fallow coral QT users, do you dose N/P?

[afex]

i'm working to find a dependable setup for 76 day fallow QT before introduction into display. i'm finding that the sps corals seem ok for about 2 weeks, and then begin to lose color and exhibit health issues.

i'm curious about any other fallow QT owners and your process to keep the corals healthy, not just alive, for 10 weeks. please share your successful fishless SPS QT setups and processes!

my setup is:
- 20 gallon long
- kessil a360x (same as display), tuned with par meter for sps range
- heater
- eheim HOB filter
- hydor koralia nano powerhead
- sand, no rock, frag rack

i've been monitoring and dosing soda ash in order to keep alkalinity up, but am wondering if the health issues were due to the "sterile" nature of a system with corals only. didn't focus on nitrate/phosphate.

 

[Nick Steele]

Broadcast feeding reefroids of some other coral food might help. I went fallow in my DT for 90 days to kick ich and corals actually did the best the have since I started the tank 8 months ago (could be many reasons though). I broadcast feed reefroids twice (Monday and Wednesday) and spot feed corals twice (Tuesday and Thursday) during most of the 90 days. I never got any nitrates but it kept my phosphates at .03-.08 so I was happy and corals seemed to be as well.

 

[afex]

thanks for the tip! i did experiment with amino acids before thinking about N/P but didn't see direct evidence of healthy reaction. in your case, i do wonder since it was the display as opposed to a QT, what impact the slight maturity of the tank before going fallow had.

does anybody out there keep a dedicated fallow coral QT and can offer some advice? thanks!

 

[Williamson’s Reef]

I do a 40-50% water change in my coral QT tank from my main tank water. I was doing it biweekly but have gone to weekly. As it’s full of coral now. I test my water from my main system before the water change to make sure all parameters are inline. I also feed the QT coral food twice a week. Theres no fish in it. I just had my first round of coral added to it make the 77 days with no losses. The waiting is the hardest part. I have some nice sticks in there now. I’m praying they make it the 77 days.

 

[jda]

I dose ammonium in mine when I otherwise am not feeding fish. This will take care of the nitrogen. If super sterile, some P might help, but some sort of food will get it in there too and maybe some coral can use it. I am not worried about ich or any of that, so I do keep shrimp, snails and other inverts in my sometimes-fallow coral QTs and I do feed them which is usually enough P, but not always enough nitrogen.

If you have a good biological filtration system, ammonia/ammonium is better that nitrate since micro algae (think dions/zoox) cannot process nitrate and need to get their nitrogen from ammonia/ammonium. You cannot add too much ammonia at once and you have to do it slowly.

 

[afex]

I do a 40-50% water change in my coral QT tank from my main tank water. I was doing it biweekly but have gone to weekly. As it’s full of coral now. I test my water from my main system before the water change to make sure all parameters are inline. I also feed the QT coral food twice a week. Theres no fish in it. I just had my first round of coral added to it make the 77 days with no losses. The waiting is the hardest part. I have some nice sticks in there now. I’m praying they make it the 77 days.

glad to hear you are having success! my current plan is to adjust my display auto water-change system, so that the waste goes into the coral QT, and then to the drain from there. my hope is that by keeping my display params in check, the QT will be stable by default.

 

[Williamson’s Reef]

glad to hear you are having success! my current plan is to adjust my display auto water-change system, so that the waste goes into the coral QT, and then to the drain from there. my hope is that by keeping my display params in check, the QT will be stable by default.

I tested my coral QT Water today. I never do...Spot on. Sounds like a good plan to me.