How mature/established a tank B4 SPS?

Paul_N · Mar 15, 2010

I have been seeing threads where people are having issues with SPS but their parameters are all in check but stating that their tanks were only up for a couple months. I remember when I switched from FOWLR to reef and had major issues but that was because I used the same rock and sand from when I used tap water. If I did it all over again I would have emptied the tank and started from scratch. Even after I got my parameters in check it still was several months until I had success (color and growth) with SPS. I was just curious what everyone's opinions were on when you should introduce SPS into a brand new system? Is it OK as soon as the cycle is complete, or maybe 3 months, 6 months? Just wanted to know what everyone thought.

Thanks,

:bigsmile:

Russellaqua · Mar 15, 2010

I really feel there is something we're yet to understand in how to keep SPS. I've had luck in a 20L immediately after the cycle, but couldn't keep SPS in a 40BR after the cycle. All parameters were in check, and the 40 even had a calcium reactor with pH monitor, and an auto-topoff using RO. Same type of rock, same type of sand. Never made sense to me.

Paul_N · Mar 15, 2010

When I first considered a reef tank the term "mature tank" was always thrown around as far as when to add SPS coral. The trouble is there was never a definition of a "mature tank". Some people I talked to took that to mean after the initial cycle and some people said at least 6 to 9 months. I can honestly say after my parameters were in check it was about 9 months before I felt the tank was running smoothly and everything just looked good and I didn't lose any more coral.

stunreefer · Mar 15, 2010

As a great hobbyist once said, "What is recommended to the novice and what experienced reefers do are two different things." The whole "mature" notion IMO is mostly advice given to people who are new to the hobby, and this could be their first tank. The longer you have it running, the more established your biological filter will be, which will cusion changes from hapening too fas (within reason), and it allows the reefer to have time to established a regime for maintaining levels and maintenance in general.

RBursek · Mar 15, 2010

stunreefer said:
As a great hobbyist once said, "What is recommended to the novice and what experienced reefers do are two different things." The whole "mature" notion IMO is mostly advice given to people who are new to the hobby, and this could be their first tank. The longer you have it running, the more established your biological filter will be, which will cushion changes from happening too fast (within reason), and it allows the reefer to have time to established a regime for maintaining levels and maintenance in general.

Well said and I agree!!!!!!!!!!
So what can we test for? Not all things in NSW, and how soon do we know when the rock and sand is working its biological filtering system? How porous is the rock and sand in tank A compared to tank B to hold the organisms that do this, to me a mature tank is 6-12 months old AND a mature well read and researched owner of the tank and his/her purchases.

Jeff.:P:. · Mar 15, 2010

With Zeovit program you can have corals in a tank within 14 days.

jaytizzle · Mar 15, 2010

I have tried the zeovit route and it worked just okay for me as far as loading the tank in a short time frame. I am with many others in that after a certain time frame a tank just hits some magical maturity point and you stop losing so many pieces for apparently no reason. For my 24g, that time frame was about a year. For my 120, I am not there yet and that tank is almost 8 months old.

stunreefer · Mar 15, 2010

Jeff.:P:. said:
With Zeovit program you can have corals in a tank within 14 days.

It's not set in stone while running ZEOvit, nor any other system. Can you? Yes. Can this only apply to a system with ZEOvit? No. It's one heckuva marketing point that they can push though

One of the reasons this is more probable in a ZEOvit system than others is that you're adding beneficial bacteria on a daily basis - this can potentially build up your biological filter faster than other means (as can any bacteria source).

jaytizzle said:
I am with many others in that after a certain time frame a tank just hits some magical maturity point and you stop losing so many pieces for apparently no reason.

I agree that there is certain times when a tank can take "X" amount of coral added at one time compare to earlier in it's life, but I assure you there's nothing magic about it.

