The best advice I think I can give is to have a plan and stick to it. It's easy to get "pushed" in many directions based on the posts we read and videos we watch online. I've been doing this for many years and have seen all of the fads and changes along the way. Every time something new appears it's treated like the new standard... it's not. I've had many systems throughout the years and like everyone my first attempts were mediocre at best. Once I realized that sticking one plan, one system, slowing making changes and allowing time for things to develop everything changed for the better. "Use only live rock, no only dry rock, no a mix".... Hogwash. If you understand the natural course a reef system and plan for it many of the problems you see posted will not occur. Largest system I ever had was a 180 SPS Zeovit System and it thrived. Moved across country and everything had to go. Seven years later got back into the hobby with a 45 cube last November based on the Aquaforest System. Seven weeks ago upgraded and did a transfer to a NUVO 100EXT. For this system all dry AF Rock cooked for several months dosing multiple sources of bacteria and AF Life source. Ugly phase??? On day 5 I had a reddish/brown algae outbreak on the rock and sand. On day three of the outbreak it began to recede. By the morning of day six it was completely gone. Corals are thriving, fish are thriving. I stick to my plan, don't skip on any of my dosing and make sure that I continue to use the same multiple sources of bacteria that I used to cook the rock. Consistency and stability are everything. A natural biome will occur over time, not instantly. it's important that we put natural things in the system that will build that biome over time and lead to its stability.
