Little scared

[fernalfer]

its a brand new tank. eventually youll have more stuff that eats it. Including the brand new unestablished bio filter.

One observation. When I started reefing. I read books and papers on the subject from the experts. I put fish and corals in my tank. The No and Po went up and down some. My corals and fish did great with no problembs. Never used anything except carbon and foood and a refugium. Thats what the experts(not hobbiests) said to do. They said stuff would go up and down as I added for and fish and corals and a s the weather changed and as the years go by and as micro flora fauna bloomed and died. They called it chasing numbers.
Now, I still do the same thing. My little bottle of gfo is six years old. I have healthy fish and corals. Sometimes after helping people here fix thier lights and pumps and cycle and sick corals n stuff, I look at my tank and think theres something wrong and start testing stuff and reading stuff and worrying about stuff. Then I rember. I have healthy fish and corals. So I stop chasing numbers.

well it is easier to stop chasing numbers when i don't even no which numbers are accurate anyways lol. good advice tho. sometimes i definitely overthink things too much.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

well it is easier to stop chasing numbers when i don't even no which numbers are accurate anyways lol. good advice tho. sometimes i definitely overthink things too much.

exactly. You might consider some Dr tims. Its a bacteria.
And yea we all do it.

 

[saltyhog]

For what it's worth, I have a cycled QT tank that I sometimes forget to feed for weeks at a time. The longest I've gone is 5 weeks and the tank processed 1.5 ammonia in 24 hours. The bacteria survive a lot longer than we sometimes think without additional feeding.

 

[brandon429]

Very helpful

We should search out or discuss known longest time frames

Guaranteed I've seen six mo fallow tank threads going unfed for algae and detritus cooking, in the dark, unfed, circulated and heated and could pass an ammonia digestion test after half a year.

Bac will not downscale when the convoluted folds and crevices of live rock get loaded with bac, scums, waste, contaminations as all submerged items undergo

With meds they sure might. With water, and keeper withholding of feed input (assumed to be a bac killer via starvation) it's still a slow takeover and sustain. Six mos is longest I've heard of proven self sustenance where the specific test is how long can an established bio filter survive unassisted

I predict the answer is it never downscales even after years, once established is established. Gnats still land in a tank, non filter bac, fungi via air distro, to rot...the bac still got feed even when we withhold feed.