Paul_N · Mar 15, 2010

stunreefer said:
The longer you have it running, the more established your biological filter will be, which will cusion changes from hapening too fas (within reason),

I think this is probably the biggest factor IMO. I have had issues now where a parameter like alk or ph was off and all that happened was color faded. I just feel like if something like that would have happened in the beginning I would have lost the entire coral. I guess it makes a big difference also if you have 150lbs of rock and 100lbs of sand in a 75 also as opposed to a bare bottom Zeo tank. Thanks for the input...:bigsmile: Like I said the main reason was I have just seen quite a few threads lately where the tank was up for 2 or 3 months and it had a bunch of sps in there and the params where in line but they started losing coral.

OckMed · Mar 15, 2010

I put 2 kinds of acro frags and a couple softies in my brothers tank before it even cycled to see how they would react to new water, and un-cycled water. Its been 2 months and the 2 frags are almost fully encrusted on the plug and the softies never looked better. His tank is now cycled and doing great as well as the corals. Just goes to show you how every ones tank is different.

CoralBandit · Mar 15, 2010

Commenting on Pauls last comment: (Sorry I really need to start hitting this quote button in case someone posts ahead of me

)

I have also had the opposite happen, corals become so accustom to stable environment one little change induces RTN

jaytizzle · Mar 15, 2010

Stun, I didn't mean literally some magical point. That was meant more as a figure of speech to say that it is difficult to pinpoint a certain age at which stability is constant enough as to maintain sps at a high success rate.

Troylee · Mar 15, 2010

i run a mb7, vodka diet and my tank has been running for 3 months... i started out with all new marco dry rock and some sand from another display and i have been keeping sps since the 12th day.... i cycled the tank pretty fast with the mb7 and never looked back... i got over 80 species of acros and i have only lost 5 and they were new additions that went the next day.... i rushed things but so far so good...now i just sit back and relax and let it grow no more stocking...

it really depends how hard you wanna work imo. a new tank can handle sps but you really have to work at it and check everything, everyday... once matured i would say 9 months to a year it gets real easy and balances out very well...i had my intial problems on start up mainly because i was skimmerless for the first 2 weeks but once i got the latest and greatest atb skimmer it got easy besides dosing cal,alk,and mag....

ScubaBosh · Mar 15, 2010

I Heard numerous times that a tank should be up and running for at least 1 year before adding SPS. Like someone said earlier, its different per each tank and individual. I think best thing to do is read all these posts and get as much info as possible then make your own decision based on your tank and whats in it.

Dylan · Mar 15, 2010

My nanocube 28 was running 3 months. Everyday was perfect parameters, but my light died out and I changed my flow, so now some of my SPS is dying. For a beginner, you want a mature, established tank. But more important is to know your tank, and keep it consistent. I guess I'm just unlucky my light died out.

Jeff.:P:. · Mar 15, 2010

stunreefer said:
It's not set in stone while running ZEOvit, nor any other system. Can you? Yes. Can this only apply to a system with ZEOvit? No. It's one heckuva marketing point that they can push though

One of the reasons this is more probable in a ZEOvit system than others is that you're adding beneficial bacteria on a daily basis - this can potentially build up your biological filter faster than other means (as can any bacteria source).

troylee said:
i run a mb7, vodka diet and my tank has been running for 3 months... i started out with all new marco dry rock and some sand from another display and i have been keeping sps since the 12th day.... i cycled the tank pretty fast with the mb7 and never looked back... i got over 80 species of acros and i have only lost 5 and they were new additions that went the next day.... i rushed things but so far so good...now i just sit back and relax and let it grow no more stocking... it really depends how hard you wanna work imo. a new tank can handle sps but you really have to work at it and check everything, everyday... once matured i would say 9 months to a year it gets real easy and balances out very well...i had my intial problems on start up mainly because i was skimmerless for the first 2 weeks but once i got the latest and greatest atb skimmer it got easy besides dosing cal,alk,and mag....

I've done it with great results and never had any registered ammonia or trates. :nerd:
No its not only limited to Zeo (never said it was) as Troylee has shown us with his NeoZeo.
Just Zeovit put it in a nice package and easy instructions.