Corals before fish? Thoughts?

[renwah]

Being my tank is 2 mos old, and being limited to my coral selection, I have decided to go with corals first then add fish later.
First, is this a good idea? I do not have a fuge set up currently. But my plan is for soft, mushrooms, and maybe some LPs first.
Second, does anyone have any frags they need to get rid of. I will pay. Figured I could get some better corals from this community than AC.
Thanks for the help!

 

[john.m.cole3]

I thought corals need some nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) to thrive. I'm still new and learning, but I see lots of fellow reefers posting about their corals dying due to nutrient levels that are too low. Also stony corals (LPS and SPS) need adequate calcium to produce their hard outer shell.

Do you have test kits for Ca, Mag, Alk, NO3, PO4?

Mushrooms on the other hand may do well without the above mentioned.

This is the right place for those kinds of questions. The members here are great!

 

[renwah]

I do have test kits for those and I have been dosing calcium to stay in the 400-420 range for Coraline algea build up

 

[fishdoc11]

If you have cycled the tank with something besides fish I think you should be fine. I have always added fish first though so take that FWIW. I would definitely try easier soft corals first and go from there.

 

[renwah]

Tank was cycled with live rock and sand and ghost feeding

 

[Tru REEF]

Only way to know is to shoot for it if parameters are in check u should be good. Mushroom will do fine as a start.

 

[renwah]

Parameters are in check as well as possible. Is a fuge needed?

 

[john.m.cole3]

no fuge is NEEDED, but the are a great way to hide all of your equipment, increase total water volume, and create a safe place for copepods to grow along w/ macroalgae

 

[fishdoc11]

Sounds like you are good to start adding some hardy corals. IMO a fuge is not needed.

 

[renwah]

So just spot feeding with reef roids or marine snow should be good?

 

[Lenny_S]

I'm starting up a new tank too. Mine is going on 5 months old, and I've been stocking mostly corals, although I did add 2 clownfish early on. So I didn't go entirely coral, but close to it. I find that I'm getting to a saturation point with the corals though. I have mostly LPS and some SPS, after some time they seem to have duller colors and less PE. If I dose a little nitrogen they perk right up, but then the cycle of exhausting the nutrients and dulling begins again. So now I'm considering adding a couple more fish before adding more coral so I won't need to dose nutrients and things balance out better.
If you plan on stocking stony corals, just be careful of the soft corals you add, many of them produce toxins and are aggressive towards other corals. I only have 2 softies and both of them are green toadstool leathers. They are hardy and pretty safe to mix with stony corals. Although even those will probably end up getting too big for the tank and will eventually need to be removed.
Hope this helps.

 

[renwah]

I don't have the lighting or water flow for SPS yet so I'm just going with softies, shrooms, polyps, and featherdusters for now. Prob gonna get 6-10 and then let it stabilize with that. Maybe a couple of fish after that. Thanks for the info on that. I will have to monitor that situation

 

[fishdoc11]

So just spot feeding with reef roids or marine snow should be good?

I think spot feeding would be a good idea if you aren't going to have fish for a while. Not sure if those things are the best things to spot feed with. Some other people on here my know better. I only fed my corals for a few months and that was years ago but I depend on fish waste and some of the fish food I feed to take care of that. Cyclopeeze was a big thing then, not sure what the best things to feed now are.

 

[renwah]

I was trying to come up with a way to keep cephalopods and cheato in the tank without a fuge. Is that possible?

 

[Lenny_S]

I was trying to come up with a way to keep cephalopods and cheato in the tank without a fuge. Is that possible?

Cephalopods are things like squid and octopus... Do you mean copepods by chance? If so just seed the tank, they will hide in the rocks and sand and reproduce just fine. You can put macros like cheato in the DT, but you'll need to do quite a bit of gardening.

 

[renwah]

Lol, yes I meant copepods. Though an octopus would be cool.
Thanks for info, I will get some and just do it that way. I didn't know if you had to pit them in the fuge for them to grow