The "Uglies"...how long did you have them?

[Brew12]

I have added live phytoplankon, copepods and amphipods to my tank. I have not added rotifers. Do they have a specific advantage I should be aware of?

Only that some strains of rotifers will eat some strains of cyanobacteria. Not sure you need to go out of your way to add them, but if it is convenient, it wouldn't hurt.

 

[uhgster1]

Are you using RO/DI water? I had a tank that looked like yours and nothing I did worked. Turns out that my rodi filtration was a cheap point of sale I got off eBay. I was basically doing water changes and topping off with straight up sink water.

 

[jgvergo]

Are you using RO/DI water? I had a tank that looked like yours and nothing I did worked. Turns out that my rodi filtration was a cheap point of sale I got off eBay. I was basically doing water changes and topping off with straight up sink water.

Yes, I have a BRS 6 stage RO/DI.

 

[WannaBSpaghetti]

Yes, I have a BRS 6 stage RO/DI.

What media are you using? Are you adding anything to the water before the change? Are you dosing or have you dosed with any compounds or conditioners?

 

[jgvergo]

What media are you using? Are you adding anything to the water before the change? Are you dosing or have you dosed with any compounds or conditioners?

For RO/DI, I use a sediment filter, followed by two carbon filters and two DI filters. In my sump, I run a BRS carbon canister filter and a skimmer. I dose BRS 2 part, Mg, and Red Sea Coral Colors. Water changes used to be once a week, but my nitrates and phosphates were zero, so I went to an every other week schedule. Nitrates are now 2 and Phosphorous is 17 ppb. I don't add anything to the water before a change.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

More photographic detail...

Have you had a quality wayer test done? With an out break of cyano that bad I would be looking at my water very closely.

 

[eddius_maximus]

I had the uglies for what felt like forever. Eight months in and I'm just now starting to feel like my tank is manageable. I started with dry sand and dry rock. I'm not sure if I'd do that again if starting a fresh build.

I'm trying to remember the order... Diatoms. Cyano. Diatoms again. Dinos. Briopsis. More cyano. Cyano again. And again. Hair algae.

What's funny is, at some point I just threw up my hands and stopped dosing with potions. No more nopox, no more GFO, or MB7, or Vibrant. I just fired up a fuge with some chaeto. My tank almost immediately stabilized and started acting like a tank should.

 

[dankreef]

How long they last depends on how much is leaching into your tank from rock or sand. The last tank I started with Tims and never had anything happen at all!

 

[dankreef]

How long they last depends on how much is leaching into your tank from rock or sand. The last tank I started with Tims and never had anything happen at all!

 

[brandon429]

If anyone with a nano here wants to opt out of uglies, or reverse current course, post up and let’s do a rip clean and show how it can be done

Cause of uglies: 5% of the time a nutrient issue/poor topoff water etc

95% of the time: no grazers, no space competitors like coralline and coral in place (they can’t grow as long as a blanket of mass takes the ground, for months) and a filthy sandbed that cannot pass a clean drop test from day one.

So that means the reason most uglies aquariums are cycling through alternating generations of not coral and not pretty coralline and the reason the keeper is taking months to enjoy something they could have enjoyed on day 1 is because they just needed the right grazers and a totally reverse assembly approach. And to quit adding fish until the tank is actually ready (not invaded and able to sustain that, without fish first)

We become the right grazers by effect of our hands, and work, until we stumble upon animals that do it for us.



someone here wants out of this phase, and is willing to do so. Post that before pic again and let’s work

 

[brandon429]

The poll above, by eliminating a vote option of “i don’t allow an uglies phase on any tank I’ll ever own” is still teaching that there is no other alternative. To be purposefully invaded and then hope, try and buy our way out of that slowly is engrained in our training as deep as it could be so the positioning is understandable

We have the option of never having an uglies phase, just seize it. Learn to call a bad rule a bad rule, then make a new rule and forty test threads using other peoples reefs to prove it

