Months 3-6...what to expect?

[mythesis]

I know every tank is different and I've watched tons of the BRS videos on starting new tanks / ugly stages / etc.

But I'm trying to be mentally prepared for the next "Shoe to drop" with this tank.

We're a little more than 2 months in on our first 90 gal, and seem to be getting to the end of Diatoms. Had nasty cloudy brown tint in the water, but that's clearing up. The brown film that covered everything is rapidly disappearing.

Nutrients bottomed out to 0/0, but thankfully over-feeding & some AB+ has gotten them back to detectable (hopefully avoiding Dinos...)


So what's next? My understanding is Coraline will start around 6ish months, and is a sign things are getting "stable"...so what's the next 3-4 months look like as we wait for that to happen?

My intent is to test Nitrates/Phosphates pretty regularly to ensure they stay in a "stable" range. Should I be doing anything else?

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

All you do is let it run its course until it reaches stability. Add a clean up crew if you dont have one...thats about it.

 

[mythesis]

All you do is let it run its course until it reaches stability. Add a clean up crew if you dont have one...thats about it.

Yep, Clean Up crew is in place (Thanks reefcleaners!)

So...just hang out and wait until we start seeing Coraline growing? Then we can start adding things that require more "stability" (ie, anenome...different coral, etc)

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Yep, Clean Up crew is in place (Thanks reefcleaners!)

So...just hang out and wait until we start seeing Coraline growing? Then we can start adding things that require more "stability" (ie, anenome...different coral, etc)

Pretty much...just wait it out. You dont necessarily need to wait to see coralline growing...just stability.

 

[splunty]

Your tank looks great! You're definitely on the right path. Like livinlife said, there's no need to wait for or even watch for coralline algae. It will start to appear once your parameters (specifically Alkalinity, pH, calcium and salinity) remain stable.

Just a couple of questions that I missed in your tank thread:

- How and how often are you calibrating your refractometer? I'm also very new and my first tank is still less than a year old. But it seems that the most common mistakes people make when starting are going too fast, overreacting to events, and not keeping refractometers calibrated.

- Are you dosing a 2-part alk/calcium?

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Your tank looks great! You're definitely on the right path. Like livinlife said, there's no need to wait for or even watch for coralline algae. It will start to appear once your parameters (specifically Alkalinity, pH, calcium and salinity) remain stable.

Just a couple of questions that I missed in your tank thread:

- How and how often are you calibrating your refractometer? I'm also very new and my first tank is still less than a year old. But it seems that the most common mistakes people make when starting are going too fast, overreacting to events, and not keeping refractometers calibrated.

- Are you dosing a 2-part alk/calcium?

Refractometers really shouldnt need to be recalibrated very often unless you dont take very good care of it or it's just really cheaply made. As long as it was correctly calibrated when you started using it, you really shouldn't have to recalibrate it very often. Also, I dont think he has a reason to dose anything right now. What would be consuming the alk or calcium?

 

[slogan315]

Refractometers really shouldnt need to be recalibrated very often unless you dont take very good care of it or it's just really cheaply made. As long as it was correctly calibrated when you started using it, you really shouldn't have to recalibrate it very often. Also, I dont think he has a reason to dose anything right now. What would be consuming the alk or calcium?

It takes 2 seconds to check refractometer calibration, and can save massive headaches that come with false salinity readings. IMO, just recalibrating before you use is an easy task to avoid the huge issues that can come from having incorrect salinity readings.

My first 6 months of reefing would have been much smoother if I didn’t trust a Hanna salinity meter, and calibrated my refractometer more than once every few months.

 

[splunty]

Refractometers really shouldnt need to be recalibrated very often unless you dont take very good care of it or it's just really cheaply made. As long as it was correctly calibrated when you started using it, you really shouldn't have to recalibrate it very often. Also, I dont think he has a reason to dose anything right now. What would be consuming the alk or calcium?

OP is using a Milwaukee. They definitely need occasional calibration. Since they can be calibrated with RODI it's easy-peasy. Personally, I have a Hanna, traditional refractometer and hydrometer. Both the former creep steadily and need calibration every couple of months. With that said, the traditional refractometer is a $20 order from Amazon so I suppose I got what I paid for.

I would also guess OP's frequent water changes are how he's keeping those parameters steady, but I am still curious. I'm learning too!

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

OP is using a Milwaukee. They definitely need occasional calibration. Since they can be calibrated with RODI it's easy-peasy. Personally, I have a Hanna, traditional refractometer and hydrometer. Both the former creep steadily and need calibration every couple of months. With that said, the traditional refractometer is a $20 order from Amazon so I suppose I got what I paid for.

