How do we increase biodiversity?

[schuby]

I started with dry rock and wanted to increase my biodiversity, too. I got

SurfZone Live Sand Activator Plus™ Featuring WONDERMUD

from ipsf.com. I also got some spaghetti worms, bristle worms, and mini stars from them.

@Paul B recommends feeding your fish fresh clams to increase their gut bacteria diversity. I've done that, too.

 

[samnaz]

I’m not sure if your talking about the Company gulf live rock (your probably not). Although I agree that you can get some very diverse rock from the gulf, but the rock I received from https://gulfliverock.com/ was the most dense and unnaturally shaped rock I’ve ever worked with. Not porous at all. So if anybody is looking for rock, avoid this company. They would not refund my money.

Look at https://www.kpaquatics.com/product-...05tx0jmnqm7VDnZ0lc_yPVHPLiaGNl2EaApFJEALw_wcB

Or .....

Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock - Aquaculturing Process

Both of these companies sell quality rock (shipped in water) that’s filled with life. Highly recommend!

Actually I was referring to the company Gulf Live Rock. I couldn’t be happier with the rock I received from them. It was absolutely filled with life - covered in coraline, macro algae, sponges, worms, corals, clams, tunicates and more... plus, no pests, not even aiptasia. I’ve seen photos of KP and TBS rock and no doubt their rock is top notch, but I really have no complaints about my Gulf Live Rock. Except maybe the stench when I opened the box, lol. However, next time around I will be trying out KP and maybe then once I have something to compare it to I’ll feel differently. But for now it’s no doubt one of the best most exciting parts of my reefing journey thus far.

 

[Reefahholic]

Actually I was referring to the company Gulf Live Rock. I couldn’t be happier with the rock I received from them. It was absolutely filled with life - covered in coraline, macro algae, sponges, worms, corals, clams, tunicates and more... plus, no pests, not even aiptasia. I’ve seen photos of KP and TBS rock and no doubt their rock is top notch, but I really have no complaints about my Gulf Live Rock. Except maybe the stench when I opened the box, lol. However, next time around I will be trying out KP and maybe then once I have something to compare it to I’ll feel differently. But for now it’s no doubt one of the best most exciting parts of my reefing journey thus far.

Have you ever purchased different LR or seen other sources in person before?

Their rock is super dense and looks nothing like it does on their website. Of course it’s full of life just like all rock that’s been sitting in the Gulf. I live 20 minutes from the Gulf and can testify. What attracted me to them was probably the same thing that attracted you. LOW PRICE. I told myself not to do it, but I went against my instincts. I’m glad you like it, but IMO it’s way too dense and is definitely lacking porosity. Was very hard to scape as well. It was literally like trying to stack rocks on top of rocks like somebody mixed up a bag of concrete and dumped it into the gulf.

 

[PranK]

This topic seems to have split a little from increasing biodiversity to whats the best dino treatment.

Thankfully I've never had dinos, I've never been able to get my nutrients that low! :rolleyes:

As for biodiversity, in Sydney we used to always ask people who came over for frag swaps or to buy stuff to bring a cup of sand and it just became the norm for a bit to include a sand trade at the same time. I don't know how many of these cups of sand I added over the years. I'm not sure if it was the right or wrong thing to do. Tank is 10 years old and I'm still struggling with some stuff ;):cool:

 

[Reefahholic]

 

[stanlalee]

