15 Steps to Starting a Saltwater Aquarium: The Lasse Method

[Lasse]

Glad that it works so well as it do.

The three types of corals you mentioned all are tricky ones IME. Duncan is a coral that nots so compatible with me - even if I love it - feelings seems not be answered

With the elegance - try to feed it like you do with anemones. A small piece of a shrimp is good to test with. Phosphates and nitrates may need to be a little higher. Test with small amounts of reef roids if it can raise the PO4 a little.

The NH4 will often give false readings and IMO is not so useful to test. It can often create more problems than it solve.

Sincerely Lasse.

 

[Paul B]

Very nice write up Lasse. I enjoyed it.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

Wanted to bump this thread for any beginners. There’s a lot of talk of the dreaded “ugly stage” lately. If you follow his method, particularly the use of real ocean live rock, you can almost avoid the ugly stage completely. You can see my build thread for another example. No ugly stage. I got my ocean live rock from KP Aquatics. it’s called “starter rock” and it has minimal hitchhikers and flecks of coraline. They also sell premium rock with more coraline and life on it. Anyway, Hope you and your tank are doing well Lasse.

 

[Lasse]

Wanted to bump this thread for any beginners. There’s a lot of talk of the dreaded “ugly stage” lately. If you follow his method, particularly the use of real ocean live rock, you can almost avoid the ugly stage completely. You can see my build thread for another example. No ugly stage. I got my ocean live rock from KP Aquatics. it’s called “starter rock” and it has minimal hitchhikers and flecks of coraline. They also sell premium rock with more coraline and life on it. Anyway, Hope you and your tank are doing well Lasse.

Thank you. Yes it is doing well for the moment .

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Gaspipe]

I too would like to tip my hat to Mr. Lasse as he and his method has been INSTRUMENTAL in regard to my reef tank.

I seeded my tank with Live Reef Rubble and Dr. Tim's OandO, so far no ugly. Fed very little and used his recommendations.

 

[MnFish1]

I do not QT - never have done but nowadays I always adapt my newcomers in my refugium to avoid stress from bullying when they will be introduced into the DT. I´m not against QT if it is only an observing QT with medication of right stuff when where is true indications of illness. But even with a proper QT - you need to adapt your newcomers with water from the DT - partly for vaccination and partly because they must get the same smell as the fish in the Display Tank I´m very much against any type of prophylactic treatment - treatment in case of.

Thank you @Sallstrom - see you probably on Monday

Many persons react that I introduce a CUC very early. When I have introduce the CUC - I run much light and if I use LS - I have chose LS with "crap" on. Microalgae will grow very quick and the CUC will found it even if you can´t see it. The reason for early introduction is that the algae should not be able to etablish a large biomass. A microalgae can dubble its biomass in lesser than 24 hours.

One correction to the article is that I have been aquarist for over 40 years but it was mainly freshwater aquarium until 2001

@Pbh-reef ,@Hemmdog and @brandon429 - thank you

Sincerely Lasse

After reading a couple other threads - I wondered if you can give an opinion. There is a fair bit of commentary around R2R about the necessity for heavy - or at least 'normal' feeding - to support the immune system in systems without QT. In your method you do not seem to have problems with not Quarantining - except in your refugium - yet you feed sparsely. Can you explain why your method 'seems' to get away with sparse feeding? and Do you have any 'filtration' (UV, etc) that could remove potential parasites/disease between your refugium and your return into your display tank?

 

[Lasse]

I think you have misunderstand me - I only feed sparsely when I start. When the aquarium is working I feed enough I think for keeping a good immune system. However I feed only with frozen natural food.

I use an oxidator but not for the whole time but often when I introduce fish

I buy my fish from places I trust

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Dan_P]

Seawitch submitted a new Article:

15 Steps to Starting a Saltwater Aquarium: The Lasse Method

15 Steps to Starting a Saltwater Aquarium: The Lasse Method

Display Tank.

Photos are all courtesy of Lasse Forsberg. ©2019, All Rights Reserved.

INTRODUCTION

There are many methods to start a saltwater aquarium--each major aquarium product manufacturer has its own. Common to most, however, is that they focus on keeping difficult and demanding corals--especially SPS. Are you looking for a method-specific SPS aquarium? If yes, then maybe you should choose a method from one of that group of manufacturers. But if you just want to start a saltwater aquarium for fishes, invertebrates, soft corals, most LPS, and many non-demanding SPS, then my method might not be so bad. At least it has not been for me in my forty years of reef-keeping.

