I don’t think people realize how revolutionary all this information is. Amazing series.

You guys truly are, single handedly, pushing this hobby forward. When I first got into reefing, it happened to line up exactly with the weekly releases of the 52 Weeks of Reefing series. It was probably the best source of reefing knowledge I had access to at that point. That year I battled dinos and tried literally every treatment under the sun with no success. Hurricane Irma hit Florida shortly after and we had to evacuate. With the county not letting us back in and over 10 days without power, my tank completely died. I tore down and exited the hobby, swearing only to get back into it when a cure for Dino’s existed. I’m in the process of setting my new tank back up (fearful of encountering a dino problem again) and now this series is released. It really flips what I thought I knew on its head, in that it’s more a symptom of a problem rather than a problem itself that must be eradicated. Equilibrium is what we should strive for. I don’t think people realize yet how foundational the knowledge gained here is going to be. Thank you BRS.

This is why I buy from BRS supply!! Everyone using this information and learning from all there videos should do the same they're pricing is great as well. All this amazing content throughout the years and the way they truly care should be the only place you buy products!!

I was already a fan of copepods but now I know I will seed them ahead of time in my new tank!

How are these videos not getting 200,000 plus views? This is the type of info every marine aquarist should be looking at!

This series came at the perfect time as I'm getting ready to set up a new tank..have tank, rock lights and pump but waiting to see how to start. Kind of hard for me but this is that ounce of prevention

Your channel is the single source of advice I give anyone who wants to get started, anyone who has an issue or anyone who just wants to learn more about the facts of reef keeping. Your devotion and investment to the hobby is amazing, bordering on if not already entering into the conservation sphere. I’m sure you inspire thousands of keepers to expect more from themselves and give them the confidence that they can graduate from casual hobby keepers to serious amateur and pro keepers. Thank you so much.

Oh my god, u guys spent so much time and effort in setting up individual tanks and testing these ecopods, not jus days its weeks, this s truely passion, salute to all the efforts, its like deep dive Phd in reef tanks❤

*Crowd Roars & Cheers! Applause! Applause! * Great work, I can't wait to see the final results and protocols that come out of the next experiment! I'm sure your excitement level is through the roof armed with this new insight & informative data, and all the positive potential it brings. Unfortunetly, Hindsight is hellaciously hurting my eyes now, when looking at my tank started 6 months ago.

I shut down my reef tank in 2012. But I still sub to BRStv because of the pure production and educational value. I completed one of my bucket list things with a trip to the Monaco Aquarium. So many reef tanks. But this series is going to make me get back into the hobby. I really appreciate this series. I feel it will be one of those video series that will change the way everyone approaches the break-in period.

Simply, Thank you to the whole team behind this. You are the Julian Sprung of our era all together pushing Randy and the hobby to such a new level.

This makes me happy I dosed pods while dark curing my rock and added an extra batch once the tank was running. I never had diatoms but did have to wait out film algae and currently dealing with cyano.

I'm glad that you are going to continue these experiments to give a path to success

My pod population in my fuge explodes, decreases and explodes again. I can usually tell when it starts to diminish when the glass on my refugium starts to get a film. When they explode again they clean the glass really well. I keep my refugium exposed to look at it. Sometimes it's more interesting watching that than the main tank.

Best biome series!

This is cutting edge science aimed at making our hobby that much more accessible and a beautiful tank attainable for everyone. Bravo!

This is Jaubert-level of research! I really, really loved this series.

Ryan's new style of presentation is phenomenal!

I'm guessing perfect cycle as - One of the dry rock or Real Reef - Ocean Direct Sand - Dark Rubble in the sump from donor tank - Jar or 2 of Copepods at the start - Clean up crew/ Utilitarian Fish - Possibly extended lights out period, not sure about this or corals from the start to introduce some Biome also?

I just got through the ugly phase in my 25 gallon and all this new info makes me want to upgrade to a much larger tank now

This marks a key change in the hobby, excited for the finale.

if you do this again I’d love to see the effect of gulf live sand with its worms & microfauna in addition to the live rock. it would be interesting to run the same experiment again but with addition of live sand and algae eating animals in some tanks but not in others. I’m also interested in seeing how adding a lot of coral would impact outcomes vs adding just a little bit of coral. within the planted tank hobby you do an initial heavy planting to try and keep algae from gaining a foothold & I wonder if this concept would translate. I suspect it would. adding or not adding phyto would also be cool to see but you may have done something like that before. on a separate note I’d love to see an experiment done with trying to form a cryptic zone in a sump or even a canister filter and dosing silica to try and encourage sponge growth. I’d expect it to use a lot of DOC if you got good sponge growth and I wonder if this could mitigate the potentially negative impacts of DOC (studies indicate too much DOC may negatively impact corals) from refugiums.

