it takes dry rock with bare bottom about two years to get mature imo. this is how i started my tank and It finally worked . i don't know if it was stubbornness or patience but hell yea i am going to do it again no problem . just keep the parameters in the good range all the time and enjoy the phases .
I have very little equipment. What the hobby has determined as pests generally don't bother me. 90% of the equipment sold is not needed imho. Better to focus on the various ways of increasing water volume. Enjoyed the video. My favorite phrase you mentioned 'root causes'. Thanks for sharing.
I never used a reactor. My macro algae eventually filled up a 220. … almost completely. Tons of pods in there. Yellow Tang loved it. It didn’t need much food from me 😁
Yes sir i could attest to pretty much every piece of equipment and method you've had issues with but apparently you're still in the game still persevering keeping reefs props to you man...after succeeding to keep a sps dominant tank for 4 years i shut it down and stepped away..good luck with your continued endeavors man
That's funny because I've also tried and discontinued using most of what seemed like trend items. It always comes down to good old-fashioned tank maintenance. Remember when sand reactors were the latest thing😅
Good point. The surface area of the sand in the display given decent flow rates FAR exceeds the amount in these reactors if that's what they call them. Never really made any sense, but some one made some money I guess.
Can’t believe I’m watching this. Man, this guy exposed the truth most shit that he tried does not work even when ppl swear by it. I need to make a video with him soon
I agree and have had lots of the same problems. I think the truck with starting from dry rock is getting a few small corals on live rocks or rubble or some very clean live rock and seeding your dry rock. The trick is it must be very clean mature live rock and you need to get past some initial stages of cycling with bacteria in the dry rock before micro fauna can take hold. It's definitely a process. I've had the Same issue with macro algea. I can't get them to survive that long and I've given up on cheato. The best way to do kalk is through a doser. I use a kamoer to dose continuously. It does a good job
I just stumbled across your channel, holy crap that was cool. My mother got me your book for Christmas this past year along with some other reef books, Julian Sprung's among them. Amazing to see your experiences. I haven't started a reef tank yet sadly, still an unpaid Master's student in Marine Conservation, but it's a future goal.
I used life rock, talks about 5 years old now and I still don’t feel like it ever truly matured. Bubble algaes plagued the tank forever as well, I’ll definitely go mostly real live rock on my next system.
I’m 8 months in on a new mixed reef tank started with CaribSea Life Rock in a 1.5” sand bed and have had no significant algae problems yet, knock on wood, despite periods of elevated phosphate in the 0.2-0.4 range. I am skeptical of the benefits of phyto though. After I lost my batch to spoilage after daily dosing and it took over 3 weeks to get a new batch, I saw no change in my corals or my visible pod population.
I have managed, in my opinion, success with dry rock, one of the few who seem to have. One thing I would never add to a reef tank again though is mushroom soft corals. They’re such a pest and sting SPS corals!
Hi, Could be water circulation..maybe some dead zones so cyano grows. Try to work with your nozzle pointing to get flow. Some tanks are inevitable and even adding fans may not help depending on what you keep..such as coral bouncing mushrooms that don’t want much flow or it will get upset ☝🏻😂 Did you use live sand with your dry rock? You can also combine that with just a live rock from Petco to jump start a cycle and seed frat plugs with it so end up with heaps of copepods. When a tank is alive it makes a big difference to mature and get to being as close to bullet proof yrs later. You can also consider a conch to scoot around your dead zones and turn your sand bed when it drags it shell across. When you clean your glass you can leave the bottom perimeter along the sand and encourage or bait it to clean areas you want as it eat algae along the bottom and passes through. A hector goby can help with a little sand sifting if you’re interested in a worker/cleaner. It also eats pink slime algae and even green hair algae. Even picks off rocks. Just give it a spot to burrow out a home. Mine will go gobble heaps of red slime algae with bits hangs out its mouth. Overall a really nice fish excellent worker. It’s been around like I think since the 70’s or so with reef keepers. Good luck.. thanks for sharing video. If you do get hector..just consider vacuum the bulk of that red slime algae if it’s hard for it to break of bit size pieces. Once it’s broke up it’s easier for hector to sift. It will go after the bubbles too. When your sand bad can’t breath bc of that layer it can trap oxygen exchange so might even look like perling but not the kind you want tho. It’s a really small fish..minimum 10 gallon can even keep. You have a big reef tho. It’s not gonna sift like a diamond goby(yellow diamond). But some keepers don’t like them throwing sand on corals so depends on individual.
I have found the all set rock method to be unstable. Been doing it for several decades to avoid pests. But it seems the systems never become stable until the aptasia and vermited worms move in. Ugh. Next time I'm going to try with dry rock and algae scrubber. Always used macro refuge.
