Will my ugly stage be faster with new tank

[LxHowler]

I’m starting a knew tank as my old one has quite literally fallen to pieces, no leaks but it was close.

I’m going from a 90l cube to a 180l reefsys.

My question is will my ugly stage go faster in the new tank? I will be starting with new sand and adding some new dry rock aswell as transferring all of the rock and filter media from my old tank, along with the pair of clownfish that currently live in the 90l. I’m expecting an ugly stage as I’m using dry sand and new dry rock but will it take aslong to get through as it did when I started my first tank?

 

[AustinBabler]

I would think it would get through the uglies faster since you’re taking established rock that has a good bacteria base colonized on it. The dry sand would scare me most in your scenario. To me that seems like a lot of surface area for good bacteria to establish dominance over some less then desirable types. It could be done though with the help of some fritz bottled bacteria or maybe microbacter7. Hopefully someone more seasoned chimes in. I only start new systems with caribsea live sand and that still gives me issues.

 

[LxHowler]

I would think it would get through the uglies faster since you’re taking established rock that has a good bacteria base colonized on it. The dry sand would scare me most in your scenario. To me that seems like a lot of surface area for good bacteria to establish dominance over some less then desirable types. It could be done though with the help of some fritz bottled bacteria or maybe microbacter7. Hopefully someone more seasoned chimes in. I only start new systems with caribsea live sand and that still gives me issues.

Yeah I wanted to get some live sand but everywhere I have been to recently has not had any, it’s all sold out online on my usual places aswell. I was offered a bag of af bio sand but I think the grains are small and not great for high flow. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong and I’ll take that instead

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Good bacteria is your friend, go through the BRS TV, install Trigger Pods and Apex Pods, feed them with phyto. You could use some of your old sand for seed for the new sand.

 

[Lavey29]

It will be more manageable but still unavoidable.

 

[AustinBabler]

Yeah I wanted to get some live sand but everywhere I have been to recently has not had any, it’s all sold out online on my usual places aswell. I was offered a bag of af bio sand but I think the grains are small and not great for high flow. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong and I’ll take that instead

I’d stay away from small grain sand and high flow haha I screwed up and got 1 bag of caribsea Fiji pink which is the size I like then the other was Carib sea Bahama Oolite and that’s the fine stuff. It was in the Fiji pink stack and didn’t notice until I got 2 hours back home. Never again. It’ll tack down after a few months but man that first couple months was rough

 

[exnisstech]

If your using established rock I don't think the uglies should be too bad. As mentioned maybe a bottle of fritz 900 to jump start and dose some microbactor 7 for a while. I started a tank 10 months ago using fritz 900 and dosing MB7 and all dry rock and barebottom. I did add a tray of rock rubble from an established sump. I had very little nuisance algae / bacteria.
On the past I've used caribsea arag alive because I like the grain size but I still rinse it or it clouds the water too badly so it's not raelly live when I'm done cleaning it.

EDIT : I love the look of Figi pink but it gets blown around in my tank. I keep one tank with sand for my haddoni and I just removed the Figi pink and replaced it with arag alive. It all depends on the tank set up and flow which sand works best. My tank with sand is smaller (reefer 170) with higher flow.

 

[crabgrass]

Curious how this is going. I just something similar - started a new tank with 85 lb of dry rock, 80 lbs of dry sand and 15 lbs of ocean rock. I pre-cycle the dry rock for 30 days so it was already through the nitrogen cycle before it went into the DT.

I got Diatoms 10 days after putting everything in the tank — which I feel is pretty quick. They cleared up within 4 days. I am waiting for the next round of something

 

[Lavey29]

Curious how this is going. I just something similar - started a new tank with 85 lb of dry rock, 80 lbs of dry sand and 15 lbs of ocean rock. I pre-cycle the dry rock for 30 days so it was already through the nitrogen cycle before it went into the DT.

I got Diatoms 10 days after putting everything in the tank — which I feel is pretty quick. They cleared up within 4 days. I am waiting for the next round of something

I think you will still get various ugly stages the first year but they will be manageable because you jump started your biome.

 

[LxHowler]

Curious how this is going. I just something similar - started a new tank with 85 lb of dry rock, 80 lbs of dry sand and 15 lbs of ocean rock. I pre-cycle the dry rock for 30 days so it was already through the nitrogen cycle before it went into the DT.

I got Diatoms 10 days after putting everything in the tank — which I feel is pretty quick. They cleared up within 4 days. I am waiting for the next round of something

I got pretty similar things happen. I had diatoms appear around day 8 or 9 and they disappeared in about 3 days. I did also add a load of pods that might have helped with this.
I currently have some bright green algae covering the new rock but this algae hasn’t grown on the cycled rock from my old tank and I wouldnt say it has taken over or caused any issues other than not looking very nice. I do suspect that because I didn’t cure the new rock it could have caused a nutrient spike in the tank and my nitrates are at 25 and they usually ran around 7.

Everything has survived the move and my anemones actually seem happier than ever, they have started to open wide and the bubbles are coming back on them

 

[Tired]

Yep- that'll happen. You get a largely stable tank that has a lot of new terrain for pest algae to run rampant on. It'll tend to confine itself to the new rock, and should sort itself out sooner than it would in a pure dry rock tank, since you have (hopefully) plenty of added biodiversity.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I’m starting a knew tank as my old one has quite literally fallen to pieces, no leaks but it was close.

I’m going from a 90l cube to a 180l reefsys.

My question is will my ugly stage go faster in the new tank? I will be starting with new sand and adding some new dry rock aswell as transferring all of the rock and filter media from my old tank, along with the pair of clownfish that currently live in the 90l. I’m expecting an ugly stage as I’m using dry sand and new dry rock but will it take aslong to get through as it did when I started my first tank?

I did something similar but used a mix of dry rock and live rock from TBS… the uglies lasted maybe 2-3 weeks.