BRS Investigation -- Established tank vs start-up tank

[Joedubyk]

It's been anecdotal that an established aquarium does much better, especially with stony corals. I think this one would be easy to do. Use established rock /water/whatever you can use on one tank and a a fresh start from another. Would really be interesting with the results and could really change how people reef. It would also perhaps create a desire for people to perhaps buy/trade rock/sponges, etc from others established tanks.

 

[don_chuwish]

You'd have to start with a definition for 'established' and 'start-up'. By 'start-up' I don't think anyone would suggest 'just added water'.
At worst, fresh setup with bacteria in a bottle maybe? Or a tank just past the 'uglies' stage?
'Established' = 6 months FOWLR? More?

 

[Joedubyk]

You'd have to start with a definition for 'established' and 'start-up'. By 'start-up' I don't think anyone would suggest 'just added water'.
At worst, fresh setup with bacteria in a bottle maybe? Or a tank just past the 'uglies' stage?
'Established' = 6 months FOWLR? More?

It wouldn't be that hard to setup the parameters. Past the ugly stage is a good start for un-established. And take rock, water , etc from tanks that have been setup for a year+.

 

[randyBRS]

This would be a pretty interesting one to try and put together, for sure! Testing to see if mature live rock is the key to an SPS "insta-tank" would be fun (especially if there was no coral mortality)!

 

[robbyg]

Most of us who have been in this hobby for decades did not have access to bacteria from an existing tank. If you take bacteria from an existing tank and add in cured rock and freshly mixed SW you are basically recreating the donor tanks bacteria mixture. IOW without that bacteria are there microscopic wars going on that lead to one type of nitrifying bacteria winning out over another and what happens during that process. IMHO you would need three tanks. An established, a seeded and non seeded. Yes the non-seeded will take longer to get there but that is sometimes the only option for many hobbyist and the question is are they worst off in the end or maybe even better off.