I purchased the Trident monitoring system and now I don't use it anymore. Too expensive. I also had a Refugium and don't even use that anymore since I started dosing bacteria. I also used a kalk reactor and now that is in the boneyard. I realized that it's better to keep it simple and use equipment essential for maintaining a healthy reef aquarium. This is my personal experience.
I’m ditching my Caribsea life rock tomorrow for some Gulf of Mexico live rock. It has been nothing but hell for the past year, constant algae of all types and not just a little bit it’s always a huge bloom of whatever algae.
I definitely had very hard time getting my 75 gallon going with just dry rock. It took me a year to get uglies out and get everything running good on it. You got 2 foxfaces in your tank that’s awesome. Are they good with each other?
Great video but the KP aquatics site is sold out of live rock and has been for a while is this something they will restock. I love the idea of having a cryptic area in the sump to have it seed the tank.
I get KP live rock 3 times a year. I change out about 15 -20lbs every four months or so. You just have to get on the email wait list. When you get the in stock notification, head there immediately as it will be gone in about an hour.
I am long term casual hobbyist and hobby simply got hard taking away live rock and industry selling more gadgets. I could go on but mostly same experience. I have a junk pile of stuff but what works best is Ecotec MP40s, ATI dimmable T5s, Shuran BRS heaters, Danner Mag pumps (yep) , Tunze Osmolaor older model,, and ditching all chinese power suplies for a DIN rail power supplies and Marine batteries. Definitely simplified to ACI type kalk. No reason to change that!!! For whatever reason you frags asn WWC corals grew like gangbusters. Few other vendors did not.
Dry rock craze was the worst, tank & multiple reboots had all kinds of strange algae. GFO is a pain. I handle phosphate with water changes. Macro algeas have never grown for me, the melted away while hair algeas grew like crazy.
I have no other experience to relate to with using both caribe sea and dry rock. I have 3 tanks now and its all I have ever used but makes me wonder if corals would grow faster and what the difference might be using live rock. When you speak of live rock do you mean from the ocean? Who can afford a whole tank of live rock or dp u mean adding just a small amount! I have never had algae really in my tanks since they have matured except for this hedge type stuff and for the life of me I cant figure out what the hell it is and no one seems to know either! Its flowery and grows like a short dense matt on the rock! I have crazy bubble algae in one tank and cant get rid of it so I am going to try an emerlad crab or two but scared it will eat my zoas! ! I took it all out and scrubbed it down and now its even worse!
I've had issues using dry rock, I always end up seeding with live rock now. I find you can minimize the risk of pest by breaking it up or buying smaller chunks of it and also find oversized UV sterilisers do a great job at protecting the water column and fish from nasties. I had a massive outbreak of white spot many years ago. I tried QT with copper TTM and It always found its way back in. I'm not a quarantine pro and never will be I have accepted that. I chucked on a big well over sized UV the last time I had white spot ran it for a year and have never seen it again since I stopped using it, about a year since now. UV doesn't run anymore as I havent been adding any new fish since I took it off. The other thing I find is Kalk from vats works really well. I am currently experimenting and building a double chamber kalk reactor. One chamber for heavy mixing to saturate the kalk with the fresh water coming through as much as possible and then the clearer, not super clear still a bit cloud at the top gets pushed into the second chamber at the bottom were it will settle out and slowly push the clear kalkwasser through the top and into the tank. I will be also be adding TDS meter from the mixing chamber to the settle chamber and also a TDS from the settlement chamber effluent into the tank to monitor the potency. all airtight sealed. This is very experimental though, and waiting to finalize and hook up to the tank. but yes with kalkwasser I find my PH sits at a really nice 8.3 even with carbon dosing. The other thing I find that causes more trouble then its worth is sand beds! OMG tank is so much easier to manage without it and also some what believe what Jake Adams said its a nest for pests and white spot and I think it was possibly the combo of removing the sanded and the UV that helped me get rid of white spot without QTing. I'm not saying dont QT, its just if your not good at it like me, some pest will eventually find its way back in. buying from a good LFS will help as well that already QT fish for you :) As always thanks for the content, I like to see other successful reefers stories and methods
I’m over here with a kalkwasser reactor, a refugium with 4 different macro algae’s, a constant dosage of three strains of phytoplankton that I culture myself, and gyres being my main power heads. Guess I’m not reefing the reef bum way hahaha. 😂
I'm with you on many of the items. Rock I find is the key to many of the issues. Like you I started with dry rock and the first 2 years was full of problems but once established it is so much better. I now keep rock in my sump for any changes or a new tank. Using rock that has been in a tank for years is by far the best thing you can do for a new tank.
add me to the list of Caribsea live rock / dry rock issues. Normally I do real live rock or dry rock but this stuff must leach out something that takes a very long time to normalize. Wondering if there is a way to achieve this and faster since they are beautiful pieces.
