in any tank that you care about. Might be cool to try in a test bed of some sort.

[jedimasterben]

hey you did that on purps for the awesome turnaround ability now if I could muster the bllz to dump some dinos into my tank, to prove they are easy removed with a rip cleaning, we'd be even. I cant muster that, but still believe in the process heh

Not possible in a tank that has corals you want to keep. Been there, done that.

[aviator300]

Rock came out of a 3 year old tank. Live sand. Bio spira

AH HA.. In your original post you kept talking about a "cycle" and said you didn't want to start another cycle by adding things too quick but now you say the rock you used was 3 year old live rock. If that's the case, there wouldn't be any cycle at all because the rock is already loaded with bacteria.

[Jayva]

AH HA.. In your original post you kept talking about a "cycle" and said you didn't want to start another cycle by adding things too quick but now you say the rock you used was 3 year old live rock. If that's the case, there wouldn't be any cycle at all because the rock is already loaded with bacteria.

I had a mini cycle from the LS. A lot

Of dead pods in it. But everything's stable now. I checked 3 times today. Same results. Even after feeding. I guess the dead pods kept the bacteria in the live sand alive so that's good lol

[seabass]

I guess the dead pods kept the bacteria in the live sand alive so that's good lol

The dead pods really did no harm, or no good. Bacteria have the ability to go dormant for months. It isn't necessary to constantly bombard them with ammonia to keep them alive. In fact, 80% of all bacteria on Earth is metabolically inactive. This is why you can put some dry rock (with some dead organic matter on it) in a tank and it will eventually establish a nitrogen cycle, without ever adding bacteria cultures.

[brandon429]

Or reculture 200,000 year permafrost and release the unicellular kraken

[Clown79]

I never advise leaving algae alone. I advise finding the source of the problem and correcting it.

 

Algae doesn't represent a cycle or its completion, which seems to be the "belief" going around.

[seabass]

Algae doesn't represent a cycle or its completion, which seems to be the "belief" going around.

Diatom blooms from new sand beds do tend to happen after ammonia levels come down. Although I haven't seen studies to confirm this, It seems like ammonia might postpone the bloom until levels become more favorable. Therefore, people often use diatom blooms as a marker of an established nitrogen cycle. Of course this doesn't mean that we should necessarily be encouraging diatom blooms; but we can use that information if it does occur. However, personally, I rely on test kits.

[Clown79]

I rely on kits as well. My experience has been with diatoms - inconsistent.

 

I agree they are a sign of the system developing but too many ppl have now equated diatoms/other algaes as a cycle completion. I have read a ton of ppl saying "those are diatoms, you're most likely cycled or close to the end", yet the test kit results show the opposite.

 

55g - diatoms appeared 2 weeks after the cycle and very little of them.

 

20g - no diatoms

 

15g - light diatoms 1 mnth after cycle complete and reappeared a mnth after they went away.

 

10g - light dusting during cycle.