- Joined
- Jan 30, 2020
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I've been hearing from more and more people about how test kits aren't necessarily required since you can tell everything that is going on from a visual perspective of the tank. It's just experience that is required to determine as to what is going on currently and I don't posses the experience haha. But I'm getting there. I know about when and why hair algae grows and things along the line of the general cycle. But the tip you outlined regarding cyano algae and coraline algae I was unfamiliar with so thanks. Do you think added flow to the sand bed would help with the cyano bacteria would help or just time? I got a hermit crab and trochus snail that I was told would help stir the sanded and help with that.Well done. Specifically from that picture here is how we know it’s cycled and done, we aren’t consulting a test kit, it’s the visual biology that accurate testers like seneye always support:
-very mild cyano red patch on sand. All reefs have cyano its typical for new tanks, it’s presence proves nitrifers are set because filter bac are the under layer to cyano mats, not the top layer. Bacteria are first to colonize a submerged surface, secondary benthic growths like that mat confirm cycling. No cyano matting can build up quicker than a nitrifier base.
-fish not panting at the top. Gills are burned red by even slight sustained ammonia, cannot breathe cannot excrete, death overnite.
-we must factor in all the feed that has been added, feed input alone will rot an uncycled tank and it will be a loss cascade if fish are present, and the reef isn’t cycled.
-cross section pic of your sandbed shows pigmentation in the middle, time is passing by and this reef is maturing, it’s plenty past cycle phase. At no time in reefing can any pigments have time to form in a reef tank while the nitrifying base is lagging, the order of ops is the other way around: filter bac first, then algae then coralline then coral flesh
-ratios of surface area. Sand + rock + living bioload cannot ever stall, it’s massive surface area. Even without the sand, the rock alone can handle even more fish, there’s that much surface area inside just rocks alone, the sand makes it over the top surface area, its why the tank cycled so fast off your first booster added with water upon setup.
we did not consult nitrite nor nitrate not once in this cycle call. Testing for parameters using test kits that misread for half the population is apparently no longer required in the hobby