Trenton Henderson
Active Member
Hi all! Just wanted to both share my experience with preventing the ugly stage of my new tank and hear about what you all did! I think it’s interesting and useful for many tank startups!
I have had 3 saltwater aquariums now, the first two were fish and inverts (no coral) and my current will be a mixed reef. I started my first tank (55 gallon) when I was in 8th grade back in 2013 or so. When my family moved, I set up a small 10 gallon with a couple of fish. Now, I have set up a 60 gallon long tank and have fairly well decked it out from the start (aside from the lights I would like).
My first 55 gallon tank had a HOB filter and HOB skimmer, amongst other low-tech items, with no sump. My 10 gallon was an AIO Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion tank. This 60 gallon is complete with a sump (refugium and skimmer) and was plumbed by myself.
All of this background to say, I had the ugly stage in both of my first tanks (diatoms and/or hair algae), and my 55 gallon had cyano a couple times. For my latest tank, I seem to have skipped (fingers crossed) a lot of those issues by applying what I’ve learned over the years. So here were the factors that I believe helped in preventing the ugly stage!
Fishless Cycle: The other two tanks I had had a fish-in cycle. Though this is not directly the benefit, it is more likely the fact that I didn’t have to feed the tank (i.e., loading it with phosphates).
Chaetomorpha, Pods, and Snails: Shortly after the ammonia and nitrite settled out in the system, I had plenty of food in the form of nitrates to feed an algae/diatom bloom! About this time, there began to be a thin coating of diatoms over the aquascape. To combat this issue, along with a water change, I added a softball-sized ball of chaeto to the refugium, along with copepods (both to the display and refugium) and 4 banded trochus snails (I like these for their self-righting ability and they are great grazers). The trochus snails (and somewhat the pods I’m sure) had the diatoms under control within days, and because there were only a few, they did not run out of food. The chaeto went to work on the nitrates and any phosphates in the water too.
Protein Skimmer: I have an Aquamaxx ConeS Q-1 protein skimmer, and for my current bioload (3 fish plus some inverts), is way overkill. Needless to say, despite it being too big for the bioload, it still kept up with organic matter whenever there was an excess of it.
Once I added some fish, I knew the bioload would increase and I would now be introducing phosphates to the tank in the form of fish food. From here, I added a few hermit crabs and a skunk cleaner shrimp (more for my enjoyment) to help polish off uneaten food and algae. All the while, the now much larger ball of chaeto kept the nitrates and phosphates at bay along with my skimmer.
As an aside, I also added the coralline algae in a bottle (both pink and purple) when the cycle ended, which has begun to cover surface area, outcompeting the other algae.
This method has been so successful for me, in fact, that I have to keep the lights on (though currently not very powerful ones) for 11 hours a day just to keep enough diatoms growing for my CUC!
Let me know your thoughts as well as your experiences!
I have had 3 saltwater aquariums now, the first two were fish and inverts (no coral) and my current will be a mixed reef. I started my first tank (55 gallon) when I was in 8th grade back in 2013 or so. When my family moved, I set up a small 10 gallon with a couple of fish. Now, I have set up a 60 gallon long tank and have fairly well decked it out from the start (aside from the lights I would like).
My first 55 gallon tank had a HOB filter and HOB skimmer, amongst other low-tech items, with no sump. My 10 gallon was an AIO Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion tank. This 60 gallon is complete with a sump (refugium and skimmer) and was plumbed by myself.
All of this background to say, I had the ugly stage in both of my first tanks (diatoms and/or hair algae), and my 55 gallon had cyano a couple times. For my latest tank, I seem to have skipped (fingers crossed) a lot of those issues by applying what I’ve learned over the years. So here were the factors that I believe helped in preventing the ugly stage!
Fishless Cycle: The other two tanks I had had a fish-in cycle. Though this is not directly the benefit, it is more likely the fact that I didn’t have to feed the tank (i.e., loading it with phosphates).
Chaetomorpha, Pods, and Snails: Shortly after the ammonia and nitrite settled out in the system, I had plenty of food in the form of nitrates to feed an algae/diatom bloom! About this time, there began to be a thin coating of diatoms over the aquascape. To combat this issue, along with a water change, I added a softball-sized ball of chaeto to the refugium, along with copepods (both to the display and refugium) and 4 banded trochus snails (I like these for their self-righting ability and they are great grazers). The trochus snails (and somewhat the pods I’m sure) had the diatoms under control within days, and because there were only a few, they did not run out of food. The chaeto went to work on the nitrates and any phosphates in the water too.
Protein Skimmer: I have an Aquamaxx ConeS Q-1 protein skimmer, and for my current bioload (3 fish plus some inverts), is way overkill. Needless to say, despite it being too big for the bioload, it still kept up with organic matter whenever there was an excess of it.
Once I added some fish, I knew the bioload would increase and I would now be introducing phosphates to the tank in the form of fish food. From here, I added a few hermit crabs and a skunk cleaner shrimp (more for my enjoyment) to help polish off uneaten food and algae. All the while, the now much larger ball of chaeto kept the nitrates and phosphates at bay along with my skimmer.
As an aside, I also added the coralline algae in a bottle (both pink and purple) when the cycle ended, which has begun to cover surface area, outcompeting the other algae.
This method has been so successful for me, in fact, that I have to keep the lights on (though currently not very powerful ones) for 11 hours a day just to keep enough diatoms growing for my CUC!
Let me know your thoughts as well as your experiences!
