Is The Ugly Stage Inevitable?

[reeftankdude]

I have two salt water tanks. The only time I see that Ugly Stage algae is when I use water from the kitchen sink filter. The kitchen sink filtered water is 25ppm. Most likely phosphates and silicates. Not certain it is Ugly Stage algae, but my snails do away with it in a few days. When using zero ppm water I do not have that problem. I am thinking poor water quality creates the Ugly Stage. I have had my first tank for over a year and yet no Ugly Stage. What say you?

 

[His Coral Highness]

Nah it’s not really poor water quality at first, it’s just that everything hasn’t reach the right equilibrium. You could have near perfect water and you’re still going to get an ugly stage. On the flip side, you could have a major creature die in your tank once it’s established and it won’t cause any appreciable negative side effects. Just accept that it’s all but inevitable on the road to an established tank

 

[Lavey29]

Like death and taxes

 

[Waters]

Ugly stage is due to lack of bacteria, CUC (fish and inverts), and unstable conditions....definately not inevitable.

 

[MDAquatics]

Ive never been able to dodge it and tried many things.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

If you've been around long enough, you'll know that "ugly stage" is a relatively new concept.

There have been connections made that starting off with sterile substrate (dead rock, sand? Etc.) is the reason for the issues that we've dubbed "the ugly stage".

When Live rock was the preferred way to start a tank, we never really had this issue.

Now that the hobby has taken a step backwards due to availability of live rock, we have to allow for bacteria and microfauna to slowly establish and outcompete algae. Only after a balance has been made do we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

You can circumvent a lot of this by grabbing a rock and or some sand from a reliable established tank, or simply start off with (at least some) live rock.

@reeftankdude, it's quite possible what you're experiencing from the 25 ppm water is that you're simply introducing nutrients that promotes algae growth.

 

[CoralB]

Only if you do it right !!

 

[Tired]

An ugly stage is inevitable. Something is always going to go a little out of whack when you disturb things, even for something as minor as moving established rock to a new tank. A bad ugly stage isn't.

A tank started with good live rock will probably just see a small bloom of something or another, maybe some diatoms, maybe a little patch of cyano or hair algae somewhere, due to the biodiversity that the rock affords and to the lack of real estate for algae to run amok on. A tank started with dry rock is going to hit an ugly stage regardless of water quality. Nutrients in the water will certainly exacerbate that dry rock effect of algae running rampant, but it's not the cause.

 

[KrisReef]

Sometimes it just has to be.

 

[bushdoc]

As Sisterlimonpot stated, "ugly stage" was rare when we used live rock.
Year ago I had to break down my 140 gal due to majano infestation.
Started from scratch using 30% dry rock and 70% mixture of Aussie and Tampa Bay Live Rock. No ugly stage at all.

 

[blecki]

You can put dead, stark white rock in a decades old tank full of the best live rock imaginable and that dead rock is going to be 'ugly' before it's pretty. First it will turn neon green and then it will turn brown and then the life from the other rocks will colonize it. It's only more pronounced now because so many tanks start with sterile rock.

 

[Nate Chalk]

Inevitable. Set up a 13 gallon connected to the same system as my main display. Used rock from sump and sand and mud.

Still got an ugly stage of sorts. Shorter and less violent. Slight dinos. Hair algae and a light dusting all in 2 weeks. Now it's settling in.

 

[christwendt]

Ugly stage is dependent on what you consider ugly. If you mean can you prevent green hair algae and a tank covered in algae/ brown stuff? Yes I think you can. You can’t prevent the initial diatoms though but I never have had green hair algae, bubble algae , cyano , Dino’s in my second setup. Lots of bacteria and low light made the ugly stage very minimal. This is the uglies my tank got.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have two salt water tanks. The only time I see that Ugly Stage algae is when I use water from the kitchen sink filter. The kitchen sink filtered water is 25ppm. Most likely phosphates and silicates. Not certain it is Ugly Stage algae, but my snails do away with it in a few days. When using zero ppm water I do not have that problem. I am thinking poor water quality creates the Ugly Stage. I have had my first tank for over a year and yet no Ugly Stage. What say you?

Agree with effects from tap water. Water itself has chlorine, zinc and other metals. If diatoms, they can develop with established - not just new tanks. This however looks more like surface/film algae.
Phosphates are likely a contributor also and is tank at or near a window?

 

[Spare time]

Not at all. I have set up a few tanks that never went through the ugly phase (with all dry rock).

 

[Kittypowpow]

Not at all. I have set up a few tanks that never went through the ugly phase (with all dry rock).

how? how long did you wait to turn on lights, what additives did you use, sand? how did you set it up and avoid it?

 

[ColoredRock]

My 280 went thru the uglies... not a bad uglies. rock was in a trashcan with salt for a couple months before I put it in.... Looked pretty good never any cyno. Put about another 100 pound in last week from an established 12 year old tank from a breakdown.. have a diatom and now cyno... it will go away.. the new stuff just gave my tank a "virus" that will go away with time as everything balances out.

 

[JoJosReef]

Two nano tanks started 3 months apart. One with Caribsea "Life" rock and Caribsea"Live" sand, multiple waves of uglies. Second with Tampa Bay Saltwater gulf rock and gulf sand, no uglies. It was a thing of beauty from the start. Bubble algae eventually made it in and became a problem, but nothing in terms of GHA, dinos, cyano or even diatoms. NOT inevitable.

 

[Oceanis]

An ugly stage is inevitable. Something is always going to go a little out of whack when you disturb things, even for something as minor as moving established rock to a new tank. A bad ugly stage isn't.

A tank started with good live rock will probably just see a small bloom of something or another, maybe some diatoms, maybe a little patch of cyano or hair algae somewhere, due to the biodiversity that the rock affords and to the lack of real estate for algae to run amok on. A tank started with dry rock is going to hit an ugly stage regardless of water quality. Nutrients in the water will certainly exacerbate that dry rock effect of algae running rampant, but it's not the cause.

Agreed. Do you really think it's not possible to properly seed/ colonize a new tank and avoid any ugly stages? I specifically think of using well matured filter media, rocks, sand, everything. A lot of new real estate, but with a full court press maybe the good guys can take over first?

 

[blecki]

Do you really think it's not possible to properly seed/ colonize a new tank and avoid any ugly stages?

IMO the ugly stage is something the ROCK goes through. Not the tank. (To a certain extent the sand, which is after all just lots of tiny rocks).

So if you started the tank with all established post-uglys rock? Sure, sure, it's not going to go through those stages; whatever. But new rock added to this system will. I just saw this firsthand - I upgraded from a 75 gallon to 230 gallons in December; ended up with about 2/3rds new dry rock and 1/3rd established 10+ year old live rock from the old system. All of the new rock went through the ugly cycle. Bone white -> Neon Green -> Diatom Brown -> that funky mottled appearance of mature rock, you know what I mean.

Kinda wish the neon green phase lasted longer. It looks kinda neat.