Go visit @under_water_ninja! Also if your tank has the uglies, Kenny has cured and live rock you can throw in there to get some good bacteria and microcrustaceans. We set up stuff for @Ayman's new tank Wednesday using this method too.
20% off corals at High Tide Aquatics until Sunday
- Thread starter Darkxerox
- Start date
Thank you!l for posting this!!!!! Ya we don’t like the uglies! I don’t get uglies in tanks, all my customers that have done my method for cycling a tank do not go though the uglies! Adding live rock from an established system is all you need, my magic seawater helps too. Then after a day(when the water is clear again) add a bunch of corals, corals can adapt very well and they give a huge biological boosts!!! Corals first week, inverts and more corals week 2, more corals and fish week 3. No uglies!!! Just a nice looking reef! I much prefer having a reef tank the first month, and not watching algae’s grow for 3 months. Times have changed, no reason to do the same crap people have been doing for decades and decades. Keep reefin on!
Reading this helps me feel more confident in the method I used to start my tank.
Do you have a more in depth article or post here about your methodology I could read please? It sounds very similar to what I did, with a few differences.
I'm completely new to the hobby. Prior to starting my tank and reading in various online groups and some forum posts on R2R, almost everything I was reading was talking about 60+ day cycling and sometimes longer. I have only had experience in freshwater and I could "instantly" cycle a tank the same day by cleaning out a mature sponge filter from one of my other tanks. It seeds my tank with all the beneficial bacteria it could possibly need, if not too much because there isn't enough of a food course. Seems like initially, I would get some bacteria die off but nothing crazy. Ammonia spikes slightly but small frequent water changes would right the ship every time. I hear don't do water changes to ensure the cycle completes. Then some people say do water changes.
I started my first reef tank (Fluval Evo 13.5) at the beginning of Nov. I started it with some CaribSea Fiji Pink, a couple pieces of wet rock (CaribSea fake rock) from lfs but it was loaded with life. Filled the tank and seeded it further with SeaChem stability. Probably not necessary but somehow it helped my brain feel better about it. Then the following day I added a small bag of mature biomedia from a buddy's tank into one of my chambers (still there btw). He also gave me a small damsel to help cycle which is also still in the tank. Then a couple days later, I picked up a few more mature biomedia balls from the lfs for an added boost. I had coral in the tank following the first week! Granted it was a gamble because the tank wasn't fully "cycled". I still had a tiny bit of ammonia and nitrite. I had the water tested and lfs encouraged a big water change to level everything out. I did the water change and then introduced the coral. I know...I know...clearly not ready or stable. I think it was the right decision though. I am only a few weeks in and everything is stable. The coral and fish seem to be happy. Only a couple possible issues I've witnessed but I'm not certain it is water quality. I am trying not to overfeed and doing water changes every week. Currently about 15% or 2gal from approx 13gal of actual volume. So far so good thankfully. I am running into a little bit of what I believe to be cyanobacteria and diatoms on some of the sand surface and the rocks. So a little bit of the ugly stage I suppose. But nothing too crazy thus far. It could be the start of it though. I just don't have the experience to say one way or the other. I just added some snails and a cleaner shrimp yesterday. I have also had a small red legged hermit in there for just over a week. Next on my list is copepods now that I think they'll have enough to chow on.
I'd love to learn more about your methodology and see how I can incorporate it for my next tank getting started soon. Unfortunately, I don't have a lfs like High Tide or anything even close. One of these days, I would like to make the trip up to your store and check it out though. Thank you for being a supporting part of the community. The short time I have been here has proven invaluable already.
I think you did fine to start minus the damsel add. You usually want to add fish last in the way Kenny (and Jake Adams) used to set up tanks. True live rock and/or seeded biomedia added with mostly dry rock can support corals fine as they aren't generating ammonia like an animal with gills will be. Also you're only feeding light to them to start so not much input of nitrogenous waste.
The damsel right away is the really old method which is not great because eventually you'll want to get rid of the fish due to their aggressive behavior. You can add some clean up crew like snails and hermits to help control algae fairly soon too since they also aren't generating much ammonia. Maybe feed a few pellets to them if they don't have enough to eat. But basically that dry rock still does need a couple months to colonize. The donor live rock is doing all the heavy lifting in the first two weeks.
