Help me stop the blooms!

[plasmacon]

I would like to ask how much fully mature live rock you have % wise? 50% mature? Out of say 50 lbs of rock, things tend to be much more stable if you ratio is 50/50. Everytime someone I know goes with 90% marco rock or dead rock, with one piece of mature rock, things are unstable for a long time. Hair algae can cover all the exposed surface... I try to keep some extra mature rock for the purpose of starting new tanks, then add dead rock back in to grow it out.

Your system does not look as though it has much diversity, micro and macro fauna. You might consider adding 20 lbs of totally mature and cured live rock, with hundreds of different species, then grow out dry rock. It is only my 2 cents, but it makes things much, much easier. If you do, you will always have a supply of these organisms... Getting a decent microscope will help you pass the time until your blooms fade away as well.

[iwishtofish]

Originally Posted by plasmacon

I would like to ask how much fully mature live rock you have % wise? 50% mature? Out of say 50 lbs of rock, things tend to be much more stable if you ratio is 50/50. Everytime someone I know goes with 90% marco rock or dead rock, with one piece of mature rock, things are unstable for a long time. Hair algae can cover all the exposed surface... I try to keep some extra mature rock for the purpose of starting new tanks, then add dead rock back in to grow it out.

Your system does not look as though it has much diversity, micro and macro fauna. You might consider adding 20 lbs of totally mature and cured live rock, with hundreds of different species, then grow out dry rock. It is only my 2 cents, but it makes things much, much easier. If you do, you will always have a supply of these organisms... Getting a decent microscope will help you pass the time until your blooms fade away as well.

Oh, not much live rock at all. Only 8lbs vs nearly 50lbs of dry rock. That 8lbs, however, was absolutely loaded with critters when I put it in, and they are slowly making it up to the DT. Some examples are: pods, bristle worms, asterinas, feather dusters, spaghetti worms, serpent stars, coralline, and stomatella. Not to mention a small population of flatworms (the type of which I still am trying to determine).

The blooms have pretty much stopped. For now!

I could consider adding more live rock, but I really would have to entirely re-do the aquascaping. This would be particularly tough because I have egg create cut to shape underneath the existing rock.