Dry rock is tricky, I've mentored many people through the process of setting up this way. To be successful, a set of very specific actions need to be implemented at specific time periods. If you don't have the required knowledge, it is an absolute minefield. Dosing ammonium bicarb or chloride helps a lot! combined with ocean direct sand. In fact I dose ammounium in my established DT. It has so many benefits to corals and coral symbionts. If your microbiome is well established, there should be no need to dose amnios. Bacteria create these for free.
Caribsea life rock was a nightmare for me. Had to do a tank reset because of this stubborn green algae. Only thing that got rid of it was 10 percent hydrogen peroxide. So I seeded my reset with live rock from Australia and some different type of dry rock I got from premium aquatics.
I am having a tough time Carib Sea Life Rock right now, redid my scape and added a couple of pieces which have been covered with some weird algae ever since
I dunno, I just don't find gyre pumps difficult to clean or maintain. Whereas I constantly had problems with Ecotech pumps, from power supplies dying after a few months, dry sides malfunctioning, etc
I started with dry rock too, such a PIA to get it balanced.. took me months. I started it with microbacter 7.. then I switched to microblift special blend and night out. Really works wonders.
I love life rock but it’s a harder start The upside is no pests But I ended up getting bristle worms anyway - somehow. Furious about that because I hate them.
Thank you for sharing Keith! This is one of the most informative videos as I have had very similar experiences with the gyres, alga reactors and etc. Sometimes you start to think it’s just you since it’s working for everyone else. :-)
You have to put the chemiclean…. use on a regular basis very small amounts. Before a water change heavier doses to really clean it up. I have tried using vinegar very small amounts. I also use magnesium in heavy doses. No skimmer no canister. Just sponges in the return tank. Let them get dirty. When you see the salt start to accumulate clean one sponge per day. When you clean your tank…. TANK U Time. I know every reef tank is different. Simple soft animals will adapt to your lifestyle. I have lost a few heartbeats over my hard and soft animals. Now my garden is easy as I can get make it. We did just through Dino algae… N survived. The waving hand polyps not back to normal just yet.
Great information on this video thanks! I definitely can relate to two of your points because I experienced it personally. One with the macro algae it gets super messy and died off on me randomly after a while. It was effective though. I will be trying a scrubber next. Can you inform which scrubber you are using? I find it to be much cleaner option. The next one I noticed was using amino acids I did notice my corals have a feeding reaction to it but colors didn’t pop more. I also have noticed cyano growing on my rock work… could also be a mixture with other factors though… and lastly just to give you insight on my experience with my current reef. I started my tank with dry rock. I let it cycle for about two moths before I used any lights though. Used the Dr Tim’s starter pack and tested daily. Luckily so far so good 4 years later. I was very consistent in the beginning though. I micromanaged everything and did water changes on a strict schedule for over a year straight (spent a lot of $ on salt) i was doing 40 gallon water changes regularly on a 116 gallon system. This was before I introduced any coral. I think that’s what helped me most on avoiding nuisance algae or maybe it was just the luck of the draw for me.
I agree with this list, however, I have always started tanks with just dry rock. Takes about 5 weeks for it to cycle after dropping food in to rot. I had Coraline algae, sponges, etc. Dry rock is best....won't bring in any bad stuff. My experience.
Great video, would love to see more content like this. Yup, I didn't like amminos either, hated gyres (blew flesh of LPS) and gave up on phytoplankton. I do love my cheato algae though, ive read that low iron can result in decaying and death in the the algae, perhaps this was your issue? One other side note, have you tried coral snow? That is one thing that I really like. Beautiful clean results, and nice to use when cleaning the glass.
I have tried coral snow a few times. I was going to include that in the video but decided not too since I may still try it now and then. But I use activated carbon and UV so my water is already pretty clear.
Thanks so much for sharing. I stared with dry rock and have been having a struggle to get it balanced. It has been up and running for a little over 2 years and coraline is thriving but I had had every algae issue. I think it’s time to seed my tank with some live rock.
Same here I started with Marco dry rock. It was issue after issue finally swapped half of it out for live rock and after a couple of months all algae was gone and tank is doing good. I’ll never just use dry rock again.
Liferock has not been good for me. Not so much because of algae, but the microbiology in the tank is still chaotic after 18 months. I started with 3 different bottled bacterias and seeded the sump with live rubble from 2 different LFS. I'm close to throwing in the towel after cycling through diatoms and dinos over and over
Carribsea might be hit or miss. I’ve started mine with Carribsea Dry Live rock without actually curing it and it has been working great for me and the corals. No Algae so far althoug I have snails in the tank
Hey, Sean from AlgaeBarn. You might want to try out another strain of phyto. It looks like you are running nannochloropsis. Lots of more nutritious strains out out there.