In the meantime, go grab this book off eBay since it's older but still relevant conceptually:
The damsel right away is the really old method which is not great because eventually you'll want to get rid of the fish due to their aggressive behavior. You can add some clean up crew like snails and hermits to help control algae fairly soon too since they also aren't generating much ammonia. Maybe feed a few pellets to them if they don't have enough to eat. But basically that dry rock still does need a couple months to colonize. The donor live rock is doing all the heavy lifting in the first two weeks.
In the meantime, go grab this book off eBay since it's older but still relevant conceptually:
first off, thank you for the kind words!!!!
first off, thank you for the kind words!!! Thomas(darkxerox) hit it on the head. The other thing I suggest when starting a new tank, is loading it up with pods and feeding Live Phyto everyday, diatoms don’t stand a chance. Yes get the damsel out, get a couple utility nano fish like a Molly miller blenny, a rainfords goby, they will help keep your rocks and sand clean. A couple trochus snails, couple nassarius, maybe a couple cerith snails as well. Hopefully you can stop by the shop sometime before your next upgrade!! Cheers,
Kenny
The best lfs I have in my area for saltwater...is PetCo! You read that right! I'm about to order some pods right now, since I have not yet seeded my tank plus I have a new one starting up soon. How long can I store them for? How much do I need to dose everyday per gallon?
That sucks...they are so beautiful! Thankfully, they have not caused much of an issue. I do have a single clown in there atm too. Very unlikely I will be able to rehome that one! Momma's choice there! Haaa haaa.
I do want to know though about the damsels. Only pull them because they don't serve much of a purpose to a reef except eating and pooping? Or do they harm corals as well?
I will look into those. Do they make a mess of sand all over mushrooms or frags I have in the sand bed before I put them in their final spot?
I just picked up a few trochus snails. Unfortunately, they gave me some that are giant! I would have rather had 5 small ones.
I also picked up a few nassarius. I think a couple of them died, but I'm not sure why.
Thoughts on hermit crabs?
Thank you Kenny! It's definitely a trek for me to get up to where you are but being a sponsor does encourage me more to make the trip for the sake of checking it out and supporting the business.
Coral reefer
Past President
Damsels are mostly jerks. Territorial jerks.
And clowns are a type of damsel too @ReyDeFarts
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
I think this the Jake Adam’s video which briefly mentioned the coral first approach:
Thank you @Darkxerox - did not know this came from Jake. I only heard about this in the interview of the Fauna Marin CEO with reefbum.
Thank you @Darkxerox - did not know this came from Jake. I only heard about this in the interview of the Fauna Marin CEO with reefbum.
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
But I prefer @under_water_ninja step by step approach. Maybe we could even expand on this a little.
Looks like a new YouTube video will be in the works.
Pods you put in all at once, phyto just follow the directions. I dose a lot everyday to all my reefs.
They are just jerks to all other tank mates
No, and I also don’t like hermits in my reefs
BAYMAC
Supporting Member
And directions on bottles don't mean too much in reality as the company has no way to tell how much life will consume it. You can feed a lot more then what the bottle states. You just need to ramp up slowly and know when to stop. When I was developing the directions for Reef Nutrition products, I massively fed my tanks, and basically went with like 10% of what I was doing. With the development of Roti-Feast, I was feeding the equivalent to 6oz bottles to my 80 gallons of display tank at a time.
Coral reefer
Past President
I never trust a crab!
That's cause you keep triggerfish and puffers that eat them all day! But in my tanks I haven't had a problem with blue leg or scarlet hermits ever and they can handle a lot of certain hair algaes before they become a big problem.
Yes please! I'll have to go look for your channel. But yes, a new video would be great for us newbies. And experienced keepers too. I was in a FB group for my fluval and all I read was 2 or 3 month cycle regurgitated over and over. Anything other than what the common theme was quickly put down. Deep down I knew there was a better way. My more experienced buddy had the right idea, just not the execution of it by using mature biomedia.
Now that makes me want to get rid of mine.
Now that'll makes me want to keep mine.
Here's the classic hobby conundrum of two different opinions and both are right! Haaa haaa.
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