Really overcomplicating this. Everytime you add livestock you are adding diversity. If you have added/are adding corals (or any substrate from another system... snails shell, rock, a few grains of stray sand, stony base of lps, frag plug/disk...any hard surface from another system) you have added diversity. If you haven't added corals why do you care (why do we care for a reef for that matter as long as what's there is completing the nitrogen cycle effectively). Bacteria in a bottle are completely unnecessary for biodiversity and most aren't made to be sustainable. If they are why would I need daily, weekly, monthly dosing. I should buy one 5ml shot in and let it proliferate under sustainable aquarium conditions. They do help for what they are targeted for short term (I used microbactor 7 daily and lights out for 48 hours and beat dino in both my tanks in less than a week of actively fighting it). Unless your going to dose forever that's not the long term fix. I have real live rock (from the ocean), live sand and probably added 20 frags/corals to both tanks.... Basically got active again before I got dinos. Don't think it had anything to do with diversity. One tank has been running 10 years and never had dinos until after I started adding diversity Had to do with 50% water changes and sparse feeding bottoming nitrates and phosphates out. Not enough there for the bacteria already present to outcompete dinos. Outcompeting dinos is probably more about the bacterial food source to allow bacteria to outcompete than trying to diversifying bacteria.

 

[dbowman5]

i think that i have been fortunate in avoiding most pests. i have bought live rock and cycled 'Real Reef' rock from my lfs. some of it was customer turn in rock. i have added pods and chaeto, bought CUC. gotten coral from friends and run my systems sockless. i have brittle stars, red and white ones and plain white ones, i have had cucumbers and chitons, i have a couple of types of worms that i have not identified. i have isopods, copepods, and amphipods. i have asterina starfish and feather dusters, some flatworms, vermetids, and other stuff that i have not found yet. some of this starts in the sump and migrates, some goes the other way. i have algae, cyano, bha, gha, i have bubble algae and coralline, it is chaos and i love it all.
That could be the 3:35 A.M. talking, im off to bed, now. thanks for the topic.

 

[InkedReefLady]

I live on Long Island. Should I take a trip to the beach tomorrow to get a bit of sand and try to find some critters? Or bad idea?? Lol

I am originally from Long Island and kept many salt tanks when I lived there. I also did my undergrad in marine bio from LIU Southampton (when it was open) and I can tell you that it is not a good idea to use any product (rock, sand, etc.) from LI beaches. 1) it's too polluted near the shore. You'd have to take a boat ways out to get something worthwhile. 2) the creatures that live there, be it animal or bacteria are in a way different environment than how we keep our setups. The water is way colder.

Just as an example, when I left LI 15 years ago, I took a large plastic container of sand and water from Cedar Beach with me to always remember my home. That container still grows algae in it today when near a window. it's not the prettiest of things, but shows how much bacteria are still in there! LOL!

 

[bnord]

I’m not sure if your talking about the Company gulf live rock (your probably not). Although I agree that you can get some very diverse rock from the gulf, but the rock I received from https://gulfliverock.com/ was the most dense and unnaturally shaped rock I’ve ever worked with. Not porous at all. So if anybody is looking for rock, avoid this company. They would not refund my money.

Look at https://www.kpaquatics.com/product-...05tx0jmnqm7VDnZ0lc_yPVHPLiaGNl2EaApFJEALw_wcB

Or .....

Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock - Aquaculturing Process

Both of these companies sell quality rock (shipped in water) that’s filled with life. Highly recommend!

I tried KP as well and my rocks were so attractive they were added to the displays instead of the sump as planned. lots of pistol shrimp and pea crabs - but outstanding color in the coralline! Will do another order early spring

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

They were very low. I am raising them now. Phosphate are 0.05, nitrate are 3....they both essentially hit 0 for a short amount of time about 1.5 weeks ago.

Avoiding that situation may be the best possible plan to avoid dinos.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Tanks can develop bad bacteria over time and become depleted of good bacteria. It is important to dose back the good bacteria to out compete the bad.

What is "bad" bacteria?

 

[Sump Crab]

Could always buy a small portion of Tampa bay saltwater rock. i ordered 5 pounds recently to help "revitalize" my diversity. My original pacific liverock is 15 years old so needed a reboot.

