Steps to creating a successful, mature reef tank?

[ReefSlice]

Would like to hear the opinion of some successful SPS keepers that have had their systems running for more than a year or two. Basically if you were starting a new tank with all new dry rock and no livestock, what would be your path to success in the first year of the tank? How would you cycle the tank, how/when would you add livestock and corals, and what key components (equipment or practices) would you use to insure that the tank matures into a coralline and SPS growing machine with minimal negative side effects (algae, pests, parameter issues) in the shortest amount of time? I find so many varying opinions on every subject and I have my own opinions after 10+ years in the hobby, but I thought it would be interesting to see what well laid out steps some reefers would take towards maturing a tank. I'm well aware of the patience and hardships we all face in the first year of new tanks, but with many people succeeding from day one I'd like to see what they're doing differently to warrant their path to success.

 

[dk2nt9]

While waiting for requested by you people to come and answer, few things that can be done for a low tech mixed reef with sps (acros and monties), started with dry rock.

Finish cycling the tank, start adding a little food, including phytoplankton as a start of the food chain, to get things going. Not too much, there is not too many consumers of it for now. Live cultures, if affordable.

Clump of chaeto with a lot of goodies inside it, from LFS with healthy tanks, of from the same from classifieds, with higher rick of getting pests.

Some corals could be on live rock, this for a sake of live rock. Or chap old frags on plugs, covered by coraline algae, for the sake of their plugs. Do this periodically to replenish what was done.

For now, choose salt mix with not too high alkalinity, you have no nutrients in the tank. Dose nitrates and phosphates to keep them in detectable range, if they do not go up on feeding alone.

Tank with sand started maturing faster than bare bottom next to it, maybe coincidence, hard to say.

For the shortest amount of time with least pests, get an access to a healthy tank (one of my LFS happen to be like this) and get anything from it to seed your tank. Your tank has to have nitrates and phosphates, at least something at Salifert sensitivity, and be fed to support life in it.

It looks like I got pests with newly arrived snails, added without quarantining them.

There are bacterial cultures, for some balancing of the helpful microflora, from Microbacter7 to Dr. Tim's products. Shouldn't hurt, may help.

I would use fist aid kit, if problems arise and they were not solved without medications: for cyano, bryopsis, flatworms, even dinos.

 

[PeterC99]

Slow and steady wins the race!


Dec 2020

Dec 2021

 

[Cheesus]

Slow and steady wins the race!


Dec 2020

Dec 2021

That's what I'm hoping my 125 turns into..yet I just had a digi die off...

 

[PeterC99]

That's what I'm hoping my 125 turns into..yet I just had a digi die off...

What happened???

 

[MarshallB]

Would like to hear the opinion of some successful SPS keepers that have had their systems running for more than a year or two. Basically if you were starting a new tank with all new dry rock and no livestock, what would be your path to success in the first year of the tank? How would you cycle the tank, how/when would you add livestock and corals, and what key components (equipment or practices) would you use to insure that the tank matures into a coralline and SPS growing machine with minimal negative side effects (algae, pests, parameter issues) in the shortest amount of time? I find so many varying opinions on every subject and I have my own opinions after 10+ years in the hobby, but I thought it would be interesting to see what well laid out steps some reefers would take towards maturing a tank. I'm well aware of the patience and hardships we all face in the first year of new tanks, but with many people succeeding from day one I'd like to see what they're doing differently to warrant their path to success.

If I started again I would not start with 100% dry rock and sand. Too many problems come with starting completely sterile. You are at the mercy of whatever life decides to take root first good or bad.

I'd start with just a few very hardy fish and corals and leave them until the tank is clearly stabilized. Consistent parameters, nutrients, no large algae or bacteria colonies. Then and only then would i add the more expensive and less tolerant corals. A very expensive lesson to learn.

 

[PokeFish]

If I started again I would not start with 100% dry rock and sand. Too many problems come with starting completely sterile. You are at the mercy of whatever life decides to take root first good or bad.

I'd start with just a few very hardy fish and corals and leave them until the tank is clearly stabilized. Consistent parameters, nutrients, no large algae or bacteria colonies. Then and only then would i add the more expensive and less tolerant corals. A very expensive lesson to learn.

agreed i did both live and dry, and live is soooo much better

 

[jcdeng]

Most important thing imo is set the tank up so that doing wcs won't be too much of a hassle. And don't rush into sps right away. Also get a solid doser.

 

[MarshallB]

Most important thing imo is set the tank up so that doing wcs won't be too much of a hassle. And don't rush into sps right away. Also get a solid doser.

10000%. I set up my tank with automatic water changes in mind. 1.5 gallons a day on a 125. Hauling buckets or dragging a pump around gets old very quick. Gauranteed water changes will get missed doing it manually. I can see a smaller tank being less of a burden, but nobody likes hauling water.

On the same note setting up a mixing station is critical in my opinion. I never tried mixing in a trash can but I spent about 120 bucks on 2 50 gallon drums and about 20 bucks plumbing it. Best investment ever. Once a month I turn on my rodi system, fills up both drums and shuts off on its own. Add some salt into one drum, turn on the pump and forget about it till next month.