The bare bottom tanks often struggles with the macro algae you aren’t alone on that I had the same experience in a previous tank I had it never grew so I give up doing that
I started my 135g tank with 100# CaribSea Liferock. The first 18mo I had TONS of coral loss and dinoflagellate issues. Now I'm two years in and the tank looks great but I've been doing Moonshiners and it's taking a huge amt of dosing to bring elements up. I suspect the rock is absorbing it!
Moonshiners is the only way for me as well. Caribsea liferock in my first salt water aquarium 150prostar and after the first year I started the moonshiners method and now can finally grow SPS. Tank is 1.5 years old this month and is looking amazing. Stable and hassle free.
I run a 20 gallon tank for over 2 years. Algae issues was the worst. Get a good skimmer. Dose some kalk or all for reef, get a good light and mp10. Run mp10 high to keep debris off rock to keep algae off from using the detritus because it blows off. Keep it simple. BRS 0.8 carbon amazing, use GFO if you see algae grow and you will be fine.
@davidmurphy4672 thank you! I have a pretty good skimmer and a refugeium with cheeto. I'm keeping up with 20% weekly water changes will do some more testing but I have some all for one as well and a dosing pump ready! Thank you again!
@@SiliconvalleyScapes I don’t do water changes I run aqua hobb 1.5 works like a champ got to clean it once a week for it to work. I set collection cup low as can go keeps nitrates really low and just dose trace. A bit more complicated but I enjoy it. I think the fish as a giant litter box. Just needs lots of cleaning. 🧼
I just have wave makers and a hob filter softies some gracilaria 2 clowns 1 springeri damsel and a lawnmower blenny 5 red blue hermit crab a nasarious snail and a bunch of what ppl call pests. Tank is thriving I top it off 1 time daily feed the coral 2 times a week
I had similar issues with my Algae reactor and barely had the Chaeto growing. A few times it died off and leached phosphate back into the tank, so I gave up. I use GFO and have my reactor on a timer that I adjust depending on the phosphate reading. I use a Kalk stirrer and found that if you add a decent amount of Kalk in the reactor, you don't have the issue.
No offense but your tank behind you looks empty. Kind of hard taking tips from somebody who looks like they're sitting in front of an u cycled tank haha
it takes dry rock with bare bottom about two years to get mature imo. this is how i started my tank and It finally worked . i don't know if it was stubbornness or patience but hell yea i am going to do it again no problem . just keep the parameters in the good range all the time and enjoy the phases .
Agreed, this was my finding too. I've now refined the process and reduced it to about 12 months.
Yup
I have very little equipment. What the hobby has determined as pests generally don't bother me. 90% of the equipment sold is not needed imho. Better to focus on the various ways of increasing water volume. Enjoyed the video. My favorite phrase you mentioned 'root causes'. Thanks for sharing.
I never used a reactor. My macro algae eventually filled up a 220. … almost completely. Tons of pods in there. Yellow Tang loved it. It didn’t need much food from me 😁
Yes sir i could attest to pretty much every piece of equipment and method you've had issues with but apparently you're still in the game still persevering keeping reefs props to you man...after succeeding to keep a sps dominant tank for 4 years i shut it down and stepped away..good luck with your continued endeavors man
That's funny because I've also tried and discontinued using most of what seemed like trend items. It always comes down to good old-fashioned tank maintenance. Remember when sand reactors were the latest thing😅
Good point. The surface area of the sand in the display given decent flow rates FAR exceeds the amount in these reactors if that's what they call them. Never really made any sense, but some one made some money I guess.
@@marineaquarium5235 they definitely made money like so many other brilliant ideas. Remember the Skilter?
Can’t believe I’m watching this. Man, this guy exposed the truth most shit that he tried does not work even when ppl swear by it. I need to make a video with him soon
some of the best advice come from you man
Dry rock is phosphate bomb 💣😂 my lfs has some aquaculture dry rock and that will be my go to even though it’s bit pricy
Yea dry rock should just come with a bag of phosguard
I agree and have had lots of the same problems. I think the truck with starting from dry rock is getting a few small corals on live rocks or rubble or some very clean live rock and seeding your dry rock. The trick is it must be very clean mature live rock and you need to get past some initial stages of cycling with bacteria in the dry rock before micro fauna can take hold. It's definitely a process. I've had the Same issue with macro algea. I can't get them to survive that long and I've given up on cheato. The best way to do kalk is through a doser. I use a kamoer to dose continuously. It does a good job
I just stumbled across your channel, holy crap that was cool. My mother got me your book for Christmas this past year along with some other reef books, Julian Sprung's among them. Amazing to see your experiences. I haven't started a reef tank yet sadly, still an unpaid Master's student in Marine Conservation, but it's a future goal.