I would also guess OP's frequent water changes are how he's keeping those parameters steady, but I am still curious. I'm learning too!

Yeah, calibrating it every couple of months is a good idea. Thats not a frequently asked question so I assumed you were under the belief they needed to be recalibrated daily or something like that.
Yeah, if your newly mixed saltwater is the same brand you always use and nothing is consuming nutrients, weekly water changes will keep your parameters stable.

 

[mythesis]

- How and how often are you calibrating your refractometer? I'm also very new and my first tank is still less than a year old. But it seems that the most common mistakes people make when starting are going too fast, overreacting to events, and not keeping refractometers calibrated.

I am using both the Milwaukee Refractometer and the "handheld" one. I put RODI on the Milwaukee almost every time I use it -- if for no other reason than to make sure I rinse the lens. It seemed to be very very sensitive early on until I started that practice.

I'll confess I'm less frequent with the handheld one --- so thanks for the reminder to stay on top of that!

- Are you dosing a 2-part alk/calcium?

I've not started dosing anything yet. Using the AB+ as reef food / instant-nutrient-spike is the first time I've added chemicals beyond water changes. I figured with the corals I had, I didn't need to be fussing with chemistry until I got to the other side of diatoms/uglies.

I would also guess OP's frequent water changes are how he's keeping those parameters steady, but I am still curious. I'm learning too! (@splunty)

So far I've been trying to do water changes every week or so. But, as @livinlifeinBKK pointed out...I don't really have much that's consuming Calcium. My calcium has actually been *increasing* lately, which I assume is due to breakdown of old shells?

 

[splunty]

I am using both the Milwaukee Refractometer and the "handheld" one. I put RODI on the Milwaukee almost every time I use it -- if for no other reason than to make sure I rinse the lens. It seemed to be very very sensitive early on until I started that practice.

I'll confess I'm less frequent with the handheld one --- so thanks for the reminder to stay on top of that!



I've not started dosing anything yet. Using the AB+ as reef food / instant-nutrient-spike is the first time I've added chemicals beyond water changes. I figured with the corals I had, I didn't need to be fussing with chemistry until I got to the other side of diatoms/uglies.




So far I've been trying to do water changes every week or so. But, as @livinlifeinBKK pointed out...I don't really have much that's consuming Calcium. My calcium has actually been *increasing* lately, which I assume is due to breakdown of old shells?

Calcium increasing other than immediately after water changes is most likely testing error, to be honest. Shrimp molts will melt back into the water but in a tank your size even that should be insignificant.

Everyone has different thoughts, but regular water changes will definitely help keep trace elements (that you aren't even testing for) steady in the tank. Good for corals. Good for fish. Good for the tank stability.

It's just as important to keep a steady cleaning cadence. For instance, try to remove algae on a schedule. Every time you clean, try to leave about the same amount (I mean, it's impossible to clean it all). That'll also help the tank balance out.

Also, you have a beautiful rockscape. I'm jelly.

 

[carri10]

Aquascape looks good. I’m six months in and here’s what I would recommend.
Get your QT set up in place and working if you can.
Measure your PAR at a couple of different lighting settings.
Get an ICP on your RO. Also, if you can get a TDS meter for your RO, that’s a good idea. If your water is not on point, you can end up with a lot of problems later.
And spend the time to organise your electrics, the amount of cables you end up with is overwhelming !!

 

[mythesis]

It's just as important to keep a steady cleaning cadence. For instance, try to remove algae on a schedule. Every time you clean, try to leave about the same amount (I mean, it's impossible to clean it all). That'll also help the tank balance out.

Also, you have a beautiful rockscape. I'm jelly.

All credit to my wife for the rock scape, she worked _very_ hard on that and I think it turned out amazing.

I will say my cleaning schedule is primarily dominated by the demands of a 4 & 8 year old who battle every morning on which parts they get to algae scrape I had to put a hiatus on it for a couple days to let the newly installed CuC get their fill, but will let them back at it soon!

@carri10 : great advice, thanks! Right now my TDS only measures 2 going in, and 0 going out of the RODI, so that's encouraging. And, we just got our PAR mapped --- the tech recommended we elevate from 70% to 85% over 30 days if we want to do SPS in the future. That changed our floor->top from 40->150 to 80->250.

The cables...man the cables. I spent a weekend running cables, but feels like it needs to be redone already!