Amazing work guys, thank you!!

Cannot wait for this next episode!!

Amazing quality content here. Can you make a Dino comparison video? Of what gets rid of Dino? Like diatom vs copepod vs bacteria?

I’ve followed you all for a long time. Forgot you had two channels on KZfaq now.

Fantastic series! I sure wish I would have watched this before I set up my new frag tank! Things sure change in 4 years which was my last tank set up! I have set two tanks up and NEVER had the ugly phase and added corals early! Therefore I didn't watch many new video's! I went about it the same way which was not to turn lights on for a few months! Didint work this time! Could this be because its a frag tank and I used no live sand? Actually I just recalled I didint use live sand in my second! Anyway my frag tank is rubble an big bio balls, coral skeletons, frag plugs from my sump ect and red film all over the rocks so I am unsure if I introduced it from my zoas! There is some film on them (zoas) but dosnt respond to chemi clean! UGGHH I am so mad that I didnt peroxide dip them first! What the heck do I do now? I added a bunch of snails! can I add just one bottle of copepods to the 20 gallon long sump less tank. I have to move some corals and fast to this tank! I dont even know how I can clean the tank because its larger pieces of rubble ect! I am now wishing I added sand but I have heard people use rubble in a frag tank when they have no sump! Should I beat the rubble down into tiny pieces? I am desperate!

Are these videos intended to be unlisted? It's a bit hard to find them.

Try the red phyto plancton against cyano,it helped me in a few days every time I put it. Probably out competition. Some bacteria and increase in phosphate strangely seems also to help

What a wonderful ride this is!

Fantastic information. who knew pods...

Very curious on your thoughts about using a acclimation mode on your lights to help combat the ugly stage in your cycle ramping up the lights very slowly over a 10 week period for example would have to help keep the photosynthetic organisms at bay while giving the combating bacteria a chance to grow thrive and feed off of what does grow during acclimation

Would be good to have multiple close ups of all these organisms and a discussion of what they are, how to get rid of them, or as you are noting prevent them. But closer views and more careful descriptions of all the pests and all the healthy critters would be invaluable to all.

Thanks for the great info.

Can’t wait to see the next phase.

Good info.

This has been a great series! So informative. When will the next one be released? How many more are coming?

Is there any chance you can teach us how to culture pods at home ? In the uk and we don’t have anything as amazing as algae barn

Woop WOOP! Cleanup crew is here!

So what week would you recommend adding the pods. Before the cycle is complete? Right After the cycle is complete? When the light turn on for the first time?

Great info

Just setup a 90g with dry live rock, ocean direct sand, seeded pod pack and sps lights from the get go!

My first tank went pretty smooth via sheer dumb luck but after this series I'm hoping my next tank will start better and without so much help from the luck part

This has been helpful info on these couple videos. I’m a newb getting back Into the hobby. Living in San Diego 20 years ago the live rock was real rock. Now I can’t find it. It’s all man mad life rock that’s been sitting in tank “curing” but it’s not the same. There zero critters or life. And I cannot find the chunkier Arag alive just fine sand or the oolite. It’s weird it’s So different now

Gulf was my favorite. I love the Sponges... Also possible that the ecopods water has a large amount of cyano in it, Essentially dosing it to every tank

Just started a new nano tank, IM 14g peninsula AIO. I'll be putting a jar of eco pods in long before i add any other livestock now and just feed them phyto for the first month while they get settled in.

I've seen countless videos and talk about these pods, and I'd like to get some, but the one thing NOBODY will ever tell you is how many jars to get for your tank size.... 🤔

How do pods cope with a sump based filter roller, presumably they end up trapped right?

These tanks feel like mine, for the past year with Dino’s and Hair algae swapping back and forth, very frustrating, going to keep the hair algae and just get a Lettuce nudibranch and let him live his best life

Dosing pods, do you remove the filter socks?

So would you say the best combination would be real reef rock, ocean direct sand, and a container of Ecopods? From the reviews, the dark cured rubble would be the best option for rock, but not everyone has access to that option.

7 years ago I started my first 55g reef tank and quickly upgraded to a 90 with A sump right as brs did fuge amd marine pure tests.. while preparing for the upgrade, the lfs sold me the marine pure box and stuck the giant block in their system sump for 3.5 weeks. Between that and the 160Flora lighting my chaeto.. I went 5.5 years into the hobby Wondering.. "what is this 'phase of ugliness' You speak of?" My New tank ..got lit for sps.. and Now.. .. I know. - The End.

