Almost 3 months in and no ugly phase, did I luck out?

[TheReefDiary]

My tank has been running for 3 months now. For the last month I battled against a light case of diatoms which just finally disappeared yesterday. My parameters are consistent, my copepod population is thriving, and corals are extremely happy. Almost to the point I didn't realize how big some of the corals would get when fully extended.

Anyway if I've made it to this point now with no serious breakout of any algae is it safe to assume I've missed the ugly phase? Most things I've watched and read showed people well into the ugly stage at this point.

 

[w8lifts]

You start off with dead rock or live rock?

 

[TheReefDiary]

You start off with dead rock or live rock?

Dry rock from carib sea. From most of the things I've seen by this point dry rock tanks have got a good amount of uglies going on.

 

[w8lifts]

Dry rock from carib sea. From most of the things I've seen by this point dry rock tanks have got a good amount of uglies going on.

I used dead rock as well, you can look at my recent picture on my post to compare, I would say I am still in the ugly stage at this point. Tank started the end of may.

 

[DIFish]

Interested in your lighting spectrum and nutrient/stocking levels. Are you lightly stocked with low nutrients and running like all blues/actinic? How much algea/do you have a pic under whites?

 

[GobyGuy]

BRS had an investigates series that highlighted the benefit of pods in starting a tank. Perhaps you did, as diatoms are really always going to be present and out compete the cyano / previous ugly steps

Whats the fear in uglies though anyways at this point moving forward pods & coral are happy it seems like the uglies will be outcompeted easily if presented

 

[piranhaman00]

BRS had an investigates series that highlighted the benefit of pods in starting a tank. Perhaps you did, as diatoms are really always going to be present and out compete the cyano / previous ugly steps

Whats the fear in uglies though anyways at this point moving forward pods & coral are happy it seems like the uglies will be outcompeted easily if presented

Yes they did that to sell algae barn products.

 

[GobyGuy]

Yes they did that to sell algae barn products.

I havent heard that angle of that series i 10000% can understand that though. that is a shame they have began resorting to misinformation in a sense...

 

[TheReefDiary]

Interested in your lighting spectrum and nutrient/stocking levels. Are you lightly stocked with low nutrients and running like all blues/actinic? How much algea/do you have a pic under whites?

I ran white lights only until I got corals. Fluvial evo lights. Started running nicrew hypereef led about a month ago. 60% blue max 10% white. I have 4 fish in a 13.5 gallon with a snail only CUC and 2 sexy shrimp. I'm running an algae reactor (only started that a couple weeks ago).

 

[TheReefDiary]

Interested in your lighting spectrum and nutrient/stocking levels. Are you lightly stocked with low nutrients and running like all blues/actinic? How much algea/do you have a pic under whites?

My nitrates are constant at 20. My phosphate goes between .1-.2.

 

[TheReefDiary]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/C8hEWv8QTkAkwJd8A

 

[Lavey29]

Perhaps the light switch just means you are late to the party but I wish you success.

 

[DIFish]

My nitrates are constant at 20. My phosphate goes between .1-.2.

Yeah those are pretty high levels to be that clean. I am sure the light spectrum and reactor on the tank that small have a lot do do with it, but looks great for only a few months in. I would be worried a little about possibly ugly stages in a few months time, but honestly with the CuC and other stuff you should be able to fight it off. Congrats!

 

[ReefSlice]

My ugly phase started around month 3 on my new tank, I'm assuming when DOC starts to build up enough or something gets introduced by mistake on a frag or something. That being said, I have had tanks never really have much of an ugly phase. What happened to me this time was when the algae bloom hit, it tanked my perfect nutrient levels of the first 3 months, causing issues, and I've been having to dose po4 daily ever since (8 months since then). Keep your eye on nutrient levels if or when algae starts to grow.

 

[TokenReefer]

Tank looks great! You've got some large colonies. If they've been growing perhaps the so called uglies won't be strong enough to get a foothold? Keep us posted please. Itd help alot of people

 

[Manny’s Reef]

I havent heard that angle of that series i 10000% can understand that though. that is a shame they have began resorting to misinformation in a sense...

I wouldn't call that resorting to to misinformation. Following that logic, that would mean we can't accept anything Ryan says about anything they sell because he is just trying to make a sale. Don't fall for that.

You'll come to identify people here on the forums and quickly realize that some users have something negative to say about everything. No joke. Its as if they only come on here to criticize post after post. Just be objective and sift through the material with a grain of salt.

 

[TampaSmitty]

I ran white lights only until I got corals. Fluvial evo lights. Started running nicrew hypereef led about a month ago. 60% blue max 10% white. I have 4 fish in a 13.5 gallon with a snail only CUC and 2 sexy shrimp. I'm running an algae reactor (only started that a couple weeks ago).

I also have a 13.5 have a bowser with 12 heads and a 4 cluster of polys. Should I be running my whites the majority of the time or my blues?

 

[TampaSmitty]

I ran white lights only until I got corals. Fluvial evo lights. Started running nicrew hypereef led about a month ago. 60% blue max 10% white. I have 4 fish in a 13.5 gallon with a snail only CUC and 2 sexy shrimp. I'm running an algae reactor (only started that a couple weeks ago).

I also have the 13.5 1 fish a 12 head bowser and a 4 head poly. Been running the whites from 8am to 6pm and run the blues for 2 hours after that till 8pm. Does that sound proper for the corals?

 

[homer1475]

BRS had an investigates series that highlighted the benefit of pods in starting a tank. Perhaps you did, as diatoms are really always going to be present and out compete the cyano / previous ugly steps

Whats the fear in uglies though anyways at this point moving forward pods & coral are happy it seems like the uglies will be outcompeted easily if presented

Yes they did that to sell algae barn products.

I havent heard that angle of that series i 10000% can understand that though. that is a shame they have began resorting to misinformation in a sense...

I wouldn't call that resorting to to misinformation. Following that logic, that would mean we can't accept anything Ryan says about anything they sell because he is just trying to make a sale. Don't fall for that.

You'll come to identify people here on the forums and quickly realize that some users have something negative to say about everything. No joke. Its as if they only come on here to criticize post after post. Just be objective and sift through the material with a grain of salt.

I'm only going to say one thing about BRS(and Yes I do buy 99% of my reefing stuff from them, have for years, and will continue to do so).

Them pushing vibrant as a cure all for the uglies.

If you don't know what that means, go have a dig through the chem forum.

 

[TheReefDiary]

I also have a 13.5 have a bowser with 12 heads and a 4 cluster of polys. Should I be running my whites the majority of the time or my blues?

For corals I run 60% blue and 15% white at peak for 8 hours. There's a 2 hour buildup and 2 hour ramp down.