How ugly was your Ugly Stage?

[slogan315]

People love to show off their beautiful, mature tanks. As someone who is far from getting there, it can be hard to stay optimistic while deep in the ugly stage. Give newbies like me some hope!

How ugly was your ugly stage?

1. Picture of ugly
2. Picture of now
3. Tip for getting through it

Mine:
Picked up a used system and kept it running. Rescape caused mini cycle and provided fresh real estate for algae. Algae bottomed out nutrients. 0 nutrients led to green Cyano. Aggressive cleaning led to Dinos. Dosing nutrients led to more nuisance algae!

Currently improving. My notable remedies have been manual removal > UV > fluconazole.

Before, Ugly, and Now: March -> July

 

[Sharkbait19]

My ugly stage was certainly…well, ugly.
But now, things have matured very well.

This is a picture of the tank a week ago. (There was unfortunately a crash after I went on vacation, so it’s not quite like this anymore, but parameter-wise, the tanks still mature)

In my experience, the best remedy for ugly stages is time. They’re naturally bound to happen, and all it takes is patience and routine maintenance, and eventually parameters will balance in such a way that the uglies all go away.

 

[Troylee]

Can’t say I’ve ever had one… I’ve always used live rock and or dosed bacteria and a carbon source to feed it..

 

[1112-425XL]

Before



During


After

 

[slogan315]

Can’t say I’ve ever had one… I’ve always used live rock and or dosed bacteria and a carbon source to feed it..

The guy I bought my setup from used live rock, but even live rock can't fix lack of experience!

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

After my first divorce things started to look much better...

 

[kevgib67]

Unfortunately when the uglies are happening the last thing I want to do is take a picture. My tank is coming up on 21 months in 7 days. I had cyano, bryopsis ( Reef Flux took care of) and just finished getting over gha that started in March when I returned from vacation. Gha was my longest battle, manual removal, dosing hydrogen peroxide and I increased my cuc. No dinos which I attribute to starting with live rock. Excuse me while I find some wood to knock on. I’m back , here is my tank today.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

I used TBS sand and dry "life rock". I never had diatoms. Had some algea and for about 4 days there was some cyano or dinos starting. I blasted them with coral snow and a turkey baster. Problem solved.

Real ocean rock and sand, at the start, is the answer. I know.it doesn't help if you you already started.

This was a couple days ago. On a tank that was filled in may. I'd add pictures of my uglies but they didn't last long enough to bother photographing them.

Current white light photo a bit of film algea on calcerous surfaces in the sand. Kronk the conch will knock that out when he gets up from his week long nap.

And one under blues

I'll never start a tank without ocean stuff again.

 

[Northern Flicker]

After my first divorce things started to look much better...

First?!

 

[Northern Flicker]

Real ocean rock and sand, at the start, is the answer. I know.it doesn't help if you you already started.

IMO, cultured and mature live rock is fine as well. Doesn't need to be ocean direct, just needs to be cooked.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

IMO, cultured and mature live rock is fine as well. Doesn't need to be ocean direct, just needs to be cooked.

Undeniably true.

 

[UtahReefer]

Not very... if you prepare the rock properly and dose a variety of the correct bacterias you should be able to avoid most. Just did a transfer from a 45 cube to a new IM 100EXT. I treated the new AF rock for several months dosing at least 5 different sources of bacteria. In addition pulled some of the bio media from the 45 cube to the new sump, used AF sand with bacteria, and used AF Bio Fill. A week into the tank I had a reddish / brown algae break out. It was all over the rock and sand. It lasted 3 days then receded. Ever since the tank is clean and doing well.

 

[Solasis]

My ugly stage was certainly…well, ugly.
But now, things have matured very well.

This is a picture of the tank a week ago. (There was unfortunately a crash after I went on vacation, so it’s not quite like this anymore, but parameter-wise, the tanks still mature)

In my experience, the best remedy for ugly stages is time. They’re naturally bound to happen, and all it takes is patience and routine maintenance, and eventually parameters will balance in such a way that the uglies all go away.

Is the brown bubbly stuff in the first pic dinos?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Is the brown bubbly stuff in the first pic dinos?

I don’t think so - I think it was more of a mix of diatoms and hair algae, as it largely went away on its own (with some manual removal).

 

[exnisstech]

After my first divorce things started to look much better...

Hopefully things were even better after your second

 

[exnisstech]

.

 

[slogan315]

Do we have anymore before and after pics? Who’s overcome rolling hills of GHA?

 

[Andreas' Reef]

13.5 gallon:

Waking up to that every day was like a punch in the stomach but I knew it would blow over

I eventually upgraded to a biocube 32
Biocube 32:

Picture from this morning:

 

[randomfishdude]

I have never gone through one on ether of my tanks.
Expect for now when my 80gal has dinos, chyrstophytes and a leak in the left back aio corner. I'll get some pics later.

 

[slogan315]

13.5 gallon:

Waking up to that every day was like a punch in the stomach but I knew it would blow over

I eventually upgraded to a biocube 32
Biocube 32:

Picture from this morning:

The green slime cyano was the ugliest stage for me. Fortunately, dosing pods and nutrients slowed its spread, and manual removal cleared it up quickly.

I wish GHA blew off in sheets just as easily…