Great video, showing how different processes and gear affected successful results in reef keeping.
I used life rock, talks about 5 years old now and I still don’t feel like it ever truly matured. Bubble algaes plagued the tank forever as well, I’ll definitely go mostly real live rock on my next system.
I started Red Sea Nopox, a few weeks ago and I'm starting to see dinos.
Great setup! I have a place in the MRV so maybe I'll catch you on Revolution some time!🤙
Match the fish stock to the coral stock and you can have fun with this hobby.
Never looked at it this way but makes total sense
I’m 8 months in on a new mixed reef tank started with CaribSea Life Rock in a 1.5” sand bed and have had no significant algae problems yet, knock on wood, despite periods of elevated phosphate in the 0.2-0.4 range. I am skeptical of the benefits of phyto though. After I lost my batch to spoilage after daily dosing and it took over 3 weeks to get a new batch, I saw no change in my corals or my visible pod population.
I have managed, in my opinion, success with dry rock, one of the few who seem to have.
One thing I would never add to a reef tank again though is mushroom soft corals. They’re such a pest and sting SPS corals!
Hi, Could be water circulation..maybe some dead zones so cyano grows. Try to work with your nozzle pointing to get flow. Some tanks are inevitable and even adding fans may not help depending on what you keep..such as coral bouncing mushrooms that don’t want much flow or it will get upset ☝🏻😂
Did you use live sand with your dry rock? You can also combine that with just a live rock from Petco to jump start a cycle and seed frat plugs with it so end up with heaps of copepods. When a tank is alive it makes a big difference to mature and get to being as close to bullet proof yrs later.
You can also consider a conch to scoot around your dead zones and turn your sand bed when it drags it shell across. When you clean your glass you can leave the bottom perimeter along the sand and encourage or bait it to clean areas you want as it eat algae along the bottom and passes through.
A hector goby can help with a little sand sifting if you’re interested in a worker/cleaner. It also eats pink slime algae and even green hair algae. Even picks off rocks. Just give it a spot to burrow out a home. Mine will go gobble heaps of red slime algae with bits hangs out its mouth. Overall a really nice fish excellent worker. It’s been around like I think since the 70’s or so with reef keepers. Good luck.. thanks for sharing video.
If you do get hector..just consider vacuum the bulk of that red slime algae if it’s hard for it to break of bit size pieces. Once it’s broke up it’s easier for hector to sift. It will go after the bubbles too. When your sand bad can’t breath bc of that layer it can trap oxygen exchange so might even look like perling but not the kind you want tho. It’s a really small fish..minimum 10 gallon can even keep. You have a big reef tho. It’s not gonna sift like a diamond goby(yellow diamond). But some keepers don’t like them throwing sand on corals so depends on individual.
Been there done that. Still having the cyno
Top man love listening to you and always the truth 👍😀🏴
I started with all dry rock and a established gravel seed... It took 2 years to BEGIN to mature...!
I have found the all set rock method to be unstable. Been doing it for several decades to avoid pests. But it seems the systems never become stable until the aptasia and vermited worms move in. Ugh. Next time I'm going to try with dry rock and algae scrubber. Always used macro refuge.
Mate I really love your scape
Excellent. I might add UV and Ozone to that list.....
Got ya self a new sub dude from the UK
I feel the same us you on all your points, this was a verry good video and I think it is of great interes for a lot of the new reefers out there
I made my own algae reactor. It exported all the nutrients. If it cleans the tank to well run it less.
I purchased the Trident monitoring system and now I don't use it anymore. Too expensive. I also had a Refugium and don't even use that anymore since I started dosing bacteria. I also used a kalk reactor and now that is in the boneyard. I realized that it's better to keep it simple and use equipment essential for maintaining a healthy reef aquarium. This is my personal experience.
I’m ditching my Caribsea life rock tomorrow for some Gulf of Mexico live rock. It has been nothing but hell for the past year, constant algae of all types and not just a little bit it’s always a huge bloom of whatever algae.
I feel your pain.
What do you replace it with?
@@tonyaclark1570 got some gulf live rock from salty bottom reef co. Price was unreal
I definitely had very hard time getting my 75 gallon going with just dry rock. It took me a year to get uglies out and get everything running good on it. You got 2 foxfaces in your tank that’s awesome. Are they good with each other?
Yes, I have 2 Foxfaces in each display and they are all fine with one another.
Great video but the KP aquatics site is sold out of live rock and has been for a while is this something they will restock. I love the idea of having a cryptic area in the sump to have it seed the tank.
I get KP live rock 3 times a year. I change out about 15 -20lbs every four months or so. You just have to get on the email wait list. When you get the in stock notification, head there immediately as it will be gone in about an hour.
