The term "mature reef" how is it classified?

[Guest vatbrew]

Ok, so I've heard the term "mature reef" thrown at me a couple times. What do you consider a "mature reef". ALL of my live rock in my 1.5 month old tank is the live rock that was in my old tank from 5 years ago(only removed from water for 30 minutes for transfer). The sand I'm using is well over 10 years old and was only removed from water approx. 30 min. I took about 40 gallons of the water from the previous owner's setup. So someone tell me how my tank isn't mature or explain what you would consider mature?

[dhoch]

Well I guess it depends on how the term is used.

 

but in general I would say a reef is probably mature at 9-12 months (for things like anemones), just my comment...

 

Now obvisouly using pre used rock and sand (nto sure I would have done the sand)... may decrease that by some, but how much... who knows.

 

Dave

[madmax7774]

I have wondered the same thing, as my current tank has only been in place for about 2 months, but the contents came from my previous tank of 1 year.

[Guest tgallo]

mature reef, corals that have been placed in there final spot as frags or cuttings or small colonys, and have grown over the (YEARS ) to the point of constant trimming/ fraging.

[Grav]

IMHO, Mature reef tank is one where the whole setup has been runing for some time (lights, filters, rock, fish, coral, inverts, sand... everything) and the tank has settled into a consistant pattern. What I'd call auto pilot.

 

A new tank is a new tank no matter what. The rock may be cured, the water aged, everything could be from one setup that was a mature tank, but once you break it all down and move it... yer starting over.

[wolfman]

i would have used new sand, that sand is no good

Edited February 27, 2007 by wolfman

[Guest vatbrew]

i would have used new sand, that sand is no good

 

How is this sand "no good" my fish and inverts don't seem to think so, nor do my water parameters.

[Rascal]

I don't agree that setting up a tank this way is the same as completely starting over from scratch. Not when the tank is filled with pods, worms, sponges, coraline, and bacteria right from the start. When I did this I never saw even a hint of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate -- and I transferred all of my livestock at the same time. I would imagine you experienced something similar. You already have a working population of bacteria on the rocks that you transferred from the old set up.

 

On the other hand, the disruption of the move definately has its effects, and it takes a while to get back the same level of stability as you had in the old tank. At least for me it did. Lots of kinks to be worked out. As far as maturity, IME the sand bed takes more than a few months to really start doing its job. I am not sure how long, but I know I can see a huge difference in mine now (7 months) compared to 3-4 months ago. Huge difference in my tank, too. I did not go through the same initial cycle as you would get when starting from scratch, but I did have some red cyano early on and a hair algae bloom that peaked around 3 months. At this point all but a few traces of the algae are gone I am seeing good growth and PE on just about all of my frags. Not sure if I would call my tank "mature" yet or not, but it's getting there.

 

The bottom line is that everyone's tank and situation is different. Look at Dandy's tank for example. I had the pleasure of seeing it at about 6 months and couldn't believe the health and growth of all the SPS he had in there. I think he recently posted after adding his 50th coral. Most reefers would struggle to keep 1/10th of that in a tank so young, but his tank looks amazing.

 

"Mature reef" probably means different things to different people. It makes more sense to me just focus on the health of the animals and quality of care you can provide and stay away from labels. If you add something and it doesn't do well, try to figure out why and fix it before you add another. If everything does great right from the start, get to work on setting up that frag tank so you can share your success with the rest of us!.

 

Just my $.02 as always.

[Guest vatbrew]

I don't agree that setting up a tank this way is the same as completely starting over from scratch. Not when the tank is filled with pods, worms, sponges, coraline, and bacteria right from the start. When I did this I never saw even a hint of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate -- and I transferred all of my livestock at the same time. I would imagine you experienced something similar. You already have a working population of bacteria on the rocks that you transferred from the old set up.

 

On the other hand, the disruption of the move definately has its effects, and it takes a while to get back the same level of stability as you had in the old tank. At least for me it did. Lots of kinks to be worked out. As far as maturity, IME the sand bed takes more than a few months to really start doing its job. I am not sure how long, but I know I can see a huge difference in mine now (7 months) compared to 3-4 months ago. Huge difference in my tank, too. I did not go through the same initial cycle as you would get when starting from scratch, but I did have some red cyano early on and a hair algae bloom that peaked around 3 months. At this point all but a few traces of the algae are gone I am seeing good growth and PE on just about all of my frags. Not sure if I would call my tank "mature" yet or not, but it's getting there.

 

The bottom line is that everyone's tank and situation is different. Look at Dandy's tank for example. I had the pleasure of seeing it at about 6 months and couldn't believe the health and growth of all the SPS he had in there. I think he recently posted after adding his 50th coral. Most reefers would struggle to keep 1/10th of that in a tank so young, but his tank looks amazing.

 

"Mature reef" probably means different things to different people. It makes more sense to me just focus on the health of the animals and quality of care you can provide and stay away from labels. If you add something and it doesn't do well, try to figure out why and fix it before you add another. If everything does great right from the start, get to work on setting up that frag tank so you can share your success with the rest of us!.

 

Just my $.02 as always.

 

Agree

[wolfman]

During transportation additional life forms may, and will more than likely, die off, increasing the amount of dead organic material present in the sand. All this organic material decomposes in the tank and may give rise to ammonia and the ensuing nitrite. I am not saying what you did is wrong but i have heard that sand goes bad after time and its a good thing to change it.

[Guest vatbrew]

i had a spike in nitrates, but that was it.

 

 

100th post!

[rioreef]

How about:

 

All equipment has been purchased, you stopped testing paramaters because there has been no change over the years, there is no more room for corals or fish, your fragging frags of frags, you have painted around the tank (twice now > wife re-decorated) or replaced the floor around the tank, etc. You get the point.

 

 

[lanman]

How about:

 

All equipment has been purchased, you stopped testing paramaters because there has been no change over the years, there is no more room for corals or fish, your fragging frags of frags, you have painted around the tank (twice now > wife re-decorated) or replaced the floor around the tank, etc. You get the point.

 

My 24-gallon tank has reached what I would call 'stability'. The water is always clear, the numbers are always good on tests, everything is growing and happy, nothing is growing that shouldn't be, and coraline is busting out all over. There have been days when I did nothing to it but enjoy it. 2.5 months. I would say it has 'reached its maturity' - i.e., the equivalent of a 21-year-old. Lots of growing to do, but an adult nonetheless.

 

My 45-gallon tank, on the other hand, is in its early teens... rambunctious, rebellious, capable of taking care of itself for short periods of time, but not yet ready to drive on its own. Capable of holding down a job - such as growing a few corals, but not yet ready for anything complex or demanding. A little brown algae, a little hair algae, some young frags and a couple of more mature corals that probably wish they didn't have to deal with it, but can handle it. I have a feeling this rather rebellious youngster won't turn 21 for quite a while, yet. It takes a village - the WAMAS village has been very helpful to me in raising this one, but I think I still have some rough times ahead. Definitely not mature.

 

bob