Below is the method I have worked out over the years:

DESCRIPTION OF METHOD

1) Get the appropriate size aquarium 25 liters or larger. For smaller aquariums, look for those that have the sump built into the back, also known as “All in One” (AIO.) It’s an excellent starter aquarium.

2) Decorate the aquarium with rock and sand. Use dry or live sand. You may add some sand from an existing aquarium. The rock can be both alive and dead/dry. It can be good to have a 50 – 50 mix of live and dry. I never clean the rocks, I just rinse them off.

If I use live rock (LR), I try to pick from as many stores as possible, always looking for "fresh" rock. I want as many and as different hitchhikers as possible. About 90% of the hitchhikers are beneficial, and about 10% can be harmful (depending on which ones). If I get a “bad guy,” then I deal with that later on.

If you do not have access to live sand, used filter media, or some old water. There is a pretty good product available in order to avoid water that is too “sterile” in the beginning: Tetra Bactozym.

3) Fill aquarium with water and salt and mix up to about 34.6 parts per thousand (PPT) salinity.

4) Put in and start your equipment (return pumps, power heads, protein skimmer, if used, foam filters--if you chose that--and heaters.) Wait with active carbon, granular ferric oxide, and similar equipment. Let the water circulate for one or two days.

5) Introduce a healthy, well fed, lively fish that is not shy.

In a large aquarium start with 2 - 3 fish. The reason for introducing fish as early as this is that you need something that produces ammonium (NH4) in order to get the vital nitrification process to start. In a newly started aquarium, there is no bacteria-related production of ammonium and the production of ammonium from the fish(es) is controlled by how you feed the fish. With this method, you will have full control over the NH4 production the first few weeks.

An orange-spotted sleeper/sifter goby, Valenciennea puellaris.

Photos are all courtesy of Lasse Forsberg. ©2019, All Rights Reserved.

6) Add some nitrifying bacteria every day for three weeks or inoculate with detritus from an already functioning aquarium every day. There are many special bacterial strains available to buy, including a mixture of nitrification and break-down bacteria--avoid them in the beginning--only the nitrifying bacteria are of interest. I normally use a freshwater product--Sera NitriVeck--and dose 20 ml per 100 liters/day. Do you have an old aquarium running? Then take and turn out the filter in a few liters of water--fresh or salt--does not matter. Put it in the refrigerator, and then pour in an appropriate amount every day into your new aquarium. At the start of an aquarium it can be a good method to use an internal foam filter, which helps the nitrification to start. It can later be removed if you want.

7) Feed extremely sparingly at the beginning. I usually only use frozen large brine shrimp for the first 3 weeks and only give three to four shrimp per fish. The first week I feed every third day (this small amount) and the second week every other day (the same small amount) and the third week, every day (the same small amount). On Week 4, I start to increase the amount.

8) Run a full lighting duration right from the start if you plan to follow step 9. otherwise - start 3-4 day before the introduction of CUC. If using LED, do not have too high intensity, but the full duration. The reason is, after all, to start algae and other things so that they begin producing. They get phosphorus because the rock is not carefully cleaned and from the frozen brine shrimp. Nitrogen is also necessary in the beginning--see later.

9) Introduce the Clean Up Crew (CUC) around days 3 - 4 and as many different species of snails and hermits you can find. Preferably a dozen snails and as many hermits (small) per hundred liters and at least the number if the aquarium is below 50 liters. See if you can find at least one sea urchin - the long spine black urchins are usually the best. Avoid very small ones. Crabs (emerald and sally lightfoot) are a good complement as well. Shrimp, especially the coral banded shrimp, Stenopus hispidus, is good in the beginning because they hold down bristle worms--not eradicate them but keep the population down. The reason why the CUC should be added early is that they must prevent the microalgae from building up a too-large biomass and thus a too-high daily production of microalgae. Not cleaning the live rock too much gives some food to the CUC in the introduction phase.

A red variant of Scooter Blenny, Synchiropus ocellatus.

Photos are all courtesy of Lasse Forsberg. ©2019, All Rights Reserved.

10) Add some nitrates around day 5--just a few ppm. Get potassium or sodium nitrate. Add 40 grams to 460 grams of water. Dissolve 1 ml of this solution per 100 liters of water. This solution raises NO3 by about 0.5 ppm. Target: about 3 ppm.

11) Introduce the first soft corals or mushrooms after about one week. Hardy LPS corals can come some weeks later. Most corals are consumers--not producers—and they do not affect the bio-load of the system--it's just the opposite. However, non-photosynthetic corals should be avoided for the moment. In connection with the introduction of corals, it is time to start increasing the intensity of the light if possible.

