How to achieve STABILITY?

[PharmrJohn]

A lot of maintaining stability is knowledge and how to implement it. What to look for and when to act. For me, I've been out of the game x12 years. I'm planning on a 203g tank this next summer. During this time, I'm pouring over information, learning everything I can in just about every aspect of reefing and writing stuff down right and left. I've been at this since February of this year and have a ways to go. Basically, knowledge is power. By the time I get going I'll have a plan for everything with alternative methodologies available to me if my primary ideas do not pan out. So for me, this is the way to go in maintaining stability in my own tank (hopefully!).

 

[jabberwock]

Why not put some dry rocks in your first tank's sump and wait 2mos? What's what I do -- use the LR from one tank and propagate / seed other tanks. The BBs are in the rocks right?

It is more than just bacteria. ALL kinds of life. Excellent all around biodiversity.

 

[Peter Houde]

Just to calibrate reality - this is what so-called stability looks like (and it's not just tanks.. your body does the same thing all day long (Some of us have to track and "stabilize" our blood sugar for instance (that last one gets me yelled at by my doctors for being too good):

What causes alkalinity to swing so wildly? Mine was pretty steady +/- 0.2 until just recently when I had to switch to All-for-Reef because Brightwell discontinued Coral-Up. Now it can change as much as 0.9 in a day. Yours is all over the place, too. What can cause this? What the heck is going on?

 

[Fenral]

What causes alkalinity to swing so wildly? Mine was pretty steady +/- 0.2 until just recently when I had to switch to All-for-Reef because Brightwell discontinued Coral-Up. Now it can change as much as 0.9 in a day. Yours is all over the place, too. What can cause this? What the heck is going on?

It's getting consumed... I'm dosing 48 times a day, on alk tests every 4 hrs; it's not that wild a swing (and the readings are a bit off as the pumps had to recalibrate, which was part of one of the big dip back down to lower levels... but generally it bounces around all day and night depending on what the life in the tank is doing so absorption rates are hardly constant or continuous. We often think of measuring once a day, which gives you a good idea, or once a week... sure as long as you can read your tank, this probably works - remarkably, if you're disciplined enough to test at about the same time each day, etc. I threw the log up cause the system is testing every 4 hrs for me - and the tanks are not nearly as stable as people think.

 

[PharmrJohn]

It's getting consumed... I'm dosing 48 times a day, on alk tests every 4 hrs; it's not that wild a swing (and the readings are a bit off as the pumps had to recalibrate, which was part of one of the big dip back down to lower levels... but generally it bounces around all day and night depending on what the life in the tank is doing so absorption rates are hardly constant or continuous. We often think of measuring once a day, which gives you a good idea, or once a week... sure as long as you can read your tank, this probably works - remarkably, if you're disciplined enough to test at about the same time each day, etc. I threw the log up cause the system is testing every 4 hrs for me - and the tanks are not nearly as stable as people think.

I'm gonna end up with something like this. Maintaining ALK is extremely important in my book.

 

[Fenral]

I'm gonna end up with something like this. Maintaining ALK is extremely important in my book.

Sadly the tests and all we have are still no where near as close to my cgm… and trust me it sucks too…

 

[Peter Houde]

It's getting consumed... I'm dosing 48 times a day, on alk tests every 4 hrs; it's not that wild a swing (and the readings are a bit off as the pumps had to recalibrate, which was part of one of the big dip back down to lower levels... but generally it bounces around all day and night depending on what the life in the tank is doing so absorption rates are hardly constant or continuous. We often think of measuring once a day, which gives you a good idea, or once a week... sure as long as you can read your tank, this probably works - remarkably, if you're disciplined enough to test at about the same time each day, etc. I threw the log up cause the system is testing every 4 hrs for me - and the tanks are not nearly as stable as people think.

So, what is "stability" in the first place?

 

[Paul B]

So, what is "stability" in the first place?

