- Today, cycling a saltwater tank.
What are you leaving on the table?
- We have the 10 questions you didn't know to ask until now.
(upbeat music)
- This is BRS TV answers.
If you're about to cycle a reef tank
or a saltwater aquarium,
or even maybe you're right in the middle of it,
these are questions that today's reefers are asking
and the answers starting with number one.
- [Randy] Is today's saltwater aquarium cycle
only about ammonia and the answer is no.
we're learning more about biome, which is a bacteria
in the aquarium, the nitrogen cycle,
a source of naturally occurring organisms,
copepods, amphipods, things like that.
Coralline algae, microfauna, minimal amount of pest.
You know, all these different types of things
are things to consider in the cycle.
It's not just about getting your little ammonia test kit out
and once you read no ammonia, you're ready to go.
There's a lot more that goes into it.
And we're learning more and more each day.
Just wrap your head around more than ammonia.
- I think this is an artifact of an older time.
- Yeah.
- Way back when everybody was using live rock
that got pulled outta the ocean,
it just kinda came with biome.
It had coralline algae, it had pods,
it had all of these different things on it
and you just didn't really have to worry about it.
- Yeah.
- You just had to make sure that
the ammonia wouldn't kill my fish.
Today's world, now we're all using
various forms of dry rock.
So these things don't really come with a lot of,
really anything on other than rock.
And so yes, we have to save the fish from toxic ammonia.
But there's also all kinds of critters that live on the rock
that eat the algae before you'd ever even see it.
There's bacterias that out compete other negative bacterias
like cyano or diatoms or dinos.
So there's so many more things that goes into,
you know, cycling, properly cycling a tank
than just whether or not you're talking about ammonia.
That's today's conversation,
because the tools that we use have changed.
- At number two, probably the most commonly asked question
about cycling a tank in biome.
How do I get that coralline algae to grow?
- Purple stuff. - Right, yes.
- Purple stuff obviously looks really nice
when it coats the tank, but more than that,
it actually prevents all the algae from rooting.
It prevents a lot of slimes from taking over.
It's just a really, really healthy thing
to be growing in there.
In fact, if you can see it growing rapidly,
you know, you're doing something right,
and that the corals will probably thrive as well.
So the rocket fuel for that
seems to be stable alkalinity at least of nine,
having a high pH at least 8, shooting for 8.3
and lower light as well.
It actually doesn't grow as fast
in really high light in our cases.
In fact, we've seen it take over tanks here
with just the like office lights, like 10 par.
And in that low par also
you're giving it an opportunity to thrive in there
without having to compete all of that algae.
So those are all the tips
to make sure that you can grow coralline algae
and help get that element in the biome mastered
while you're cycling the tank.
- [Randy] Question number three.
What is the most common way to ruin your cycle
and the answer is turning your lights on.
And that's not just turning your lights on,
but turning them on extremely high, full blast
We all have this urge to crank some lights on.
We think that, you know,
the critters in the tank need light,
but what actually needs light more
is the photosynthetic pests like algae
and, you know, bacterias, diatoms, these types of things
that will send you into pulling your hair out
all because you turned your lights up too far.
We just told you in the last one
that coralline algae can grow at very, very minimal light.
And actually they'll compete
some of those photosynthetic algaes.
So keep your lights low and don't pull your hair out.
- A lot of the beneficial bacterias, the copepods,
the amphipods, a lot of the things
that we actually want to take over the surface of the rock
and create that biome
is actually going to like thrive on organics.
I mean, they gotta go like find sources of food,
they gotta like digest it.
They gotta turn it into energy
and it all just happens really slow.
- Yeah.
- So they're just not going to take over
the surface of the rock as fast as we would like.
However, the flip side of that,
the cyanos of the world, the dinos of the world,
the hair algaes, the bryopsis,
all those kinds of things.
Like energy from light,
they're able to capture and convert so fast.
And when you crank up the light, you crank up the growth
and they outcompete all the things
that have to rely on organics for growth.
So heating that light, cranking it up,
if you're gonna turn on your SPS tank
and you're gonna crank it up to, you know,
350 par like day one,
sometimes that works, other times men will go totally awry.
So you might want to like start ramping up,
use those acclimation modes
and just ramp the light up really slowly,
give time to those things, those organic things,
the coralline algae, the copepods, amphipods
and all the beneficial bacterias to outcompete the pests.
- [Randy] At number four,
does the acclimation mode on my lights
actually help me reduce the chances
I'm gonna run into all these pests?
And the answer is yes, yes and no.
I would use the acclimation mode,
but, I would use it in a longer period of time.
A lot of those acclimation modes
maybe have you ramp up for a week or so,
but you could have some of them,
you can extend out probably to a month
while your first initial cycle is the way to go
and start it very, very low.
- [Ryan] Yeah, I would definitely use at least a month
to ramp it up and even then probably ramp it up
just from zero to LPS over the course of that first month.
And remember actually, anything you run into
when you see anything photosynthetic take over the tank,
just turn the lights off.
- Yeah.
And it'll set them all back
and you don't have to really worry about it.
Just reset the acclimation mode.
And it allows you to find your way to where you're going
without having to constantly update the light.
- [Randy] Questions number five is what's this green spot,
what's this purple spot, what's this brown spot,
what's this, you know, what's this dusting?
And a lot of the answers to, you know,
should you interject in some of these things
that you're seeing?
