Soft coral system, one big beautiful refugim?

[prospervandale]

Now let me first preface this by saying it in NO way a biochemist. I’m just a high school grad taking a gap year, and I read way to messing much. Now I was thinking. All corals have some ratio of carbonate uptake, along with “nutrients” (nitrate and phosphate) and trace elements like iodine etc. I believe from what I’ve read sps would be heavily skewed toward carbonate uptake, with little fleshy tissue and the majority being the skeletal base. And I’m assuming it’s vice versa. However soft corals would use mostly if not exclusively nutrients, AKA the devil when keeping sps. Now I jumped right in to keeping sticks and never looked back. But the idea of this tank is to set up something beautiful for my family to enjoy when I leave, and have it not be a chore for my brother, (he has 29 freshwater tanks). Would it be safe to say that by sticking a reef with only soft corals you could eventually create a sustainable established ecosystem requiring Only feeding and maybe a quarter yearly 25% water change for trace element replacement?

 

[Udest]

With that said I have had a softie 5 gal for over a year and it's needed little major maintenance I have done 100 % changes but that's been rare only really when I really screwd something up have I had to do that.

 

[najer]

Yes it is, this is my smaller tank, Evo 13.5 G, light, heater, return pump and powerhead, no waterchanges (that is about to change) and manual ro top up.
Macros and fast growing softies as well as loads of rock and good flow works for me and before anyone asks I don't do tests (that is about to change) but salinity is around 35.
The reason for the upcoming changes is that I have sps in there now.

 

[taricha]

I believe from what I’ve read sps would be heavily skewed toward carbonate uptake, with little fleshy tissue and the majority being the skeletal base. And I’m assuming it’s vice versa. However soft corals would use mostly if not exclusively nutrients, AKA the devil when keeping sps.

You are on the right track, but a couple of things to mention.
Where you are correct is that softies can be stocked that will be much more forgiving than sps corals in terms of nutrient swings and neglect.
And certainly they could coexist with a cool planted fuge. Though if algae outbreak occurs in the main tank, a beautiful planted fuge could really limit your options dealing with them.
The main thing you're glossing over is that soft corals also have a demand for calcification.
they build calcium carbonate skeletal pins and needles (sclerites) rather than a solid structure.
this article Down the drain shows things that soft corals - xenia and sarcophyton - accumulate relative to tank water (table 2 and 1). Calcium is a big one.

 

[prospervandale]

Yes it is, this is my smaller tank, Evo 13.5 G, light, heater, return pump and powerhead, no waterchanges (that is about to change) and manual ro top up.
Macros and fast growing softies as well as loads of rock and good flow works for me and before anyone asks I don't do tests (that is about to change) but salinity is around 35.
The reason for the upcoming changes is that I have sps in there now.

Great looking tank!

 

[prospervandale]

You are on the right track, but a couple of things to mention.
Where you are correct is that softies can be stocked that will be much more forgiving than sps corals in terms of nutrient swings and neglect.
And certainly they could coexist with a cool planted fuge. Though if algae outbreak occurs in the main tank, a beautiful planted fuge could really limit your options dealing with them.
The main thing you're glossing over is that soft corals also have a demand for calcification.
they build calcium carbonate skeletal pins and needles (sclerites) rather than a solid structure.
this article Down the drain shows things that soft corals - xenia and sarcophyton - accumulate relative to tank water (table 2 and 1). Calcium is a big one.

Thank you! I did hear about that but I thought it was only with a few specific softies.