Looking for advice on adding biodiversity

[kartrsu]

I've started a new tank which is fully cycled and currently has 5 fish from my nano system. I'm still waiting on lights, but in the meantime I wanted to help with the biodiversity in the tank. When I restarted my nano back in April, I spurred an explosion of dinos because my tank was too clean. The problem still exists and I'm trying to avoid it getting a foothold in my new tank, so I'm looking into ways to add micro biodiversity to avoid the headache later on. While reef safe macro biodiversity is awesome, I mostly care about the micro stuff (bacteria, pods). I have some ideas and would love some advice!

1) Buy microdiversity packs like Live Sand Activator / WonderMud / MiracleMud / Fiji Mud and toss them into my sump.

2) Buy a couple lbs of real live rock from Gulf Live Rock, KPAquatics, etc.

3) Source some live rock from other aquarists with clean system.

Here is the catch ... I try to be very diligent about controlling what goes into my systems. I have missed some things, but have been great about 100% eliminating ich, velvet, bubble algae, aiptasia, coral parasites, flatworms, etc. What has gotten through are vermetid snails, spirorbid worms, hair, cyano, isopods, baby bristle worms, feather dusters, sponges, and a few other random worms (spaghetti, peanut maybe).

I'm trying to avoid a nuisance down the road as much as possible, so it's important that I can feel comfortable its ich / velvet free either immediately or through QT, and hitchhiker population is well controlled. I know catching everything beforehand is impossible, but I want to make an effort to stay within those parameters.

All options would be an addition in the sump.
Option 1 - looks promising, especially WonderMud. probably easier to screen for unwanteds.
Option 2 - looks risky, probably needs a decent quarantine period to see what comes out of the rocks before going in the sump, but has best biodiversity
Option 3 - also looks very promising, but depending on tank husbandry, may need to quarantine to avoid pests / parasites.

Would love some thoughts or any other alternatives I may have not considered. Trying to do it right the 3rd time around!

Thanks!!!!!

 

[WIReefer]

Personally I would add some nice old live rock to the sump I did that and I’m really happy I went that way. Tank has really improved since then.

 

[kartrsu]

Personally I would add some nice old live rock to the sump I did that and I’m really happy I went that way. Tank has really improved since then.

Thanks. You mean live rock from an older system but not necessarily sources from ocean. So like 1 yr plus rock that started dry is okay?

 

[Timfish]

Do all three.

 

[EMeyer]

Thanks. You mean live rock from an older system but not necessarily sources from ocean. So like 1 yr plus rock that started dry is okay?

Live rock from the ocean or live sand/mud from the ocean are the only sources for which I've seen any evidence of a real effect (i.e. an increase in microbial diversity). Rock from other tanks, I generally consider to be "wet dry rock" rather than live rock, unless its got lots of visible life on it.

 

[Bnutz]

I recently got some old live rock rubble from a clean local tank and my biodiversity exploded. Pods everywhere, some brittle stars, and coco worms. I put them in my new qt system and within in a week I noticed a increase in biodiversity.

 

[ChrisNH]

i cant give you results but i have wanted to increase bio diversity too. I seeded some copepods and dose phyto as a short term boost and have mud/sand/chaeto coming from ipsf next week.

like you i have striven to keep parasites out of my tank but what good is that if i end up with other problems? its a measured risk.

i definitely dont want to take the risk of introducing from another tank, but i am open to maricultured choices.

if i could do it over i would use some live rock and inverts then wait min 45 days fallow to add fish instead of the traditional fish first.

 

[kartrsu]

Thanks for the response everyone. I picked up some live rock from a local reefer, who got his from Gulfliverock. It's in a 5 gallon QT tank right now along with some chaeto. So far, I've seen sponges, pods, a bristleworm, and brittlestars. I took water from my tank with dinos after I did a clean of the sand bed. I'm certain there is a plethora of dinos in the water I added to the tank with live rock. Now it's wait and see to see if dinos lose out.

I also picked up some live sand activator and wondermud from IPSF. All this will go into my 5 gallon QT tank for a min 45 days before it hits my displays sump. It'll also give me time to investigate the unwanted hitchhikers and pests. Sigh ... I wish I did this before starting my 65 gallon. Now I'm running 5 tanks (2 display, 1 frag, 1 fish QT, and now 1 live rock QT), and all these quarantines eating up water and time to monitor.

 

[duberii]

Got an update? I just ordered the mix n match special from ipsf (which included some of the wondermud) and I'm curious to hear how it worked out.