Most of the time the answer is no, just leave it alone.
And it will work itself out.
The cycle is just gonna happen.
We call it the ugly brown phase,
but sometimes just embrace that it's going to happen.
- I mean, sometimes you roll the dice and it hits yahtzee.
(Randy laughs)
You know, first try and you just start it up
and you just don't run into anything.
There's the other 99.9% of you that will get a patch of cyan
or they will get some green film growing on the rock,
that will get all kinds of different things
that will happen the tank.
But often it's just part of the ebb and flow of the tank.
And so unless something's really totally going awry,
knee jerk for me is actually just leave it alone
and let it play out it's course.
Number six, what if I hate seeing all those spots,
anyone, I can't help myself.
The answer is purple rock.
This stuff is made for you.
If this is your first rodeo
and you just can't handle the fact
that there's gonna be some red or some green
or something growing on the rock.
Well, the purple stuff
not only seems to actually not grow as much of it,
but it doesn't really matter
because you can't even see it on there.
So if there's a little bit of algae growing on here,
a little green film or a little red film,
you can't actually see it growing on the real reef rock
or even the curb sea lighter purple stuff.
So if this is your first rodeo,
your patience is, kinda low,
which is true of almost every new reefer.
Purple rock will maybe have the same problems
as the white rock, you'll just never know.
- [Randy] Question number seven.
Should I cycle each individual piece of rock in a bucket
before I Aquascape it and then put it in my tank?
Answer is if today's reefer is no.
Take the opportunity while the rock is dry,
build your aquascape, break it up, glue it together.
You can use epoxies and mortar is much easier.
And when the rock is dry,
once you have your aquascape built,
throw it in the tank to cycle
or even throw it in the trashcan to cycle.
- Yeah, I would always do that now.
I'd just build up my aquascape, cycle it right in the tank,
cycle it in a horse trough,
cycle it in whatever container you want,
but build the aquascape first into one structure
and then cycle that because if I cycle the rock
and I spent two months getting it covered
in the right biome and bacteria,
and then I go to build my elaborate aquascape,
and then it dries out and everything just dies.
That was a giant waste of time.
- Yeah.
- The only thing I would say about this is
99% of you are going to be using some form of dry rock.
If you happen to have spent the $20 a pound
for a live rock and you even found a proper source for it,
in that case, you probably do want to cycle or cook it
or cure it inside of some bin
to let some of the organics die off first.
In that case, keep it alive.
Don't let it dry out
cause that's what you paid that $20 a pound for.
Number eight, how do I actually add biome to the tank
and biome is a big word.
So there's a lot of different sources
for this type of thing.
Ocean direct sand here is sand
that has actually come out of the ocean in a breathable bag.
It's never been sifted.
It's moist in here and marketed
as it has the biome of the ocean.
And I will tell you that we have recently done
some aquabiomics test to actually prove
that it does do that.
- Yes, it does. I was really,
really surprised that it actually maintained better than,
even just after a month,
better than more than half
of the tanks out there that they've tested.
So, the ocean direct bringing the biome,
but you also have things like the Life Source
from Aquaforest, that mud that comes out of Fiji.
You also have things like a piece of live rock
or rubble from established tanks.
Those things don't add as much,
but you can even add a couple scoops of sand.
These things will bring different things to the tank,
but my choice is actually right now,
these, ocean directs and the mud because what they'll do,
is they'll bring bacteria and stuff,
but they don't bring all the funky algaes
that you don't want that come out of established tanks
or a live rock as well.
So think about all those.
And then beyond that, coralline in a bottle,
coraline scrubbed off a rock, copepods in a bottle.
All those things will get you where you need to go.
- [Randy] Question number nine, do these bacterial bottles
or bacterial starter supplements
have all the biome already I need?
And the answer is we are in the middle of testing that.
So come back later, we'll have an answer for you.
- We have tested or used, I should say
a lot of different products out there.
All of the KZ stuff that people have used for decades.
We talk about the microbacter7 from Brightwell.
Dr. Tims got all these set up things.
There's little port devio stuff.
Like there's all kinds of different,
you know, solutions for adding bacteria
and biome to the tank.
How well do they work?
Well, anecdotally really well.
- Yeah.
- But what I'd like to do is actually test them.
So, I think in probably the next three months or so,
and if you're watching this later on,
you'll probably already be able to go find it.
But we're gonna find out
what the biome in a bottle actually does
and which ones work the best.
Number 10, obviously leading right up to this one.
What's the best way to cycle?
This answer actually changes all the time
is we learn more and more about our tanks
and the highest percentage pass.
But if you ask me right now, it'd be one month,
no light, one month LPS light.
And then if I was going SPS after that,
I'd slowly ramp it up using an acclimation cycle.
From there, just giving it time to grow
all the beneficial thing that, you know,
75 to 150 par for that second month,
before I go all the way up to 350.
Now the important part of that is,
you actually need a par number, a meter
to be able to know what those zones are.
And you know what, that psychologist described
is about two months long.
So it sure is convenient that you can return the power meter
that you buy from BRS for up to 60 days.
- Yeah.
- A small restocking fee,
but it gives you an opportunity to use a really cool tool
to get this right and know that you got this thing
really down pat doing the best you possibly can.
Okay, so the one question that we didn't ask today
is can the human eye actually measure par?
We tested on this on six pro reefers,
including one that tests lighting for a living.
Find out how close the human eye can get right here.