 

[Sump Crab]

I’m really struggling with dinos randy. The sand bed looks horrible. Can you point me in the right direction with a resource that gives straightforward instructions? I’m pretty lost with all of the advice- as much of it is contradicting

There are a million ways to skin a cat. Differing reefing philosophy's at odds with another. I prescribe to the "natural" method as opposed to what I call the "sterile" method. Obviously these are grossly over simplified names, I am using them for simplicity of argument. I use rocks from the ocean, I don't QT anything, my tank is full of every type of critter imaginable it seems. Many of my rocks are 15 years old - I have never had a crash. My oldest fish is over 10yrs old. Worst problems I have ever had were hair algae when I was not using RODI (8 years ago) and a horrible red planaria infestation (10 years ago). The hair algae situation never came back after RODI and I still have red planaria in the tank. Most days I do not see any red planaria, if I do it is one or two. I have had 100% success rate with melanarus wrasse and their predation of red planaria. In my experience if you have a reef full of crazy biodiversity the critters will manage themselves and find a healthy balance. Usually the plagues you see on here are due to an imbalanced ecosystem I believe.

 

[fishlover1478]

I’m not sure if your talking about the Company gulf live rock (your probably not). Although I agree that you can get some very diverse rock from the gulf, but the rock I received from https://gulfliverock.com/ was the most dense and unnaturally shaped rock I’ve ever worked with. Not porous at all. So if anybody is looking for rock, avoid this company. They would not refund my money.

Look at https://www.kpaquatics.com/product-...05tx0jmnqm7VDnZ0lc_yPVHPLiaGNl2EaApFJEALw_wcB

Or .....

Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock - Aquaculturing Process

Both of these companies sell quality rock (shipped in water) that’s filled with life. Highly recommend!

i think tbs shut down until there isn't a risk for covid

 

[Jfast]

I’m really struggling with dinos randy. The sand bed looks horrible. Can you point me in the right direction with a resource that gives straightforward instructions? I’m pretty lost with all of the advice- as much of it is contradicting

I beat dinos with a one day blackout. I turned my skimmer to super dry almost nothing comes out. Took out carbon an gfo.. Feed a little bit more if u have fish.. an started dosing N03 nitrate till I went from 0ppm -3ppm I want it at least 5ppm. And I used stump remover a lot cheaper then buying premaid nitrate . Hope it helps.

 

[Jfast]

There are a million ways to skin a cat. Differing reefing philosophy's at odds with another. I prescribe to the "natural" method as opposed to what I call the "sterile" method. Obviously these are grossly over simplified names, I am using them for simplicity of argument. I use rocks from the ocean, I don't QT anything, my tank is full of every type of critter imaginable it seems. Many of my rocks are 15 years old - I have never had a crash. My oldest fish is over 10yrs old. Worst problems I have ever had were hair algae when I was not using RODI (8 years ago) and a horrible red planaria infestation (10 years ago). The hair algae situation never came back after RODI and I still have red planaria in the tank. Most days I do not see any red planaria, if I do it is one or two. I have had 100% success rate with melanarus wrasse and their predation of red planaria. In my experience if you have a reef full of crazy biodiversity the critters will manage themselves and find a healthy balance. Usually the plagues you see on here are due to an imbalanced ecosystem I believe.

The red flatworms are worse when it come to sps tanks . I’ve had them here an there in my softy tank no problems

 

[Sump Crab]

The red flatworms are worse when it come to sps tanks . I’ve had them here an there in my softy tank no problems

They would be more prevalent in my tank w/o the melanarus wrasse

 

[Reefahholic]

What is "bad" bacteria?

Vibrio species

 

[Reefahholic]

I think it's really important to keep a balanced healthy aquarium and introduce "friendly" bacteria that help fight off or outcompete the "unfriendly" bacteria. Probiotic Bacteria products can help balance the aquarium, but there's only one that I really trust and maybe a few that actually work. All the others are snake oil!!

 

[Reefahholic]

i think tbs shut down until there isn't a risk for covid

Wouldn't surprise me. KP Aquatics is open for business as far as I know.