Tampa Bay is great
I am long term casual hobbyist and hobby simply got hard taking away live rock and industry selling more gadgets. I could go on but mostly same experience. I have a junk pile of stuff but what works best is Ecotec MP40s, ATI dimmable T5s, Shuran BRS heaters, Danner Mag pumps (yep) , Tunze Osmolaor older model,, and ditching all chinese power suplies for a DIN rail power supplies and Marine batteries. Definitely simplified to ACI type kalk. No reason to change that!!! For whatever reason you frags asn WWC corals grew like gangbusters. Few other vendors did not.
I dose Kalk the same way you do. However, my lid is sealed tight. Is it not supposed to be?
No, I was told by Meckley that it should not be sealed tight.
Dry rock craze was the worst, tank & multiple reboots had all kinds of strange algae. GFO is a pain. I handle phosphate with water changes. Macro algeas have never grown for me, the melted away while hair algeas grew like crazy.
I only add GFO if I see algae on the glass and then wait. If I see algae I add GFO. Let my reef do its thing otherwise.
I do not use a reactor I got a nano and just a small really small bag in. Simple simple
I have no other experience to relate to with using both caribe sea and dry rock. I have 3 tanks now and its all I have ever used but makes me wonder if corals would grow faster and what the difference might be using live rock. When you speak of live rock do you mean from the ocean? Who can afford a whole tank of live rock or dp u mean adding just a small amount! I have never had algae really in my tanks since they have matured except for this hedge type stuff and for the life of me I cant figure out what the hell it is and no one seems to know either! Its flowery and grows like a short dense matt on the rock! I have crazy bubble algae in one tank and cant get rid of it so I am going to try an emerlad crab or two but scared it will eat my zoas! ! I took it all out and scrubbed it down and now its even worse!
I've had issues using dry rock, I always end up seeding with live rock now. I find you can minimize the risk of pest by breaking it up or buying smaller chunks of it and also find oversized UV sterilisers do a great job at protecting the water column and fish from nasties. I had a massive outbreak of white spot many years ago. I tried QT with copper TTM and It always found its way back in. I'm not a quarantine pro and never will be I have accepted that. I chucked on a big well over sized UV the last time I had white spot ran it for a year and have never seen it again since I stopped using it, about a year since now. UV doesn't run anymore as I havent been adding any new fish since I took it off. The other thing I find is Kalk from vats works really well. I am currently experimenting and building a double chamber kalk reactor. One chamber for heavy mixing to saturate the kalk with the fresh water coming through as much as possible and then the clearer, not super clear still a bit cloud at the top gets pushed into the second chamber at the bottom were it will settle out and slowly push the clear kalkwasser through the top and into the tank. I will be also be adding TDS meter from the mixing chamber to the settle chamber and also a TDS from the settlement chamber effluent into the tank to monitor the potency. all airtight sealed. This is very experimental though, and waiting to finalize and hook up to the tank. but yes with kalkwasser I find my PH sits at a really nice 8.3 even with carbon dosing. The other thing I find that causes more trouble then its worth is sand beds! OMG tank is so much easier to manage without it and also some what believe what Jake Adams said its a nest for pests and white spot and I think it was possibly the combo of removing the sanded and the UV that helped me get rid of white spot without QTing. I'm not saying dont QT, its just if your not good at it like me, some pest will eventually find its way back in. buying from a good LFS will help as well that already QT fish for you :) As always thanks for the content, I like to see other successful reefers stories and methods
What’s happened to GHL? Have they stopped sponsoring you?
They are not a full sponsor...they sponsor half of my content.
I'm calling the quits after hearing not to use amino acids 😅
Lots of data behind aminso being bad - article soon
The reefing market is flooded with allot of unnecessary expensive products.
Same problem here with the Caribbean life rock. Non stop algae issues to the point I’m going to swap it out.
I’m over here with a kalkwasser reactor, a refugium with 4 different macro algae’s, a constant dosage of three strains of phytoplankton that I culture myself, and gyres being my main power heads. Guess I’m not reefing the reef bum way hahaha. 😂
I'm with you on many of the items. Rock I find is the key to many of the issues. Like you I started with dry rock and the first 2 years was full of problems but once established it is so much better. I now keep rock in my sump for any changes or a new tank. Using rock that has been in a tank for years is by far the best thing you can do for a new tank.
Merci pour le retour d'expérience; comme on partage plusieurs idées déjà, j'ai bien pris note de toutes les autres!
Thanks for sharing. Always interesting to hear experiences on equipment that works or does on work for someone.
add me to the list of Caribsea live rock / dry rock issues. Normally I do real live rock or dry rock but this stuff must leach out something that takes a very long time to normalize. Wondering if there is a way to achieve this and faster since they are beautiful pieces.
