How long does it take a tank to “mature”?

[ReefReadyYouTube]

How long does it really take a tank to “mature” as people commonly call it. What are they key factors to properly maturing a tank. I’ve seen a lot of people say 1 whole year for a tank to become fully mature. Do you agree. Could this process be speed up and if so how. Also how do you know you have a mature system? Tanks

 

[Kfactor]

I think a lot of ppl will say it depends on your tank

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

Ok, so yes rule of thumb is one year. But, what you are looking for is stability. You have to give your bacteria time to equal out as well as nitrate and phosphates. There is a lot that goes into actually, and the more research that is done, the more we understand what is actually going on inside our aquariums. The best thing to do is practice patients, leave everything alone (unless you have to fix something ASAP), and make any changes slowly. After you make a change, make sure to observe the effects on everything.

Something else that will probably help is to make sure you QT everything. That way you don't have to medicate and move a fish or coral from your display to you QT.

 

[Terri Caton]

I believe the current thought on that is at least 1 year.

 

[ReefReadyYouTube]

Ok, so yes rule of thumb is one year. But, what you are looking for is stability. You have to give your bacteria time to equal out as well as nitrate and phosphates. There is a lot that goes into actually, and the more research that is done, the more we understand what is actually going on inside our aquariums. The best thing to do is practice patients, leave everything alone (unless you have to fix something ASAP), and make any changes slowly. After you make a change, make sure to observe the effects on everything.

Something else that will probably help is to make sure you QT everything. That way you don't have to medicate and move a fish or coral from your display to you QT.

After one year when the tank is mature is that when you see the most coral growth? Also when a tank is mature do you have to do water changes still?

 

[ReefReadyYouTube]

I think a lot of ppl will say it depends on your tank

Like the size of the tank?

 

[ReefReadyYouTube]

When you know when your tank is mature

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

I think the main thing people to point to is copious amounts of coralline algae

 

[Quietman]

When its voice drops and it starts shaving.

 

[ReefReadyYouTube]

I think the main thing people to point to is copious amounts of coralline algae

I’ve been up for 5 months and my coralline algae is starting to cover everything. It took like one month to cover a power head I installed.

 

[User1]

Patience is key in this hobby. You cannot speed up Mother Nature. Just not going to happen.

Having said that it depends on how the tank is set up to begin with. Dry rock. Real live rock, fully submerged, shipped over night? Real live rock, shipped over night, not fully submerged? Tank upgrade? Mix of dry and live? LFS rock that has been in a vat for X amount of time?

Now let us talk about cycle. Rock and substrate how are you going to cycle? Fishless, ammonia in a bottle, and bacteria in a bottle? Fish (gasp)? Food and traditional cycle? Any of these plus the combination above can take anywhere from 10 to 90 days before the tank can process 4 ppm ammonia to 0 ppm ammonia in less than 24 hours. This is just to put fish in safely...

Ok, with all that out of the way guess what? It still depends. My experience, and opinion based on it, says 18 to 24 months if using a dry rock base with bacteria in a bottle and ammonia. To include merging or upgrading a previous tank of smaller to larger. The initial cycle will be about 28 or so day as I said to process ammonia. However, the dry rock takes time to mature. By that I mean Mother Nature growing the biological filter and life all over the rock. Nooks, crannies, and substrate. Over the course of 18 or so months you will get the biological filter on rocks set, then go through a few different phases of algae of which we call the ugly phase. This is when you learn more patience by understanding what is growing/happening, how to address, if need be, and work on mitigation skills.

As time ticks by you are growing in understanding how things work. Tank is maturing by its foundation spreading. And soon you can start placing various test corals to again...test your skills, maturing tank, and of course patience.

I just upgraded from a 40 breeder to a 210 gallon tank. Started with 150 lbs of rock. Moved in probably 50 or so after the cycle. 19 months later. Yes, 19 months. I will only now say the rock is mature enough to support any corals I put in the system. Corraline is there. Life is there. Snails, worms, small corals, shrimp, and whatever else. And I'll go a step further to say that even now, 19 months later....it still isn't there.

Corals take a long time to mature from small frags. Some grow faster (soft corals) but some take time. Time is what fills in the tank that allow fish to call home or food or hiding spots. So no, no real answer other than it takes time and my opinion (not that I'm be all end all) is that 18 - 19 months is what I found to be my sweet spot. Dry rock. Merging of a smaller to larger tank.

 

[Justin Cook]

I always figure a tank is mature when everything stables out. For example, I know how much to dose, what size water changes I need to do in order to deal with nutrients and what normal algae accumulation looks like in my 10 yr old display tank. But the new frag system I set up in July is all,over the place. I just don't know what's "normal" for the system because it's not "mature" yet.. It's getting there but just not yet.

