What makes a mature tank mature?

[earthboy17]

I posted this on RC, and Bookfish encouraged me to take it up here.

My question is, what is it that makes a tank "mature" or "aged"? That is, besides what could be added or target fed.

I get pod supply needing time to meet demand, but is there more?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[kinetic]

For me, I feel it's when your tank is at a very stable state, and your corals have well encrusted and started growing out very well in your tank. Basically you could accidentally overfeed for a few days and nothing will die. It's all up to interpretation.

 

[Thales]

[quote author=Earthboy17 link=topic=2385.msg24201#msg24201 date=1189316025]
I posted this on RC, and Bookfish encouraged me to take it up here.

My question is, what is it that makes a tank "mature" or "aged"? [/quote]

When things stop dying or being stressed when you add them, when you aren't getting cyano or diatoms, when your rocks slow in their shedding and coralline starts growing. Basically, when everything has settled down.

That is, besides what could be added or target fed.

I get pod supply needing time to meet demand, but is there more?

Thanks,
Tom

I don't understand the last parts.

 

[sfsuphysics]

To further elaborate on what Rich said, many people (usually newer ones) in the hobby think once your tank finished that initial cycle everything is done. When in fact there will be a series of other cycles after that as all the bacteria that consumed the huge ammonia and nitrates start dying because there food source is not in as great abundance, well that death causes an ammonia spike which leads... etc, hopefully you get the picture.

Now a mature tank does not necessarily mean it's a "stable" tank, often when you hear about particular animals that are delicate you hear "mature and stable" being mentioned. You are the one who keeps the stable aspect after it's mature.

To hopefully help Rich's confusion, your pod supply does not dictate stability of a tank, that is something that could ebb and grow as any particular fish eats more, or as one particular type of pod becomes dominant, or as their food source dimiinishes or grows.

 

[bookfish]

The way I see it, there are a number of processes that occur in a "new" system that are minimized or eliminated from a mature system. Sure, we all know about the classic nitrogen cycle that takes a few months, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are actually many different chemical cycles (organophosphate cycle discussion anyone?) that have to equilibrate and since many times the stabilization of these cycles has to do with live animal/ plant populations uptaking nutrients into the food chain,it can take quite a while. These subtleties are rarely discussed among hobbyists. There also has to be a fully balanced food chain developed in the tank based on your regular maintenance. Just for example, I really want stomatellas to be my primary small grazer. they reproduce well in my systems and it represents a bunch less animals I need flown in from the tropics for my tank. Stomatella don't breed any faster than stomatella breed, no matter how much you yell at them. Trust me,I know! My "new" tank is a couple of months old at this point and I'm still getting lots of swings in microalgae type/ level. I expect this from my systems because I feed at levels that produce extremely high nutrient loads periodically. The changing types and levels of microalgae growth are expected to continue until the tank fully settles in. I consider stable algae growth to be one of the best indicators of a fully balanced system. Anyway, the stomatella population has to go through a classic "boom and bust" population curve based on whatever food is currently available in the tank. Until the algae growth settles down, the stomatella population can't correctly adjust to the regular, stable food level. The result is that they (the stomatellas) are either reproducing like mad (population insufficient for available food) or starving off (reverse situation). This means sometimes (often) the microalgae is getting an upper hand and perhaps choking out coral.
This would only be a single example of how a chemical issue translates up the food chain, essentially creating multiple "ripples" in the tanks stability which have to be accommodated for by various populations. Until these populations are established, each ripple creates an instability.These ripples are almost never encountered in the wild due to the competition for anything nutritive in the ocean, and also the vast dilution factors involved. Some of these instabilities have a very real impact on the health of a coral.