Adding fish after Corals

[Rmorrison23]

Hey reefers,
Someone at one of my LFS was telling me that I should have all the fish I'm ever going to own before putting any designer or "expensive" corals in my tank.
Does anyone have info on this? They claim that the small bacteria swing or additional ammonia(all be it for a very short time) could kill corals. I have seen countless refers add fish later in a tanks life so I'm just wanting to verify this or not...seems crazy to not be able to get more fish after you have got some nice corals.

Thanks for the help!

 

[reef_ninja]

I can see the argument that fish poop = fertilizer = coral health, but otherwise there’s no reason to not add some corals first, assuming you’ve cycled your tank. You would have to focus on making sure your corals have sufficient nutrients though, and without having fish, that would mean dosing something.

 

[Idoc]

Sounds a bit crazy to me...

But, adding designer, expensive corals early is also crazy/risky. Best to let the system mature and stabilize. But, i don't think adding fish slowly will have a major impact on ammonia levels from fish poop. I kind of think you could impact ammonia more with a heavy feeding... did the LFS guy think you're adding a whale with mega-poops?

 

[Rmorrison23]

Sounds a bit crazy to me...

But, adding designer, expensive corals early is also crazy/risky. Best to let the system mature and stabilize. But, i don't think adding fish slowly will have a major impact on ammonia levels from fish poop. I kind of think you could impact ammonia more with a heavy feeding... did the LFS guy think you're adding a whale with mega-poops?

Haha no kidding...I was kind of confused myself, I don't really plan on adding anything too goddy yet anyway, but thought it was interesting they had said this. Tank is about 4 months past cycle, I have 7 fish and 5 corals, waterbox 220.6...still just a baby in its life lol

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I would have to say, no, the advice from the LFS is not helpful. However as others have pointed out, adding designer or expensive corals should be done after the tank has matured and you are comfortable keeping things stable. What you want to avoid, regardless of how high end the coral, is creating an imbalance. Too many fish, without enough coral to consume and utilize the nutrients being generated. Getting a nice base of coral growth can help as you start to scale up your fish, which then helps provide nutrients for your corals, and so on.

Dennis