12) If you get a small brownish color on the sand, then try to stir the sand a couple of times every day with a small stick or an EHEIM gripper.

13) Change water at the earliest after about 4 weeks. Introduce new fish slowly and patiently. Do not increase the feeding too fast, just slowly and carefully.

14) Do not test water parameters. Wait until the aquarium is a few months old or you have a lot of hard corals. Once the aquarium has established itself for a few months you can start testing if you want to. The most important thing to test is calcium and alkalinity if you have hard corals. Now it is also time to start--if you want— start testing and change the values of inorganic nutrients like PO4 and NO3 with one or another method.

15) After about 4 - 8 weeks, it’s also time to start some other stuff if you like, a refugium for example. Also, look at a small thing called an Oxidator--something I use to get a clear water without yellowing--but wait about 2 months.

Of course, there is some real thought behind my method: nitrification and other biological life should get started as soon as it possible and the risk of ammonium formation (and thus free ammonia) is removed. But the production of micro-algae should also get started as soon as possible, and that’s why you need "harvesters"--that is the CUC.

With these guidelines, I have started hundreds of aquariums without any algal problems in the beginning.

After the first three to four weeks, it is usually a good idea to change water every week, between 10 - 20% if you want to go that path.

Plectranthias inermis

Photos are all courtesy of Lasse Forsberg. ©2019, All Rights Reserved.


IMPORTANT

Once the aquarium is stabilized after about 4-8 weeks, you can start introducing new fish at a slow pace. Never increase the feeding suddenly.

COMMENTS

The idea of not testing water parameters during start up may seem very provocative, but in my experience--since there are a lot of myths about target values for different inorganic nutrients all around--there will often be overreactions, especially by beginners. Having high levels of inorganic nutrients (as PO4 and NO3) in the water column does not mean that you will get algae automatically (compared to low and dino/cyanobacteria).

Lack of grazers (CUC)--on the other hand--gives direct algae problems regardless of the nutrient levels in a newly started aquarium. In a tank with well-established corals, they will compete with the algae for the nutrition and the CUC will not be as important. Put your money into a large, diverse, and good CUC at the start instead of a lot of measuring equipment--it is both more fun and more efficient. When you know what you want to do with your aquarium—yes--then you can start manipulating different parameters, but let it run for 2-3 months (at least) beforehand.

With these 15 steps in my head, I have successfully started many aquariums without any algal or other problems in the beginning.

Sincerely Lasse

Edit - Point 6 was not really clear consider what I meant with mixed bacteria strains in the beginning. The sentence is changed now--I do not normally used mixed strains in the beginning

I want to thank @Seawitch and @Bouncingsoul39 for help with the editing of the article.

Sincerely Lasse

~~~~~~~~~

Note from the Editor: This article is Lasse Forsberg's method (The Lasse Method) for starting saltwater aquariums, which Lasse was kind enough to share with us. We expect some readers will view parts of this method as controversial. Please note, however, that Lasse has been a reef aquarist for over 40 years and has also worked in fisheries and aquaculture his whole professional life. It's hard to argue with someone who has so much experience under his belt.

~~~~~~~~~

We encourage all our readers to join the Reef2Reef forum. It’s easy to register, free, and reefkeeping is much easier and more fun in a community of fellow aquarists. We pride ourselves on a warm and family-friendly forum where everyone is welcome. You will also find lots of contests and giveaways with our sponsors.

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Author Profile: Lasse Forsberg

Lasse Forsberg, is from a little town in Sweden. He has been keeping aquariums for over 40 years, and in his professional life, he has always worked with fisheries, aquaculture, and public aquariums on the technical side.

He is a valuable member of the Reef2Reef forum, and his super interesting build thread may be found here.

@Lasse,

Just coming back to this article to refresh my memory of the details. I have been experimenting on and reading about marine algae succession to try to understand the factors that determine how a new aquarium ecology evolves. The 15 step plan that you describe in the article parallels a simple model I use to think about algae succession. The trajectory of succession is influenced by three (probably more) factors: nutrient level, the number of grazers and the presence of many colonizing species. When this idea crystallized in my head, I immediately saw the wisdom in your 15 step plan.

Dan

 

[Lasse]

@Lasse,

Just coming back to this article to refresh my memory of the details. I have been experimenting on and reading about marine algae succession to try to understand the factors that determine how a new aquarium ecology evolves. The 15 step plan that you describe in the article parallels a simple model I use to think about algae succession. The trajectory of succession is influenced by three (probably more) factors: nutrient level, the number of grazers and the presence of many colonizing species. When this idea crystallized in my head, I immediately saw the wisdom in your 15 step plan.

