Fallow periods: Going Fishless

Alberta79 · May 15, 2019

Question for the experts. So I am now 14 days into my fallow period. Why are my nitrates rising? Starting to see traces of hair algae. I am still doing my regular water changes and only feeding the tank normal dose of reef energy. I understand that the angel and tangs would control the hair algae when they where in the tank but I can understand why my NO3 has climbed from a steady 10ppm to +25. I have increased the time on the fuge light and doing a 20% water change right now. If that doesnt work carbon dose? Also none of the fish died or where lost in the DT so its not coming from dead fish or feeding. So confused. PO4 is steady at 0.02.

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Alberta79 · May 15, 2019

Just remembered something that might have something to do with it. I added 5lbs of live rock to the sump and DT to add more sps. It was live rock I had in the tank at the start and was sitting on a shelf for 3 months. I did a half butt cure of putting the live rock in a heated pale of saltwater from my tank with a wave pump for 30 days changing the water each week. The rock has been back in my system for about 3 weeks which is around the time my nitrates started increasing. Thoughts? Should I remove the rock or let it do its thing?

RazorD · Jun 10, 2019

Question- I’m about halfway through my fallow (had to rest a few times because I added frags and some emerald crabs). If I add an anemone now to my DT, I believe that would not reset the clock- correct? If I read correctly, the only thing an anemone could bring in is the free swimming stage through the water it holds. So if that assumption is correct, as long as I have more than 16 days left in my fallow period (which I do), I’m ok not to reset the clock. Is that right?

infinite0180 · Oct 11, 2019

@Humblefish

My tank is currently fallow. When it comes time to reintroduce my fish is it wise to add any bottle bac? Tank is 8 months old. Do i need to worry about a mini cycle?

Humblefish · Oct 12, 2019

infinite0180 said:
@Humblefish

My tank is currently fallow. When it comes time to reintroduce my fish is it wise to add any bottle bac? Tank is 8 months old. Do i need to worry about a mini cycle?

If you spread out adding back all the fish over a couple of weeks, then you shouldn't see any ammonia spike. The surviving nitrifying bacteria will propagate quickly once fish food/poop fuels them.

infinite0180 · Oct 12, 2019

Humblefish said:
If you spread out adding back all the fish over a couple of weeks, then you shouldn't see any ammonia spike. The surviving nitrifying bacteria will propagate quickly once fish food/poop fuels them.

Was hoping to add the 3 in qt back at once so i can go get 1 or 2 more in qt right away to be done with stocking. Getting sick of running the qt haha.

Fudsey · Oct 12, 2019

3 fish should be fine, that's not a lot of extra unless they are all large fish of course.

infinite0180 · Oct 12, 2019

Fudsey said:
3 fish should be fine, that's not a lot of extra unless they are all large fish of course.

Na just a young pair of clowns and a gramma...

Arvind Arya · Oct 28, 2019

My tank has been fallow for about 11 months now. Just coral. I added 5 small clowns into the tank, and today I saw one sitting in front of the powerhead. I have no other animals in this tank prior to this. I hope its just a fluke, but if this is velvet again, then I for sure hold the record for the worst strain in history.

Arvind Arya · Oct 28, 2019

80 gallon tank

Humblefish · Oct 28, 2019

Arvind Arya said:
I added 5 small clowns into the tank, and today I saw one sitting in front of the powerhead.

Were the clownfish quarantined? If so, how?

Arvind Arya · Oct 28, 2019

They have been with me for about 4 months. I was moving them into the large tank to make room for other fish.
no issues in their previous tank. I will check again when I get home maybe it was a fluke but if I see it still happening then there is something clearly wrong here!

wasafuzz · Nov 6, 2019

I'm sorry if this has been covered, tried to read everything but might have missed this. My DT has been fallow for about two weeks with what I believe to be velvet. I am starting to see brown algae beginning to grow on the sand. I started out feeding my tank the usual amount of food daily due to the one lone fire shrimp. I then read I should only ghost feed so that's what I have been doing. Could someone tell me what is causing the algae, I had none before going fallow. Thanks in advance.

Humblefish · Nov 7, 2019

wasafuzz said:
I'm sorry if this has been covered, tried to read everything but might have missed this. My DT has been fallow for about two weeks with what I believe to be velvet. I am starting to see brown algae beginning to grow on the sand. I started out feeding my tank the usual amount of food daily due to the one lone fire shrimp. I then read I should only ghost feed so that's what I have been doing. Could someone tell me what is causing the algae, I had none before going fallow. Thanks in advance.

Possibly excessive nutrients fueling it. What's your nitrate & phosphate reading??

RazorD · Nov 25, 2019

Reading the section below from the front page

“In most other studies, 7-14 days has been "the norm" for theront release.”

I wonder what percentage of ich falls into this category? I know the 72 day strain exists , just wondering how much I’m rolling the dice if I only QT my coral additions for 14-16 days before adding to DT?

Terri Caton · Nov 26, 2019

I am also trying to get through all 15 pages of this thread but it's a lot to read.

If I understand correctly, 76 days will definitely kill the longest known existing strain of ich.

45 days for everything Except the one time, once only, one study strain, correct?

Terri Caton · Nov 26, 2019

This is the one study that showed 72 days, correct? Are you saying there have been absolutely no studies showing the same results since, 1997? If that is true then this is not scientific. Results of a correct study must be able to be replicated.

Colorni, A. and P. Burgess. 1997. Cryptocaryon irritans Brown 1951, the cause of “white spot disease” in marine fish: an update. Aquarium Sciences and Conservation, 1: 217–238.

Humblefish · Nov 26, 2019

Terri Caton said:
This is the one study that showed 72 days, correct? Are you saying there have been absolutely no studies showing the same results since, 1997? If that is true then this is not scientific. Results of a correct study must be able to be replicated.

Colorni, A. and P. Burgess. 1997. Cryptocaryon irritans Brown 1951, the cause of “white spot disease” in marine fish: an update. Aquarium Sciences and Conservation, 1: 217–238.

The author acknowledges that the study was conducted in 68F water with the aid of antibiotics in a sterile flask. So, not a reef like environment. It was done to show that prolonged excystment is possible under the right conditions. IMO; Tomonts going dormant in a hypoxic environment is probably more likely to blame for a failed fallow period: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/why-a-fallow-period-will-sometimes-fail.536167/

Terri Caton · Nov 26, 2019

Humblefish said:
The author acknowledges that the study was conducted in 68F water with the aid of antibiotics in a sterile flask. So, not a reef like environment. It was done to show that prolonged excystment is possible under the right conditions. IMO; Tomonts going dormant in a hypoxic environment is probably more likely to blame for a failed fallow period: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/why-a-fallow-period-will-sometimes-fail.536167/

That makes sense. I couldn’t get ahold of the actual study.

Humblefish · Nov 26, 2019

Terri Caton said:
That makes sense. I couldn’t get ahold of the actual study.

My correspondence with Dr. Colorni (who co-authored the study) can be found here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/marine-ich-and-temperature.232825/page-2#post-3367199

I asked him specifically about the 72 day fallow period.