One Month Update: April 16th, 2023
Evolution of microfauna and ecosystem
Filter, media, cycling saga
One month in to water in the tank and no algae. Too soon for the uglies you say? But I had diatoms around weeks 1-2, with precycled rocks and filter media. The algae hasn’t come yet. If I make it one more month without the uglies, then it will be a method to seriously consider for tank set up.
The hypothesis:
A robust ecology is not easily pushed out of balance by an opportunistic species, so build a robust ecology before adding fish and heavy nutrients.
The details:
I set 5-gallon buckets of reef water (Brightwell Neomarine) with circulation or airstone and heater and added dry artificial rocks, ARM media, and SeaChem Matrix in these (Matrix and ARM were in mesh bags). For those who don’t know, Matrix is a natural volcanic tuff which is highly porus and thus has enormous surface area for bacteria to populate but does not alter water chemistry. It is the ultimate biological filter media for freshwater applications. I’m using my Oase Biomaster Thermo canister filter with built in heater and prefilter sponges for my filtration, nutrient cycling, nutrient export, and reactor. All in one. The biomaster comes with four trays that have fitted sponges, but i replaced the bottom two with Matrix, the third with ARM, and the thin top one with ROX activated carbon and filter floss. I change the top section (carbon and floss) monthly. Why the ARM? No, it will not dissolve and keep my harness or alkalinity up to any great degree, I would need an acidic environment for that. However, it is the right substrate for the kind of bacteria I want to thrive in my filter. Bacteria create acid plaques that erode the alkaline rocks. They feed on these released ions and also help free up the ions for use in the filter.
The activated carbon adsorbs organic waste that isn’t used by the organisms I invite, but which can be utilized organisms which are pests. So I am removing these already from the very beginning of the filter set up.
So back to the cycling buckets. Two buckets got Dr Tims. 2 buckets got Fritz Turbostart 900. Both were fed with quick cycle which has ammonia, phosphate, and carbohydrates which are more complete nutrients to feed bacteria. I dose well below the DrTims recommended 2 ppm. Instead I dose .5-1 ppm. Too much ammonia inhibits the growth and progress of the cycle. I also got pink helix coraline algae in a bottle to seal the rocks and PNS Substrate Sauce, which is live bacteria that fills a different niche. I hoped that the bacteria and algae would cycle all kinds of nutrients and out compete any bad stuff for real estate.
The problems:
I did not know the coralline algae could not be used while cycling. It is smmonia inhibited and also needs blue light. Ambient bucket lighting from windows and cycling ammonia made that a wasted addition 22$ at that point in that method. I really didn’t want to add a bottle of coralline algae to the DT and have it immediately growing on all my tank accessories and glass, which is why I added it to the bucket. So, no coralline algae. Dr Tim’s (
Amazon order) didn’t cycle at all over three weeks. The ammonia never went down. So that was a 17$ bust and a waste of three weeks of precycle on half my rocks and media. PNS Substrate Sauce made bacterial blooms in everything I used it in. I was simultaneously cycling my 10G fish QT and 3G coral QT. The only thing that really worked flawlessly during bucket QT was Fritz TurboStart 900. I ended up purchasing this twice more during my set up. Luckily it works fast- like 3-5 days. A bunch of resetting and moving stuff around happened with the buckets, and UV on the QTs and partial water changes fixed those bacterial blooms. I nearly threw away the PNS Sub Sauce because of the nasty problem risk, but every time I read about it, it was so compelling. I saved it and ultimately did use it sparingly later. The type of bacteria in SubSauce is the most prominent in ocean water, and from the BRS Investigates, I had hoped it would stave off the uglies. Instead it became ann ugly. It also lives in anoxic areas in the sandbed, helping avoid the cyano that always seems to start st the glass in the sand. Plus, it is an important food source for corals. So I had good reason to expect good results from the $30 bottle.
so after tidying up the cycle and filling the tank, I next added copious copepods and macro algae and live phytoplankton. I started with red pom pom gracillarous, 5280 pods, and ocean magic, all from AlgaeBarn. They are close to me and we had a terrible winter in the upper Midwest, so I figured I had the highest chances of success with them due to proximity alone. The pom poms (3 softball sized clumps when expanded from one jar) had a hard time adjusting to my lighting for a week or two, but are niw super resilient. I even have one in my unlit fish QT. They make a great habitat for breeding copepods and also utilize excess nutrients that hair/bryopsis algae would. So I have 2 clumps wedged in the back of my DT rockwork and one in my QTs. Unexpectedly, the live phyto are absolute workhorses at pulling ammonia. I got them to feed the pods, clean the water, and feed the corals and filter-feeding inverts. The copepods eat cellular algae, diatoms and bacteria from rocks, glass and substrate and become enriched food for fishes and corals, helping feed my tank. This ecosystem is both self cleaning and self feeding, which is all fitting in to my ultra low maintenance formula.
But, feeding live phyto is a manual twice-daily addition. The bottle needs to be shaken daily to prevent suffocation of the settled phytoplankton and it must be stored in the fridge.
I’ll make a post about feeding and phyto, bacteria, pods, etc.
The take-away from this so far is that setting up a tank with lots of intentional specimens for tank health is worth it. It’s probiotics for the tank. Just one week of minor diatoms is all I have contended with. This is a huge contrast to the evolution of problems I faced with freshwater planted aquascapes which closely regulate many of the same parameters. The tank has been filled for 4-5 weeks and with corals and snails for 3 weeks.
Today I had 1ppm ammonia after over zealous feeding to show off my stars, nassarius and corals eating. I dosed phyto and two hours later the ammonia was down to 0.4 ppm. Pretty impressive, and beneficial impact to all the tank life instead of another swing. The life force can balance itself. I have added 3 more bottles of pods from Reef Nutrition and am now using their live Phyto, which is super concentrated.