Dan

Thanks - but it's not so much my wisdom as it's a common ecological approach when trying to start / restart a new ecosystem. I'll think that´s time to abdone the chemical/drug approach to reefing that has more or less taken over during the last decades. We must learn that every step we take - and when we take it - can have a huge impact on the outcome.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Alexraptor]

I wholeheartedly agree! I've been using an ecological approach for all the 17 years I've kept saltwater systems, and I haven't run into even half the troubles a lot of people seem to be running into these days, with dino's etc.

 

[MnFish1]

Thanks - but it's not so much my wisdom as it's a common ecological approach when trying to start / restart a new ecosystem. I'll think that´s time to abdone the chemical/drug approach to reefing that has more or less taken over during the last decades. We must learn that every step we take - and when we take it - can have a huge impact on the outcome.

Sincerely Lasse

Did you see the posts that BRSTV made suggesting this - I tried to tag you one one of them to get your opinion.

 

[Dan_P]

Thanks - but it's not so much my wisdom as it's a common ecological approach when trying to start / restart a new ecosystem. I'll think that´s time to abdone the chemical/drug approach to reefing that has more or less taken over during the last decades. We must learn that every step we take - and when we take it - can have a huge impact on the outcome.

Sincerely Lasse

You are too modest!

 

[Subsea]

@Lasse
I have especially enjoyed allowing diver collected uncured live rock to go thru a progression of seaweeds.

When I receive Gulf of Mexico live rock, I remove very little unless there is obvious dieof. After 1 yr it is surprising to see how prolific some of the ornamental seaweeds that sprout on live rock from nutrient rich GOM waters. If it were not for Herbivore’s, coral reefs would be algae dominated.

@LiverockRocks
Join the club.

 

[MnFish1]

@Lasse is the superstar

 

[Lasse]

Did you see the posts that BRSTV made suggesting this - I tried to tag you one one of them to get your opinion.

I did answer in the one there the first post (with the link to BRSTV was) get edited.

You are too modest!

I show this for my wife - she laugh so much that she has not been able to rise from the floor yet.

@Lasse is the superstar

Nope - but the same wife says that my hobby is a black hole - all money just rush into it......

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

@Lasse
I have especially enjoyed allowing diver collected uncured live rock to go thru a progression of seaweeds.

When I receive Gulf of Mexico live rock, I remove very little unless there is obvious dieof. After 1 yr it is surprising to see how prolific some of the ornamental seaweeds that sprout on live rock from nutrient rich GOM waters. If it were not for Herbivore’s, coral reefs would be algae dominated.

@LiverockRocks
Join the club.

If I got my hands of living rocks in a start up - I always look for the most overgrown pieces I can find. No dark curing - light on when CUC is in.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Aspect]

Great method, simple and effective. Awesome write. Just one thing I want to add, if you are running electrical equipment in your tank (99.99% of tanks will) please add a grounding probe or 2! Can save your whole system if a a piece of equipment fails and leaks voltage into your tank. For $20 it's worth it.

 

[Lasse]

Great method, simple and effective. Awesome write. Just one thing I want to add, if you are running electrical equipment in your tank (99.99% of tanks will) please add a grounding probe or 2! Can save your whole system if a a piece of equipment fails and leaks voltage into your tank. For $20 it's worth it.

Or use a grounded titan heater!

Sincerely Lasse

 

[LiverockRocks]

If I got my hands of living rocks in a start up - I always look for the most overgrown pieces I can find. No dark curing - light on when CUC is in.

Sincerely Lasse

Exactly, look for overgrown pieces and no dark curing for living rocks.

This customer purchased rock and sand harvested in the cool winter Gulf waters for a brand-new tank.
No macro was on it when harvested or shipped. With light, warmer "summer temp" waters, and no herbivores; it is teaming with organisms within a few months...naturally.

 

[Dan_P]

This hour long video by Randy of BRS is interesting (thanks to @taricha for the link). I can’t help thinking that he read your 15 step method before setting up his large aquarium study on what causes the “uglies” and how to minimize them.

Take a look, the parallels are interesting.

Oh, he rediscovered “dark curing” of live rock, where you place live rock in saltwater in the dark for a few months to kill of algae and other undesirables.


https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/content/post/10-months-of-biome-cycling-12-aquariums-reefapalooza-2022