Is there any way to end the ugly stage early

[tyreefkeeper]

Hi I'm going through the ugly stage now and my tank has 2 clowns and no corals (yet). Is there a way to end the ugly stage early or speed it up

 

[JCH]

That was my thought about growing cheato in the sump, easier removal compared to scrubbing algae off the rocks in the display.

My understanding of the reasoning to waiting on lights in the display is the allow time for a bio film to cover the rocks to lessen the surface area for gha and such to grab on and grow on the rock surface. The flip side is that you don’t give coralline a chance to grow without lights.

So what’s the secret to getting coralline to grow? I’ve had several tanks and have never had it except what came on live rock that I purchased. And then it always fades away anyway. My calcium is always in the 400’s . What am I doing wrong? Or what do I need to do differently?

 

[*unique*]

Add live rock

 

[JCH]

You are at the perfect stage to use the approach that I outline in the thread I linked. If you stay ahead of the early stage it is much easier than battling it after it has begun. Copepods like Tisbe, Apocyclops and our Harpa pods are great herbivores and tiny enough to get in and eat GHA down to the roots in even the smallest cracks and crevices.

You said you added 100 pounds of “live sand”, how much rock and what type did you add? Bottles bacteria such as a quick start product is generally for establishing your nitrogen cycle. This bacteria really doesn’t do much in terms of fighting algae growth.

I only used about 70 pounds of dry Marco rock to build a HNSA aquascape . Yeah I have brown diatoms growing now but not bad . And those tiny critters are multiplying like crazy and a lot of the brown is turning green. But not bad either. I just got a sterilizer going so I think it going to keep it at bay ? Built up my clean up crew as well . I’m wondering if I should maybe go purchase a few live rock with coralline on them at the LFS ? Really would like to get the purple growing on the rock

 

[Ocean BLou]

Live ocean rock, live ocean sand. How long has your tank been running? Which part of the ugly stage are you in? Picture of your tank may help.

I’m just out of that ugly stage , don’t waste your money on any chemicals, do more harm than good. I got the green killing machine and overnight my algae problem was gone . But for that tough stuff growing on everything I literally got a toothbrush and everyday scrubbed it off it was almost immediately replaced by the red coraline algae which is not only beautiful but lets you know your water is really good

 

[TheStrangler]

I know that its way too early to be saying anything, but a new tank I'm setting up got its first expected dino bloom. Two days later I added pods and started dosing phyto for the pods and all of the dinos disappeared within two days. I never did that pre cycle water change so nitrates are sitting around 20ppm, I've been dosing phosphates slowly for about a week and it finally registered 1ppb right as the dinos cleared up. It all could be a coincidence but I think theres no negative towards adding pods/phyto. Whether they help keep things visually clean is up for debate, but even if they don't, still undisputedly good for the tank.

All dry rock and sand. I'm adding live rock but its not arrived yet.

 

[tyreefkeeper]

Update 2 : Today I'm going to my lfs to get 2 scarlet hermits and a bottle of microbacter 7. What else should i get ?

 

[Nate Chalk]

Live ocean rock, live ocean sand. How long has your tank been running? Which part of the ugly stage are you in? Picture of your tank may help.

Yes. Will need majority

 

[Glowurm]

Hi I'm going through the ugly stage now and my tank has 2 clowns and no corals (yet). Is there a way to end the ugly stage early or speed it up

Personally been OD'ing on PODS and rotifers to the point my tank has exploded (owing to all the GHA) with life and the algae is gone. I'm at the point where i'm having to add things for my CuC to eat as the microfauna has started to dominate.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I am not going to bother read the contents of this thread, as I assume there are dozens of suggestions to buy live rock, pods, chemicals, clean up crews, dosing additives from coralline in a bottle to vodka...

Ignore almost all of it, as (at best) it will relieve you of money and at worst make a bigger mess.

Inverts are fine. Turbos and Astreas are great. Skip the crabs. A pencil or tuxedo urchin maybe. They are all decent long term tank mates.

The reality is that dry rock is going to go through this stage no no matter what you do. If I toss a hunk of dry rock or new frag plugs are any other dry dead calcium carbonate based anything into my 25 year old reef, it (every time) goes through a few months of "ugly" maturation. Diatoms, then maybe cyano, then green brown algae, etc. coralline will not grow on it and it does not start to look like the rest of the rock for many months. The surface life must mature one way or the other.

There is no easy shortcut... so just be patient.

 

[JCH]

Update 2 : Today I'm going to my lfs to get 2 scarlet hermits and a bottle of microbacter 7. What else should i get ?

I’d get a bunch of snails, those scarlet hermit crabs always die in my experience. That’s the thing about clean up crews they always need replacing because they die off, some last longer than others and some even last long ! Seems to be a crap with them but you need them anyway.