How Long Until a Tank is Established?

[Alaeriel]

Twofold question here, and I would love some discussion!
1) How long does it take before a tank is considered established?
2) How long before a reefer is considered experienced?
What factors contribute to these answers? How much coralline the tank has? How many tanks a person has? Do you have to own a tank to gain experience? Certainly the predominant factor is time, itself, but time alone doesn't account for everything. I've seen people that have had successful saltwater tanks for over five years consider themselves novices and others who hurl some live rock and coral colonies into a nano tank on day one and have the tank thrive for years. There are some notable people on this forum whom I am not entirely certain weren't culturing corals in their living room since the dawn of creation...
Personally, I consider myself a complete novice. I've been researching corals and proper tank parameters for years, but only started up my first tank in August, which I would consider to be extremely young, far too young for corals at least.
With nearly every part of this hobby being anecdotal in nature, I'm sure everyone's opinions will be different. To be honest, thats one of my favorite parts about this hobby. Thanks for reading my novella and sharing your opinions! Here's my favorite "fish" enjoying his hermit crabs. He's the only one in the house who watches the tank more than I do.

 

[Pete80]

1 id say 8 -12 months depends on bioload and way its set up
There is probably no answer on second question

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Most answers to the first question I've seen are usually around 12 months. I'm not sure why that's considered the rule, but it usually is. I know the factor that your looking for is the establishment of ecosystem and stability.

On the 2nd question, YMMV but I'd say it's usually about that long too if a reefer is putting in the time to learn and grow as a hobbyist. Some may know things quicker than that, but it usually takes at least a year to get past most "rookie mistakes" and sometimes we "experienced" reefers still make them.

 

[92Miata]

I mean - it depends. You don't really establish tanks - you establish collections of rock. If you start with all dry rock, it can take a long time. If you start with good live rock, it can be very quick. If you start with great live rock that came out of an established aquarium, it can be almost instant.


There are tanks on here that are a year+ old and still don't have coraline algae - and there are tanks on here where people are successfully growing acropora a month in.

 

[Paul B]

I don't think you can answer any of those questions. A common hermit crab lives about 12 years so are you experienced if you have a tank a quarter of a hermit crabs life? I don't know and neither does that crab.

I also feel a tank is established when it is an ecosystem. To me, an eco system is a tank that is self sustaining requiring almost no input from the owner and the creatures housed no longer have any problems from disease, those that can spawn are spawning and only die of old age.
The corals are growing and reproducing on their own so your tank doesn't look like a field of frags with the cement bases still on.

But like I said, it is all subjective.

 

[New&no clue]

I think a tank is established when it's stable. As far as experience, I believe that it is hard to give a timeline, especially in this hobby. I have been at my job for 12 years(bookkeeper-staff accountant-senior accountant-controller) would I consider myself experienced, somewhat, but the rules keep changing and I learn something new all the time. I think it's the same in this hobby. We are continually learning new things. I've talked to reefers who have been at it for 30+ years, and they still are learning new things and changing how they run their tanks.

 

[vlangel]

Twofold question here, and I would love some discussion!
1) How long does it take before a tank is considered established?
2) How long before a reefer is considered experienced?
What factors contribute to these answers? How much coralline the tank has? How many tanks a person has? Do you have to own a tank to gain experience? Certainly the predominant factor is time, itself, but time alone doesn't account for everything. I've seen people that have had successful saltwater tanks for over five years consider themselves novices and others who hurl some live rock and coral colonies into a nano tank on day one and have the tank thrive for years. There are some notable people on this forum whom I am not entirely certain weren't culturing corals in their living room since the dawn of creation...
Personally, I consider myself a complete novice. I've been researching corals and proper tank parameters for years, but only started up my first tank in August, which I would consider to be extremely young, far too young for corals at least.
With nearly every part of this hobby being anecdotal in nature, I'm sure everyone's opinions will be different. To be honest, thats one of my favorite parts about this hobby. Thanks for reading my novella and sharing your opinions! Here's my favorite "fish" enjoying his hermit crabs. He's the only one in the house who watches the tank more than I do.

Do you mind if I take your simple questions and make them complex, ha ha!
1. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR A TANK TO BE ESTABLISHED?
You are absolute correct that time is a factor but by no means the only one. A lot of what constitutes an established tank is the variety and quantity of bio-life in it. A thriving varied population of microbes and biolife definite can help with keeping a reef in balance.

New tanks can be kick started by using live ocean rock which come with biolife in/on them. Bottled bacteria can also help with a new tank although by no means have either the quantity or variety of life that live rock has. Old tanks can have a lot of biolife wiped out by a pod loving wrasse, seahorses or using a medication like copper. Even the aquascape can have a factor...as minimal rock and bb is not going to support as much biolife as a lot of live rock and sandbeds. Having a sump/fuge where there are no predators and lots of macro algae can nurture the propagation of the biolife that helps promote stability. My tank system has live rock from 20+ years ago. I have over the years added different copepods. Also biolife has no doubt hitch hiked from the many coral I have gotten from friends who have reefs. That and the fact that this particular display has been up for 4+ years makes it pretty established. However I want to add a mandarin but had my carpenter wrasse in my fuge for about a month to protect him from bullying and do not trust my copepods to be of a sufficient number to support a mandarin yet. Maybe in 6 months or so.

2. HOW LONG BEFORE A REEF KEEPER IS CONSIDERED EXPERIENCED?
I have been keeping a reef for 20+ years. I worked as the aquarium tech who took care of all the maintenance accounts for a LFS for about 5 years. I have raised baby clownfish and baby seahorses. So in some ways that qualifies me to be considered experienced, and I am in some areas. LOL, and yet I do not know most SPS from another and I have never used an LED light fixture, a controller (except for temperatire) or any type of reactor. I actually still soft plumb my aquarium even though the refugium/sump is in the basement and the display is in the livingroom. So as you can see, there are still a lot of areas that I consider myself a novice.

So, have I sufficiently complicated your simple questions? LOL

 

[Jib]

2) How long before a reefer is considered experienced?

This concept comes up at my work from time to time. One of my colleagues always says, "There is a difference between 10 years of experience, and 1 year of experience repeated 10 times."

I guess my point is, just because someones been doing something for a set amount time, doesn't mean they are experienced.