Júlio Vanini Neto
Community Member
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- May 18, 2020
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My new SPS Tank
- Thread starter Roberto Denadai
- Start date
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unchaotic
Well-Known Member
@Roberto Denadai I feel like everybody is asking you about dosing, light and powerhead settings, filtration, and things like that because they are hoping they can transition their tanks to be more like yours.
I get the feeling that your startup is honestly the most important part of the whole process and nobody seems to be asking you about it.
You said that you put the fish in after 10 days and the corals in after 20 and that you never had an ammonia spike. Most people here talk about doing fishless tank cycling for weeks if not months and following those plans your tanks would be no exception considering the dry rock and overall lack of sand. You also said that you didn't add a bacteria culture to cycle the tank and I'm guessing you didn't add an ammonia source either if you never had a spike.
So here is my rather uneducated theory. You provide the basics, clean water with high flow and excellent light (significantly more white light then a lot of others seem to use). Then you provide a properly sized skimmer and chaeto to keep the nutrient levels low while the coral gets started. After the coral starts eating up nutrients you pull the chaeto (which would die off anyway) and let the system maintain it's balance with you providing some basic maintanace and supplements to keep the coral growing.
So part of why you would never have algae problems is because you NEVER allow your system to become nutrient rich, not even at the very beginning.
Does that sound reasonable to you? I have a lot of other questions but I think it's time to wrap up this essay.
I get the feeling that your startup is honestly the most important part of the whole process and nobody seems to be asking you about it.
You said that you put the fish in after 10 days and the corals in after 20 and that you never had an ammonia spike. Most people here talk about doing fishless tank cycling for weeks if not months and following those plans your tanks would be no exception considering the dry rock and overall lack of sand. You also said that you didn't add a bacteria culture to cycle the tank and I'm guessing you didn't add an ammonia source either if you never had a spike.
So here is my rather uneducated theory. You provide the basics, clean water with high flow and excellent light (significantly more white light then a lot of others seem to use). Then you provide a properly sized skimmer and chaeto to keep the nutrient levels low while the coral gets started. After the coral starts eating up nutrients you pull the chaeto (which would die off anyway) and let the system maintain it's balance with you providing some basic maintanace and supplements to keep the coral growing.
So part of why you would never have algae problems is because you NEVER allow your system to become nutrient rich, not even at the very beginning.
Does that sound reasonable to you? I have a lot of other questions but I think it's time to wrap up this essay.
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Roberto Denadai
Active Member
I agree 100% with you and I think is a good idea to start a tank with chaeto to avoid high nutrients at the start .
I never saw any ammonia here with seachem ammonia alert.
Cheers
unchaotic
Well-Known Member
I had previously wondered how macro algae presence would affect the cycling of a tank considering the algae would compete with nitrifying bacteria for ammonia.
This system of starting a tank is so different from the "mainstream" cycling program it is no surprise to me that you have a hard time getting the hobbyists around you to listen to you. It really gets me wondering how many problems that we have in our aquariums are caused by nutrient fluctuations and the consequences those carry over to our deliberately established bacteria populations.
I am currently planning my next aquarium(s) and I have two questions for you if you don't mind.
1. You said that you don't add any bacteria to the tank to cycle it. Do you add any ammonia source at all before adding the fish or are you simply allowing the water to "settle" for those first 10 days?
2. What is the biggest tank that you have started this way?
Thank you!
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Roberto Denadai
Active Member
1 - I didn´t add ammonia. I just added some pellets in the water on the first day to start the cycle but as I said before I never saw any ammonia here.
2 - This is the only tank that I did this way
I think the best way to start a tank is first add corals and after a couple of weeks add fish. Corals uptake nutrients and fish release nutrients in the water. In the start we don´t want a lot of nutrients floating around
Cheers
howaboutme
Active Member
Great tank and glad I am able to follow along.
I started my current/new tank by ghost feeding and 100% dead rock as well and have low nutrients and no nuisance algae. My tank is still young so not sure what tomorrow brings but glad to see this tank as a nice precedent!
I started my current/new tank by ghost feeding and 100% dead rock as well and have low nutrients and no nuisance algae. My tank is still young so not sure what tomorrow brings but glad to see this tank as a nice precedent!
is that possible? i thought macro algae didnt consume ammonia.... and ammonia was deadly (in large quantities) to corals? i am also fascinated by this approach and the methods by which this tank was started/is running
unchaotic
Well-Known Member
Large amounts of ammonia are pretty much bad for everything. But most nitrogen based fertilizers use anhydrous ammonia. I also read a study which said that (to the point I was able to understand) corals survive stresses like heat better if the water has elevated levels of ammonia (with limitations obviously).
So if your macros and coral are there from the start and you gradually increase the nitrogen load they would hypothetically grow and keep up with consumption. I think in the long run the bacteria would take hold and still be part of the ecosystem.
So if your macros and coral are there from the start and you gradually increase the nitrogen load they would hypothetically grow and keep up with consumption. I think in the long run the bacteria would take hold and still be part of the ecosystem.
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Roberto Denadai
Active Member
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Roberto Denadai
Active Member
New pics and I have a new video in my youtube channel :
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Roberto Denadai
Active Member
Two pics with my Ipad :
Had to pop in just to check on this tank! Love it bro, keep it up it’s looking superb. That purple reefcrest acro that’s near the poci almost has the same color and has some crazy nice thick branches.
Reef and Dive
Valuable Member
This guy is the Brazilian Sanjay... except his tanks are incredibly clean, but his corals simply grow like hell in flames! Like: 10x faster than mine...
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Roberto Denadai
Active Member
I always like to remember how everything started one year ago :
Kato
Active Member
What do you run your PH at? Do you know?
Given your results contradicts pretty much what is 'common' knowledge in this community, it would be cool some time to have a replica tank of this in a different part of the world. Exact same concept, changes, lights, etc. Not many people can take a <1 month old tank, fill it up with SPS and just see them take off.
The tank looks great!.
Given your results contradicts pretty much what is 'common' knowledge in this community, it would be cool some time to have a replica tank of this in a different part of the world. Exact same concept, changes, lights, etc. Not many people can take a <1 month old tank, fill it up with SPS and just see them take off.
The tank looks great!.
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