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Interesting reading.I like Glennf's systems & his philosophy about how to set up & run a tank & thought you may like to consider his procedure for start-up Katrina?
I cut some bits from his web page, simple stuff, but sometimes overlooked - http://dsrreefing.com/fulldsr/
The Full DSR start:
In the DSR start ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate spikes are undesirable. During these spikes a lot of encrusting dies, rewarding you with a flourishing green algae carpet. The worst thing to do is to dump a large amount of live rock into the system at any time.
Many encrusting will die and nutrient peeks will be inevitable. I prefer gradually seeding the system with small batches of live rock.
Prevent algae growth:
- zero nutrients and add them yourself when you need them, thereby minimize nutrients spikes and speeding up cycling time.
- control lighting to minimize nuisance algae growths (no lights first 2 weeks)
- scaping with dead/cured rock and gradually adding small batches of fresh life rock speeds up the seeding process without the nutrients peaks
During the start-up minimizing nutrients is essential, because adding them in this stage will only fuel algae growth.
NO3 and PO4 supplementation is only needed for corals (with defficïency symptoms) and only when the algae’s are under control by the cleaning crew (snails/urchins/tangs)
ignore NO3+ and PO4+ supplementation during start-up phase or change targets to 0,0 ppm.