Fish or Corals

[mike007]

After cycling your tank which would you add first fish or corals?

 

[currentking]

fish. The fish creates waste in which the coral lives off of.

 

[3Twinklets]

Hi Mike :israel: How are you?? My answer is fish!!

 

[Jimbo662]

Fish...if you have no waste / food in the tank there'll be nothing for your bacteria to feed on and a lot of corals like water that's not perfectly clean.

 

[mike007]

Hi Mike :israel: How are you?? My answer is fish!!

Doing good setting up another tank.:caked: Still waiting to get my tee shirt!!! How are you?

 

[3Twinklets]

Oh no Mike. I will see if I can get it for you. PM your address. What size tank?

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

I normally add fish first, but on my newest tank I added coral first and they all were fine.

 

[Karen]

I added some yellow polyps a couple weeks after my clean up crew. They did well, but after I added my first fish they took off. They are also eating the frozen shrimp I feed to the fish. Anybody want some yellow polyps? I must have about a hundred now.

 

[Phishy McGee]

Question, I'm letting my tank sit fallow for 2 months (had velvet) and my reef is packed with LPS and SPS, do I have to dirty the water a bit by adding coral food or something? I've noticed the skimmate already lightening up in the cup, I'm assuming my water is getting really clean considering there has been no poop or food in 2 weeks...

Thoughts?

 

[Karen]

I am no expert but my polyps were in my tank with just a CUC for a little over a month. They did well but no growth until I started feeding the tank. If the coral have the zooxelanthae ( most likely spelled wrong) I would think they would be fine with just the lights. If you feed the corals I would think you would continue to feed them as normal. As stated, I am fairly new at this and that is just my opinion on the subject.

 

[Rausch]

We added a bonded pair of clowns first so they could feel settled in the tank and find a space, that kind of dictated how we placed the coral . but, it wasnt too far in between, we added some corals a few days later...and it hasnt stopped since :becky:

 

[Vaughn17]

Coral first. A tank that has just cycled has high nitrates, which the corals will utilize. Adding fish first adds more nutrients that lead to unwanted algae. Feed the corals and they will not run out of nitrate and phosphate.

 

[Bombertech]

For nanos I add CUC, then corals. Once established I start bringing up the bio-load a fish at a time.

 

[Vaughn17]

Right, I forgot about the CUC.

 

[lionfish5740]

In my latest tank, corals came first.

 

[Bernie21]

Next tank I do, I might add a couple of gobies, cuc, etc... But be a mainly coral tank for a while before I slowly stock up again on fish.