Liferock was also a nightmare for me! Over the last year I've replaced more than half of it with live ocean rock and the tank is finally thriving!
Started my first nano tank with liferock, and have had so many algae issues, started a second nano tank used live ocean rock and the tank is pristine
@@lukewoods9386Hmmm strange I have 2 tanks one nano and the other 80g both using Caribsea dry rock and have no issues with regarding algae.
@@gabrielsirvent5365 How old is your tank?
@@anthony8022 Nano is a little over two years, 80g is only 4 months
@@gabrielsirvent5365 You dont know how to make them to work.
Dry rock is tricky, I've mentored many people through the process of setting up this way. To be successful, a set of very specific actions need to be implemented at specific time periods. If you don't have the required knowledge, it is an absolute minefield. Dosing ammonium bicarb or chloride helps a lot! combined with ocean direct sand. In fact I dose ammounium in my established DT. It has so many benefits to corals and coral symbionts. If your microbiome is well established, there should be no need to dose amnios. Bacteria create these for free.
Caribsea life rock was a nightmare for me. Had to do a tank reset because of this stubborn green algae. Only thing that got rid of it was 10 percent hydrogen peroxide. So I seeded my reset with live rock from Australia and some different type of dry rock I got from premium aquatics.
I am having a tough time Carib Sea Life Rock right now, redid my scape and added a couple of pieces which have been covered with some weird algae ever since
I dunno, I just don't find gyre pumps difficult to clean or maintain. Whereas I constantly had problems with Ecotech pumps, from power supplies dying after a few months, dry sides malfunctioning, etc
I started with dry rock too, such a PIA to get it balanced.. took me months. I started it with microbacter 7.. then I switched to microblift special blend and night out. Really works wonders.
So back to the unbroken, undefeated Berlin method! I run 2-part dosing pump and a protein skimmer. That’s it.
I had Gha for 15 months…. Maybe after watching this it could be the rock ?
So, hold up…kalkwasser Do you add that to your straight rodi top up water? I’ve just been keeping the same level in my sump with straight ro
I love life rock but it’s a harder start
The upside is no pests
But I ended up getting bristle worms anyway - somehow. Furious about that because I hate them.
GFO is very helpful for me
Thank you for sharing Keith! This is one of the most informative videos as I have had very similar experiences with the gyres, alga reactors and etc. Sometimes you start to think it’s just you since it’s working for everyone else. :-)
I'm having the same problem with cyno on the same rock. What do you switch it out with. I'm at a loss
Need to try your kalk dosing method. I’ve been getting away adding kalk into the ATO that’s a disaster waiting to happen!
Hey, would love to talk macro, phyto, and a few others things with you 🙂
You have to put the chemiclean…. use on a regular basis very small amounts.
Before a water change heavier doses to really clean it up.
I have tried using vinegar very small amounts.
I also use magnesium in heavy doses.
No skimmer no canister.
Just sponges in the return tank.
Let them get dirty.
When you see the salt start to accumulate clean one sponge per day.
When you clean your tank…. TANK U Time.
I know every reef tank is different.
Simple soft animals will adapt to your lifestyle.
I have lost a few heartbeats over my hard and soft animals.
Now my garden is easy as I can get make it.
We did just through Dino algae… N survived. The waving hand polyps not back to normal just yet.
Great information on this video thanks! I definitely can relate to two of your points because I experienced it personally. One with the macro algae it gets super messy and died off on me randomly after a while. It was effective though. I will be trying a scrubber next. Can you inform which scrubber you are using? I find it to be much cleaner option. The next one I noticed was using amino acids I did notice my corals have a feeding reaction to it but colors didn’t pop more. I also have noticed cyano growing on my rock work… could also be a mixture with other factors though… and lastly just to give you insight on my experience with my current reef. I started my tank with dry rock. I let it cycle for about two moths before I used any lights though. Used the Dr Tim’s starter pack and tested daily. Luckily so far so good 4 years later. I was very consistent in the beginning though. I micromanaged everything and did water changes on a strict schedule for over a year straight (spent a lot of $ on salt) i was doing 40 gallon water changes regularly on a 116 gallon system. This was before I introduced any coral. I think that’s what helped me most on avoiding nuisance algae or maybe it was just the luck of the draw for me.
I agree with this list, however, I have always started tanks with just dry rock. Takes about 5 weeks for it to cycle after dropping food in to rot. I had Coraline algae, sponges, etc. Dry rock is best....won't bring in any bad stuff. My experience.
Great video, would love to see more content like this. Yup, I didn't like amminos either, hated gyres (blew flesh of LPS) and gave up on phytoplankton. I do love my cheato algae though, ive read that low iron can result in decaying and death in the the algae, perhaps this was your issue? One other side note, have you tried coral snow? That is one thing that I really like. Beautiful clean results, and nice to use when cleaning the glass.
