Oh gosh, no, I did not interpret that from the BRS series on that at all lol. The ones I saw regarding this method were back when they did the BRS/WWC hybrid tanks. Some obscure advice in that series.
@leroytheboi, with a tank that small, I would do something like this:
Week 1 - 3
- lights off
- no corals
- no fish
- continue as you are doing
- grab a
small piece of live rock from your LFS to add some beneficial critters to the tank. - golf ball size is fine
Week 4
- lights off
- no corals
- no fish
- bring a water sample to LFS or test yourself with a kit. I recommend the Salifert kit for NO3 (nitrate) to start.
If your LFS says good to go or your Salifert test is dark purple:
- do a 50-60% water change
- add a damsel or two (some cheap fish to keep some nutrients and poop in the tank)
- start feeding damsel a small amount daily
Week 5-7
- lights on at a
low level for a photoperiod of 1-hour ramp up > 7 hours at 10-20% > 1-hour ramp down
- no corals
- say hi to damsel every day
- also, cry because your tank is ugly, and you have either algae, dinos, or cyano
- start doing 1-gallon water changes every week and practicing good husbandry like scrubbing algae/dino/cyano off rock and substrate etc.
Week 8-12
- lights on at a medium level for a photoperiod of 1-hour ramp up > 7 hours at 30-50% > 1-hour ramp down
- no corals
- sing to damsel every day
- cry a little less because you are past one of the algae/dino/cyano stages, and you finally have some confidence in yourself
- keep doing 1-gallon water changes every week and practicing good husbandry like scrubbing algae off rock and substrate etc.
Week 13-16
- hopefully, by this point, cyano is gone just from you having excellent habits of weekly water changes and testing
- net the damsel(s) and return to LFS - sing them a goodbye song
- get a few cheap corals
- get a clownfish to replace the damsel
- lights on at a medium level for a photoperiod of 1-hour ramp up > 7 hours at 30-50% > 1-hour ramp down
- monitor the tanks levels to make sure you aren't adding too much at once
- start aiming for a stable alkalinity, something matching your salt of choice
- keep doing 1-gallon water changes every week and practicing good husbandry like scrubbing algae off rock and substrate etc.
- if all is well at this point, its about stability in your parameters