 

[HuduVudu]

Set up your tank then put 1 or 2 fish that you like in it. In about a month get a few snails to deal with the algae.

And then ignore it for 3-5 years.

Seriously. Feed the fish do the water changes and ignore it. No one will listen to this but this is what you do if you want to be successful.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

My tank has been running for 21 years. Sps packed and overgrown. I’ve been in sps for two years successfully. I had a few tries before that didn’t go great. with this being said, I am constantly battling gha. Currently sps colors are not great, not terrible. the tank is a old school piles of live rock. Mostly Fiji live rock and some base rock. Flow is a nightmare as it’s 60”x18” wide x24“ tall. Center overflow, flow blocking nightmare. 2 mp40’s and 1 mp60.

If I was setting up a new tank, it would be wider, coast to coast overflow. Rock work would be minimally Touching the bottom, more bonsai style. no rock work within 8” of any glass. Bare bottom. I would have to use dry rock and try to add some pieces of fresh out of the ocean live or some from my existing tank.
The sump would have some cheato and more seed rock from existing tank or ocean live rock. I’d also let it run for a week then pump it full of frags From my tank. All fish from existing tank or fresh out of qt. The frags will provided some good biological filtration.
Flow would be random and strong. Provided by my mp’s plus some more. I feel strong flow is most important. A good fish load is important. Sps like fish waste. An appropriate cleanup crew, I’m more of a snail guy with a few hermits.
stability and dependability of the system is so important. equipments and ATO would be tried and true. Possibly two small return pumps, two heaters On an apex or similar. alk and ca will be CArx. I am currently using ATI pro essentials and really like it. But the new tank will run my geo CArx That has never been run.

The following pic is from 1/2020 second pic is from 12/2020. I need to take some new ones.

 

[131696]

Patience and stable can have any tank ,any kind you want with good routine

 

[billysprout]

Most important thing imo is set the tank up so that doing wcs won't be too much of a hassle. And don't rush into sps right away. Also get a solid doser.

what do you dose?

 

[sam2110]

Take your time and leave your tank well alone before you add corals don't rush!

 

[jcdeng]

what do you dose?

basic stuff, alk, cal and mag.

 

[X-37B]

Best advice I can give is have a plan and focus on keeping your desired parameters in range.
I did 50/50 live and caribsea in my current 120.

I started as a no water change system and went 18 months before doing one. I now do 12g's every month and the tank just looks better after one.

I also had all equipment in place before water hit the system.
It took 1 year running t5's before I setup my halide system which I had from day one.

I upgraded my skimmer at around 20 months when no3 was 20ish. Its now <5.

I dosed esv 2 part for 1 year then fired up my carx.
Around 18 months in I converted a Skimz media reactor to a carx and I am running it today.

Also added 2 OR3 blue led bars.

About 2 months ago I setup a 30g remote fuge.

So have a plan and stick to it and enjoy your reef.
Tank is 2.5 years this month.

 

[brahm]

I'm not going to speak much on cycling, tbh I don't think that really matters much in the long run. When it's done it's done, when it gets ugly let it run through no need for knee-jerk reactions or to play mad scientist trying to fix everything. Let things run their course and keep up on your wc's. If you want to give your tank a boost of bac, either find a good tear down with some cycled rock, toss some dry rock in a friends tank that you know is doing well, or pick up some ugly/dying corals on some really nice rocks @ your LFS (all the rock those corals are growing on have been in the water the whole trip over, specifically something that doesn't have the type of coral you want to keep on it to avoid pests), if you have a source NSW, that can't hurt either.

Equipment-wise - stability first, get a controller, a trident or alktron, pick your poison when it comes to how you want to add the big 3 but automate it, run your parameters middle of the road in case your testing is off, have backups of essential equipment in case you have a failure. Things like a Rollermat make life easier but are not essential, and of course an ATO. Outside of that all the basic stuff, skimmer, heaters, etc. If you need carbon / gfo run carbon gfo, same with blocks, pellets, etc.

Lighting whatever is capable of growing SPS. Halide, T5, LED all get the job done; 100% personal preference.

Flow no matter how much you think you need, add more

Livestock, if you really want SPS to thrive focus on it, and focus on fish that are going to be put to work helping your SPS. I'm going mixed reef this time around. Dip everything with Bayer, can QT or isolate and re-dip, your preference. If I am getting things from a truly trusted source I toss it in, with their water YMMV.

Coralline? What do you like cleaning pumps? IDK why people care about coarrline.

Fugues work for some, but I find sooner or late they always fail on me. I had a solid one this go-around was pulling out huge balls of cheato every other week, then poof slowly withered and died putting everything back into the tank. Love the concept who knows maybe I'll give it another go down the road when I finish up this course of KZ products which I believe killed them off.

Water changes, I say do em, automatically, weekly, monthly up to you. If your goal is to build a system that runs without WC then do that, if your goal is long term mature SPS tank, then I walk the path of least complications. Pick a salt stick with it. RO/DI for peace of mind.

Outside of that, doesn't hurt to take a pump and manually blast all your corals now and then even better if you do it before a water change.