 

[ChrisNH]

Got an update? I just ordered the mix n match special from ipsf (which included some of the wondermud) and I'm curious to hear how it worked out.

For my part is hard to say. I found a bristle worm in my Chaeto yesterday. I have an army of amphipods but no way to know if those are the ones from IPSF or from RUSALTY. I still have some hermits and some of the smaller snails. My trochus snails spawned so I have a gazillion of those but I still find some of the others once in a while.

While I have had the gamut of bad actors including algae, dinos, and more recently cyano I have plenty of coralline coming in, especially on my pumps. Lucky me. I have had no full on hair algae, just green rocks which are slowly purpling. I have had more trouble keeping nutrients up then keeping them down (hence the dinos). Only recently have I had to start managing increases (hence the cyano).

All in all I think it has worked out well. Would I be in the same place if I had done nothing? Not sure.. I have no control tank, but my system seems pretty stable and while i had a couple of losses most of the corals I did get are doing well. The Blasto IPSF sent me is doing great. I have a large mat of Chaeto now. Lots of bugs. It seems to be maturing.

 

[kartrsu]

Got an update? I just ordered the mix n match special from ipsf (which included some of the wondermud) and I'm curious to hear how it worked out.

TL;DR: adding the IPSF stuff ended up being a disaster for me that lead to months of frustration, tearing down my tank, and nursing my corals back to health.

Long version: When I added the IPSF stuff, I separated the substrate and mud water in a bucket. I added the sand to a separate part of my tank (vs mixing with existing substrate) and scattered the mud water across the tank with flow on. It only took a day for my corals to shrink up and have weird tentacle extension. My euphyllia were the hardest hit, expelling zooxanthellate, and suffering fast tissue recession. No change in any other parameters.

I was originally going to ride it out, but I couldn't see my corals continue to suffer, so I ended up pulling all my LPS/SPS out and moving them to a separate frag tank with periodic iodine dips. I left my softies, which all seemed to do fine.

Over the next few weeks the tank started to look better and better with no cyano and no dinos. The IPSF stuff for sure killed all my dinos. I thought I'd do a little trial and error and moved some lower end euphyllia and SPS back. The ones in my frag tank continued to recover and survive, but the ones in the tank with IPSF ended up melting away.

I ran an ICP test and results did not show anything out of the norm. Parameters were also all in check. Not sure what else it could be, but I suspect I introduced some bad bacterial strains into the microbiome that were not favorable for my corals. I originally tried dosing with eco-balance and microbacter to restore the balance, but I ultimately decided to trash the system and start again.

Take my experience with a grain of salt, as others have had a great experience. I do HIGHLY RECOMMEND that when you add the IPSF stuff, do it in a low flow area, or even better, the sump. I'm not sure if the mud and dusting just overwhelmed my corals whereas a more metered way of adding may help them adjust better.

I personally don't care for amphipods, but they are part of the package. I got 2 aiptasia, and a bunch of bristleworms. The pest that I still have today are these stupid hydroid jellyfish that keep popping up on my glass.

Honestly I took a huge stepback with the IPSF stuff, but with lots of patience my systems are now dino and pest algae free. I wish you the best in adding stuff, but I didn't have the best experience.

 

[CMMorgan]

What is ISPF?

 

[Hydrored]

What is ISPF?

: : : : Indo-Pacific Sea Farms : : : :

Indo-Pacific Sea Farms produces captive-bred marine life for healthier reef aquariums: invertebrates, detritivores, live sand, snail grazers, amphipods, beneficial worms, macro algae, plankton, corals, coral food and beneficial bacteria.

ipsf.com

 

[CMMorgan]

: : : : Indo-Pacific Sea Farms : : : :

Indo-Pacific Sea Farms produces captive-bred marine life for healthier reef aquariums: invertebrates, detritivores, live sand, snail grazers, amphipods, beneficial worms, macro algae, plankton, corals, coral food and beneficial bacteria.

ipsf.com

Thank you!!

 

[Jekyl]

Never heard of gulf live rock until this post. I'll be ordering some tonight. Thanks!

 

[DeniseAndy]

I got some gulf live rock last summer. Qt'ed it in separate tank for 3 months and it is great. So much life still on it. It has also just added tons to the look and diversity. Got a couple corals too. Here is pictures of it when it was in qt. About a month in. Ignore the names of files, I misidentified a couple. I did get a couple aiptasia that were taken care of with peppermint shrimp. Also one little mantis shrimp. He was great, but died when I added peroxide to a system he was moved to. Bummer.