Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoaelite
Two common Reef Aquarium myths/ misconceptions;
-"Live sand" in a bag can reduce your cycle time.
FALSE; The stuff sold in wet bags claiming to be live only contains encysted bacteria, there are no other critters (worms, bristlestars, sand sifters). At 3X the price of regular sand your best off to buy a bacterial supplement and find a buddy that will let you take a couple handfuls of REAL live sand. Bagged live sand is about as effective as curing your cycle as Head-on is effective at curing your headache.
-"Transferring someone’s good water will help me with my cycle."
FALSISH; Very little bacteriobiomass exists in your water column, doing water changes is pivotal in cycling as it removes excess waste stabilizing your system. Your best bet is to use newly mixed salt water, this way you reduce the chance of introducing pathogens from someone else’s tank. In addition this ensures the water your adding is free of nitrate, nitrites and NH3.
Hair algae is a pain as manual removal usually results in a stalk still attached to the rock allowing the algae to grow back. It can also grow on lower levels of nutrients making it difficult to starve.
If the rock is small it could be removed, you could also take it out and scrub it thoroughly but this will cause your tank to cycle again.
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Dude, I love your science. Is that a weird thing to say?
But seriously, bang on.
I've been doing a metric sh*t ton of research in to phosphates recently for some soil analysis I need to do for my masters, and I'd also toss in there that certain nutrients like phosphate are much more dynamic and complicated than any of our crappy little hobby test kits can reveal. This rock that you are using very well may be contributing to the algae problem, but there's just about no way of knowing whether that's going to be an issue with any one kind of rock until you start using it. Are you using a phosphate absorbing media?