How long did you wait before adding corals?
- Thread starter MohrReefs
- Start date
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I had coral in my tank before fish.
blstravler
2500 Club Member
Right around 3 months. It’s been about a year and most of them made it. Though anything I put in where brown SPS frags and after getting good growth I added more corals. 2 of the originals stand out in my mind - a Birdsnest frag I put in was about an inch and grew to a nice colony about 6in across - actually I just gave it away. The green slimmer frag I put in went from about an inch to 10 x 8in and it’s at the bottom of my tank and to this day it’s one of my favorites.
I will also say I was in the hobby previously (12or so years ago) with an all SPS tank so I had a lot of the knowledge already so I had some confidence that I could keep things alive.
I will also say I was in the hobby previously (12or so years ago) with an all SPS tank so I had a lot of the knowledge already so I had some confidence that I could keep things alive.
NanJ
Active Member
We had planned on one year but had an outbreak of ick followed soon by an awful infestation of cyano. No way to ever know if the ick treatment (Medic and Metroplex) led to the cyano or if the cyano was part of the new tank ugly syndrome. We waited about 3 months after clearing up the cyano with ChemiClean before putting in our first corals.
Our LFS has been our mentor and he stressed patience to allow the tank to mature. I listened to an interview of Mike Paletta on FB yesterday and his number one piece of advice to newbies is patience. And as Ryan at BRS says, Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. Experts are all in agreement on this point!
Our LFS has been our mentor and he stressed patience to allow the tank to mature. I listened to an interview of Mike Paletta on FB yesterday and his number one piece of advice to newbies is patience. And as Ryan at BRS says, Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. Experts are all in agreement on this point!
Nick Steele
2500 Club Member
I did Xenia during my cycle at 2 week after adding water (grew like a weed!). Then some zoas and candy cane (died due to mishandling I believe) at the 1 month mark. Then kept adding corals as I seen fit. Added first sps (monti spongodes) at 5 weeks which did horrible but was from a friend and is still living although still recouping. Haven’t stopped since adding at least one coral a month still lol.
DonTavo27
Valuable Member
I had coral in within 2 weeks. It was more of a Display tank change, with the same rock, 50% of old water, same fish etc. Everything survived.
I used a 3rd tank to help with the transfer.
I used a 3rd tank to help with the transfer.
Currently a week from month 3. . .looking at 4-5. Want the tank super-settled in first. Fish (full-population) have been in for a couple weeks. Lighting is still sporadic as I can’t get Fuge to take off. Grrrrrrr!
G
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Your parameters via test kits will generally determine when it is safe to add coral and fish
rknapp
Community Member
3rd tank start. Waited about 3 months then transferred a couple leather corals kept from tank #2. Waited 6 months until they were growing and replicating prolifically, then moved to new frags after that. Still no real coralline growth but coral all seems happy.
Not me, I put stuff in my tanks almost instantly.
I was going to post this the other day in the things you did that people say not too, but got busy so I'll post it here.
I put a Rainbow BTA in my 29gallon after only 2 weeks. It's by far my favorite of anything I've put in any tank. I absolutely adore it.
Quick answers to obvious questions:
Yes it is still alive and doing great, it's about 12 inches spread out during the day.
Yes I've had it for more than 6 months.
No, I've never had any troubles at all keeping it. It stayed on the bottom of the tank for about a day after I got it. It then moved to the rocks, found an awesome place right in the middle of the tank and hasn't moved since. Not surprised where it stayed, it was somewhat planned(or at least I hoped). It's foot is in a hole in a cave which gives it a place to hide from flow when it wants, or extend out to get good flow during the day.
It hosts 2 clownfish who were juvies at the time, but 1 has already became a female at this point.
No splits yet, but it split a few weeks before I bought it.
No, the tank has never had any real algae in it, other than a little dust on the tank and some hair algae on the powerheads.
No cyano or anything like that.
No clue what the water params are, I only test salinity.
Never used anything like vibrant to prevent algae or anything to reduce nitrate/phosphate.
However I did use MicroBacter7 to seed the tanks bacteria. Do people really still cycle their tanks?
