The Ugly Stage

[Hults]

Beginning to see diatoms in my aquarium after a week of having the lights on I am glad to see the tank is growing something and starting the process of maturing as I have kept the lights off for the cycle and 3 months after I would like to hear your thoughts about what ugly phases I will go through and how long before coralline algae takes over I currently and doing weekly 10-20% water changes and running fleece roller and skimmer have not yet implemented the refugium but I have the space for it in the sump

Nitrate 5.4
Phosphate .02

 

[exnisstech]

I tried running without lights and still got normal uglies that comes with dry rock start up after turning the lights on. The only way I've been able to avoid the ugly phase is using live rock. I'll never do another dry rock only start up tho many people have success.

 

[Red_Beard]

Diatoms are first, then you may or may not get hit with cyano. Dinos will appear if you let your NO3 bottom out, so make sure that you have some, but not a ton, somewhere between 5 and 30 ppm is fine. Also don't let your PO4 bottom out either, or get really high. .01 to .2 is awesome. Just never 0. Once you get through the single cell stuff, you will start to get GHA and other types of algae. When you see it turning green, then it is time for a CUC! After that stabilizes out, in about 3 months or so, you may start seeing purple/pink spots, though it may take a little longer ~ 6-8 months for it to really do anything.

 

[sixty_reefer]

how long before coralline algae takes over

For coralline to start to take a hold in your system it has to be introduced, have you already tried to introduce coralline spores?

 

[Hults]

how long before coralline algae takes over

For coralline to start to take a hold in your system it has to be introduced, have you already tried to introduce coralline spores?

Yes a small piece of live rock from LFS had really nice pink coralline all over it

 

[Hults]

Diatoms are first, then you may or may not get hit with cyano. Dinos will appear if you let your NO3 bottom out, so make sure that you have some, but not a ton, somewhere between 5 and 30 ppm is fine. Also don't let your PO4 bottom out either, or get really high. .01 to .2 is awesome. Just never 0. Once you get through the single cell stuff, you will start to get GHA and other types of algae. When you see it turning green, then it is time for a CUC! After that stabilizes out, in about 3 months or so, you may start seeing purple/pink spots, though it may take a little longer ~ 6-8 months for it to really do anything.

That’s great stuff to know thank you!

 

[sixty_reefer]

Yes a small piece of live rock from LFS had really nice pink coralline all over it

Did you scrape the coralline of the rock into the water column to spread the spores?

 

[Hults]

Yes a small piece of live rock from LFS had really nice pink coralline all over it

Did you scrape the coralline of the rock into the water column to spread the spores?

I have not it’s sitting in the tank I will do that if you think it will be better for me though

 

[exnisstech]

Just throwing this out there. Some tanks never do grow coraline or it doesn't grow well. I never get much coraline even in my thriving SPS tank I only have a few small patches. I don't really mind not having to scrape it.

 

[Red_Beard]

I have not it’s sitting in the tank I will do that if you think it will be better for me though

not yet. don't bother with that until after your GHA/algae phase starts to subside. If you get any snails, and they have any coralline on their shells, they will seed your tank all over the place. That is a great way to get that going when you do get your CUC, just putting that out there, then its a win-win, you get your algae under control and get coralline spreading too, if conditions are right.

 

[slingfox]

Very nice setup!

When is started by first rank the uglies didn’t not really appear in force until month 4 or so. That is went I went through pretty much every ugly of which dinos was the absolute worse. As noted in the comments above, keep an eye on your parameters and don’t let nitrate or phosphate get to zero. I had to deal with very high phosphates and zero nitrate which caused dinos to run wild.

Eventually things will eventually stabilize. If I were you I would get at least some clean-up crew to keep algae growth in check (it will eventually come). I would not worry much about coraline. It will come slowly at first then anywhere form half a year or a year (or more) it will explode in growth if the tank is stable. Coraline looks nice on the rock but is a nuisance everywhere else.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I have not it’s sitting in the tank I will do that if you think it will be better for me though

I prefer to scrape any life growing on the surface of the live rock into the water column to help seed my dead rock with the same organisms.