New people, READ ME!

[Tired]

Royal grammas are territorial, but generally pick one cave to defend. If there's enough space for them to set up a territory, they can work. It's the dottybacks that are absolutely a no in nano reefs. 

[Davy Doolittle]

On 1/7/2007 at 12:54 PM, halfpint said:

Let your tank mature for at least two months after the cycle if you want it to be more stable. I have done this with 7 of my tanks and I haven't had a crash yet.

Please expound on "Letting the tank mature after cycle." Your record is fantastic. I want to use your method.

[Tired]

Exactly what it sounds like. Let the tank exist and continue to develop its algae and bacterial colonies, and don't change anything significant. Starting with live rock will help the tank's maturity along hugely- you can't get that biodiversity anywhere else, and live rock has already had years to mature by the time you get it.

[Inspgadget]

When starting a Reef, the end product is Nitrate. Is it an option to add Nitrate killers? I don't want alge in my reef because i will only add corals to the reef. 

[Tired]

You need algae. Algae lives in your corals and keeps them alive. Also, non-pest algaes grow all over the rock surface and prevent fast-growing pest algaes from smothering your corals. 

 

Also, corals need nitrates to survive. They also need phosphates.

 

Algae is unavoidable in a reef tank. But look around at some of the featured tanks on here, and see how pretty the algae is. Lots of purples and some greens. You'll never have a tank that supports corals while having sterile white rock, so you just have to aim for corals and minimal, pretty algae. 

[Jakesaw]

Fish are territorial.  If you want more than 1 fish in the tank, add them early on 1 a month for smaller tanks.

 

If you leave fish alone for too long, the entire tank will be owned by your fish.

 

Adding another fish may be troublesome, but you can remove fish and re-arrange rock scape and add both fish ( new and old ) back in tank in an unfamiliar Rock scape.  Make sure you have rock scapes that cater to your species personality.  The fish will sort out new territiry in the next few days. 

[jadeveonclownfish]

It's important to be patient. I have always struggled wanting to add livestock, but it's critical for the Nitrogen cycle to be established and set yourself up for long term success.