Avoiding the "ugly phase" by keeping the lights totally off for the first 4, 6, 8+ months...?

[salty150]

I know BRS, Ryan, is working on their Biome cycling investigation...

Waiting to hear the results...

Since they have stated that all (?) the "uglies" are photosynthetic... and recommend keeping the lights off for the first month+...

Could you avoid the the "ugly phase" by keeping the lights totally off for the first 4, 6, 8+ months...?

I know if would prolong getting your tank set up... but it would also let you avoid a lot of the heartache too...

 

[stephj03]

I tried this when I set my tank up a few yrs ago and failed. But I only had a skimmer for filtration.

If you did this with a solid fuge or an algae scrubber and waited until your nutrient levels stabilized within good ranges, I think you would have a chance.

 

[Rams]

It's all about bacteria on rock and sand if you have it

 

[stephj03]

It's all about bacteria on rock and sand if you have it

Not if you start lights out, add bacteria, wait a mo, add a modest number of fish, wait 5mo, add lights and end up going through the uglies anyway.


I'm a huge fan of biofilter, biofilter diversity, and biofilter balance, but I've come to realize the layers of organisms beyond non-photosynthetic bacteria that are a meaningful part of the equation.

 

[stephj03]

That's not to say that establishing the biofilter shouldn't be the initial priority after adding water.

It definitely should, it's just to say that doing so did not allow me to skip the uglies by staying dark for months on end.

Uglies aren't that bad btw. They provide a great call to action to expand your knowledge and/or keep it sharp on a new build.

 

[vpierce3]

In my experience the uglies come no matter what. Keeping the lights off only delays it. But if you ramp up the lights slowly you might be able to mitigate it. The uglies are just part of the start up cycle until things stabilize.

 

[salty150]

Doesn't keeping the lights off let the good bacteria, etc. colonize and spread out over the rock, sand, etc...

Before the bad stuff (all photosynthetic and need light) has a chance to...?

 

[Idech]

I’ve never had bad algae in my 2 tanks (beginner). I did like I do in freshwater, ie take it very slow with the lights. Starting around 10% and slowly increasing over many months.

My first tank only had a bit of diatoms that went away when I added the right cuc and my second one « only » had dinos. These are a pain and I don’t think waiting 6 months or any length of time would prevent them from happening. But I could be wrong.

 

[freshnano]

I know BRS, Ryan, is working on their Biome cycling investigation...

Waiting to hear the results...

Since they have stated that all (?) the "uglies" are photosynthetic... and recommend keeping the lights off for the first month+...

Could you avoid the the "ugly phase" by keeping the lights totally off for the first 4, 6, 8+ months...?

I know if would prolong getting your tank set up... but it would also let you avoid a lot of the heartache too...

I’m glad you asked this as I am in the process of getting tanks set up now and currently testing BRS theories. I’ve gone lights out, just blues, and mix of blue and whites… all seems like just delaying inevitable diatoms in varying degrees of time and growth rate. Also I have coral frags and small CUC, added copepods and feeding phytoplankton… but still haven’t completely avoided “uglies.” My takeaway is that light moderation is good, but developing a full healthy biome requires some of that unsightly growth in the beginning to properly establish itself.
Since adding copepods and phytoplankton, I have seen noticeable improvement and growth in my corals.
Hopefully these theories play out and now just have to master the evaporation/ salinity challenge… does everyone just go ATO?
Thanks for the topic post!

 

[alabella1]

I think I did 4 months on my new 155g. Started slow with just rocks. Added some fish. Somehow ended up with ich despite QT efforts. Went fallow for 6 weeks + and at the tail end moved all my coral over from my old tank and shut it down. Lights up for the coral and then brought the fish over. Littlest bit of algae mostly gone now and some brown on the sand. Could have been worse. I'm mostly happy with the results of being patient and keeping lights out.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Sometimes I take rocks from my fish only tank (which has no light, just ambient room lighting) to add to my reef. Those rocks don't grow algae once they get in the reef tank under the light. So maybe there is something to it.

 

[christwendt]

Lights out make a huge difference. I had lights out 2.5 months. Then turned t5 on for 3 months for 5 hours only. I had pretty much no ugly stage. I did add a good clean up crew. 5 Mexican turbo snails helped a lot. 2 conches helped the sand free of diatoms. I have seen a size of a pea GHA total in the 8 months I’ve had the tank
Tank now vs the ugliest it was. Patience has been the biggest success. I waited 8 months to start my refugium. I waited 5 months for skimmer. I had very low bio load until it was 5-6 months old.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

Doesn't keeping the lights off let the good bacteria, etc. colonize and spread out over the rock, sand, etc...

Before the bad stuff (all photosynthetic and need light) has a chance to...?

Obviously still lots to learn on this subject, but this should probably be one of the takeaways from the series. Lights off alone won't stop the ugly phase, but it buys you time to establish a healthy biome in the aquarium. Aside from that, copepods were a big eye opener for us. We always knew that they were good and that they played some sort of clean up crew role, but it's pretty clear that adding them sooner rather than later can have a huge positive impact on avoiding some of the ugliest uglies like dinoflagellates. Like Ryan says, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

It'll be interesting to see how this all develops in the years ahead with eDNA testing and building up that database.