Keeping Corals Alive Without Fish ???

[Andrew Schubert]

Question ... my 120g tank had an outbreak of ich and had to remove all my fish to a QT tank. What do I need to do to keep my corals healthy during this 76 day time without fish in my DT. Is just dosing phantom food to keep PO4 and Nitrate up, or is there something else, or something better I should do to make sure the corals are still getting the food they need during this time.

 

[Crabs McJones]

You can continue to feed the tank to keep nutrient levels up. What I and a fellow reefer did was used nitrate and phosphate supplement. Unless you test frequently to know what your levels are at I would recommend just feeding the tank every couple days.

 

[JaimeAdams]

You may also want to feed the coral since they are no longer getting the fish poop depending on what types of coral you have.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

I have coral only. I just use reef roids, small amount 3 times a week seems to be working fine in my nano.

 

[Reefyyy]

I have coral only. I just use reef roids, small amount 3 times a week seems to be working fine in my nano.

i use reef roads as well and they are amazing. my corals are thriving and I've never had fish. i only just recently got 3 blue legged hermit crabs but thats it.

 

[Andrew Schubert]

Thanks for the replies. I do check PO4 about once a week. Sounds like I just gotta make sure not to totally deplete it.

 

[C. Eymann]

A CONSISTENT blend coral foods and aminos on a doser /fridge setup would be Ideal, other option is something like aquavitro synthesis and advantage NO3/PO4 on a dosing pump, you would essentially dial it like you would a cal/alk doser, test to determine tanks consumption and tune accordingly.
A combination of both is best IMO, but coral food /amino acid mixture must be mixed and measured out consistently if you are using it as a N/P replacement in order to achieve accurate tuning of either dosing pump or your manually added, measured out additions the achive desired impact of N/P in proper ratios.

 

[ectoaesthetics]

I’d would feed as if you still had fish in there PLUS add some small particulate food like reef chili or reef roids until the fish are back. And aminos if you don’t already add them. You just trying to add the small particulates and broken down food your fish were producing. While I liked reef roids I love the fact that reef chili has so many different partials sizes for different sized mouths.

I literally dose 4x the recommend amount and my tank loves it. I have quite an active fuge so rather than “tuning” my fuge down I just upped the dose of chili until my levels stabilized. My tank LOVES it and is it pretty inexpensive!

 

[DeniseAndy]

I have done fallow twice with no issue to corals, but I would feed a phyto/ roid, etc a few times a week.

 

[Andrew Schubert]

Wow... didnt realize so many keep reef tanks without fish.... I've been running Zeovit as well. Discovered I needed to turn that off as it was being too efficient without fish.

 

[AndyinAtlanta]

I haven't had fish in my tank in months (though that will be changing shortly). I use Reef Roids and occasionally a small pinch of crab food (I do have hermit crabs) and everything appears to be thriving just fine.