To me, stability is when you reached a place in the hobby where your tank basically almost takes car of itself and the fish only die of old age. The corals continue to grow and you can go out to dinner and have linguine and clams without worrying about your tank :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Reef Puncher]

the tank is about 10 months old and was started with dry rock. the real issues I have are keeping N&P in consistent places.

nitrates should somewhat stabilize but will always be a little variance. phosphate on the other hand......even i cant get that to stabilize. if you feed corals, feed fish, unless your weighing out the amounts and doing the exact same every day, with exact filtration, running 24/7, its very tricky to keep phosphate from moving. if i showed you all my graphs i track, all of them are pretty much straight lines, except phosphates. it varies constantly between 0.03 and 0.13.

 

[Reef Puncher]

To me, stability is when you reached a place in the hobby where your tank basically almost takes car of itself and the fish only die of old age. The corals continue to grow and you can go out to dinner and have linguine and clams without worrying about your tank :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

youre eating clams? :face-with-open-mouth: people really are eating our pets. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[Fenral]

So, what is "stability" in the first place?

That is a fun question :)
My short answer is much like an advanced space superiority fighter - our tanks are inherently unstable, but through biological processes, maintenance and feeding - the system is in a state of stable growth while neither crashing, nor having psychotic bursts of grown eg: algae, diatoms … or becoming a monoculture. It is a little bit like surfing a wave :)

 

[Fenral]

youre eating clams? :face-with-open-mouth: people really are eating our pets. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

My wife shames me now for eating shrimp… don’t you keep them as pets!?!

 

[Fenral]

To me, stability is when you reached a place in the hobby where your tank basically almost takes car of itself and the fish only die of old age. The corals continue to grow and you can go out to dinner and have linguine and clams without worrying about your tank :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

I have to generally agree with paul - stability is when you stop having nightmares about your tank becoming a puddle of ooze.

 

[Peter Houde]

That is a fun question :)
My short answer is much like an advanced space superiority fighter - our tanks are inherently unstable, but through biological processes, maintenance and feeding - the system is in a state of stable growth while neither crashing, nor having psychotic bursts of grown eg: algae, diatoms … or becoming a monoculture. It is a little bit like surfing a wave :)

If that's the case, then the only time my DT has been stable in 29 years is when it was FOWLR and I didn't test anything except the salinity of the water I mixed.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

While this seems like a silly question, I was thinking today I don't really know how to do it. I frequently struggle with keeping parameters in the same range, keeping away Green Hair algae or other algae. or even keep some corals alive

What are some tips you would give somebody to achieve stability?

time. Thats what it takes. Patience and time.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

one thing you may notice happen is you will wake up one day, test, then test again the next week and the numbers will be the same or very similar. Then, the next week, the same. This can happen within 6-12 months but certainly longer or shorter. I noticed that once the coralline started showing, my parameters began stabilizing.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

That's a very solid question. Like many others have said, I feel stability comes with maturity, in both the system and the owner's husbandry. I just started up a new system (4ish months old), with dry rock, which is completely new to me. I have been out of the hobby for over a decade and technology has changed immensely.

My parameters are 'stable' (no alk, mag or calc swings, Po4 is at a constant 0.06). The issue I have, which comes with a young tank that hasn't experienced ANY die-off of live rock, is establishing No3. My No3 has been undetectable since introducing my first few fish. One could argue that my system is indeed stable, but having knowledge that your No3 is NOT 0.0ppm (it is obviously getting soaked up by the algae, coral, etc.) changes your opinion on whether or not the system is actually stable.

I feel like I just rambled so my apologies lol.

 

[bubbgee]

testing is key.

for me, being a lazy tester, is investing in automated testing. helps me keep track of things, correct things and stop me from saying "all parameters are good" without any data to back that up.

 

[Peter Houde]

testing is key.

for me, being a lazy tester, is investing in automated testing. helps me keep track of things, correct things and stop me from saying "all parameters are good" without any data to back that up.

What automated tester(s) do you use?

 

[bubbgee]

What automated tester(s) do you use?

Neptune Trident. Both the regular and NP. Helps me to keep things in range.