I have tried coral snow a few times. I was going to include that in the video but decided not too since I may still try it now and then. But I use activated carbon and UV so my water is already pretty clear.
Thanks so much for sharing. I stared with dry rock and have been having a struggle to get it balanced. It has been up and running for a little over 2 years and coraline is thriving but I had had every algae issue. I think it’s time to seed my tank with some live rock.
Same here I started with Marco dry rock. It was issue after issue finally swapped half of it out for live rock and after a couple of months all algae was gone and tank is doing good. I’ll never just use dry rock again.
Liferock has not been good for me. Not so much because of algae, but the microbiology in the tank is still chaotic after 18 months. I started with 3 different bottled bacterias and seeded the sump with live rubble from 2 different LFS. I'm close to throwing in the towel after cycling through diatoms and dinos over and over
Carribsea might be hit or miss. I’ve started mine with Carribsea Dry Live rock without actually curing it and it has been working great for me and the corals. No Algae so far althoug I have snails in the tank
Hey, Sean from AlgaeBarn. You might want to try out another strain of phyto. It looks like you are running nannochloropsis. Lots of more nutritious strains out out there.
The bare bottom tanks often struggles with the macro algae you aren’t alone on that
I had the same experience in a previous tank I had it never grew so I give up doing that
Very debatable points you made, but you did mention it's something YOU will not use again.
using the phyto to culture your own rotifers and pods to dose them weekly has shown me results but in a tank stacked of coral
The dry rock is a long waiting game. lots of bacteria and carbon dosing.
When I use chaeto it always just shrinks, and doesn't grow.
you hit so many great points
I started my 135g tank with 100# CaribSea Liferock. The first 18mo I had TONS of coral loss and dinoflagellate issues. Now I'm two years in and the tank looks great but I've been doing Moonshiners and it's taking a huge amt of dosing to bring elements up. I suspect the rock is absorbing it!
Moonshiners is the only way for me as well. Caribsea liferock in my first salt water aquarium 150prostar and after the first year I started the moonshiners method and now can finally grow SPS. Tank is 1.5 years old this month and is looking amazing. Stable and hassle free.
great video just set up a 20 gallon nano reef last sunday. Great insight thanks for sharing, wish me luck LOL
I run a 20 gallon tank for over 2 years. Algae issues was the worst. Get a good skimmer. Dose some kalk or all for reef, get a good light and mp10. Run mp10 high to keep debris off rock to keep algae off from using the detritus because it blows off. Keep it simple. BRS 0.8 carbon amazing, use GFO if you see algae grow and you will be fine.
@davidmurphy4672 thank you! I have a pretty good skimmer and a refugeium with cheeto. I'm keeping up with 20% weekly water changes will do some more testing but I have some all for one as well and a dosing pump ready! Thank you again!
@@SiliconvalleyScapes I don’t do water changes I run aqua hobb 1.5 works like a champ got to clean it once a week for it to work. I set collection cup low as can go keeps nitrates really low and just dose trace. A bit more complicated but I enjoy it.
I think the fish as a giant litter box. Just needs lots of cleaning. 🧼
I just have wave makers and a hob filter softies some gracilaria 2 clowns 1 springeri damsel and a lawnmower blenny 5 red blue hermit crab a nasarious snail and a bunch of what ppl call pests. Tank is thriving I top it off 1 time daily feed the coral 2 times a week
what happened to all the corals
probably filmed this before he added them. just a late roll out.
Believe he rebooted the tank.
Both displays have been rebooted. The peninsula has frags in it and the 187g is frag free at the moment.
@@ReefBum thats a lot of work after having such a beautiful tank but thats the hubby a never ending thing
I had similar issues with my Algae reactor and barely had the Chaeto growing. A few times it died off and leached phosphate back into the tank, so I gave up. I use GFO and have my reactor on a timer that I adjust depending on the phosphate reading.
I use a Kalk stirrer and found that if you add a decent amount of Kalk in the reactor, you don't have the issue.
No offense but your tank behind you looks empty. Kind of hard taking tips from somebody who looks like they're sitting in front of an u cycled tank haha
Have you ever heard of if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing? Absolutely no benefit to your negative commentary!!!
Both display tanks have been reset.
www.coralmagazine.com/2021/11/12/coral-excerpt-chronicles-of-a-reef-bum/
th-cam.com/video/9A1TEZNl18w/w-d-xo.html
@@ruskinsaquaticparadise6812 it's my first video on his channel and I practice freedom of speech, sorry dude..
@@ReefBumI did not know. sorry to hear that. Can't wait to see what you have planned for it this time
best advice