Ep: 8 Biome Cycle Phase 2...Which of the 12 Test Aquariums Will Beat ALL of the Uglies?

[@Jotto999]

I've said this on several of your videos, but I'll say it again: I don't even keep saltwater tanks, just freshwater, but your experimental videos are *so good* and have implications for anyone in the hobby, fresh or salt.

[@thomasdirocco]

Ryan thanks so much for putting so much effort into this series and the hobby really will benefit. I think you're not getting the views you should because they aren't being uploaded every Friday so it doesn't show up on notifications or via the KZbin algorithm. Instead I think they were all uploaded then set as non private or link only. Could also set it as a premiere release too to get more views. People need to watch these!

[@BRStv]

We tried a new release type for these videos which made them available for those who wanted to binge watch and knew where to look. For everyone else, they were released each Friday. Let us know if you liked this method vs just one a week :)

[@RinaJosscy]

Even though I’m between tanks I found this video super interesting together with the previous one. I’m going to take notes and when I start a tank again I will keep this video in mind. Great great video!

[@BRStv]

Thanks, and good luck with the future build!

[@justinlee2688]

Well done, so insightful and an incredible amount of effort. Probably the most useful production ever made. Please keep going.

[@BRStv]

Thank you for the kind words. I will share it with the team. This kind of feedback is what we use to get the next project approved :)

[@ManiacalMangoes]

Agreed, amazing quality and super insightful. I feel like I should have to pay to get this haha or like it’s a well made college course.

[@ManiacalMangoes]

Loving all these videos lately, they reinvigorate my passion for the hobby and science in general.

[@BarefootPhilanthropist]

I love this series. Great work.

[@RARELYSERIOUSB]

I wish these were being released in order. Without rereleases. Great series. Hard to follow though because of this. I have to keep looking for the playlist.

[@BRStv]

Feedback noted! 😉

[@ozziegarcia6262]

Ryan this is so informative. keep it up.

[@NyteFryte]

You guys are amazing 👏 ❤️ I've learned so ooo much from these videos

[@BRStv]

Glad to be of service :)

[@nelsonscattabingus5751]

Just started into the hobby and I’m very excited to have found this channel!! Keep up the great content your efforts are very helpful to us newbie’s.

[@BRStv]

Awesome to have you and welcome to the hobby!

[@Maxher240]

This video deserves more views

[@gdr408]

Thanks to Ryan and the team at BRSTV fir breaking boundaries. If reefers can care for our animals better, nature benefits.

[@BRStv]

Thank you for supporting us and watching. It's why we do it :)

[@lisafoster4468]

I'd have been interested to see the red slime remover's effects on the microbiome. Other than that, I've been glued to this series for two days and I'm not stoppin' XD

[@AdamUS123-j7q]

Awsome Helping my tank!!

[@BRStv]

Words like this make my day :)

[@CoreysCrustaceans]

Love your videos and this helps confirm what i've believed to be true about the aquarium hobby for a long time. A robust ecosystem is the key to long term success. The more you try to fiddle with the ecosystem with stuff like massive water changes and skimmers the more you have to end up supplementing in the end. Except the supplemented product is almost always worse than the natural (like natural vs artificial phosphorus). Mechanical filtering and a refugium is all that is necessary for most setups IMO. The refugium also has the extra purpose of housing microorganism safe from predation from your fish

[@karennation3580]

This is absolutely some revolutionary stuff! Your experiments may change reef keeping in the future and I sure wish I would have watched this series before I set up my 3rd tank! I just went about the same away as my pervious two and kept lights off for 8 weeks after cycled (which is what you used to recommend) but this time I got the uglies! maybe because its a frag tank with rubble instead of sand! Its going to be hard as hell to get rid of too! My fish wont go down under the racks so I only have snails to help! Please tell me what to do! I am in a huge hurry. Do I add copepods, reef mud?

[@zacharyczternastek]

Yes. Dose the heck out of them too if you want faster results

[@xisotopex]

why was there no coralline algae growing in the tanks after 25 weeks?

[@caylibholt3849]

It would be awesome if brs started to sell cycled biomedia to help jump start new reef tanks. Especially for those with just one tank and don't have anyone who has a mature tank to get media.

[@BRStv]

This has to be the outcome of this. Hard to say when but I can't imagine that someone doesn't leverage that opportunity. Not really our wheelhouse, but if no one else steps I will push for it.

[@nealenns7869]

I have been enjoying this series, great info. One can argue some results though. 10 plus years ago when you could get real life rock at your LFS it was always wet paper shipped and half dead 2h3n it came into the LFS. The difference is the rock was normally clean and put into saltwater rock bins until it would be purchased. This could be for months so the rock was already well cured. I have always used this type of rock qnd do do long daek cure with no issues and no major pests.

[@BRStv]

The problem with talking about live rock is every LFS and online shop treated it differently, and every reefer had a million variables like coral additions after.

[@karennation3580]

Should I add chemi clean to a newer frag tank? I just left a long comment and wondering if this is cyano and not ugly stage. You said you treated for 2 consecutive weeks, so do you mean keeping it in the whole 2 weeks because t says to change water after 48 hours? If you change water after 48 hours how long do you wait to add again? What about using a uv sterilizer? This series is more about keeping it from happening at all but not sure what to do once its there! Dont get me wrong! Its fascinating and revolutionary and more then likely will change reef keeping in the future!

[@xXAXELXx21]

hello BRS team love the content. just double checking I'm not sure if it was intentional but this episode is marked as unlisted. the only way I found it was through a link from episode 7.

