Mature tank vs immature tank

[Stephen8169301]

With these “grow like weeds” coral will they be slower growth in a newer tank and faster in a more mature tank? Or does tank age not even matter?

 

[Jekyl]

With these “grow like weeds” coral will they be slower growth in a newer tank and faster in a more mature tank? Or does tank age not even matter?

Very much matters. Nothing thrived when my tank was young. After the years now things grow like weeds as you said.

 

[Stephen8169301]

Very much matters. Nothing thrived when my tank was young. After the years now things grow like weeds as you said.

@Jekyl interesting my tank is 6 months and just have almost all fast growing corals and yet to see this quick growth

 

[Jekyl]

@Jekyl interesting my tank is 6 months and just have almost all fast growing corals and yet to see this quick growth

6 months is nothing. My ugly phase hadn't even really kicked in at 6 months. Over a year is when the shift started.

 

[Stephen8169301]

6 months is nothing. My ugly phase hadn't even really kicked in at 6 months. Over a year is when the shift started.

Awesome good info thanks @Jekyl

 

[Jekyl]

Awesome good info thanks @Jekyl

Once you start looking at coraline as an issue rather than a good thing.

 

[TokenReefer]

Competition for available resources comes to my mind. Maybe if you had ONE gsp you'd see the fast growth others espouse... just my theory...

 

[Jekyl]

Competition for available resources comes to my mind. Maybe if you had ONE gsp you'd see the fast growth others espouse... just my theory...

Keep it at latest 5" away from main structure. GSP is a vile weed IMO.

 

[vetteguy53081]

With these “grow like weeds” coral will they be slower growth in a newer tank and faster in a more mature tank? Or does tank age not even matter?

Corals thrive in both environments but obviously best in a tank with stability and maturity.
I just set up a 400g in the last couple of days and transferred everything over and a member who stopped last night mentioned tank looks 5 years old as everything was wide open

 

[Acros]

In my limited experience, YES. Corals that “grow like weed” still grow very slowly until the tank becomes established.

I added this digitata and stylo on day 1.

I believe my tank was established at around the 8 month mark. It went through 2 dino outbreaks and several cyano/other algae outbreaks until that point.

Here are the same two corals at 8 month after tank start. Almost no growth in 8 months.

Fast forward to 18 month after tank start, they are growing like weed. (Apologies for the bad pic).

On the other hand, I added this Cali Tort ,10 months after tank start, when I consider my tank to be established.

This is 17 months after tank start (7 month of growth). It is significantly bigger now even after I took a couple frags.

Thus leading me to the conclusion that even “grows like weed” corals (at least SPS) will grow slower in a new tank vs an established tank.

 

[Spare time]

It likely does not matter. What likely matters is how well the keeper understands the rhythm of the tank. Newer tanks have learning curves. Older tanks have a rhythm that the keeper is likely very Intune with.

 

[Spare time]

In otherwords an older tank will be more "figured out" than a newer tank, and corals don't like when you have to figure things out while they are in the tank.

 

[52728299]

Corals thrive in both environments but obviously best in a tank with stability and marurity.
I just set up a 400g in the last couple of days and transferred everything over and a member who stopped last night mentioned tank looks 5 years old as everything was wide open

A bit off topic but I'm wanting to transfer my livestock to a new setup too. Does it need a cycle or will my current live rock etc be sufficient? I have a butterfly in a small qt and really want him moved....

 

[Lavey29]

I agree with all the posts above. I saw a significant change in growth and coral color after the one year mark.

 

[vetteguy53081]

A bit off topic but I'm wanting to transfer my livestock to a new setup too. Does it need a cycle or will my current live rock etc be sufficient? I have a butterfly in a small qt and really want him moved....

The fish I acclimated as if they were just purchased and I used 40% old water and rest new and am adding MicroBacter XLM Dail at 1.5ml per 10 gallons for 2 weeks

 

[All_talk]

I find it interesting that people talk about "established" as a point in time, 6 months, 1 year and such. In my mind its more of a continuum, every progressing. Sure, a two year old tank is more mature than 6 months. But my tank at year 12 was vastly different than at year 2.

I think the more new school idea of biome diversity might be a more defined concept of what we have called maturity.

 

[Spare time]

I find it interesting that people talk about "established" as a point in time, 6 months, 1 year and such. In my mind its more of a continuum, every progressing. Sure, a two year old tank is more mature than 6 months. But my tank at year 12 was vastly different than at year 2.

I think the more new school idea of biome diversity might be a more defined concept of what we have call maturity.

I think biome diversity is a good hypothesis for algal issues, but I fail to see a reasonable explaination as to how it related to coral health and growth outside of possible predation of microfauna that may be lacking at first. I think the use of x months is just to have a number that new people in the hobby can look to.

 

[TokenReefer]

There was a macna speech where they talked about how corals will try to adjust to each tanks specific parameters (no matter what they are, within reason) to live; this length of time varies obv for countless reasons. The beginner hobbyist may likely be changing those parameters early on and that could make a "young" tank hard to keep corals in but given enough time with stable parameters (even if not in the ideal range) the corals will/can adapt (although perhaps not thrive/live ideally). This pointed me toward stability over age per say...at least that's how I interpreted it

 

[All_talk]

I think biome diversity is a good hypothesis for algal issues, but I fail to see a reasonable explaination as to how it related to coral health and growth outside of possible predation of microfauna that may be lacking at first. I think the use of x months is just to have a number that new people in the hobby can look to.

I agree that there may not be a direct link. But coral growth is related to stability, and in my experience a more developed and matured biome is a base for stability. My well established tank well shrug off changes that the earlier version of itself would suffer under.

 

[Spare time]

I agree that there may not be a direct link. But coral growth is related to stability, and in my experience a more developed and matured biome is a base for stability. My well established tank well shrug off changes that the earlier version of itself would suffer under.

I definitely think it helps with nitrogen and phosphate stability