Parameters pick a range that you feel is safe even you have an issue with testing and strive to generally be in the middle of it.

TBH I don't see a lot of people succeeding from day one. My current tank is a little over a year old now, and I added sps at around the 1-month mark. I started with a lot of small frags this time (in the past I did a lot of wild & mari) so growth has been slow but now that things are starting to get to either old school frag sizes or modern mini-colonies I can see things picking up steam, considering I did a tank swap at around the 8-month mark and I'm running a heavily mixed reef this time around I'm quite pleased with the progression. If things stay the course I can see myself having a tank I'm proud of in the next 6 months to a year.

 

[X-37B]

I'm not going to speak much on cycling, tbh I don't think that really matters much in the long run. When it's done it's done, when it gets ugly let it run through no need for knee-jerk reactions or to play mad scientist trying to fix everything. Let things run their course and keep up on your wc's. If you want to give your tank a boost of bac, either find a good tear down with some cycled rock, toss some dry rock in a friends tank that you know is doing well, or pick up some ugly/dying corals on some really nice rocks @ your LFS (all the rock those corals are growing on have been in the water the whole trip over, specifically something that doesn't have the type of coral you want to keep on it to avoid pests), if you have a source NSW, that can't hurt either.

Equipment-wise - stability first, get a controller, a trident or alktron, pick your poison when it comes to how you want to add the big 3 but automate it, run your parameters middle of the road in case your testing is off, have backups of essential equipment in case you have a failure. Things like a Rollermat make life easier but are not essential, and of course an ATO. Outside of that all the basic stuff, skimmer, heaters, etc. If you need carbon / gfo run carbon gfo, same with blocks, pellets, etc.

Lighting whatever is capable of growing SPS. Halide, T5, LED all get the job done; 100% personal preference.

Flow no matter how much you think you need, add more

Livestock, if you really want SPS to thrive focus on it, and focus on fish that are going to be put to work helping your SPS. I'm going mixed reef this time around. Dip everything with Bayer, can QT or isolate and re-dip, your preference. If I am getting things from a truly trusted source I toss it in, with their water YMMV.

Coralline? What do you like cleaning pumps? IDK why people care about coarrline.

Fugues work for some, but I find sooner or late they always fail on me. I had a solid one this go-around was pulling out huge balls of cheato every other week, then poof slowly withered and died putting everything back into the tank. Love the concept who knows maybe I'll give it another go down the road when I finish up this course of KZ products which I believe killed them off.

Water changes, I say do em, automatically, weekly, monthly up to you. If your goal is to build a system that runs without WC then do that, if your goal is long term mature SPS tank, then I walk the path of least complications. Pick a salt stick with it. RO/DI for peace of mind.

Outside of that, doesn't hurt to take a pump and manually blast all your corals now and then even better if you do it before a water change.

Parameters pick a range that you feel is safe even you have an issue with testing and strive to generally be in the middle of it.

TBH I don't see a lot of people succeeding from day one. My current tank is a little over a year old now, and I added sps at around the 1-month mark. I started with a lot of small frags this time (in the past I did a lot of wild & mari) so growth has been slow but now that things are starting to get to either old school frag sizes or modern mini-colonies I can see things picking up steam, considering I did a tank swap at around the 8-month mark and I'm running a heavily mixed reef this time around I'm quite pleased with the progression. If things stay the course I can see myself having a tank I'm proud of in the next 6 months to a year.

Love your flow guide lines.
I have 6 powerheads in my 120 all on alternating flow at 100%.
I have an almost 2 month old remote fuge as I would never want light in my sump. The plan is to reduce/remove all po4 reducing media. I was replacing po4 media every 4ish days. I have reduced the amount in half and last media change was 15 days to keep po4 at <.1.
Just took this pic. It commimg together nicely with 3" sandbed too.

 

[Mrussell]

Test alkalinity and make sure your nitrate and phosphate don’t bottom out. Keep you hands out of the tank, don’t make drastic changes to light schedules, feeding, bio load or aquascape. In my opinion the key is to create a balanced eco system with balance of nutrients coming in and nutrients coming out. If you keep things consistent bacteria populations and the tank in general will stabilize with enough time. Water changes help and I personally avoid any additives besides cal alk mag and amino acids. Also do whatever you can to keep the bad pests from gaining a foothold(flatworms, red bugs ext).

 

[HuduVudu]

Best advice I can give is have a plan and focus on keeping your desired parameters in range.
I did 50/50 live and caribsea in my current 120.

I started as a no water change system and went 18 months before doing one. I now do 12g's every month and the tank just looks better after one.

I also had all equipment in place before water hit the system.
It took 1 year running t5's before I setup my halide system which I had from day one.

I upgraded my skimmer at around 20 months when no3 was 20ish. Its now <5.

I dosed esv 2 part for 1 year then fired up my carx.
Around 18 months in I converted a Skimz media reactor to a carx and I am running it today.

Also added 2 OR3 blue led bars.

About 2 months ago I setup a 30g remote fuge.

So have a plan and stick to it and enjoy your reef.
Tank is 2.5 years this month.

You have 3 stags in there. One is a slimer ... what are the other two?