I feed it about once every 2 weeks, no schedule just whenever I think about it. But pellets often drop in it while feeding the fish.
Setup: I have a HOB bubble magnus skimmer and then a HOB with a UV light in it and some carbon. I put a scrubber in there about 2 months ago, but isn't really producing algae yet. 2 powerheads on each end of the tank for flow. I forget what they are, other than being very cheap, like $20 for the pair. 2 Kessil A160WE for lighting.
Why I did it: Timing. While I had planned the entire time to have a BTA, I had no plans for a rainbow. I was just going to get a cheap green one etc. I had tried a BTA before in a larger established tank and it didn't turn out well. But I went to my favorite fish store as I was driving by one day, and saw the split mentioned above. It was a good bit smaller, so I asked how much it was thinking I might get a good deal. Unfortunately, the split was already sold, but the owner said he would give me the other for $100. So I impulse bought it. I also had another established tank I could put it in if needed, and/or the fish guy would let me keep it there as long as I needed if it seemed to have trouble.
Why I think it worked where most fail: Low bio load. I didn't put it in a huge tank that has a bunch of fish, coral and other things where the bio load is large. The tank consists of the RBTA, the 2 clownfish, a leather coral and some zoa frags from my other tank where they had already spread over the other rocks. The entire setup was made for it and nothing else, so nothing really changing the water chemistry.
Geez didn't mean to ramble on. But I sure do love that thing.
I was going to post this the other day in the things you did that people say not too, but got busy so I'll post it here.
I put a Rainbow BTA in my 29gallon after only 2 weeks. It's by far my favorite of anything I've put in any tank. I absolutely adore it.
Quick answers to obvious questions:
Yes it is still alive and doing great, it's about 12 inches spread out during the day.
Yes I've had it for more than 6 months.
No, I've never had any troubles at all keeping it. It stayed on the bottom of the tank for about a day after I got it. It then moved to the rocks, found an awesome place right in the middle of the tank and hasn't moved since. Not surprised where it stayed, it was somewhat planned(or at least I hoped). It's foot is in a hole in a cave which gives it a place to hide from flow when it wants, or extend out to get good flow during the day.
It hosts 2 clownfish who were juvies at the time, but 1 has already became a female at this point.
No splits yet, but it split a few weeks before I bought it.
No, the tank has never had any real algae in it, other than a little dust on the tank and some hair algae on the powerheads.
No cyano or anything like that.
No clue what the water params are, I only test salinity.
Never used anything like vibrant to prevent algae or anything to reduce nitrate/phosphate.
However I did use MicroBacter7 to seed the tanks bacteria. Do people really still cycle their tanks?
I feed it about once every 2 weeks, no schedule just whenever I think about it. But pellets often drop in it while feeding the fish.
Setup: I have a HOB bubble magnus skimmer and then a HOB with a UV light in it and some carbon. I put a scrubber in there about 2 months ago, but isn't really producing algae yet. 2 powerheads on each end of the tank for flow. I forget what they are, other than being very cheap, like $20 for the pair. 2 Kessil A160WE for lighting.
Why I did it: Timing. While I had planned the entire time to have a BTA, I had no plans for a rainbow. I was just going to get a cheap green one etc. I had tried a BTA before in a larger established tank and it didn't turn out well. But I went to my favorite fish store as I was driving by one day, and saw the split mentioned above. It was a good bit smaller, so I asked how much it was thinking I might get a good deal. Unfortunately, the split was already sold, but the owner said he would give me the other for $100. So I impulse bought it. I also had another established tank I could put it in if needed, and/or the fish guy would let me keep it there as long as I needed if it seemed to have trouble.
Why I think it worked where most fail: Low bio load. I didn't put it in a huge tank that has a bunch of fish, coral and other things where the bio load is large. The tank consists of the RBTA, the 2 clownfish, a leather coral and some zoa frags from my other tank where they had already spread over the other rocks. The entire setup was made for it and nothing else, so nothing really changing the water chemistry.
Geez didn't mean to ramble on. But I sure do love that thing.
GregDaKeg
Active Member
I have been working on a 4 year cycle. Lol