[@BRStv]

You found the secret link! We're formally releasing one video every Friday 😃

[@poen876]

Regarding the use of mud: do you think it might be worth spreading a thin layer of mud throughout the tank and then capping it with sand when setting the tank up? Almost like one would do with aquasoil when freshwater aquascaping? That could keep the mud out of sight, whilst dosing the tank with all the goodies it needs?

[@BRStv]

Most reefers will use mud in their sumps to keep it out of sight. That seems to be a great way to go as sumps generally see little light. Using it like aquasoil could also be an option, just not something we've really tested to be able to recommend with confidence. In theory, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[@BRStv]

In one of the next experiments we mix the mud in with the popular special grade sand :)

[@nxdevera]

As a new reefer i'd like some clarification on your cleaning. Are you brushing the slime off the rocks? Turkey baster?

[@camerongarcia3128]

How many tanks can you run off of one sump tank, or does it mattter?

[@ryandixon6428]

Have you tested with macroalage it be better outcome

[@BrianZandy]

Ryan does this change you stance on a UV sterilizer? I’m a month into cycling with lights off for another 3 months. I was going to add a sterilizer at month 4 when the lights go on but now I’m thinking it’s best to keep it off for the first year maybe?

[@tomg5405]

It kills all the good also better never use it until you have a big issu and never when you start,put a lot of corals,fish clean up crew,life sand and stone,good bacteria and you can start now.but keep all parameters in check

[@BRStv]

Based on this experience and the data collected I think I would wait until after the cycle and ugly phase to start the UV. UV less about the uglies and more about fish parasites. I would call this opinion, though and one that is evolving.

[@tomg5405]

That part of the experience is better than the first one.I'm sure in the first one with the dark phase you killed a lot of the good one also and so slowed down the things in the tanks with life stones and sand.Dark phase is good only with non thriving things

[@BRStv]

The insta coral tank was lights on from day one. it is an interesting contrast to the other tanks but not sure if it is one that a lot of people would want to replicate.

[@tomg5405]

@@BRStv yes but just small corals are not enough, put cycled life rock, life sand, good bactéria, corals and a good cleaning crew and the we will see ;-) As I'm very impatient, I started all my tanks directly or after a few days. For me a dark phase is good only when you not have life things. If you put life rocks.. The dark phase may kill some bad but a lot of good photosynthetic also. If you put some balance stone or sand why create a dysbalance turning of the lights, this is sure it will Change a lot of things

[@Kurutzkraft]

So what’s the best way out of all of these ways to set it up? Dark rubble and live sand?

[@BRStv]

That was the one I liked the most in the end. However, the next phase of the experiment looks at where do we find a replicable source of dark rubble?

[@AdamUS123-j7q]

What where the nutrient levels in the tank?

[@BRStv]

Nutrient levels aren't something that were closely monitored during this test. Each tank was getting the same input and output (feeding and water changes via Neptune DOS), so it seemed outside of the scope of what we were trying to test for.

[@BRStv]

In the next phase of experiments, we will monitor this.

[@kaldenkyulo4100]

Won’t all the tank end up having the “insta coral” (best) biome level since they will all have coral sooner than later ?

[@captainlevi7341]

Does anyone know if I can move my established reef tank into a bigger tank without having to start all over

[@joeskeen4623]

Grabs popcorn

[@BRStv]

:)

[@michaelross5674]

So the eco pods will help with algae

[@MerkDolf]

😂👌 👍

[@Botzz28]

I wish you guys would do a really in depth experiment like this but with Dino’s. Dino’s have become a huge problem in our hobby because of the lack of biodiversity with the majority of reefers starting with dry sterile rock. We still have no sure fire answer or solution to Dino’s when they show up. It’s 2022 and this horrible algae is still winning battles throughout our wonderful beautiful hobby chasing people away unfortunately. Would be nice to finally put a stop or this stuff and figure it out.

[@D.hodge87]

Did you try and spread the bane of the hobby known as aiptasia?

[@BRStv]

that didn't make the cut but I doubt biome would help a lot :)

[@timothyperez9069]

Why do the clown fish do that weird shake

[@ReefandDive]

Sorry, Ryan, I admire your great effort and good will, but this methodology of testing things is too extremly opposed to the scientific method for me to agree with any conclusions.

[@BRStv]

Thanks for the kind words, encouragement, and challenge to be the best we can be. When you review the results, consider the mission. We are attempting to help reefers be successful, reduce failures and protect the fish and corals that rely on us. Most of the existing information on this topic is personal anecdotes with limited documentation or comparisons. In phase one of this experiment, we shot wide with 12 approaches, visually documented the journey, collected data, and shared interpretations. That information will be used to create phase two and take what we believe we learned to hone it down to six redundant experiments. There may even be a phase three where we take what we learn from that to shoot for a 12 out of 12 success with a very specific approach. The mission isn’t designed to be recognized by scientific journals. It’s to help reefers by documenting, exploring, and sharing experiences. Hopefully, inviting the community to share their own interpretations and sharpen the steal. The pursuit of absolutes and undeniable peer-reviewed studies often holds us back simply because it is very unlikely that anyone will ever put that level of effort into home aquariums. Scientific journals will always be focused on the ocean, which only sometimes applies to closed artificial ecospheres run by hobbyists. If that's the case, how do we take steps forward regardless of the hurdles? I think of Theodore Roosevelt. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Join us in the great enthusiasms, lets's take risks together and know the triumph of high achievement together :)

[@ReefandDive]

@@BRStv thanks a lot for the very long answer. I understand pretty well how hard it is to do this type of test. As I come from a biological background my worry is just that we come to an early conclusion that so often proves itself wrong later. On a 12/12 or maybe 6/6 comparison with less variables I believe the conclusion would be much more solid. The current test could maybe serve as a guide to that. But anyway congrats for the great effort!