Establishing a Healthy Microbiome in a New Aquarium Using Live Rock

[Jgoal55]

Thanks for the replies.

I’m not having any problems per se other than some occasional bacterial blooms and nuisance algae but all of it I can attribute to over feeding and lack of water changes as I get the tank up and running and as I add fish and entice them to eat. None of the problems I’m having worry me as I know once I stabilize the tank, my feeding, nutrients, and parameters will all find their equilibrium.

that said, this while micro-biome field really makes a lot of sense to me, but if the best way to get there is by adding coral, i’ll be doing plenty of that eventually.

 

[MnFish1]

Thanks for the replies.

I’m not having any problems per se other than some occasional bacterial blooms and nuisance algae but all of it I can attribute to over feeding and lack of water changes as I get the tank up and running and as I add fish and entice them to eat. None of the problems I’m having worry me as I know once I stabilize the tank, my feeding, nutrients, and parameters will all find their equilibrium.

that said, this while micro-biome field really makes a lot of sense to me, but if the best way to get there is by adding coral, i’ll be doing plenty of that eventually.

The Microbiome will become IMHO what the microbiome will become - based on what you add. And when you add new things - it may be that whatever changes (if any) occur to the microbiome - will be negative as compared to positive. It is an interesting topic.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

The Microbiome will become IMHO what the microbiome will become - based on what you add. And when you add new things - it may be that whatever changes (if any) occur to the microbiome - will be negative as compared to positive. It is an interesting topic.

Since it definitely changes over time maybe it would be beneficial to add a new piece of live rock or two every several months or so

 

[MnFish1]

Since it definitely changes over time maybe it would be beneficial to add a new piece of live rock or two every several months or so

From what I read on this site - people add new stuff every month or so already - on average. IMHO - the microbiome that we 'end up with' - is the one that is most in symbiosis in OUR individual system. I'm much more concerned about the macro-biome - i.e. the fish that are incompatible, the coral that are releasing toxins killing their neighbors. Eventually - they will also be teh ones that 'survive' whatever conditions we provide. Again - just my opinion.

 

[Timfish]

What a cool thread! Thanks to all the contributors.

I started my tank (240g total volume) with dry rock mostly because I wanted a very specific aquascape which required assembly and I couldn't do that with live rock because it took so long to complete.

I also used Caribsea “live sand.” I also added pods and microbacter7. Then waited for my cycle to complete and added snails and hermit crabs. I did not add any fish to the aquarium for over 6mos.

in hindsight, I wish I would have added some high quality live rock into the tank to “seed” the dry rock, but I never did.

that said, almost a year after adding the first bit of life, while I still have only 2 entry level corals in my tank (doing very well so far), I have added several fish (about 10 total - 5 of which are medium to X-Large tangs). My ugly stage was very short-lived and now I mostly have the green hard algae all over the dry rock with spots of coraline starting to show up everywhere.

what would be the best way to diversify the micro biome today? Should I just sneak in a few pieces of live rock? (I would first have it in QT at 80.6+ for at least 45days)

I would say it's never too late to add wild or maricultured live rock. Or maricultured or wild live sand either, as demonstrated by PaulB's system which gets regular infusions of wild live sand which he collects himself. Most importantly wild or maricultured live rock will introduce the cryptic sponges essential for recycling DOC . From what I've seen over the decades maricultured or wild live live rock will introduce multiple species of sponges while relying on stuff from other tanks will not have the diversity as over time diversity will change or be lost. (This is an interesting paper showing how microbial diversity changes even with a tightly controlled system.)

I wouldn't expect much to be lost during your given quarintine. I do see variations in dieoff, sometimes almost nonexistant, sometimes a fair portion of the macro organisms die off but there's always quite a bit survives. I don't normally have fish in with new rock during the quarantine but I will have a shortspine urchin or two along with sally lightfoot crabs and/or larger hermits like thin strip hermits. To help feed everything I'll drop in small amounts of pellet food for the hermits and crabs.


FWIW coraline algae comes in a variety of colors and it sounds like the "green hard algae" is likely a species of corlaline.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Thanks @AquaBiomics. Great article! I appreciate that someone is applying scientific methods directly to hobby related questions and posting the results in ways that I can understand.

 

[MnFish1]

The problem is that there is no real answer as to whether the changing 'diversity' is a positive, negative, or neutral. IMHO - it's a neutral - and doesn't mean much. But - perhaps Aquabiomics has data suggesting that more diverse tanks 'do better' - or that after adding 'diversity' - tanks do better. To me that would be interesting

 

[Double monti 61]

That was very long winded I personally have always believed that live rock is better than dry rock. I do believe that people have a misconception that live rock will introduce harmful organisms into their systems.I believe the benefits outweigh the possible consequences.

 

[Jgoal55]

I do believe that people have a misconception that live rock will introduce harmful organisms into their systems

it’s not really a misconception though, right?

It’s definitely possible live rock (or anything with life on it) can introduce harmful organisms into an aquarium. That’s the whole point of quarantining. While everyone should do what’s best for them, personally, I think that if it’s possible, everything should be quarantined, including live rock.