All these weeks of testing and some mentions of manual cleaning but what about water changes?

"Large ugly armies" -Things Ryan says

When will an episode finally come out it has been like 3 weeks! Is something bad going on?

How did it go in the long run?

Did you feed each tank with Ocean Magik also ?

I think your causing a nutrient spike by also adding the 16 bottles of water in which the copepods came. The spike isn´t caused by the pods processing the diatoms. Have you ever tested the water in these ecopod jars? I think your answer lays there....

Hi BRStv. Great video series. In my country, I can only get Tigger copepods from 'pest free' provider. Is this enough or I should search for some other species of pods?

i understand it is different type of pods being used but locally i can get my hands are the one from Reef nutrition and also Algen . which one should i get ?

So would copepods and live phyto be the best balance?

I have three different types of rock in my tank, all with the same flow and lighting, but diatoms/algae do not seem to be growing on one particular rock, even though the sand around has it, and so do the other three rocks... anyone have an idea what is going on? why this would be?

One question for those of us introducing this method: Dr Tim’s fish-less cycle with lights off and covered reef, adding Coraline strains on day 15, adding pods and one small fish on day 20, removing the cover and adding cleanup crew on day 30, LPS lights on day 60 Does it make sense?

How can i avoid all the ugly phases in a brand new reef tank that im about to cycle ?

Was that aptasia on the marine pure tank??

nice series. i have a question though. with adding 16 jars per tank dont you also add allot of water? what is in those jars besides pods?

Like all nature if we think about the entire food Web step by step before adding fish the issues most face will not have to face them anymore I'm new to reefing however I have kept freshwater for many years I never find myself needing to clean..yes that sounds bad however nature is a balanced ecosystem where if I have a boost of food source for my copepods then their population increases to meet the demand the problems subsideand so do the micro invertebrates in number the fish love eating the live food that naturally grows in the aquarium it livens the tank up dramatically they are active hunters and gives any tank that much needed burst of energy and life, as long as you remember life is a transformation of energy then you are able to feed slightly less the fish become more healthy and there are no explosions of problems what you will end up with is equilibrium, knowing hoe nature works my reef tank is cycled and copepods and brine shrimp have been added noting else..I feed these little guys on crushed flake thier numbers are growing and I'll allow them to find the very best spaces to reproduce in a protected area of my coral rockery when I do add fish the ones in poor areas will ofc become hunted till they are no more the ones that do not will attract the ones that are left to safer areas of my tank encouraging self presentation within a safe area of the tank, the flow of the water allowes some to be jetted into the main spaces of the tank to become food but knowing this information not overstocked the aquarium is key to keeping equilibrium like humans ate too many for our natural habitat we find suffering and declines from famine as food sources dwindle..keep these things in mind any you'll never have a problem with any of your aquariums

What do you mean by 4 week dark period? Just no lights or blocking all light with cardboard and whatnot?

The ugly period really just doesn't bother me like it use to its just nature doing its building blocks and works its way through the time line

Algaebarn sales 📈😆

Did these tanks get water changes weekly?

Should I add copepods to my new tank?

Although I appreciate this video so much, the results that they reveal are kind of disappointing. There is no "magic bullet" in something as incredibly complex as a reef tank ecosystem. Yes, pods eat stuff but then different things explode and crash and months later you've got a tank that looks horrible in some other way than you had before, or maybe just the same. My son's tank has a really stubborn hair algae problem. I was hoping that some variety of pods would clear it, and now after watching the progression of all of these tanks I still have no idea what to do.

Wouldn’t a 4 week dark period kill coral? Definitely feel copepods and amphipods are key to healthy tanks.

week 29? jesus thats 7 months

were is the next episode?

Cmon man. Where's the follow up......please?

😂👌 👍

IMO, this whole "then we cleaned the tank" step alters the results. Would've been better to have left the tanks alone to see how things ended up own their own without intervening with a tank cleaning.

It’s shocking how those diatoms and cyano take off so easily. Wtf is happening in America. Lol. Have three tanks and never have I ever had problems like that. Brown algae in the smallest tank, green, too. But other than that, just the typical film algae, little thing four snails can handle, and that’s it.

Next step. BRS installs giant ocean algae scrubber and prevents global warming saving us all…

Pods = nutrients. Nutrients = pods?

I would rather have cyano, instead of diatoms, from what I understand... oh well, it looks like I have diatoms...

Maybe I'm missing something.... I'm not understanding what's "new" here.... People have been seeding their tanks for decades....

.....so there's no winning here is there?