Mature sytem Vs. New System

[omar jawad]

What are some of the nutrients and components that make mature systems more successful then newly cycled tanks? What age of a tank would be considered mature?

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't think there's an established answer to that. Cycling rock (especially with any dead and/or dying organisms on it, whether you can see them or not) may release many things to the water: organics, sources of nitrogen, phosphorus, silicate, trace elements, etc. All of those can help pests such as algae, cyanobacteria, and diatoms.

Mature is in the eye of the beholder. I don't think there's any specific time that always applies, but after 6 months or so, most of these early issue have wound down.

IME, tanks often look best after a couple of years because the intended organisms such as corals and anemones and such have grown to look more natural and fill up the tank, but it hasn't run so long that difficult pest organisms slowly grow to ruin it. The list of those pests is actually fairly long, and many are not easily dealt with.

 

[jerseypete]

I'm a new to this hobby. My tank is now 18 months old. In the beginning nitrate would be up and down. Alk up and down. Diatoms, some algea growth. Getting my equipment dialed in. Knowing my skimmer. Getting my fuge growing. Cheato won't grow. Caulpera grows like crazy. The only time I test water par. Is right before water change which is every 6-8 weeks. I'm auto dosing now so everything stays spot on. Knowing how much gfo to use to keep Phos in check. So maybe it takes time to settle in. But I think it also takes time to get to know the tank. So I think that only comes with time. I would say I consider my tank mature at the year mark. Or maybe I was mature at the year mark. But I think you'll know the answer to that question when the time comes. Just MHO other people may say something totally different.

 

[edosan]

This is an interesting and good read about tank maturity
http://theculturedreef.com/borneman.html

 

[hatfielj]

In my opinion a tank is "mature" when its ready to properly house stony corals. That happens when you start seeing good coralline algae growth in my experience. But, that's obviously not a scientific or 100% fool proof method. Just the way I've learned to do things.