And, thankfully, we're super paranoid so have a nice 24 gal QT up and running. Thankfully, Ammonia/Nitrites are measuring zero with 3 little guys hanging out in there, so it's going well!

 

[carri10]

Cool, sounds like you got it sorted. The only other thing I would add is ramp the lights up real slow.


The only other thing I would add is the advice to don’t panic be patient, is a really good.
I’ve had a couple of outbreaks of algae that I started to panic about but then calmed down and within a week or two, they’d gone.


And the cables. It just keeps getting worse!

Good luck with it all!

 

[splunty]

Aquascape looks good. I’m six months in and here’s what I would recommend.
Get your QT set up in place and working if you can.
Measure your PAR at a couple of different lighting settings.
Get an ICP on your RO. Also, if you can get a TDS meter for your RO, that’s a good idea. If your water is not on point, you can end up with a lot of problems later.
And spend the time to organise your electrics, the amount of cables you end up with is overwhelming !!

Great suggestions. The ATI ICP test includes rodi water test too.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I know every tank is different and I've watched tons of the BRS videos on starting new tanks / ugly stages / etc.

But I'm trying to be mentally prepared for the next "Shoe to drop" with this tank.

We're a little more than 2 months in on our first 90 gal, and seem to be getting to the end of Diatoms. Had nasty cloudy brown tint in the water, but that's clearing up. The brown film that covered everything is rapidly disappearing.

Nutrients bottomed out to 0/0, but thankfully over-feeding & some AB+ has gotten them back to detectable (hopefully avoiding Dinos...)


So what's next? My understanding is Coraline will start around 6ish months, and is a sign things are getting "stable"...so what's the next 3-4 months look like as we wait for that to happen?

My intent is to test Nitrates/Phosphates pretty regularly to ensure they stay in a "stable" range. Should I be doing anything else?

Expect:
More staability
Less need for water testing
Uglies if present starting to diminish
Better support of inverts and even anemones

 

[Reef Puncher]

Aquascape looks good. I’m six months in and here’s what I would recommend.
Get your QT set up in place and working if you can.
Measure your PAR at a couple of different lighting settings.
Get an ICP on your RO. Also, if you can get a TDS meter for your RO, that’s a good idea. If your water is not on point, you can end up with a lot of problems later.
And spend the time to organise your electrics, the amount of cables you end up with is overwhelming !!

my sump is a nightmare of cables.....i have thought about trying to make it cleaner and more organized, just not sure how to tackle that haha.

 

[XtraKargo]

my sump is a nightmare of cables.....i have thought about trying to make it cleaner and more organized, just not sure how to tackle that haha.

Velcro ties are a good place to start. You can find em in the craft section of Wal Mart I believe or order some from Mr. Bezos. I will even run a pan head screw them into the wood stands as well to not just bundle them, but secure them as well.

 

[mythesis]

Velcro ties are a good place to start. You can find em in the craft section of Wal Mart I believe or order some from Mr. Bezos. I will even run a pan head screw them into the wood stands as well to not just bundle them, but secure them as well.

Instant upvote not just for the advice, but for the lovely quote by Mr. Wesley. It warms my heart

 

[crabgrass]

I started a 100G back in Jan, so have 9 Months under by belt. I started with 15% Live rock, and 85% dry rock that had been seeded for a month prior (so tank was ready to go Day 1). Here was my experience:

1) Months 0 - 3 - Honeymoon. No uglies, outside of a few diatoms
2) Months 3 - 6 - Mega uglies, Massive GHA
3) months - 6- 8 - stabilization
4) Month 9 - Mega growth

I don't know why outside of timing did the uglies take so long to kick in. I did attempt to change out a fuge for an algae scrubber and also use/stop ussing GFO.. idk, but rapid changes were a bad decision, esp if everything was going OK. The GHA outbreak took over most of the tank and killed off/damaged about 25% of the coral. After trying to fight it 6 weeks, I bought some FluxRx and wiped out out, along with mechanical removal.

Between Months 6-8, I didn't do any water changes. Then I did a series of 20-30% WC to reset some of my trace elements that got really out of whack. I also started dosing trace elements inline with Moonshiner method.

The last month, I can visibly see coral really taking off, along with a lot of Corraline coming in. I think it is a combination of general tank stablization (parameters are way more stable), the equivalent of a 50% WC to get traces inline and then a more focused dosing of trace elements.

I have been most successful at keeping parameters table when running a fuge, and dosing just a tiny bit of carbon. When I change the formula weird things happen. I also added pods periodically. I have no evidence if they help or not (but tell myself they do).