Adding Corals to a Beginner Tank

taylorn13 · Jul 13, 2020

Hi! I’m new to saltwater aquariums! I currently have a 20g tank with 2 clowns in it so far. I have not added corals, but I plan to in the future. I used a combination of frtiz turbostart and Dr. Tims ammonium chloride in a bottle to cycle the tank, monitored the progress daily, then in about 11 days, my tank was cycled! Water params have been stable since adding the fish, but no algae. I only keep the light on about 2 hours per day which is the reason for no algae, but I also want my tank to get use to the bioload a little better before handling algae problems. I’m super excited to buy corals and get into that adventure, but I’m not quite sure when the right time would be to add them. I have bought a reef test kit to monitor calcium, magnesium, phosphate, and alkalinity levels, but I have not used it yet because I believe it is way too early to add corals. I also bought coral supplements just in case I’d ever need to add them. Just wondering when the right time to add corals would be? I’m also wondering if I should just turn my lights on for the full 10 hours and deal with all the algae before I get corals. There’s so much conflicting info on the internet, so any advice would help greatly! I’m just a beginner and I feel like I’m already in way over my head lol.

andrewey · Jul 13, 2020

First off, kudos to you! You're asking all the right questions and it looks like you're taking all the right steps. Your question is largely one of opinion. Part of the waiting process for corals is the maturation of the biological filter (beyond the cycle) and part is to allow the hobbyist to hone their craft. Therefore, when a seasoned reefer might add corals would differ dramatically from a first time reefer. The same is true as to whether you transferred "seasoned" and very old live rock vs starting with dry rock.

Ultimately, here's my opinion. I would take it as just that

For example, BRS has a model for this exact question and many have been very successful with their route, even though it's not the route I personally employ.

I would wait to add corals until the tank had a full photo period for at least a month (as a new reefer). This allows time for the maturation and starting the "new tank uglies", but more importantly, allows you to focus only on stability. Without the distraction of corals at this point, you can hone your craft and ensure your tank maintains stable parameters and focus on ensuring your nutrient levels (nitrate and phosphate) are adequately dealt with. While some corals are tolerant of big changes, others aren't and it's easiest to figure out your water change frequency or nutrient export methodology to maintain stable nitrate/phosphate when you're only dealing with fish

If at the end of this month your nutrients aren't stable and are falling/increasing, this will be your signal to wait until the tank is stable. If, however your nutrients are rock solid, your parameters are stable, and you've already gotten your diatom bloom, then you can start stocking with easy to grow corals to see how well the tank performs.

taylorn13 · Jul 13, 2020

andrewey said:
First off, kudos to you! You're asking all the right questions and it looks like you're taking all the right steps. Your question is largely one of opinion. Part of the waiting process for corals is the maturation of the biological filter (beyond the cycle) and part is to allow the hobbyist to hone their craft. Therefore, when a seasoned reefer might add corals would differ dramatically from a first time reefer. The same is true as to whether you transferred "seasoned" and very old live rock vs starting with dry rock.

Ultimately, here's my opinion. I would take it as just that For example, BRS has a model for this exact question and many have been very successful with their route, even though it's not the route I personally employ.

I would wait to add corals until the tank had a full photo period for at least a month (as a new reefer). This allows time for the maturation and starting the "new tank uglies", but more importantly, allows you to focus only on stability. Without the distraction of corals at this point, you can hone your craft and ensure your tank maintains stable parameters and focus on ensuring your nutrient levels (nitrate and phosphate) are adequately dealt with. While some corals are tolerant of big changes, others aren't and it's easiest to figure out your water change frequency or nutrient export methodology to maintain stable nitrate/phosphate when you're only dealing with fish If at the end of this month your nutrients aren't stable and are falling/increasing, this will be your signal to wait until the tank is stable. If, however your nutrients are rock solid, your parameters are stable, and you've already gotten your diatom bloom, then you can start stocking with easy to grow corals to see how well the tank performs.

Okay thanks so much! I’ve watched quite a few BRS videos and found the 52 weeks of reefing very helpful. I’m going to try to find that video and watch it. Just to make sure, do you think I should keep the lights on for the full 10 hours and just deal with the algae and water changes? I’m not impartial to either way and believe that listening to other’s opinions and methodology of reef tanks very helpful since I’m not 100% sure of what I’m doing. I did plan to wait about a month to add corals, but thought preparing now would be better than rushing everything last minute. I’m prepared to take on whatever algae I encounter. I have a planted freshwater tank that occassionally still encounters diatoms and less commonly other algae blooms, so I’m fully knowledgeable on how to take those on, but they are a huge pain!!! Anyways thanks again for the advice!!

andrewey · Jul 13, 2020

Yup, the 52 week of reefing series is pretty good. If you haven't seen it, here is one where they go over the WWC method, a slightly different way of setting up a tank (more geared towards SPS, but has some points applicable to all tanks).

As far as the algae is concerned, assuming you don't start with high nutrients, I seldom run into issues with a full photoperiod beyond the expected diatoms bloom and green algae covering the rocks (although it's common to encounter cyanobacteria or other organisms during this period). I usually find those that come out of their cycles and head into massive spikes of hair algae often have high levels of phosphate or nitrates. Often, they begin testing after the presence of hair algae, which can skew the true numbers, so they have no idea about their baseline or if their rock is leaching phosphate. Assuming these levels are low and your food input is managed by your nutrient export, I haven't run into these large hair algae attacks very frequently. That being said, there will be some hair algae that colonizes the rocks in addition to other organisms, but this is usually dealt with by the presence of a CUC and time as other algae out compete the original colonizers.

As far as a photoperiod is concerned, you could always start with a more manageable photoperiod (7-8 hours) until you have your nutrient levels under control, if you chose.

taylorn13 · Jul 13, 2020

andrewey said:
Yup, the 52 week of reefing series is pretty good. If you haven't seen it, here is one where they go over the WWC method, a slightly different way of setting up a tank (more geared towards SPS, but has some points applicable to all tanks).

As far as the algae is concerned, assuming you don't start with high nutrients, I seldom run into issues with a full photoperiod beyond the expected diatoms bloom and green algae covering the rocks (although it's common to encounter cyanobacteria or other organisms during this period). I usually find those that come out of their cycles and head into massive spikes of hair algae often have high levels of phosphate or nitrates. Often, they begin testing after the presence of hair algae, which can skew the true numbers, so they have no idea about their baseline or if their rock is leaching phosphate. Assuming these levels are low and your food input is managed by your nutrient export, I haven't run into these large hair algae attacks very frequently. That being said, there will be some hair algae that colonizes the rocks in addition to other organisms, but this is usually dealt with by the presence of a CUC and time as other algae out compete the original colonizers.

As far as a photoperiod is concerned, you could always start with a more manageable photoperiod (7-8 hours) until you have your nutrient levels under control, if you chose.

Okay great! Since my params haven’t changed I’ll probably just do a full 8 hour photoperiod and see how it goes. Since I can test phosphate I’ll definitely do that too just to control hair algar because I hear that stuff it tricky to get rid of and a pain to remove. I did start with dry rock from petco (I know a little sketchy) but it was pretty cheap and I didn’t have to worry about shipping and what not. I wasn’t too worried about getting wet rock brcause I used the bottled bacteria, so hopefully all goes well. Thanks for all the help and the video!