 

[gotmesalty77]

So my tank was up and running for 3.5 years when the original owner had to. Move out of state very quickly. I've had the tank ten months. I took 100% of the water and rock and rookie mistake sand as well. Tear down to up and running again less than 3 hours. Pod population sky high. Is my tank mature? Ive also upgraded equipment along the way as well.

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

After one year when the tank is mature is that when you see the most coral growth? Also when a tank is mature do you have to do water changes still?

This is a loaded question lol. First it depends on what kind of coral you are talking about. For softies and LPS you can have "dirtier" water meaning that they can tolerates more phosphates and nitrates, or even swings in alkalinity. For SPS, you want a stable tank. SPS are not so forgiving when it comes to temperature and parameter swings. They can bleach on you in a hurry.

So you can enjoy coral growth for softies and LPS while you are waiting for your tank to mature, but you will probably see the most growth once it is mature.

You will have to monitor your water chemistry. I would recommend doing water changes still because it is a method of nutrient export as well as a way to kind of keep everything in line if you aren't dosing anything. You can possibly get away with no water changes with the Triton method, the Balling Method, or Reef Moonshiners method.

 

[WVNed]

So does the tank mature or does the keeper figure out what they are supposed to do
and not do?

 

[ReefReadyYouTube]

Patience is key in this hobby. You cannot speed up Mother Nature. Just not going to happen.

Having said that it depends on how the tank is set up to begin with. Dry rock. Real live rock, fully submerged, shipped over night? Real live rock, shipped over night, not fully submerged? Tank upgrade? Mix of dry and live? LFS rock that has been in a vat for X amount of time?

Now let us talk about cycle. Rock and substrate how are you going to cycle? Fishless, ammonia in a bottle, and bacteria in a bottle? Fish (gasp)? Food and traditional cycle? Any of these plus the combination above can take anywhere from 10 to 90 days before the tank can process 4 ppm ammonia to 0 ppm ammonia in less than 24 hours. This is just to put fish in safely...

Ok, with all that out of the way guess what? It still depends. My experience, and opinion based on it, says 18 to 24 months if using a dry rock base with bacteria in a bottle and ammonia. To include merging or upgrading a previous tank of smaller to larger. The initial cycle will be about 28 or so day as I said to process ammonia. However, the dry rock takes time to mature. By that I mean Mother Nature growing the biological filter and life all over the rock. Nooks, crannies, and substrate. Over the course of 18 or so months you will get the biological filter on rocks set, then go through a few different phases of algae of which we call the ugly phase. This is when you learn more patience by understanding what is growing/happening, how to address, if need be, and work on mitigation skills.

As time ticks by you are growing in understanding how things work. Tank is maturing by its foundation spreading. And soon you can start placing various test corals to again...test your skills, maturing tank, and of course patience.

I just upgraded from a 40 breeder to a 210 gallon tank. Started with 150 lbs of rock. Moved in probably 50 or so after the cycle. 19 months later. Yes, 19 months. I will only now say the rock is mature enough to support any corals I put in the system. Corraline is there. Life is there. Snails, worms, small corals, shrimp, and whatever else. And I'll go a step further to say that even now, 19 months later....it still isn't there.

Corals take a long time to mature from small frags. Some grow faster (soft corals) but some take time. Time is what fills in the tank that allow fish to call home or food or hiding spots. So no, no real answer other than it takes time and my opinion (not that I'm be all end all) is that 18 - 19 months is what I found to be my sweet spot. Dry rock. Merging of a smaller to larger tank.

Very well said. If I understand correctly you did put corals in until 19 months in?

 

[MTBake]

Coralline algae the size of half dollars growing on the glass that isn't cleaned is a decent indicator, imo.


Edit;

I've always looked at this in perhaps an old school kind of view. But if the tank can't grow coralline algae, then it will not support coral. If this was 15 years ago and the tank was started with the live rock available back then, I'd say give it 2 weeks and toss some coral in there to see how it does. It's totally different with the dry rock most have to use today. It takes a long time if starting with all dry rock and sand. Took my last setup about 18 months to see any kind of coralline algae growth on the glass or rocks.

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

So does the tank mature or does the keeper figure out what they are supposed to do
and not do?

I think the tank actually matures. Have any of you read this article yet? https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/the-m...-a-professional-coral-aquaculture-system.749/

 

[Fourstars]

For me it was more a matter of me becoming a mature reef keeper. Most of the tanks setbacks I caused. But I would say without setbacks probably a good year.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I think conventional "time" for a maturing tank is around the 1 year mark. At least that's what I've read and seen with my own tanks.