Is anyone else just... failing?

[g5flier]

No, not 'nuff said'. It's nothing to do with who said it, quite simply you can't change various things in rapid succession then later lay the blame on one thing with any certainty. He even says in the article that he went against his own advice and 'constantly changed things', then the tank starts working at some point later when he is forced to stop tinkering and let it stabilise. Who knows at what point the problem was actually fixed?

Coming back to Mike though, here's a great quote from him I read recently:

OKAY you win, I'm out.

 

[g5flier]

No, not 'nuff said'. It's nothing to do with who said it, quite simply you can't change various things in rapid succession then later lay the blame on one thing with any certainty. He even says in the article that he went against his own advice and 'constantly changed things', then the tank starts working at some point later when he is forced to stop tinkering and let it stabilise. Who knows at what point the problem was actually fixed?

Coming back to Mike though, here's a great quote from him I read recently:

I'm not going to dictate to you what is right or wrong. Nor did anyone say this is 100% correct either way. This is reef keeping and if there were exact hypothesizes for everything this forum wouldn't exist. Its my opinion after all I've seen and read that LIVE rock is a much better solution to start a tank with, how about you prove that is isn't, please

 

[ajm83]

I'm not going to dictate to you what is right or wrong. Nor did anyone say this is 100% correct either way. This is reef keeping and if there were exact hypothesizes for everything this forum wouldn't exist. Its my opinion after all I've seen and read that LIVE rock is a much better solution to start a tank with, how about you prove that is isn't, please

Yes! Now you're talking!!

 

[ajm83]

OKAY you win, I'm out.

D'oh, sorry just to be clear I'm not having a go at you g5! It's an interesting topic i just wanted to discuss.
I know I always come off as a confrontational/argumentative bumhole on forums and its not my intention... Something I need to work on! [emoji3]

 

[Potatohead]

No, not 'nuff said'. It's nothing to do with who said it, quite simply you can't change various things in rapid succession then later lay the blame on one thing with any certainty. He even says in the article that he went against his own advice and 'constantly changed things', then the tank starts working at some point later when he is forced to stop tinkering and let it stabilise. Who knows at what point the problem was actually fixed?

Coming back to Mike though, here's a great quote from him I read recently:

Yeah but he also said he spoke to some other very well respected hobbyists (and visited one of their homes) and they had the same experience. Also if you actually asked MP I would bet he has made quick changes on all his other tanks as well and didn't have the same type of problems.

But you (or anyone) can pick and choose facts to fit their argument either way.

 

[aslmx]

This was my tank not long ago. Something went wrong and most of the corals paid the price. Now it’s an aptasia farm but I’m gonna try to battle it out. Most of the softies are fine but I lost the Ducans. I’ll figure it out and get it fixed.

 

[Tautog]

This was my tank not long ago. Something went wrong and most of the corals paid the price. Now it’s an aptasia farm but I’m gonna try to battle it out. Most of the softies are fine but I lost the Ducans. I’ll figure it out and get it fixed.

I gave the big ones a shot of lemon juice, and put a dozen Peppermint shrimp to mantain

 

[*K&AreeFers*]

I used 30lbs base dry rock and 70lbs live rock in my tank.( now over 2 years old) The dry rock was covered with sand. From time to time my jawfish will dig some of it up and with in a week it will have GHA on it. Never had any growing on the live rock only the base layer when it is exposed. If i was to do it over i would go all live but at the time i could not see covering so much of it with sand. ( All my live rock spent at least 2 years in the ocean but is not true natural rock)

 

[Scorpius]

If you start with dry rock wait 18-24 months before trying sps.

 

[Badspstank]

You do not need to wait that long guys keep it simple get your levels whete the need to be ph cal mag salinity temp alk and keep them stable . i have put sps in tanks 36 hours after putting tank up

 

[Docjpath]

Great thread. I am new to reef tanks and have been struggling for 8 months with a Biocube 32, still have no coral growth (only tried softies) but 3 fish are happy and healthy. Been fighting GHA, Dinos and coral death for the past 4 months, but still cannot get anything to grow. N03 are too high @ 10ppm, so I know that needs to decrease, but other parameters are almost always spot on, including phosphates. I blamed my Caribsea liferock for the problems but I think that was unfair, I am probably overfeeding frozen mysis shrimp and killing corals with high nitrates. Dinos did not help, but I think they are gone or in check now. I have switched to dry food only, ticked off the fish, but I think I was the problem. Its so different than keeping an african cichlid tank, lol.

Starting a new 120 with dry Pukani that I power washed and bleached for a week (followed BRS video), now it is curing and in last stage of N cycle. My phosphates are negligible, so I know the power washing and bleaching really helped and rocks are gorgeous. I really wanted to do the live rock but the cost was way too high in my opinion. Luckily, I am older and have more patience. I have thought about purchasing the coralline algae purple haze from ARCreef but unsure if that would be helpful or not. Anybody have comments on that?

I was hoping I would read a comment like BA's that hardy corals can be added right after cure and cycle, as I was going to try doing that instead of waiting 4 months. I read somewhere that if you get coral established early, nutrients go to them instead of GHA or other things. Last thing, for newbies like myself, one of the most frustrating but fun things to do is, read forums. I kid you not, the pros and cons of T5s versus LEDs, refugiums or not, GFOs/carbon, rocks, etc. on how to do things is like reading a diary from a schizophrenic (no offense to anyone), so contradictory. I think the best advice I would give any new reefer is to find someone locally with experience and establish a reef relationship with them. I finally found someone and it has been fun to bounce ideas off, etc.

Thanks for sharing, as I thought I was the only one with a Brown Reef thumb.

 

[LMDAVE]

This is probably one of the best threads I've read since starting this hobby last month, just went through all 8 pages. Lots of different opinions on Dry Rock.

I started a 40gal tank about a month ago with live sand, 30 lbs of BRS Fiji Dry rock (cycled in tank from day one), and 10 lbs cured live rock (split between the two ends of the tank). My cycle was starting naturally (ammonia spike, then Nitrite spike within a week) and then speaking with the guy at LFS where I was said how I couldn't wait for my first fish, he triggered my impatient side and told me about Fritz Turbostart and how I could add a clown pair now. So, I went that route after my cycle was already maturing, and maybe I got lucky so far (maybe the combination of the natural cycle + bacteria was a good combination?) My cycle was complete about 2 weeks ago, CUC added, and I already had a diatom bloom last week which is fading away already. I see tons of little microscopic white bugs on my back glass feeding on algae, which I found out later is probably a copepod population starting (sign of things being healthy).

All in all, I'm still very nervous about trying my first coral. I think I'm overly optimistic how things are going, and skeptical about the future at the same time. Things seem to be moving too smoothly, and of course I'm still wet behind the ears with this hobby, but this thread helped a lot of what to start looking for.

 

[HolisticBear]

I have thought about purchasing the coralline algae purple haze from ARCreef but unsure if that would be helpful or not. Anybody have comments on that?

For your initial dose of corralline, you might get it from your snails and both IPSF & ARCreef sell packages. When I ordered a few corals during a R2R live auction, I asked the vendor if he had some spare frag plugs with corralline or maybe rubble with corralline. That's another options for you.