I start my tanks with corals only on day one these days and they do great. If you can keep your parameters stable as well as maintaining reasonable nutrients that’s just fine.
But how long until you add fish?
Some of them I don’t add fish to.
I would ad fish about a month later, I would think it would be easier to maintain water parameters. But looking. For advised from those who have been on the hobby for a while
Are you doing daily feeding to your corals ?
It is easier to add fish first and then slowly add coral. But I do think this is all overstated. If you want to add coral first and you start slowly with a couple of easy frags then it shouldn’t be a problem. Yes, fish feed the coral but there’s ways to do it without fish that are not super complicated.
I like running bacteria fed systems so I dose a little bit of bacteria with a little bit of food for the bacteria and then those two combined feed the coral. Coral also get a good proportion of their energy from your lights.
Started with dry rock and Fritz. Added ammonia to the tank and let it cycle. Then over the past month have been dosing micro life
Do you know what type of coral you might be thinking about to start with?
I agree that I don’t think anyone should just jump into corals first knee deep without really thinking it through. I don’t mean to imply that this was the easiest way to start a tank. But I do find that if someone is really interested in trying this approach to reefing that maybe trying to help them get started in a relatively approachable way helps more in the long run. I started my first tank with fish and then added coral and was super discouraged after an ich wipe out so all the tanks that have followed were started with coral only and then I caved in and introduced fish. In some ways I think nutrient balance may be easier to establish in a tank without fish and only coral as most nano people will argue. I thought they were crazy until I did more research into how to make a nano successful. So many amazing ways to start a reef!
Good points. I need to work on my manners. I can come off as judgmental by discouraging new folks to try more advanced methods, when many of them may be very well up to the task. And I wouldn’t want to discourage the next one of you!
I didn’t take it that way. I think you were doing the responsible “questioning” in trying to help. I fell deeply for this hobby and because of that have done a ton of research into the different approaches that make each tank successful and I think I’ve come up with the 3 P’s: passion, patience and perseverance, everything else seems largely fluid.