Reefing 2018-permit no uglies phase, dont seal off your live rock porosity (and micro grazers) by allowing filth to blanket your system for months. Read up on eutrophication and see if this is how we want our reefs to start ideally

Let’s find a reefer who wants to undo the uglies right here

 

[brandon429]

We’ve got ~twenty reefers posting here per the poll who are two years into uglies phasing. Those tanks are now intrinsically and near permanently seeded with invasion microbes deep in the live rock pore structure, but those are the tanks I want for our manual cleaning challenge

Your worst case scenario is having a super clean tank and still be invaded, but the sand rinse thread doesn’t show that occurring, it shows clean tanks doing really well.

Someone find us a 30 month uglies challenge, the older the better for our challenge

 

[Coral Passion]

Dont think my tank went through a ugly stage. Here photos over the last two years

 

[hotashes]

Dont think my tank went through a ugly stage. Here photos over the last two years

It wasn't luck this time round, I'm sure you've just more experience than the newbs [emoji6]

A.

 

[Coral Passion]

It wasn't luck this time round, I'm sure you've just more experience than the newbs [emoji6]

A.

True. Experience dosnt matter as much as it used as the internet has given everyone all the available combined knowledge. I think now days experience helps you learn from the mistakes you make as overtime you tend to make more from following the incorrect advice or not following the correct advice. I have processes and guidelines I follow to lessen the impact of the ugly.

 

[Gareth elliott]

In the list of algae you are experiencing you mentioned bubble algae in sump(lots) dt (some). Ime bubble algae only responds well to approaches like @brandon429, ive not seen a bubble algae thread where they went to 0 by allow tank to mature alone.

For poll with my recent upgrade (may) that had all new sand and half dry rock. I had a very brief (2-3 weeks) cyano outbreak tied to my use of biopellet reactor but has since faded away with increased feeding schedule and rocks are now covered in coraline. Even my new dry rock.
Clean my sand bed weekly since setup, and run heavy flow in the system 48x volume every 30 seconds.

 

[Coral Passion]

run heavy flow in the system 58x volume every 30 seconds.

Surely this is a typo? How. lol

You mean that every 30 secs you have 58 volume turn on/off

Though you ment the flow was 58 times the tank every 30secs making the flow rate 6960 your tank volume every hour. lol

 

[Gareth elliott]

Surely this is a typo? How. lol

Edited meant 48x, total system flow including wave makers and return. With wavemakers on a 30 second surge pattern. Not just the flow existing my sump lol.

 

[brandon429]

CP

Now that's what I'm talking about

Effect that however one must, do what it takes

If luck in assemblage lends that progression, excellent

If it doesnt, we will that exact same series of events into place

Different homes, people, topoff water, bioloading, lighting, variables etc make different aquarists have to -work- differently to get what you just posted. I'm an advocate of the work required since that's majority of tanks

If totally hands off got that, not a prob. Do whatever it takes to make a tank progress just like that, well done

 

[Coral Passion]

CP

Now that's what I'm talking about

Effect that however one must, do what it takes

If luck in assemblage lends that progression, excellent

If it doesnt, we will that exact same series of events into place

Different homes, people, variables etc make different aquarists have to -work- differently to get what you just posted. I'm an advocate of the work required since that's majority of tanks

If totally hands off got that, not a prob. Do whatever it takes to make a tank progress just like that, well done

Maybe we should have a survey on how much time everyone spends on their tank a week not including feeding? I would say I spend about 10-15 hrs each week. Since I set it up I stopped playing xbox. lol

 

[hotashes]

I think it's paramount that we get the uglies rid of early, as the longer it's left in hope then the more work we create. I'm glad I can look at my nano tank which is only 3-4 months old and enjoy algae free, extended coral, various fauna and inverts full of life. Yes I have a 1" maxima clam

This way by learning how to hand guide a tank will help beat invasion, help to gauge when something needs attention by vision and not rely on test kits.

Test kits are just for setting up dosing equipment heh,

A.