Hello,name is Kyle. I'm newer to saltwater. Slowly transitioning from freshwater but I'm certainly glad for the new experiences and challenges
Hello from Surprise
- Thread starter kmarshall
- Start date
Hello, and welcome to AZFRAG, and the Saltwater aquarium hobby 
Be sure to check out the monthly meetings section- there's one coming up on the 19th.
forum.azfrag.org
Be sure to check out the monthly meetings section- there's one coming up on the 19th.
Upcoming Meetings
forum.azfrag.org
Would you like some free frags? I got a lot of zoas and favias & I need some room in my frag tank.
Depends on what Favia in my opinion, I have some that I see noticeable growth monthly and others that haven’t grown at all and I had them for months.
I recommend getting cope pods for the ugly stage, I completely bypassed that stage by introducing them early. I have a mandarin so I have to keep the tanked stocked with pods because I’m slowly training it to eat frozen foods. You can even add more bacteria like microbacter7 to help balance things out. In my first tank I had to feed more because the tank was to sterile. Either way when you want some free frags PM and I’ll see what I can do.
I did seed a jar of eco pods and l am feeding phyto as well to try and sustain while I get through the ugly phase
I think the best way to combat the ugly's is to seed your tank with bacteria and microfauna from sand and or biomedia from a healthy mature tank.
What's lacking is the biodiversity that's required to create balance. The "ugly stage" is just a point where particular algae's have very little competition. Establishing that competition early will dramatically help.
I personally seeded my tank with sand and mud from ipsf (indo pacific sea farm), boy did that make a difference!
What's lacking is the biodiversity that's required to create balance. The "ugly stage" is just a point where particular algae's have very little competition. Establishing that competition early will dramatically help.
I personally seeded my tank with sand and mud from ipsf (indo pacific sea farm), boy did that make a difference!
I do have sand as well although it's just Caribsea "live sand". I don't mind the uglies stage just part of the journey
hey kmarshall...what sisterlimonpot is saying try and get some sand or some live rock from someones sump to seed your tank...I can tell you from my experience that the so called "live sand" from any manufacturer is just a waste of your money, as I have thrown away cash on this years and years ago...So when I was making the journey from the 140 to the current 300, I put (lava and lace rock, this was a bad idea, but I will tell ya) in a 50 gallon garbage can and put microbactor 7 in with a pump and lid and let it "cook" for 3 months as people would say when they came over. Took the lid off month 3. .Also I put the cooked rock into the 300 with no lights on for one month, only turned on to feed fish and look at them. Boy this worked great cause I also had 15 pounds of sand from my 140 which as sisterlimonpot is suggesting you do.
But then about 2 months ago the stubborn green turf, and green algae and red orange algae just like happened over night and I could not win..SO after alot of research and questions to people I know...found out lace rock or lava rock, is a 90% bad idea to 10% good idea for reef tank depending on who I spoke to based on their experience. I had lace/lava rock in my NY tanks years ago but they were mostly fish only...SO lace/lava rock leaches all kinds of bad stuff most of the time depending on where it came from..I guess the lace/lava rock on east coast years ago is way different from the stuff out here in AZ. One of the main problems with the lace rock I had, was PO4 was I guess leaching from the rock as I could NEVER get it down, and so in the end I lost the battle, and so out came all the rock...
So this week I just finished taking out all the rocks out of the 300 and put in marco and caribsea rocks after we spent weeks gluing and washing them.
I have also used brightwell razor product and it works great, you should look into that as well along with their Microbactor 7. I dose Microbactor 7 weekly only a small amount.
I hope this helps...maybe I will see you at next months meeting. We could not come yesterday as we put the new rocks in yesterday and did a 50% water change to help reduce the leached stuff in the water..and now .It will be 50 gallon water change ever weekend for a month or so...if needed dependiing on tests...
But then about 2 months ago the stubborn green turf, and green algae and red orange algae just like happened over night and I could not win..SO after alot of research and questions to people I know...found out lace rock or lava rock, is a 90% bad idea to 10% good idea for reef tank depending on who I spoke to based on their experience. I had lace/lava rock in my NY tanks years ago but they were mostly fish only...SO lace/lava rock leaches all kinds of bad stuff most of the time depending on where it came from..I guess the lace/lava rock on east coast years ago is way different from the stuff out here in AZ. One of the main problems with the lace rock I had, was PO4 was I guess leaching from the rock as I could NEVER get it down, and so in the end I lost the battle, and so out came all the rock...
So this week I just finished taking out all the rocks out of the 300 and put in marco and caribsea rocks after we spent weeks gluing and washing them.
I have also used brightwell razor product and it works great, you should look into that as well along with their Microbactor 7. I dose Microbactor 7 weekly only a small amount.
I hope this helps...maybe I will see you at next months meeting. We could not come yesterday as we put the new rocks in yesterday and did a 50% water change to help reduce the leached stuff in the water..and now .It will be 50 gallon water change ever weekend for a month or so...if needed dependiing on tests...
Hey Sal,
I'm curious the reasoning for dosing nitrifying bacteria on a weekly basis? Are you testing and seeing ammonia readings?