RedSea Reefer 350 - Restart - your expertise please

balajeek15 · Nov 8, 2018

Short story, I took so much time to setup the tank in June moving my 10gal to this new setup with 2 fishes and in Oct i started adding 5 to 6 fishes way too fast without QT that ended up in disaster with the diseases and realized my mistake. If you dare to read long story here is the link. (feel free to comment there too). Thanks for all those who shared their feedback to understand and improve my knowledge for future.

My plan was to keep fish only tank (around 6 to 8 fishes) and run it for a year and have the tank go thru all the different phase of cycles and stabilize for reef ready and start adding corals. Was this idea not so good?

Anyway since i had bad start and now i am in the fallow period (76 days fellow reefers say) can i re-think my strategy so i can start corals first and in 6 months or so start adding one fish at a time with 30 day QT. If so what type of corals i can start with and stock up in next coming months while my tank without fish. I like it to be a mixed SPS/LPS. What is the recommendation for corals QT?

HotRocks · Nov 8, 2018

balajeek15 said:
Short story, I took so much time to setup the tank in June moving my 10gal to this new setup with 2 fishes and in Oct i started adding 5 to 6 fishes way too fast without QT that ended up in disaster with the diseases and realized my mistake. If you dare to read long story here is the link. (feel free to comment there too). Thanks for all those who shared their feedback to understand and improve my knowledge for future.

My plan was to keep fish only tank (around 6 to 8 fishes) and run it for a year and have the tank go thru all the different phase of cycles and stabilize for reef ready and start adding corals. Was this idea not so good?

Anyway since i had bad start and now i am in the fallow period (76 days fellow reefers say) can i re-think my strategy so i can start corals first and in 6 months or so start adding one fish at a time with 30 day QT. If so what type of corals i can start with and stock up in next coming months while my tank without fish. I like it to be a mixed SPS/LPS. What is the recommendation for corals QT?

If you are just starting the fallow period get the corals you want into the tank now.

Otherwise you will have to QT them separately from your fish and DT. Each coral needs it's own 76 day fallow period. To make sure you don't introduce a encysted tomont releasing free swimmers into your DT.

You can QT coral in batches just like fish. This may help:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/coral-invert-quarantine-time-frames.334584/unread

balajeek15 · Nov 9, 2018

HotRocks said:
If you are just starting the fallow period get the corals you want into the tank now.

Otherwise you will have to QT them separately from your fish and DT. Each coral needs it's own 76 day fallow period. To make sure you don't introduce a encysted tomont releasing free swimmers into your DT.

You can QT coral in batches just like fish. This may help:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/coral-invert-quarantine-time-frames.334584/unread

You mean to say stock corals right now so the free swimmers will die off within this fallow period.
Thanks for the coral QT link I will read thru now.

balajeek15 · Nov 9, 2018

..forgot to add, when i stock corals now to the DT i don't need to QT becaz the tank has no fish?

HotRocks · Nov 9, 2018

balajeek15 said:
..forgot to add, when i stock corals now to the DT i don't need to QT becaz the tank has no fish?

Correct. The corals could go through the fallow period with the rest of the DT so long as it stays fishless.

balajeek15 · Nov 9, 2018

HotRocks said:
Correct. The corals could go through the fallow period with the rest of the DT so long as it stays fishless.

Thats great to hear, I will start listing my collection ASAP. Any type of corals i need to stay away from specially for my tank size from your experience. Are there any guide that you know the explains placement of corals. Thanks again.

HotRocks · Nov 9, 2018

I'm sorry I'm not going to be of much help on coral care. I only keep softies and LPS. I keep too many fish to take a chance on SPS.

#reefsquad can probably help!

balajeek15 · Nov 10, 2018

HotRocks said:
I'm sorry I'm not going to be of much help on coral care. I only keep softies and LPS. I keep too many fish to take a chance on SPS.

#reefsquad can probably help!

thank you, i am new to this forum and the reefsquad link you mentioned, when clicked it showed some conversation, how do i send him message?

balajeek15 · Nov 13, 2018

when you get a chance...
thanks.

Actuarious · Nov 13, 2018

don't you still need to QT corals to keep unwanted coral pests out as well, not just the fish pests AEFW and such?

HotRocks · Nov 13, 2018

balajeek15 said:
when you get a chance...
thanks.

I'm not sure what you are asking for sorry. Can you explain?

balajeek15 · Nov 13, 2018

HotRocks said:
I'm not sure what you are asking for sorry. Can you explain?

sorry, i was asking about the reefsquad tag you linked (post #8), do i have to contact him for my questions about the corals because that link just opens a popup with some threads and I am not clear what i should do. thanks.

HotRocks · Nov 13, 2018

That tag notifies anyone in the ReefSquad +/- 60 members.

So there isn't a single member associated with it.

HotRocks · Nov 13, 2018

balajeek15 said:
Thats great to hear, I will start listing my collection ASAP. Any type of corals i need to stay away from specially for my tank size from your experience. Are there any guide that you know the explains placement of corals. Thanks again.

List the corals that are in question. Then hopefully we can get someone who has advice for placement/flow/lighting etc.