Should i dose nitrates and phosphates?

[SpencerT82]

Im treating my fish starting tomorrow from ich keeping my dt fallow for about 76 days will i need to dose my dt to keep it stable to keep my corals alive and growing. Should i feed the tank? shoulkd i run skimmer and fuge? and other useful tips?

 

[cmoore806]

Run the DT like normal and run water testing to see what you need. Skimmer I’d run to keep up with the gas exchange to keep the pH reasonable and other benefits like removing organic or waste. You could feed just the corals from time to time. Keep the fish QT at least ten feet from your DT. I’d only dose nitrate or phosphate if a Hanna checker test was showing 0.0

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I "fed" my tank a couple pellets when I fed the fish to keep the nitrifying bacteria populations good once the ammonia was reading 0 after a velvet outbreak.

No mini cycle when I added the 2 surviving fish back after treatment and fallow period.

 

[SpencerT82]

Run the DT like normal and run water testing to see what you need. Skimmer I’d run to keep up with the gas exchange to keep the pH reasonable and other benefits like removing organic or waste. You could feed just the corals from time to time. Keep the fish QT at least ten feet from your DT. I’d only dose nitrate or phosphate if a Hanna checker test was showing 0.0

ONe more question not sure if you have the answer but when i go and re add my fish after the 76 day period do i need to add live bacteria or anything special like add one at a time or just acclimate and add them all in

 

[ZombieEngineer]

ONe more question not sure if you have the answer but when i go and re add my fish after the 76 day period do i need to add live bacteria or anything special like add one at a time or just acclimate and add them all in

As long as you continue to "feed" the tank with some sort of ammonia source, your bacteria will stay intact and ramp back to normal production when you add the fish back.

Some bottled bacteria is still useful fpr biodiversity purposes if you pick a different kind than you have used previously and will minimize the chance of a mini cycle.

 

[cmoore806]

ONe more question not sure if you have the answer but when i go and re add my fish after the 76 day period do i need to add live bacteria or anything special like add one at a time or just acclimate and add them all in

No way will that bacteria die off. that being said I will dose MicroBacter 7 in my tank weekly I guess I like wasting money.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I would keep feeding the tank half of what you feeding now, mature system need much more than just ammonia to keep them going.